"What is the order of the day, then?"

"The order of the day is to watch and wait. Venning will crawl on to
the little island on our right and watch the south hank. You,
Compton, will take the head of the large island on our left, and I
will watch from the other end. If any of us see danger, we will give
the whistle of the sand-piper. Each will take water and food, and
each, of course, will keep himself hid."

"We take our guns, of course?"

"Best not. A gunshot would bring a host down upon us. Don't be
discouraged," continued the hunter, as he saw the boys' faces drop.
"We have got the advantage of position, and we've got grit--eh?"

He nodded cheerfully, and they smiled back, and then each crept out
to his allotted post. The first part of the watch was by no means
bad--so the boys decided when they had settled down, Venning under a
bush palm and Compton behind a log. There was a pleasant freshness
in the air; and as the broad river uncoiled under the mist, it
disclosed fresh beauties, till the lifting veil revealed the wooded
heights and the tall columns of smoke, grey against the dark of the
woods and black against the indigo blue of the sky. They marked
where the hippos stood with their bulky heads to the sun, and saw
the crocodiles on the sands of other islands lying motionless with
distended jaws. And then the birds came to the hunting. Strings of
dark ibis, of duck, and storks; small kingfishers all bejeweled, and
greater kingfishers in black and white. The air was full of bird-
calls, of the musical ripple of waters, of the hum of the forest