bush, slipped, unseen, within the palisade. A score of blacks
crowded about the entrance to watch the searchers depart, and as
the last of them passed out of the village the blacks seized the
portals and drew them to, and Mugambi lent a hand in the work as
though the best of his life had been spent among the raiders.

In the darkness he passed, unchallenged, as one of their number,
and as they returned from the gates to their respective tents and
huts, Mugambi melted into the shadows and disappeared.

For an hour he crept about in the rear of the various huts and
tents in an effort to locate that in which his master's mate was
imprisoned. One there was which he was reasonably assured contained
her, for it was the only hut before the door of which a sentry had
been posted. Mugambi was crouching in the shadow of this structure,
just around the corner from the unsuspecting guard, when another
approached to relieve his comrade.

"The prisoner is safe within?" asked the newcomer.

"She is," replied the other, "for none has passed this doorway
since I came."

The new sentry squatted beside the door, while he whom he had
relieved made his way to his own hut. Mugambi slunk closer to the
corner of the building. In one powerful hand he gripped a heavy
knob-stick. No sign of elation disturbed his phlegmatic calm, yet
inwardly he was aroused to joy by the proof he had just heard that
"Lady" really was within.