Chapter Thirty Three.
How I nearly made a terrible Mistake.
We tried several times over to get our friend to speak, but the result was only a voluble burst of words in a tongue we could not comprehend, while all the time he seemed to be aware of his failing, and waved his hands and stretched them out to us as if begging us to forgive him for his weakness.
“Let him be, Joe,” whispered the doctor at last; “we may excite him by pressing him. Let him calm himself, and then perhaps he can speak.”
I felt as if it was resigning myself to utter despair, and it seemed that our attempt that night was to be in vain, when Jimmy suddenly popped up among us once more.
“’Long here,” he whispered, and we were about to follow him when our friend stopped us.
“No; this way,” he said, and he pointed in the opposite direction.
“No, no! ’long here way,” said Jimmy excitedly. “Much lot black fellow that way.”