"How you cross riber?—why you come back 'gin? Why you no stay ober dere when we hurry to go to you?"
"Bippo, you are mistaken," replied the Professor, with all the earnestness at his command. "We went up this side of the stream, and have not been on the other side since dark. When we came back and saw that you were not in the camp, we thought you had all been killed."
The native grinned more than ever, and shook his head.
"De Purfes'r funny man—he make laugh." And he walked back to his companions with an unshakeable belief in the story given to Fred Ashman when he dashed in such excitement from the wood.
"Bippo believes what he has told us," said Long, who had studied the fellow closely; "and it follows that he and the others did see a couple of white men."
"I imagined," remarked Grimcke with something like regret in his tones, "that we were the first of our race to reach this spot; but it is hard in these days to find any place on the globe where some white person had not been before us."
"If there are a couple of them over there," said Ashman, scanning the opposite bank, "they ought to be friends; and, after signaling to our servants to cross, it is inexplainable that they should withdraw from sight as they did."
"We can depend on one thing," added the Professor; "we haven't seen the last of them. I would be glad to believe them friends, but their actions are unsatisfactory. I am inclined to think that the cause of their withdrawing was your entrance into the canoe. For some reason they wished to have nothing to do with any of us."
"It may be that since we are suspicious of them," said Fred, "they feel the same toward us, and are unwilling to make our acquaintance until after reconnoiterin' us. Helloa! what's up now?"
This question was caused by the action of Bippo, who, trembling in every limb, and with the appearance of a person overcome with terror, pointed to the forest behind them.