Another big nut came with a crash through the branches and, before Oliver could check him, Drew raised his gun and sent a shower of shot peppering through the leaves over the heads of the two occupants of the great tree, with the result that two large apes went swinging from bough to bough, chattering indignantly, and disappearing at once.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” cried Oliver. “I wanted to have a look at the creatures.”
“I daresay you’ll have plenty more chances, for, if this proves to be an island, they can’t get away.”
“But the fact of there being large creatures here, proves that it is not an island,” said Oliver.
“Not a bit of it,” said Panton, oracularly. “There are plenty of islands peopled with animals, because they were occupants of continents now submerged. Look at Trinidad, for instance. That was once the north-east corner of North America, and all her flora and fauna are continental.”
“Oh, I say, don’t be so horribly scientific,” cried Oliver, “let’s get out into the open where we can breathe. Look at the butterflies in that sunshiny patch. Really we have dropped into a land of wonders.”
“And stinging insects and thorns,” said Panton. “I say, what was that rustling away through the leaves?”
“Snake, sir, big ’un. I see his tail wiggle,” cried Smith.
“Better be careful,” said Oliver, gravely, “there may be poisonous snakes about the edge of the forest. Ha! What a relief!”
For he had suddenly stepped out through a dense curtain of a creeping plant into the bright sunshine, to find that for some distance in front the earth was clothed with a low, bush-like growth; then there was a broad, blackish grey stretch of land, and again beyond that the veil of vapour rising right across their way to right and left.