Sadie was, in fact, far too frightened by her surroundings to venture to move. To speak the truth, the trying scenes through which she had passed had practically unnerved her, though the child had plenty of courage; but she was a sensible child too, and saw the futility of attempting escape at this moment.
As to Jim and his little band, they had no idea where the party they were in pursuit of had camped, if, indeed, they had camped at all. They pressed on slowly through the jungle, Sam leading with the lantern, and Tom bringing up the rear, slashing a tree every few paces as he passed. It was perhaps an hour later before the little negro came to a sudden halt, and lifted his head in the air.
"Smell hosses!" he whispered, snuffing at the breeze for all the world as if he were a dog. "Sartin sure I smell hosses!"
Promptly his hand went to the lamp and extinguished it. Jim heard the catch click to, and found himself in utter darkness. But though he held his head erect, and sniffed with all his power, he could detect nothing but the strong, aromatic scent of some tropical creeper clinging to the trees near at hand, and supporting from the finest tendrils some magnificent blossoms.
"Horses? You're sure?" he asked.
"Sartin sure," came the confidant whisper. "Listen to dat!"
Through the silence of the forest there came of a sudden a dull cough, and then a loud neigh. It was followed by a second, and then, faintly to Jim's ears, but with startling loudness to Sam's, there came the sound of stamping.
"I'se tell yo' all about it," whispered the little negro. "One ob de hosses restless; de flies trouble him. He cough fust ob all, den he neigh. Now he stampin'. Dat all simple, simple as A B C. But him very close; too close. S'pose dem scum hab seen de lantern."
They crouched in the jungle in death-like silence for the space of ten minutes, fearful lest what Sam had suggested were the case; but though they listened there came no other sound than the stamp of the restless horse which had first attracted their attention—that and an occasional cough from the same animal. As to Sam's statement that he could smell horses, a statement which must have been true, and which had undoubtedly saved Jim and his party from blundering into the enemy's camp, our hero could not even now detect the characteristic smell. Nor could Ching nor Tom.
"But dem dere all de same," whispered Sam, chuckling at the recollection of his own sharpness, "and precious near too. What yo do, sah? Wait here and listen."