We give out that we have been working on the river, or in Ava, since we left; and everyone knows better than to ask questions." In another hour, they reached the encampment.

It was now dusk, and some five-and-twenty men were sitting round a great fire.

A number of leafy arbours had been constructed in a circle beyond them.
"What, returned so soon!" one of the men said, as Stanley's guide came near enough for the firelight to fall on his face; "but where is Ranji, and whom have you brought here--a new recruit ?" "Not exactly, Parnik, but one to whom I have promised shelter, for a while.

Ranji is dead.

I should have been dead, too, and eaten; had it not been for my comrade, here.