Camp was broken at the first faint of dawn the next day. Mr. Hampton was eager to farther up-country in order to get into a big game region of which he had heard reports. And by the time day had broken, the column was on its way.  
Looking back from the top of a little hill, the three boys could see the village of Chief Ruku-Ru, which they had skirted, still sleeping after its exciting night. Ahead, through the long grass, wound the bearers under the direction of Wimba and Matse, each man either carrying a bundle on his head or else supporting on his shoulders one end of a pole from which was one of the more bulky articles of equipment, while a companion upheld the other.
 
Then they dropped down on the other side of the rise, and the village was lost to view.
 
“I wonder if we’ll ever pass that way again,” .
 
“If we do,” said Frank, “there’ll be an ebony, chieftain looking for War Chief Mikalwa’s scalp.”
 
“What do you mean, looking for my scalp?” demanded Bob.
 
“Oh, nothing,” said Frank, airily. “Only when Chief Ruku-Ru goes to put on his headpiece after we’ve left and thinks he’s going to hear a concert, how do you think he’ll regard you?”
 
Bob laughed. “Well he had a good time with it last night. And, besides, possession of that set will always mean something to him. It’s white man’s magic. And that alone will raise him in the of his people.”
 
After putting the village behind them, the party settled down to continuous travel, for the big game country for which Mr. Hampton was heading lay ten days travel to the northwest. The marches were made in the early morning and late afternoon. During the heat of the day, there was a halt of four hours, as travel would have been too and, indeed, dangerous in the extreme under that blazing sun.
 
Hot though the days were, however, the nights were cool. And so the boys hot only managed to hold out without falling ill, but even enjoyed the trip. Their irrepressible spirits, moreover, came to the . And on several occasions they played practical jokes on each other which were the cause of much laughter on the part of Mr. Hampton and Niellsen.
 
One such occurred after they had been on the march more than a week and were encamped one night near the bank of a river on the edge of the big game country.
 
The day had been hot and breathless, but the night had turned cool. And after camp was pitched, the boys with Mr. Hampton and Niellsen were gathered about a camp fire not far from their tent. Niellsen who had taken motion pictures in many out-of-the-way corners of the world had been telling of some of his experience.
 
“And so,” he concluded, “when I turned back my bed before jumping in that night, I found a puff-adder all curled up nicely there for a snooze. You fellows have often asked me why I always look into my bed before in. Well, that’s the reason.”
 
“Brrr,” Bob, “if there’s anything I it’s a snake. And puff-adders are the deadliest in the world, aren’t they?”
 
“They are that,” said Niellsen, emphatically. “While that is true, though,” added Mr. Hampton, “yet the deaths from snake bites are few in Africa. The natives have various . And many a man who has been bitten by one or other of the various poisonous snakes of Africa, even by the puff-adder, has failed to die of his injury. However, I for one have no desire to be bitten. Well, let’s turn in, fellows. We want to make an early start tomorrow and try and find some place where we can this river.”
 
Then, noting with surprise the absence of Jack and Frank, whom he had failed to see slip away several minutes before, he asked what had become of them. But so quiet had been their departure that neither of the others had it.
 
“Maybe they’ve already turned in,” said Niellsen, getting up and stretching.
 
All three set out for their tents, and a look into that shared by the three boys showed Jack and Frank already snuggled down in their “flea” bags.
 
Good nights were said, and then Mr. Hampton and Niellsen parting company with Bob went to their tent. So was the big fellow after an arduous day of marching that he was half-asleep, while disrobing, and he tumbled into his sleeping bag of the fact that his comrades watched his every movement alertly through slitted .
 
One long sigh he gave, the kind a fellow emits just before settling down to a good night’s sleep. He squirmed once or twice, making himself comfortable. Then his eyes closed and he fall into that half-waking, half-sleeping stage from which insensibly one drifts into profound .
 
Suddenly his every nerve quivered. He was just on the point of drawing his body together and springing up, blankets and all, when he recalled the advice given him for just such an emergency and by an effort of will controlled his nerves so that he lay still and motionless. But what an effort was required! For big Bob felt something clammy and cold touch his leg, something alive, something that moved and and was alongside his body toward his head.
 
, it was a snake. Into his mind leaped recollection of what had been said only a short time about the camp fire on the subject of snakes.
 
Niellsen had said puff-adders were the deadliest of snakes, and likewise that they preferred to coil themselves in a fellow’s bedding. This must be a puff-adder, nothing less.
 
If a fellow exhibited no sign of life when in the vicinity of a snake, Mr. Hampton had earlier declared, the might fail to become alarmed and might away without striking. It was his only chance. And big Bob, suffering agonies of mental torture, nevertheless exercised an iron self-control and lay without moving a muscle.
 
But not for long could he or anyone control himself under such conditions. Hot eyeballs glaring into the darkness began to see pinw............