This proved a knotty problem, however, and for a long while they seemed no nearer its solution. It was Bert who finally proposed the plan that they eventually followed.

"I think," he said, "that we'd better get the lay of the land securely in our eye, and then wait till dark and make our attempt. We haven't got any chance otherwise, as far as I can see. It would be nonsense to rush them in the broad light of day, for we'd simply be killed or captured ourselves, and that wouldn't improve matters much. There will be a full moon, almost, to-night, and this clearing isn't so big but what we might be able to sneak from the shadow of the trees up close to the two center huts. Then we could overpower the sentries, if we have luck, and smuggle the prisoner into the woods. Once there, we'll have to take our chance of keeping them off with our revolvers, if they pursue and overtake us. Can either of you think of a better plan than that?"

It seemed that neither could, and so they resolved to carry out Bert's.

Accordingly, they kept their positions till the sun gradually sank, and the shadows began to creep over the little clearing. The night descended very quickly, however, as it always does in tropical lat.i.tudes, but it seemed an age to the impatient boys before the jungle was finally enshrouded in inky shadows, and it became time for them to make their desperate attempt. Stealthy rustlings and noises occasionally approached them as they lay, and more than once they thought their hiding-place had been discovered. At last, Bert decided that the time had come to put their plan into action, and they rose stealthily from their cramped position. The prospect of immediate action was like a strong stimulant to these three tried comrades, and all thought of danger and possible, nay, even probable, death, or what might be infinitely worse, capture, was banished from their minds. They had often craved adventure, and now they seemed in a fair way to get their fill of it.

Quietly as cats they stole around the edge of the clearing, planting each footstep with infinite care to avoid any possible sound. Once a loud shouting arose from the camp, and they made sure that they were discovered, and grasped their revolvers tightly, resolved to sell their lives dearly. It proved to be merely some disturbance among the savages, however, and they ventured to breathe again.

Foot by foot they skirted the clearing, guided by the fitful and flickering light of the camp-fire, and finally gained a position in what they judged was about the rear of the two central huts.

Now there was nothing to do but wait until the majority of the camp should fall asleep, and this proved the most trying ordeal they had yet experienced. At first groups of boisterous children approached their place of concealment, and more than once their hearts leapt into their mouths as it seemed inevitable that they would be discovered by them. As luck would have it, however, the children decided to return to the fire, and so they escaped at least one peril.

Gradually the noises of the camp diminished, and the fire flickered and burnt low. It was now the turn of the jungle insects, and they struck up a chorus that seemed deafening. Also, the mosquitoes issued forth in swarms, and drove the three boys almost frantic, for they did not dare to change their positions or make any effort to ward off the humming pests, as the noise entailed in doing so would have been almost certain to betray them.

There is an end to the longest wait, however, and at Bert's low whisper they crept toward the two huts they had marked in the center of the village. The moon was not yet high over the trees, and threw thick patches of inky blackness, that served our three adventurers well.

At times they could hardly make out each other's forms, so deep were the shadows, and they breathed a prayer of thankfulness for this aid.

The shadows fell at least ten feet short of the huts, however, and across this open s.p.a.ce it was evident they would have to dash and take their chances of being seen.

As they had watched from the woods earlier in the evening, they had seen that the guard around the huts consisted of two men for each. The huts were perhaps forty feet apart, and this made it possible for them to attack the sentries guarding the one in which the prisoner was confined without necessarily giving the alarm to those about the other shack.

The boys were near enough to the dusky sentries now to hear their voices as they exchanged an occasional guttural remark. Bert touched the other two lightly, and they stopped. "I'll take the fellow nearest the fire," he breathed, "you two land on the other one. Club him with your revolvers, but whatever you do, don't let him make a sound, or we're gone for sure. Understand?"

"Sure," they whispered, and all prepared to do their parts. At a whispered word from Bert, they dashed with lightning speed across the patch of moonlight, and before the astonished sentries could utter a cry were upon them like so many whirlwinds. Bert grasped the man he had selected by the throat, and dealt him a stunning blow on the head with the b.u.t.t of his revolver. The blow would have crushed the skull of any white man, but it seemed hardly to stun the thickheaded savage. He wriggled and squirmed, and Bert felt his arm go back toward the sash round his waist, feeling for the wicked knife that these savages always wore.

