“Dingo?” said he.

“In fact, Dingo is not here!” replied Hercules.

The black called the dog several times with his powerful voice.

No barking replied to him.

Dick Sand remained silent.  The absence of the dog, was to be regretted, for he had preserved the little party from all surprise.

“Could Dingo have followed Harris?” asked Tom.

“Harris?  No,” replied Dick Sand; “but he may have put himself on Negoro’s scent.  He felt him in our steps.”

“This cook of misfortune would quickly end him with a ball!” cried Hercules.

“Provided Dingo did not first strangle him,” replied Bat.

“Perhaps so,” replied the young novice.  “But we cannot wait for Dingo’s return.  Besides, if he is living, the intelligent animal will know how to find us.  Forward!”

The weather was very warm.  Since daybreak large clouds obscured the horizon.  Already a storm was threatened in the air.  Probably the day would not end without some thunder-claps.  Happily the forest, more or less dense, retained a little freshness of the surface of the soil.  Here and there great forest trees inclosed prairies covered with a tall, thick grass.  In certain spots enormous trunks, already petrified, lay on the ground, indicating the presence of coal mines, which are frequently met with on the African continent.  Then, in the clearings, where the green carpet was mingled with some sprigs of roses, the flowers were various in color, yellow and blue ginger plants, pale lobelias, red orchids, incessantly visited by the insects which fertilized them.

The trees no longer formed impenetrable masses, but their nature was more varied.  There were a kind of palm-tree, which gives an oil found only in Africa; cotton-trees forming thickets from eight to ten feet high, whose wood-stalks produce a cotton with long hairs, almost analogous to that of Fernambouc.  From the copals there oozes, by the holes which certain insects make, an odorous gum, which runs along the ground and collects for the wants of the natives.  Here spread the lemon-trees, the grenadiers of a savage condition of a country, and twenty other odorous plants, which prove the prodigious fertility of this plateau of Central Africa.  In several places, also, the perfume was agreeably mingled with the tine odor of vanilla, although they could not discover what tree exhaled it.

This whole collection of trees and plants was perfectly green, although it was in the middle of the dry season, and only rare storms could water these luxuriant forests.  It was then the time for fevers; but, as Livingstone has observed, they can be cured by leaving the place where they have been contracted.  Dick Sand knew this remark of the great traveler, and he hoped that little Jack would not contradict it.  He told it to Mrs. Weldon, after having observed that the periodical access had not returned as they feared, and that the child slept quietly in Hercules’ arms.