"Exactly. And I think that if he was still alive he would have trained his tribe up to fight these cannibals, and probably have wiped them out before now and rescued his comrade."
"I must confess that your reasoning sounds conclusive enough, but I won't give up the hope of finding him alive."
"Nor I, although it is hoping against hope."
"We must try and find out from Columbus whether this last batch of victims came from Stuart's tribe; he might know whether he is dead or alive."
That evening Columbus, who had had several spills during his riding-lessons, much to Billy's delight, was interrogated about the tribe to the westward. It came out that there were two tribes which the cannibals harassed, one to the south and one to the west. To the north Columbus intimated that there were no natives. The last raid had been made on the tribe to the westward, who lived by a lake. Further examination elicited the fact that Murphy had been brought from there a long, long time ago; also, that another white man was there who had killed a lot of cannibals and frightened them; but that was also long ago, and now they had been there two or three times and not seen him. They learnt also that he went about everywhere, for he was with the tribe to the south one time when they went there, and had killed some of them there. The southern tribe lived near a mountain.
This was the extent of the information which, after much puzzling on both sides, was gleaned from the cannibal chief.
It rather complicated matters. Was Stuart to the west or south? Which way would they go first? On going into the subject again it appeared that the way to the south was the easier; to the west, as was evident by Stuart's journal, a long stage of dry desert country had to be crossed.
"At any rate," said Morton, "we have a couple of days to think it over. We must make a legible transcription of that journal, and I propose that we make two copies; I will keep one, Charlie another, and you, Brown, stick to the original. This will ensure us somewhat against accident."
"Can I go and explore that hole where the crater disappeared while you're busy at that?" said Charlie.
"Go by yourself?" asked Morton.