I was too much occupied with thoughts of my father to pay much heed to the fruits and flowers that we came upon in many spots; besides, I was on before with Jack Penny, and Gyp in front of us very intelligently leading the way. There was, I knew, always the chance of meeting some danger, and on this account we kept a very sharp look-out ahead, till suddenly we were stopped by a strange noise as of water being struck a succession of heavy blows; and as Gyp set up his ears, threw up his nose, and uttered a low whimper, there was the click, click of gun-locks, and every one prepared for some coming danger, the blacks remaining quiet, and looking wonderingly at our strange proceedings.
The sound ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and though we listened intently we heard it no more for that time, so we continued our journey with every one thoroughly on the alert.
Chapter Thirteen.
How Jack Penny put his Foot in a Trap.
We had made our plans, but they were very elastic, for it was impossible for us to keep to any hard-and-fast line.
“No, Joe,” the doctor said, “we cannot say that we will do this or that; we must be governed by circumstances. We have one object in view—to find your father, and so far we have determined to follow the course of the first big river; when we shall be diverted from it time must prove.”
We slept that night under the shade of another tree, and as the mist rolled off the next morning we started once again.
It was so glorious a morning that, in spite of the serious nature of our position, it was impossible not to feel in the highest of spirits. The way lay through dense forest, but we had fallen into a track which I at first thought was a regular pathway, and so it proved to be, but not of the kind I imagined as I eagerly called the doctor’s attention to it, and the ease with which we were now getting along.