What did it mean?
Lost in the great uninhabited plains, where by aid of their compass they might go on day after day travelling in the direction they believed to be homeward, but it would only be as the result of a guess. Certainly, they knew that the sea lay somewhere due east, but even if they could reach the sea, where would they be—north or south of a settlement?
Norman felt that their case was hopeless; and in obedience to the mute prayer he read in brother and cousin’s eyes, he went and sat by the black.
“Can’t mine find the track, Shanter?”
“Baal find um,” he replied coolly. “Plenty all gone way.”
“But come and try again.”
The black shook his head.
“Baal go no more,” he said; “mine sore. Plenty hurt all over. Go sleep, piggi jump up.”
The black turned away, and Norman returned disconsolately to the others.
“What does he say?” whispered Tim, as if afraid that his voice would be heard out there in the great wild.