For a time the boys sat silent and moody in the barabbara. The
situation, as it appeared to them, was not a pleasant one. On the one
side were half a hundred natives, whose intentions they could only
guess; upon the other, as they now suspected, there might be an active
enemy whose whereabouts they could only surmise. At last Rob spoke.
"It looks this way to me," said he: "we three could not make any kind of
defence against that band of natives, but perhaps they will not attack
us. From what has happened, I do not think they will. Now, here is tea
and salt which we got from them. That proves that they trade with the
whites, which means that help may not be more than a hundred miles away
at farthest. In the second place, these people think that we are here
alone for only a short time and that our friends will soon be here. The
thing for us to do is to keep them thinking that."
"They'll be over before long," said John, "to see what has become of
Jimmy, here, the man they were after."
"I'm not so sure of that," rejoined Rob. "These natives forget any
purpose very easily; and now, as we know, they are busy watching the
whale. But suppose they do come. The barabbara is empty."
"They have not seen Jimmy at all as yet," said John. "But suppose the
bidarka is gone--he very probably took that with him."
"Let's go see," suggested Jesse, and accordingly they hurried to the
side of the lagoon. Sure enough, only the dory remained. The bidarka had
disappeared from its resting-place.
"Now," reasoned Rob, "he would be afraid to go out of the creek into the
open bay, for then they would see him sure. There is every chance that
he left the bidarka somewhere in the creek. We'll hunt for it, then.
I'll go across in the shallow water, and we'll search both sides of the
bank. One thing sure is that Jimmy went in a hurry, because he left his
gun behind. He can't have had anything along more than his bow and
arrows. We'll know when we find the bidarka."
So saying, they separated, and began to scour both sides of the creek,
without success, however, until they nearly reached the mouth. Here,
hidden in the tall grass on the farther side of the creek and close to
the high rock wall near the mouth of the stream, Rob stumbled across the
missing boat. With a shout he called to the others to halt, and
presently, pushing the bidarka out into the creek, he paddled across to
them. They all joined now in examining the contents of the boat.
"It's just as I said," commented Rob. "He left in a hurry, and badly
scared. He could just as well have taken one of our guns as not, but we
know he did not do that, and even left his own. Here's his spear and his
paddles. His blankets are back at the hut. So far as I can see, he took
only his fishing-line and his bow and arrows."
"Yes, but he may come back again," suggested Jesse.
"I hardly think so," reasoned Rob. "At any rate, he'll not come back so
long as these people hang around, because he knows they're after him.
Besides, the fact that he didn't steal anything from us shows that he is
getting scared about stealing. I'm not so uneasy about him as I am about
these other fellows over on the beach."
None too happy, the boys now proceeded to paddle the bidarka up the
creek to its old resting-place in the lagoon, after which they busied
themselves rather half-heartedly about camp work, a part of which was
further fleshing of the bear hides. As they were engaged at this they
heard a faint rustling in the dry grass near at hand. Startled, they
looked around, and saw something staring at them from the cover. John
reached for his rifle.
"Don't shoot!" called Rob. "It's a boy! I see his face plainly now."