"Can you tell where the cave is?" I said.
"No: Jimmy all dark," he answered.
"Can't you tell which way to go?"
"Oh yes um," he whispered. "Jimmy know which way go."
"Well, which?" I said, as the shouts came nearer.
"Dat away where no black fellow."
"But it may be away from the cave," I said.
"Jimmy don't know, can't help along. Find cave morrow nex day."
There was wisdom in his proposal, which, awkwardly as it was shaped,
meant that we were to avoid the danger now and find our friends another
time.
"Mass Joe keep long close," he whispered. "Soon come near time see
along way Mass doctor and Mass Jack Penny-Penny."
We paused for a moment, the black going down on his knees to lay his
head close to the ground so as to make sure of the direction where the
savages were, and he rose up with anything but comfortable news.
"All round bout nearer, come 'long other way."
Just then I gave a jump, for something touched my leg through a great
rent in my trousers. It felt cold, and for the moment I thought it must
be the head of a serpent; but a low familiar whine undeceived me, and I
stooped down to pat the neck of Jack Penny's shaggy friend.
"Home, Gyp!" I said. "Home!"
He understood me and started off at once, fortunately in the direction
taken by Jimmy, and after a long toilsome struggle through the bush, the
more arduous from the difficulty we experienced in keeping up with the
dog, we at last reached a gully at the bottom of which we could hear the
trickling of water.
"All right ums," said Jimmy quickly, and plunging down through the
bushes he was soon at the bottom, and went upon his knees to find out
which way the stream ran.
He jumped up directly, having found that by the direction the water ran
we must be below the cave, always supposing that this was the right
stream.
Down in the gully the sounds of pursuit grew very faint, and at last
died out, while we waded at times, and at others found room upon the
shelving bank to get along, perhaps for a hundred yards unchecked; then
would come a long stretch where the gully was full of thick bushes, and
here our only chance was to creep under them, wading the while in the
little stream, often with our bodies bent so that our faces were close
to the water.
Gyp trotted cheerfully on as I plashed through the water, stopping from
time to time to utter a low whine to guide us when he got some distance
ahead, and I often envied the sagacious animal his strength and
activity, for beside him at a time like this I seemed to be a _very_
helpless creature indeed.
Two or three times over I grasped the black's arm and we stopped to
listen, for it seemed to me that I could hear footsteps and the rustling
of the bushes at the top of the gully far above our heads; but whenever
we stopped the noise ceased, and feeling at last that it was fancy I
plodded on, till, half dead with fatigue, I sank down on my knees and
drank eagerly of the cool fresh water, both Jimmy and the dog following
my example.
At last, though I should not have recognised the place in the gloom,
Jimmy stopped short, and from the darkness above my head, as I stood
with the stream bubbling past my legs, I heard the unmistakable click of
a gun cock.
"Jack!" I whispered. "Jack Penny!"
"That'll do," he whispered back. "Come along. All right! Have you got
him?"
"Whom?" I said, stumbling painfully up into the cave, where I threw
myself down.
"Your father."
"No," I said dismally, "and we've lost the doctor and Ti-hi. Poor
fellows, I'm afraid they are taken. But, Jack Penny, we are right. My
father is a prisoner in the village."
"Then we'll go and fetch him out, and the doctor too. Ti-hi can take
care of himself. I'd as soon expect to keep a snake in a wicker cage as
that fellow in these woods; but come, tell us all about it."
I partook, with a sensation as if choking all the while, of the food he
had waiting, and then, as we sat there waiting for the day in the hope
that the doctor might come, I told Jack Penny the adventures of the
night, Jimmy playing an accompaniment the while upon his nose.