"Can we not set out now?" asked Mr. Mayburn eagerly. "Certainly not, my father," answered Arthur. "It will first be necessary that we have some means arranged for crossing the river; besides, the day is too far advanced for us to make such an important movement before night; and we must try to divert the suspicions of the savages from our flight, by letting them believe we still intend to hold the fortress."
"If you're not knocked up, Master Hugh," said Jack, "I should like well to see with my own eyes what there is to do, and whether I can do it or not. Would you mind guiding me; and Wilkins, may be, will go with us, to help me to carry down my ropes?"
Wilkins was always ready and willing; he shouldered a coil of rope, and the two unwearied boys, followed by him and Jack, set out to show their marvellous discovery to the two practical men, who looked round at the charming wilderness with an eye to the usefulness rather than to the beauty of all they saw.
"Birds is poor feeding, and eggs is worse," said Wilkins; "but if we iver get free fra' them dowly stone walls, we'se see if we can't get a shot at them kangaroos. Ay, ay! Master Hugh, any sky over head's better nor a jail; not but I've been shut in worse prisons nor yon, God forgive me; but ye see I were reet sarved then. But it is aggravatin, I say, to bar oneself up wi' one's own will like."
"See here, Wilkins," exclaimed Jack; "what a grand stock of all kinds of wood, if we had but a few good tools. I noticed that a black fellow that was fighting yesterday had a capital axe in his hand; it seemed to be made of a sort of flint stone, and I only wish we could meet with a piece fit for such a job."
"It's not a time to be felling trees," replied Wilkins, "when we've a troop of black rogues at our heels. Now come, we're here, it seems, at t' river they telled on, and a canny river it is; if we can manage to put it atween us and them, we'se have a clear coast, I reckon; for they always keep at their own side."
"Then help me to bark this tree," said Jack; "and if we cannot manage a canoe, we'll try a ferry-boat."
The tree was barked in one long sheet, the ends were tied up with cords, and this was Jack's extempore canoe. But as soon as it was hastily completed, they were compelled to speed homeward to prevent themselves being bewildered in the darkness; and even now, but for the visible white cross, they would have been unable to distinguish the entrance. "Now, Nurse, darling," cried Gerald, dancing round Jenny, "pack up your pots and pans and bundles, and you, Ruth, call up your precious chicks, and make ready. Then, at daybreak, when you hear me whistle the réveille, fall into your ranks, to march."
"We do not know how far the ground beyond the wilderness may be exposed," said Arthur, "and we had better look out before we leave in the morning, to observe if all continues still."
"That's all just as it ought, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins; "ye're a sharp chap at a drill. And we'd as well puzzle 'em a bit, and rattle out a few arrows just afore we start, to make 'em believe we mean to haud our own."