The two youths hesitated, but Ali was so firm, and his utterances so decided, that although unwillingly, they felt constrained to obey his wishes.
“No, no,” exclaimed Bob, “let me go with you, old fellow. Let us both come.”
“Do you wish to serve me more than you have already done?” said Ali, quietly.
“Yes, I do, ’pon my word,” replied Bob.
“Then please say ‘good-bye.’ I am very nearly at home.”
There was nothing more to be said, so the young Englishmen shook hands and parted from their companion, after he had promised to send word by Yusuf the next day how he was.
“I don’t half feel satisfied,” said Bob, trudging along behind the Malay who was their guide. “I think we ought to have gone with him, Tom.”
“I feel so too,” was the reply, “but what could we do? Perhaps he was not so very much hurt after all.”
They were tired now, and the heat of the afternoon seemed greater than ever, so that they longed to get out of the stifling forest to the open banks of the river. But they were as yet far away, and their guide made a cut along the side of a patch of marshy ground, looking back from time to time to see if they followed.
“Snipe, by all that’s wonderful!” cried Bob, firing two barrels almost as he spoke, and bringing down four birds out of a flock that bore some resemblance to, but were double the size of, snipes.