“Oh, Pomp know, sah. Dah! You ope bofe ear, and listum to lil bird. Dat him. Lil blackum yallow bird, go pinkum-winkum-wee.”
A dead silence fell upon us, and what had been inaudible to me, but quite plain to the boy, came faintly from the distance—the twittering cry of a bird in one of the trees at the edge of the forest; and directly after it was answered from far away, and I felt my father’s cold wet hand grasp mine as he exclaimed hoarsely—“Thank God.”
I could hear him breathing hard, and the tears ran down my cheeks as my head rested on his breast, and I clung to him for a few seconds.
Then he drew another deep breath, and his voice and manner were entirely changed, as he cried out—
“Do you hear, Morgan? Daybreak in a few minutes, and the sun before long. I think we could hold out here for an hour at a pinch. We shall have our swim long before that, and with heaven’s good light to help us safely there.”
“Hurrah!” shouted Morgan, hoarsely. And then we all joined in a hearty cheer, while the cry of the bird rang out directly after from close at hand.
Chapter Eighteen.
Black night comes quickly down there in the south, with but little of the twilight of the north, and after the night’s dark reign there is but a short dawn before the sun springs up to shed hope and light, and the bright thoughts of a new day.