It was only after they had gone back for their baskets of beans, and
once more returned to the hut, that Caspar and Ossaroo found time to
indulge in their conjectures. Then both of them set to work in
earnest--seated upon the great stones outside the door, where often
before they had conjured up schemes for their deliverance. Neither
communicated his thoughts to the other; each silently followed the
thread of his own reflections--as if there was a rivalry between them,
as to who should be the first to proclaim the design already conceived
by Karl.
Karl was standing close by, apparently as reflective as either of his
companions. But his thoughts were only occupied in bringing to
perfection the plan, which to them was still undiscovered.
The storks had been brought out of the hut, and tied to a heavy log that
lay near. This had been done, partly to accustom them to the sight of
the place, and partly that they might be once more fed--the single fish
they had swallowed between them not being deemed sufficient to satisfy
their hunger.
Caspar's eyes wandered to that one that had the ring upon its leg; and
then to the ring itself--_R.B.G., Calcutta_.
The inscription at length proved suggestive to Caspar, as the ring
itself, on first seeing it, had to his brother. On that bit of brass
there was information. It had been conveyed all the way from Calcutta
by the bird that bore the shining circlet upon its shank. By the same
means why might not information be carried back? Why--
"I have it! I have it!" shouted Caspar, without waiting to pursue the
thread of conjecture that had occurred to him. "Yes, dear Karl, I know
your scheme--I know it; and by Jupiter Olympus, it's a capital one!"
"So you have guessed it at last," rejoined Karl, rather sarcastically.
"Well, it is high time, I think! The sight of that brass ring, with its
engraved letters, should have led you to it long ago. But come! let us
hear what you have got to say, and judge whether you have guessed
correctly."
"Oh, certainly!" assented Caspar, taking up the tone of jocular badinage
in which his brother had been addressing him. "You intend making a
change in the character--or rather the calling--of these lately arrived
guests of ours." Caspar pointed to the storks. "That is your
intention, is it not?"
"Well?"
"They are now soldiers--_officers_, as their title imports--adjutants!"
"Well?"
"They will have no reason to thank you for your kind intentions. The
appointment you are about to bestow on them can scarce be called a
promotion. I don't know how it may be with birds, but I do know that
there are not many men ambitious of exchanging from the military to the
civil service."
"What appointment, Caspar?"
"If I'm not mistaken, you mean to make _mail-carriers_ of
them--_postmen_, if you prefer the phrase."
"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Karl, in a tone expressive of gratification at the
clever manner in which Caspar had declared himself. "Right, brother!
you've guessed my scheme to the very _letter_. That is exactly what I
intend doing."
"By de wheeles ob Juggannaut coachee," cried the shikaree, who had been
listening, and understood the figurative dialogue; "dat be da goodee
plan. Dese stork go back Calcutt--surely dey go back. Dey carry letter
to Feringhee Sahibs--Sahibs dey know we here in prison--dey come d'liva
we vey dey affer get de letter--ha! ha! ha!" Then _delivering_ himself
of a series of shrill ejaculations, the Hindoo sprang up from the stone
upon which he had been sitting, and danced around the hut, as if he had
suddenly taken leave of his senses!
However imperfectly spoken, the words of Ossaroo had disclosed the whole
plan, as conceived by the plant-hunter himself.
It had vaguely defined itself in Karl's mind, on first seeing the storks
above him in the air; but when the lustre of metal flashed before his
eyes, and he perceived that yellow band encircling the shank of the
bird, the scheme became more definite and plausible.
When at length the storks were taken captive, and Karl deciphered the
inscription--by which they were identified as old acquaintances of the
R.B.G.--he no longer doubted that Providence was in the plot; and that
these winged messengers had been sent, as it were, from Heaven itself,
to deliver him and his companions from that prison in which they had so
long been pining.