The day after that on which Dick Sand and his companions had established their last halt in the forest, two men met together about three miles from there, as it had been arranged between them.  
These two men were Harris and Negoro; and we are going to see now what chance had brought together, on the coast of Angola, the come from New Zealand, and the American, whom the business of trader obliged to often traverse this province of Western Africa.
 
Harris and Negoro were seated at the foot of an enormous , on the steep bank of an impetuous stream, which ran between a double hedge of .
 
The conversation commenced, for the Portuguese and the American had just met, and at first they dwelt on the deeds which had been during these last hours.
 
"And so, Harris," said Negoro, "you have not been able to draw this little troop of Captain Sand, as they call this of fifteen years, any farther into Angola?"
 
"No, comrade," replied Harris; "and it is even astonishing that I have succeeded in leading him a hundred miles at least from the coast. Several days ago my young friend, Dick Sand, looked at me with an anxious air, his suspicions gradually changed into certainties—and faith—"
 
"Another hundred miles, Harris, and those people would be still more surely in our hands! However, they must not escape us!"
 
"Ah! How could they?" replied Harris, shrugging his shoulders. "I repeat it, Negoro, there was only time to part company with them. Ten times have I read in my young friend's eyes that he was to send a ball into my breast, and I have too bad a stomach to digest those which weigh a dozen to the pound."
 
"Good!" returned Negoro; "I also have an account to settle with this novice."
 
"And you shall settle it at your ease, with interest, comrade. As to me, during the first three days of the journey I succeeded very well in making him take this province for the Desert of Atacama, which I visited . But the child claimed his caoutchoucs and his humming-birds. The mother demanded her quinquinas. The cousin was crazy to find cocuyos. Faith, I was at the end of my imagination, and after with great difficulty making them swallow for giraffes—a god-send, indeed, Negoro!—I no longer knew what to invent. Besides, I well saw that my young friend no longer accepted my explanations. Then we fell on elephants' prints. The hippopotami were added to the party. And you know, Negoro, hippopotami and elephants in America are like honest men in the of Benguela. Finally, to finish me, there was the old black, who must find forks and chains at the foot of a tree. Slaves had freed themselves from them to flee. At the same moment the lion roared, starting the company, and it is not easy to pass off that roaring for the mewing of an inoffensive cat. I then had only time to spring on my horse and make my way here."
 
"I understand," replied Negoro. "Nevertheless, I would wish to hold them a hundred miles further in the province."'
 
"One does what he can, comrade," replied Harris. "As to you, who followed our from the coast, you have done well to keep your distance. They felt you were there. There is a certain Dingo that does not seem to love you. What have you done to that animal?"
 
"Nothing," replied Negoro; "but before long it will receive a ball in the head."
 
"As you would have received one from Dick Sand, if you had shown ever so little of your person within two hundred feet of his gun. Ah! how well he fires, my young friend; and, between you and me, I am obliged to admit that he is, in his way, a fine boy."
 
"No matter how fine he is, Harris, he will pay dear for his insolence," replied Negoro, whose expressed implacable cruelty.
 
"Good," murmured Harris, "my comrade just the same as I have always known him! Voyages have not injured him!"
 
Then, after a moment's silence: "Ah, there, Negoro," continued he, "when I met you so fortunately there below, at the scene of the , at the mouth of the Longa, you only had time to recommend those honest people to me, while begging me to lead them as far as possible across this pretended Bolivia. You have not told me what you have been doing these two years! Two years, comrade, in our chance existence, is a long time. One fine day, after having taken charge of a caravan of slaves on old Alvez's account—whose very agents we are—you left Cassange, and have not been heard of since! I have thought that you had some disagreement with the English cruiser, and that you were hung!"
 
"I came very near it, Harris."
 
"That will come, Negoro."
 
"Thank you!"
 
"What would you have?" replied Harris, with an quite ; "it is one of the chances of the trade! We do not carry on the slave-trade on the coast of Africa without running the risk of dying elsewhere than in our beds! So, you have been taken?"
 
"Yes!"
 
"By the English?"
 
"No! By the Portuguese."
 
"Before or after having delivered your ?" asked Harris.
 
