CHAPTER XVI.
A WILD CHASE--HOPE, DISAPPOINTMENT, AND DESPAIR--THE SANDAL-WOOD TRADER OUTWITS THE MAN-OF-WAR.
When the wild pig, referred to in the last chapter, was first observed, it was standing on the margin of a thicket, from which it had just issued, gazing, with the profoundly philosophical aspect peculiar to that animal, at our four friends, and seeming to entertain doubts as to the propriety of beating an immediate retreat.
Before it had made up its mind on this point, Corrie's eye alighted on it.
"Hist!" exclaimed he with a gesture of caution to his companions.

"Look there! We've had nothing to eat for an awful time,--nothing since breakfast on Sunday morning.

I feel as if my interior had been amputated.

Oh, what a jolly roast that fellow would make if we could only kill him!" "Wot's in the pistol ?" inquired Bumpus, pointing to the weapon which Corrie had stuck ostentatiously into his belt.
"Nothin'," answered the boy.

"I fired the last charge in the face of a savage." "Fling it at him," suggested Bumpus, getting cautiously up.