"Don't see how," answered Burt. "It don't look like Cap'n Mac hurt old Pongo very much with his blazing oil. We ain't got a gun either. If we knew any conjuring tricks we might make a bluff on Mbopo's people."
"I can pull a coin out of handkerchiefs," grinned Critch. "But we ain't got a coin and if we don't keep our hankies tied on our hands we'd be eaten alive. Try again."
"An electric battery'd be the stunt," said Burt. "Fellows in books always have batteries handy, or eclipses, or something. Guess we ain't lucky. What d'you s'pose Cap'n Mac would do if he was here?"
"Prob'ly tell you to shut your head and go to sleep while you can," grunted Critch. Burt accepted the advice.
They set out again in the morning and still traveled north by east. Mbopo said little to them that day. Instead of stopping at a village they camped out at noon and made a meagre meal of nuts and wild plantains. They were getting into higher country now although it was still jungle. The black hunters had not accompanied them and the six white pigmies were the sole guardians of the boys. At evening there was no sign of a village and when one of the men brought in another small wart hog the rest scattered and collected more wild nuts and berries.
They camped that night in the center of a ring of fires. These smudges protected them somewhat from the clouds of insects, but nevertheless both boys suffered a great deal. Their mosquito nets were badly torn and their camphor was all gone by this time. Although the pigmies did not seem to mind the mosquitoes, they were very careful to avoid the hanging nests of the trumpet ants and the black wasps while passing through the jungle.
The next morning there was still the same desolate silence all about them as they marched on. Mbopo had said nothing the night before and the boys had been too dead tired to ask any questions. Toward noon they both noticed that their captors became more careless about keeping watch. The boys were nearly worn out by the terrible journey, but Mbopo pushed forward relentlessly. As the shadows lengthened the boys saw the reason for this.
They had left the lower and denser jungle behind, and seemed to be slowly reaching higher and freer ground. There was no restriction on their talking now, and as the sun touched the tips of the trees in the west Critch gave an exclamation.
"Look over there ahead, Burt! That's a river, sure's you're born!"
"Mebbe it's the same one Cap'n Mac told about," returned his chum, catching sight of the silver thread that was partially higrin and fell back to their side.