"After—," replied Negoro, who had hesitated a little about replying. "These Portuguese now make difficulties. They want no more slavery, though they have used it so long to their profit. I was denounced —watched. They took me—"
 
"And condemned—"
 
"Me to finish my days in the of St. Paul de Loanda."
 
"A thousand devils!" exclaimed Harris. "That is an unhealthy place for men accustomed, like us, to live in the open air. As to me, perhaps I should prefer being hung."
 
"One does not escape from the gallows," replied Negoro; "but from prison—"
 
"You were able to make your escape?"
 
"Yes, Harris. Only fifteen days after being put in prison. I was able to hide myself at the bottom of the hold of an English steamer, sailing for Auckland, of New Zealand. A barrel of water and a case of , between which I had , furnished me with food and drink during the whole passage. Oh! I suffered terribly, from not being willing to show myself when we were at sea. But, if I had been imprudent enough to do it, I would have been confined again at the bottom of the hold, and, voluntarily or not, the torture would be the same. Besides, on my arrival at Auckland, they would have returned me again to the English authorities, and finally brought me back to the penitentiary of Loanda, or, perhaps, hung me, as you said. That was why I preferred to travel ."
 
"And without paying your passage!" exclaimed Harris, laughing. "Ah! that is not considerate, comrade, to be fed and carried !"
 
"Yes," returned Negoro, "but thirty days' passage at the bottom of the hold—"
 
"At last that was over, Negoro. You set out for New Zealand, in the land of the Maoris. But you have returned. Was the return made under the same circumstances?"
 
"Not so, Harris. You may well believe that, over there, I had only one idea—to return to Angola and take up my trade of slave-trader again."
 
"Yes," replied Harris, "one loves his trade—from habit."
 
"For eighteen months—"
 
Having pronounced those last words, Negoro stopped suddenly. He seized his companion's arm, and listened.
 
"Harris," said he, lowering his voice, "was there not a trembling in that papyrus bush?"
 
"Yes, indeed," replied Harris, seizing his gun, always ready to fire.
 
Negoro and he stood up, looked around them, and listened with the greatest attention.
 
"There is nothing there," said Harris. "It is this , by the storm, which runs more noisily. For two years, comrade, you have been unaccustomed to the noises of the forest, but you will get used to them again. Continue, then, the of your adventures. When I understand the past, we shall talk of the future."
 
Negoro and Harris sat down again at the foot of the banyan. The
Portuguese continued, in these terms:
"For eighteen months I in Auckland. When the steamer arrived there I was able to leave it without being seen; but not a piastre, not a dollar in my pocket! In order to live I had to follow all trades—"
 
"Even the trade of an honest man, Negoro?"
 
"As you say, Harris."
 
"Poor boy!"
 
"Now, I was always waiting for an opportunity, which was long coming, when the 'Pilgrim,' a whaler, arrived at the port of Auckland."
 
"That which went on the coast of Angola?"
 
"Even the same, Harris, and on which Mrs. Weldon, her child, and her cousin were going to take passage. Now, as an old sailor, having even been second on board a slave ship, I was not out of my element in taking service on a ship. I then presented myself to the 'Pilgrim's' captain, but the crew was made up. Very fortunately for me, the schooner's cook had . Now, he is no sailor who does not know how to cook. I offered myself as head cook. For want of a better, I was accepted. A few days after, the 'Pilgrim' had lost sight of the land of New Zealand."
 
"But," asked Harris, "according to what my young friend has told me, the 'Pilgrim' did not set sail at all for the coast of Africa. How then has she arrived here?"
 
"Dick Sand ought not to be able to understand it yet, and perhaps he will never understand it," replied Negoro; "but I am going to explain to you what has passed, Harris, and you will be able to tell it again to your young friend, if it pleases you to do so."
 
"How, then?" replied Harris. "Speak, comrade, speak!"
 
"The 'Pilgrim,'" continued Negoro, "as on the way to Valparaiso. When I went on board, I only intended to go to . It was always a good half of the way between New Zealand and Angola, and I was drawing nearer Africa's coast by several thousand miles. But it so happened that only three weeks after leaving Auckland, Captain ^............