sleep the terrors of the midnight forest; but ere long the most fearful cries in the adjoining woods gave notice that the apes were beginning to suffer from the poisoned repast prepared for them.
“As our dogs could not remain silent amid the uproar and din, we had not a wink of sleep until the morning. It was late, therefore, when we rose, and looked on the awful spectacle presented by the multitude of dead monkeys and baboons thickly strewn under the trees round the farm. I shall not tell you how many there were. I can only say I wished I had not found the poison, and we made all haste to clear away the dead bodies and the dangerous food, burying some deep in the earth, and, carrying the rest to the shore, we pitched them over the rocks into the sea. That day we travelled on to the Gap.”
The same evening that the boys reached the rocky pass, a messenger pigeon arrived at Rockburg, bearing a note which concluded in the following words:—
“The barricade at the Gap is broken down. Everything laid waste as far as the sugar brake, where the hut is knocked to pieces, and the fields trampled over by huge foot-marks. Come to us, father—we are safe, but feel we are no match for this unknown danger.”
I lost not an instant, but saddled Swift, late as it was, in order to ride to the assistance of our boys, desiring Ernest to prepare the small cart, and follow me with his mother at daybreak, bringing everything we should require for camping out for some days.
The bright moonlight favoured my journey, and my arrival at the Gap surprised and delighted the boys, who did not expect me till next day. Early on the following morning I inspected the foot-prints and ravages of the great unknown. The cane brake had, without doubt, been visited by an elephant. That great animal alone could have left such traces and committed such
