Syd listened, but there was no sound, and he waited so long that he was going to speak to the boatswain and say, “We’ll give up now,” when a curious crunching noise fell upon his ear, and the next moment something dark was evidently trotting by them, looking in the darkness like a great dog.
With one bound the young midshipman was at it, but it eluded his grasp, and ran right at Strake, who was the next moment down on his face.
“Stand, or I fire!” came from a short distance away.
“No, no. Avast there; it’s the captain—I mean Mr Belton and me, my lad,” growled Strake, getting up. “See that, Mr Belton, sir; I’d just got it when it went right through my legs, and I was down. Which way did it go?”
“Don’t know. I did not even feel it.”
“It’s a big monkey, sir, or else—I know, sir, it’s one o’ they small bears, and that was biscuit he was chawing. We’d better shoot him. They bites as well as scratches and hugs, besides being very good eating, so they say.”
“Well, it’s of no use to try to catch it now. Better hunt it from its hole by daylight. Isn’t it time Rogers was relieved?”
“Gettin’ nigh, sir; on’y it’s all on the guess.—Look here, sir, I know; we’ll smoke the beggar out.”
“A capital way,” said Syd; “only we’ve first got to find the hole.”