CHAPTER XIX
Saved from the Natives
"They're getting ready for the entertainment. My word!" whispered Alec in his chum's ear, when the two had been secreted for some little while in the huge hut to which they had managed to gain admission. "Preparing for the ceremony, and a fine hullabaloo they're making about it."
"And propose to conduct matters with full rites and customs and ceremony. In fact, a full-dress parade," said Dick, smiling, though there was an anxious look about his eyes. "Full dress, Alec, not that there's much dress about these niggers. That's where the difficulty comes in."
"What difficulty? How? Don't follow."
"Well, if they were decent, civilized sort of savages they'd wear cloaks, wouldn't they? They'd cover themselves with something better than the plaited girdles they have about them. That's where we'd come in. We'd borrow a couple of their wretched blankets, smuggle ourselves across the way, and then—well, there you are."
"Wish we were. But crossing the street here is no easy matter. What are these wretches doing?"
"What I've said. Holding a full-dress parade. Making ready for a ceremonial. Preparing for dinner."