Two days after Dick's marvellous deliverance the party had the good fortune to fall in with a caravan2 of honest Portuguese3 ivory-traders on their way to Emboma, at the mouth of the Congo. They rendered the fugitives4 every assistance, and thus enabled them to reach the coast without further discomfort5.
This meeting with the caravan was a most fortunate occurrence, as any project of launching a raft upon the Zaire would have been quite impracticable, the river between the Ntemo and Yellala Falls being a continuous series of cataracts6. Stanley counted as many as sixty-two, and it was hereabouts that that brave traveller sustained the last of thirty-one conflicts with the natives, escaping almost by a miracle from the Mbelo cataract7.
Before the middle of August the party arrived at Emboma, where they were hospitably8 received by M. Motta Viega and Mr. Harrison. A steamer was just on the point of starting for the Isthmus9 of Panama; in this they took their passage, and in due time set foot once more upon American soil.
Forthwith a message was despatched to Mr. Weldon, apprising10 him of the return of the wife and child over whose loss he had mourned so long On the 25th the railroad deposited the travellers at San Francisco, the only thing to mar1 their happiness being the recollection that Tom and his partners were not with them to share their joy.
Mr. Weldon had every reason to congratulate himself that Negoro had failed to reach him. No doubt he would have been ready to sacrifice the bulk of his fortune, and without a moment's hesitation11 would have set out for the coast of Africa, but who could question that he would there have been exposed to the vilest12 treachery? He felt that to Dick Sands and to Hercules he owed a debt of gratitude13 that it would be impossible to repay; Dick assumed more than ever the place of an adopted son, whilst the brave negro was regarded as a true and faithful friend.
Cousin Benedict, it must be owned, failed to share for long the general joy. After giving Mr. Weldon a hasty shake of the hand, he hurried off to his private room, and resumed his studies almost as if they had never been interrupted. He set himself vigorously to work with the design of producing an elaborate treatise14 upon the "Hexapodes Benedictus" hitherto unknown to entomological research. Here in his private chamber15 spectacles and magnifying-glass were ready for his use, and he was now able for the first time with the aid of proper appliances to examine the unique production of Central Africa.
A shriek16 of horror and disappointment escaped his lips. The Hexapodes Benedictus was not a hexapod at all. It was a common spider. Hercules, in catching17 it, had unfortunately broken off its two front legs, and Benedict, almost blind as he was, had failed to detect the accident. His chagrin18 was mos............