“Yes, yes, I do, my boy. I’ve weighed the pros and cons as clearly as I can in my own mind, and you bet your life Tim Triggs isn’t the man to turn back and give the enemy a wide berth so long as he can steer a true course without a pilot. We’ve no chart, and are pretty well adrift about our bearings; but let’s forge ahead, and see if we can’t spot a landmark of some kind.”
“That’s the sort, sir,” said Ned approvingly, “if you’ll excuse the liberty I take in giving my opinion. Let’s push on and follow our noses. I wouldn’t mind betting a month’s pay we smell the rascals out, and give ’em a thundering good hammering too.”
The other men murmured approval of their shipmate’s sentiments.
“You’re the right sort of fellows to have at one’s back,” said the gunner heartily. “Let’s get under way at once, and I’ll do my best to be your pilot.”
And so saying he put himself at the head of the little detachment and led the way onwards in the direction we had been following when the guide was with us. As there was no path, however, and we had not the remotest idea how long the native had intended to keep on in the same line of march, the reader will perceive that we had a very good chance of missing the object of our search altogether.
Our progress was slow, owing to the underwood, which grew denser every moment, and also to the obstructive rocks which seemed “confusedly hurled” about in all directions. Here and there, too, we encountered the vast trunk and branches of some giant of the forest laid low by the last hurricane that had swept howling over the mountain tops.
“One thing is certain enough,” observed Ned to me, “the mutineers and their pals didn’t bring the cargo along this route. ’Twould have been quite impossible.”
I pointed down into the deep, well-wooded valley beneath.
“We shall discover their path by-and-by,” I said. “I’ve no doubt it follows the mountain stream on its way to the sea.”
“Maybe,” answered my coxswain; “and the best thing we can do is to make the thieving swabs carry back to the Flying-fish all the loot they laid their hands upon.”