Instantly Colonel Munro was seized, and dragged away soon disappearing in the midst of the band, who at once set off in a southerly direction, without allowing us to give him one grasp of the hand, or exchange a last farewell!
Hood, Banks, and the rest of us struggled in vain to free ourselves, and fly to our friend’s assistance. Fifty rough hands threw us to the ground. Another movement and we would have been strangled.
“Don’t resist! It’s useless!” said Banks.
The engineer was right. We could do absolutely nothing to save the colonel. It was better to reserve all our energies for another attempt.
When a quarter of an hour had elapsed, the natives who detained us suddenly let go their hold, and darted off in the track of the first band. To follow them would have caused a catastrophe o
