“He has seen him, Joe,” cried the doctor. “He could not have invented that.”
There was a low whining growl here again from Gyp, and Jack Penny drawled:
“I say, sha’n’t we all be made prisoners if we stop here?”
“Quick!” said the doctor; “follow me.”
“And our guide?” I cried.
“We must come in search of him another time. If he has been with the blacks for long he will know how to protect himself.”
I was unwilling to leave one who had helped us in such a time of need; but to stay meant putting ourselves beyond being able to rescue my father, if it were really he who was our guide’s fellow-prisoner. The result, of course, was that I followed the doctor, while a snuffling whine now and then told us that Gyp was on in front, and, in spite of the darkness, leading the way so well that there seemed to be no difficulty.
“Where are we going?” I said, after a pause, during which we had been listening to the cries of the savages, which appeared to come from several directions.
“To our hiding-place,” said the doctor. “Jimmy found it before we lost him, and we have kept to it since, so as to be near you.”
“But how did you know you were near me?” I said.