The doctor made no reply.
“Here,” he cried, “take these birds, and you two who have been resting come back with me. Lenny, I want you, and you come too,” he continued to another of the men.
The other two who had come down from the mountain slope were eager to return, but the doctor ordered them to take charge of the boat, and without pausing a minute shouldered his gun and turned to follow the path they had taken that morning, with better hope of success.
“I dare say we came close by them somewhere,” he said to Lenny. “I hardly see though how we could have missed them.”
“Strikes me, sir, as I know how it was,” said the man.
“You think you know?”
“Yes, sir, but it’s only thinking, and mayn’t be right.”
“Tell me what you think,” cried the doctor impatiently.
“It was hot, sir, steamy hot under the trees, and Mr Jack is young and none too strong, and Ned arn’t quite got over his trouble.”
“Yes, of course. Well, go on.”