By eight o’clock they were once more on the way, Boxer leading with his gun ready for use, Larry in the centre, and Leroy bringing up the rear with the pistol.
They were just entering the jungle at the foot of the mountain when a strange moaning reached their ears and all halted. There was a silence, and then the moaning started up again.
“What is that?” questioned Larry. “It can’t be a human being.”
“I think I know what it is,” returned the scout. “Wait here till I make sure,” and he glided ahead and was soon lost to sight under a clump of tall trees which grew in somewhat of a clearing. Soon they heard him shouting for them to come on.
It was a water buffalo that was moaning. The beast had become caught under a partly fallen tree and could not release itself. It was a handsome animal and weighed a good many hundred pounds.
“Here’s meat and to spare!” cried Boxer, and 255 drawing forth a hunting knife, he put the caribao out of his misery in short order. “This is some more work of that tornado,” he went on, as he proceeded to cut out a choice steak. “We won’t starve for the next forty-eight hours.”
“I hope by that time we’ll have reached the army,” answered Larry, and took the portion of meat handed to him. It was not a dainty thing to carry, but he had to shoulder it, since Boxer and Leroy were carrying the weapons.
As they proceeded, the jungle appeared to become more dense, until it was next to impossible to make any progress. Yet they felt that each step was bringing them closer to the open plain and to a point where few natives were likely to be congregated. “If we once get down to the bottom, we’ll be all right,” said Boxer.
But the scout had not reckoned on the fact that there was a hollow at the base of the mountain, and that the heavy rains had filled this full to overflowing. It was Larry who first called attention to the fact that the ground was growing damp. Then of a sudden the whole party stepped into the water up to their ankles.
Here was a new dilemma to face, and each looked 256 at the others in anything but a happy mood. “Beats everything what luck we’re having!” cried Leroy, in deep disgust. “I’d give a year’s pay to be safe on board the Yorktown agin, keelhaul me if I wouldn’t!”