"This is a very valuable piece of information that you have managed to pick up, Cupid: and if it should prove to be well founded I will not forget that we owe it to you.  It is too late now, Mr Fortescue, to do anything in the matter to-night, for it will be dark in less than half an hour; but the first thing to-morrow morning you and Cupid here had better take the dinghy, pull across to the mainland, and endeavour to find the road by which the cauffle will come--there ought not to be very much difficulty in doing that, I should think.  And, having found it, it will be well for the pair of you to proceed along the road on the look- out for some suitable spot at which to ambush the party, after which the rest should be easy.  There is, however, another matter that needs consideration.  How are we to ascertain the precise moment at which to expect the arrival of the slave-dealers?  Because it will be hardly desirable to take a party out, day after day, and keep them in the bush all day waiting for the cauffle to come along.  We are all doing excellently well here; but two or three days spent in the bush would very possibly mean half the party being down with fever."