Bert dared not let go of his opponent's throat, as he knew that one cry would probably ring their death knell. He retained his grasp on his enemy's windpipe, therefore, but dropped his revolver and grasped the fellow's wrist. They wrestled and swayed, writhing this way and that, but fortunately the soft moss and turf under them deadened the sound of their struggles.

Bert had met his match that night, however, and, strain as he might, he felt his opponent's hand creeping nearer and nearer the deadly knife.

He realized that his strength could not long withstand the terrific strain put upon it, and he resolved to make one last effort to beat the savage at his own game. Releasing the fellow's sinewy wrist, he made a lightning-like grasp for the hilt of the knife, and his fingers closed over it a fraction of a second ahead of those of the black man. Eluding the latter's frantic grasp at his wrist, he plunged the keen and heavy knife into the shoulder of his opponent. Something thick and warm gushed over his hand, and he felt the muscles of his enemy go weak. Whether dead or unconscious only, he was for the time being harmless. Bert himself was so exhausted that for a few moments he lay stretched at full length on the earth, unable to move or think.

In a few moments his strong vitality a.s.serted itself, however, and he gathered strength enough to go to the a.s.sistance of his comrades. It was not needed, though, for they had already choked the remaining guard into unconsciousness.

They waited a few moments breathlessly, to see if the noise, little as it had been, had aroused the rest of the camp. Apparently it had not, and they resolved to enter the hut without further loss of time.

This was accomplished with little difficulty, and they were soon standing in the interior of the shack, which was black as any cave. The boys had feared that there would be another guard in the place, who might give the alarm before he could be overpowered, but they now saw that this fear had been groundless.

A torch, stuck in a c.h.i.n.k in the wall, smoked and flared, and by its uncertain light they could make out the form of a man bound securely to one of the corner posts. He gazed at them without saying a word, and seemed unable to believe the evidence of his senses.

"What--what--how--" he stammered, but Bert cut him short.

"Never mind talking now, old man," he said. "It's a long story, and we'd better not wait to talk now. We're here, but it remains to be seen if we ever get away, or become candidates for a cannibal feast ourselves."

"How did you get past the sentries?" asked the prisoner.

"Well, we didn't wait to get their consent, you can bet on that,"

returned Bert, "and I don't think, now that we _are_ here, that they'll offer any objections to our leaving, either. But now, it's up to us to get you untied, and make a quick sneak. Somebody's liable to come snooping around here almost any time, I suppose."

"You may be sure we can't leave any too soon to suit me," said the captive. "I believe, from all that I have been able to gather from their actions, that I was to furnish the material for a meal for the tribe to-morrow. They're head hunters and cannibals, and the more s.p.a.ce I put between them and me the better I shall be pleased."

While he had been speaking, the boys had been busily engaged in cutting the cords that bound him, and now they a.s.sisted him to his feet. He had been bound in one position so long, however, that he could hardly stand at first, and Bert began to fear that he would not be able to move.

After a few moments, however, his powers began to come back to him, and in a few minutes he seemed able to walk.

"All right, fellows, I guess we won't wait to pay our respects to the king," said Bert. "Let's get started. Do you feel able to make a dash now?" he inquired, addressing the erstwhile prisoner.

The latter signified that he was, and they prepared to leave without further discussion. When they got outside, they found that they were favored by a great piece of good fortune. The moon was now in such a position that it threw the shadow of a particularly tall tree almost to the hut, and they quickly made for the welcome security it offered. They made as little noise as possible, but their companion was less expert in the ways of the woods than they, and more than once slipped and fell, making a disturbance that the boys felt sure would be heard by someone in the camp.

Fate was kind to them, however, and at last they reached the shelter of the woods without apparently having given the savages any cause for suspicion. Once well in the jungle, they felt justified in making more speed without bothering so much about the noise. After a little trouble they found the trail that they had followed to the camp, and started back toward the coast with the best speed they could muster.

In the dense shadows cast by the arching trees they could hardly see a foot ahead of them, and continually stumbled, tripped, and fell over the roots and creepers in their path.

