“Humph!” he exclaimed directly after, “it seems as if I am to have a hard job to save my own skin.”
Just then the Malay reeled, and caught at a tree they were passing, when the doctor had only just time to catch him and save him from a heavy fall.
Laying his gun aside, he eased the poor fellow down upon the tangled grass, trickling a few more drops from his flask between his lips, and then giving the flask a bit of a shake to hear how much there was left.
“Better now,” said the Malay, trying to rise. “The trees run round.”
“Yes, of course they do to you,” said the doctor. “Lie still for a while, my good fellow. Is there any water near here?”
“Little way on,” said the Malay, pointing. “Listen!”
The doctor bent his head, and plainly enough heard a low gurgling noise. Following the direction in which the sound seemed to be, he came upon a little stream, and filled, by holding on with one hand to a little palm and hanging down as low as he could, the tin canteen slung from his shoulder. From this he drank first with avidity, then refilling it he prepared to start back.
“And I always preach to the fellows about not drinking unfiltered water,” he muttered. “I wonder how many wild water beasts I’ve swallowed down. Well, it can’t be helped; and it was very refreshing. Let me see! Bah! How can I when it’s as dark as pitch! Which way did I come?”
He stood thinking for a few moments, and then started off, cautiously trying to retrace his steps; but before he had gone twenty yards he felt sure that he was wrong, and turning back tried another way. Here again at the end of a minute he felt that he was not going right, and with an ejaculation of impatience he made his way back to where the stream rippled and gurgled along amidst the reeds, canes, and beneath the overhanging branches.
It was not the spot where he had filled the canteen, but he knew that he must be near it; and he started again, but only to have to get back once more to the stream, where there was a rush, a scuffling noise and a loud splashing, that made him start back with a shudder running up his spine, for he knew by the sound that it must be a crocodile.