"Jimmy!" I panted, as soon as I had recovered myself to find that the
black was feeling me all over in the darkness.
"Not got no knock um chops, no waddy bang, no popgun ball in um
nowhere," he whispered.
"No Jimmy, I'm not wounded," I said. "I thought you were one of the
black fellows."
"No, no black fellow--no common black fellow sabbage," he said
importantly. "Come long fas, fas."
"But the doctor and the prisoner and Ti-hi?" I said.
"All run way much fas," said Jimmy. "Gyp, Gyp, see black fellow come
long much, for Jimmy do and nibblum legs make um hard hard. Gib one two
topper topper, den Jimmy say time um way, take Mass Joe. Come long."
"But we must go and help the doctor," I said.
"Can't find um. All go long back to big hole. Hidum. Say Mass Joe
come back long o' Jimmy-Jimmy."
It seemed probable that they would make for our hiding-place, but I was
very reluctant to go and leave my friends in the lurch, so I detained
Jimmy and we sat listening, the black making me sit down.
"Rest um leggums," he said. "Run much fas den."
We stayed there listening for what must have been the space of half an
hour, and during that time we could hear the shouting and rapping of
trees of the blacks as they were evidently searching the bush, but there
was no sound of excitement or fighting, neither did it seem to me that
there were any exulting shouts such as might arise over the capture of
prisoners.
This gave me hope, and in the belief that I might find my companions at
the hiding-place I was about to propose to Jimmy that we would go on,
when he jumped up.
"No stop no longer. Black fellow come along fas. Get away."
The noises made by the blacks were plainly coming nearer, and I sprang
to my feet, trying to pierce the darkness, but everywhere there were the
dimly-seen shapes of trees so close that they almost seemed to lower and
their branches to bear down upon our heads; there was the fresh moist
scent of the dewy earth and leaves, and now and then a faint cry of some
bird, but nothing to indicate the way we ought to go.