“Yes, Nat, and we must. It would be more useful to us now than your Latin and French.”
“Yes, uncle, and we shall have to learn it without books. Hallo! what’s he going to do?”
Chapter Nineteen.
Our Very Black friend.
The reason for my exclamation was that our visitor suddenly began to drag the chest we had used for a table into the hut, and after this he carried in the kettle, and two or three other things that we had had out, the rifle included; after which, as we watched him, he patted us both on the chest to call our attention to what he was going to do, and, picking up his spear, he thrust it down into the ground close up to the doorway, its point standing up above the thatch.
“What does he mean by that, uncle?” I asked.
“I think I know, Nat,” he replied; “but wait a minute. This fellow is no fool.”
For after calling our attention to what he was going to do, he ran off into the jungle; and as we watched the spot where he had disappeared, he peered at us from behind a tree trunk, then from another, and another, popping up in all sorts of out-of-the-way places where we least expected to see him, and then suddenly creeping out on hands and knees from among some bushes, raising his head every now and then as if looking to see if he was watched, and again crawling on towards the hut.