Their progress became like a horrible nightmare, in which one is unable to make any headway in fleeing from a pursuing danger, no matter how hard one tries. They were haunted by the fear of hearing the yell of the savages in pursuit, for they knew that if they were overtaken, here in the narrow path, in pitch darkness, they would be slaughtered by an unseen enemy without the chance to fight. The experienced savages could come at them from all sides through the forest, and have them at a terrible disadvantage.

"If we can only make that rocky little hill we pa.s.sed coming to this infernal place, fellows," panted Bert, "we can stay there till daylight, and at least make a fight for our lives. If they should catch us here now, they could butcher us like rats in a trap."

In compliance with these words, they made desperate efforts to hurry their pace, and were beginning to pluck up hope. Suddenly their hearts stood still, and then began to beat furiously.

Far behind them in the mysterious, deadly jungle, they heard a weird, eerie shrill cry.

"What was it? What was it?" whispered Tom, in a low, horror-struck voice.

The man whom they had freed made one or two efforts to speak, but his words refused to come at first. Then he said, in a dry, hard voice, "I know what it is. That was the cry their hunting wolves give when they are on the trail of their quarry. May heaven help us now, for we are dead men."

"Hunting wolves?" said Bert, in a strained voice, "what do you mean?"

"They're three big wolves the savages captured at some time, and they have trained them to help run down game in the hunt, the same as we have trained dogs. Only these brutes are far worse than any dog, and a thousand times more savage. If they get us--" but here his voice trailed down into silence, for again they heard that fierce cry, but this time much nearer.

The little party broke into a desperate run, and blundered blindly, frantically forward. The mysterious, danger-breathing jungle surrounding them on every side, the horrible pursuit closing in on them from behind, caused their hair to rise with an awful terror that lent wings to their feet. They stumbled, fell, picked themselves and each other up again, and hastened madly forward in their wild race.

"If we can only make it, if we can only make it," Bert repeated over and over to himself, while the breath came in great sobbing gasps from between his lips. He was thinking of their one last chance of safety--the little knoll that he had marked as they followed the savages' trail the previous day as a possible retreat if they were pursued.

Loud and weird came the baying of the beasts on their trail, but Bert, straining his eyes ahead, could make out a little patch of moonlight through the trees.

"Faster, fellows, faster," he gasped. "A little further, and we'll be there. Faster, faster!"

With a last despairing effort they dashed into the clearing, which was flooded with silvery moonlight. Now, at least, they would be able to see and fight, and their natural courage came back to them.

"Get up on that big rock in the center!" yelled Bert, "for your lives, do you hear me? for your lives!"

They scrambled madly up the huge boulder, Bert helping them and being pulled up last by d.i.c.k and Tom. Dropping on the flat top of the rock, perhaps seven or eight feet from the ground, they drew their revolvers and faced toward the opening in the trees from which they had dashed a few moments before.

Nor had they long to wait. From the jungle rushed three huge wolves, forming such a spectacle as none of the little party ever forgot to his dying day. The hair bristled on their necks and backs, and foam dropped from their jaws. As they broke from the line of trees they gave utterance once more to their blood-curdling bay, but then caught sight of the men grouped on the big boulder, and in terrible silence made straight for them.

Without stopping they made a leap up the steep sides of the rock. Almost at the same instant the three revolvers barked viciously, and one big brute dropped back, biting horribly at his ribs, and then running around the little glade in circles. The other two scrambled madly at the rock, trying to get a foothold, and one grasped d.i.c.k's shoe in his teeth. A second later, however, and before his jaws even had a chance to close, the three guns spoke at once, and the animal dropped quivering back upon the ground. The third beast seemed somewhat daunted by the fate of his comrades, and was moreover wounded slightly himself. He dropped back and took up a position about ten feet from the boys' place of refuge, and throwing back his head, gave utterance to a dismal howl. Faintly, as though answering him, the boys heard a yell, that they knew could be caused by none but the savages themselves.

It seemed hopeless to fight against such odds, but these young fellows were not made of the stuff that gives up easily. Where the spirit of others might have sunk under such repeated trials, theirs only became more stubborn and more determined to overcome the heavy odds fate had meted out to them.

Taking careful aim Bert fired at the remaining wolf, and his bullet fulfilled its mission. The brute dropped without a quiver, and Bert slid to the ground.