"I'm with you," cried Jack, following closely at his heels.
It all happened so quickly that Mackay had no time to give any directions or restrain the indignant pair. Several further flights of spears skimmed well overhead, and one or two barbed darts more surely aimed, whistled dangerously near to Mackay's head.
"This is gettin' mighty monotonous," growled Emu Bill, looking around impotently, for as yet not a single savage was to be seen.
"There must be water in the district," said Bob, coolly, examining his revolver. "I suppose we've got to go on the hunt again." Without further remark he turned and rushed after his companions, whose vehement shouts as they charged along were mingled with the shrill cries of the dusky warriors. "Try and catch one, Shadow," he loudly shouted as he ran.
Fearful that disaster might overtake the entire party, Mackay gripped his rifle and hurried after them, leaving Emu Bill and Never Never Dave in charge of the team, a position which they condemned bitterly at such a time. The shadows of night were fast closing in, and between the trees of the pigmy forest a heavy gloom had settled providing excellent cover for the blacks should they have decided to renew the attack; but these strange creatures, having discharged their weapons, were now beating a retreat, yelling most hideously the while.
Scarcely fifty yards before him Mackay could dimly descry Jack, the Shadow, and Bob leaping on after the fugitives, and he quickened his pace in order to come up with them.
"We'll catch a specimen," cried Bob, eagerly, "if we have to chase them all night."
On they raced, while the crackling branches a little way ahead betokened the nearness of their quarry, whose shrieks alone would have been an unerring guide. Evidently the fleeing warriors were just as tired as their pursuers, for they were gradually losing ground. Suddenly one of their number screeched out some sort of signal which had the effect of making the runners scatter in all directions. Bob could just see their shaggy heads above the bushes as they diverged on various tacks; then the new order of things confused them all, and one by one the gorilla-like figures vanished from their view. Yet still they kept up the race, loth to return without some satisfaction. The night was rapidly darkening, obscuring the scrub and intervening sand wastes in a common pall, so that progress was made only with great difficulty, and wearily the aimless search was continued.
"We'll have to turn, boys," said Mackay, at length, when the stars commenced to glimmer in the heavens. "We must go back to the camels. To-morrow we'll have a look round for water. And to think that we had any amount of it this morning——"
A hearty exclamation from the Shadow interrupted him. They were passing under an unusually large lime tree, and that youthful individual had halted with an unrestrained roar of mingled merriment and relief. Looking up against the stars Mackay could see an awkward figure scrambling frantically among the higher branches.