But he didn't go away in a few minutes. He bellowed and pawed and gored the ground for half an hour, and then he lay down beneath the tree.
"That fellow's an optimist," I remarked. "He thinks that if he waits long enough we'll probably come down of our own volition."
Duare laughed. "Maybe he thinks we'll die of old age and fall down."
"That's a joke on him; he doesn't know that we have been inoculated with the serum of longevity."
"In the meantime, the joke is on us; and I am getting hungry."
"Look, Duare!" I whispered, as I caught sight of something dimly visible through the tangled undergrowth beyond the basto.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I don't know, but it's something large."
"It is creeping silently through the brush, Carson. Do you suppose it is something that has caught our scent, some other terrible beast of prey?"
"Well, we are up a tree," I reassured her.