“We shot it last night, and its mate in the afternoon.”

Then he pulled Venning to his feet and shook him.  “Believe he’s gone off his head.”

“I’ve not,” said Venning; and he held out a blood-stained hand to Mr. Hume, who took it with a great happy laugh.  “Have you seen a beast like that before, Muata?”

“Any one would think,” said Compton, “that nothing had happened—­ that we had not been lost, and that he had not brought us into this mess.”

“Steady,” said Mr. Hume, with a smile.

“Dick is right, sir.  If it had not been for him, I should have been dead.  I am a little bit excited now; but I will tell you all soon.  Well, Muata?”

“Wow!” exclaimed the chief, who had been talking with the river-man.  “One of these I have seen, and he also.  It was a great thing to kill two; of all things that walk they are the fiercest.”

“And I am very thirsty,” said Compton.

“Their home is in the trees,” continued Muata.

Venning nodded.  “Leo arboriensis.”

“Venningii,” added Compton, as he took his lips from a water-bottle.  “And now we’ll have breakfast, if you don’t mind.”

CHAPTER XIV

THE OVERHEAD PATH

“We were stopped by ants,” said Mr. Hume, in explanation.

“By ants!”

“No less.  I missed you not long after we had started, and passed the word on to the others to turn back.  And in the mean time an army of marching ants had cut the line of communications.

“Couldn’t you sweep them aside, or jump over?”

“I did not venture to try, my boy.  I did try climbing across from tree to tree, but their skirmishers were everywhere.  As for jumping across, I took the chiefs word for it, that the feat was impossible.  Once that kind of ant gets a grip, he does not let go, except with the morsel he has fastened on to.  And there were millions!”

“I can hardly imagine you were stopped by ants,” said Compton.

“The ground before us was alive as far as we could see, and red.  It was like standing on the bank of a river, and the myriads went on through the day until dusk.  I have seen swarms of locusts on the march in the voetganger stage, and a large swarm will cover a length of three miles, but never would I have believed so many living things could gather together.”

Compton laughed again.  “Held up by an army of ants!  I can’t get the idea.”

Mr. Hume rolled back his sleeves, and there were red marks from wrist to shoulder.

“And that was done only by the scouts on the tree I attempted to climb.  Muata says they have put whole villages to flight.”

“Eweh,” said the chief, “and even the elephant will turn from their path, else would they get into his ears, his trunk, and to the soft parts between his legs, biting each a little piece of skin.  They fear nothing.  Death to them is nothing.  I have seen them stop a fire by the numbers of dead they heaped upon it in their march.”