“No, comrade,” replied Harris; “and it is even astonishing that I have succeeded in leading him a hundred miles at least from the coast.  Several days ago my young friend, Dick Sand, looked at me with an anxious air, his suspicions gradually changed into certainties—­and faith—­”

“Another hundred miles, Harris, and those people would be still more surely in our hands!  However, they must not escape us!”

“Ah!  How could they?” replied Harris, shrugging his shoulders.  “I repeat it, Negoro, there was only time to part company with them.  Ten times have I read in my young friend’s eyes that he was tempted to send a ball into my breast, and I have too bad a stomach to digest those prunes which weigh a dozen to the pound.”

“Good!” returned Negoro; “I also have an account to settle with this novice.”

“And you shall settle it at your ease, with interest, comrade.  As to me, during the first three days of the journey I succeeded very well in making him take this province for the Desert of Atacama, which I visited formerly.  But the child claimed his caoutchoucs and his humming-birds.  The mother demanded her quinquinas.  The cousin was crazy to find cocuyos.  Faith, I was at the end of my imagination, and after with great difficulty making them swallow ostriches for giraffes—­a god-send, indeed, Negoro!—­I no longer knew what to invent.  Besides, I well saw that my young friend no longer accepted my explanations.  Then we fell on elephants’ prints.  The hippopotami were added to the party.  And you know, Negoro, hippopotami and elephants in America are like honest men in the penitentiaries of Benguela.  Finally, to finish me, there was the old black, who must find forks and chains at the foot of a tree.  Slaves had freed themselves from them to flee.  At the same moment the lion roared, starting the company, and it is not easy to pass off that roaring for the mewing of an inoffensive cat.  I then had only time to spring on my horse and make my way here.”

“I understand,” replied Negoro.  “Nevertheless, I would wish to hold them a hundred miles further in the province."’

“One does what he can, comrade,” replied Harris.  “As to you, who followed our caravan from the coast, you have done well to keep your distance.  They felt you were there.  There is a certain Dingo that does not seem to love you.  What have you done to that animal?”

“Nothing,” replied Negoro; “but before long it will receive a ball in the head.”

“As you would have received one from Dick Sand, if you had shown ever so little of your person within two hundred feet of his gun.  Ah! how well he fires, my young friend; and, between you and me, I am obliged to admit that he is, in his way, a fine boy.”

“No matter how fine he is, Harris, he will pay dear for his insolence,” replied Negoro, whose countenance expressed implacable cruelty.

“Good,” murmured Harris, “my comrade remains just the same as I have always known him!  Voyages have not injured him!”