“He won’t do any harm,” he said at last. “Let him come. I say, Mark, my lad, all that was very comic about the little fellow climbing the tree; but do you know, if you took pains I’m sure you might teach him to go up into the leafy crowns and screw the nuts round till they dropped.”
“I was wondering whether it would be possible,” said Mark eagerly.
“Quite. He is an intelligent little fellow. Try. Now, then, let’s take our bearings,” continued the major, and he pulled out a pocket-compass. “Don’t let’s be wearied out in finding our way back when we are tired.”
“Which way are we going, sir?”
“That depends, my lad. It is not as we please, but as the jungle allows. You talk as if you were in a country full of roads.”
“I forgot,” said Mark, changing the position in which he carried his father’s double gun.
“First lesson in using a gun,” said the major: “either point the muzzle at the ground or up at the sky. It’s considered bad manners, Mark, to shoot your companions.”
“I—I beg your pardon, sir,” faltered Mark. “It was very clumsy of me.”
“Not a bit more clumsy than every young fellow is, when he first handles a gun. That’s the way. I’m sure you don’t want to have to carry me home without a head. Now, then, our easiest route would be to go along the sands at the edge of the cocoa-nut groves; but I propose we strike in beside the first stream or through the first valley we find. Come along.”
They followed the beautiful shore line for about five hundred yards, and at a turn came suddenly upon a lovely little stream which offered far better facilities for obtaining drinking water than that from which it had been obtained, and as soon as he saw the spot, the major exclaimed that this was the place for their temporary home.