“Yes, Rodd,” said the doctor; “that would be wiser, my lad.”
“But suppose we don’t see them as we come back,” said the lad.
“Not see them?” said the Spaniard, laughing. “Why, the country’s alive with them!”
Then as the party sated their eyes upon the various objects they passed, a light soft breeze arose when they turned into a bend of the river, and the Spaniard expressed his satisfaction, and suggested that the sail should be hoisted.
This was rapidly done, the oars were laid in, and Joe Cross came aft to preside at the newly-shipped rudder, while all through the rest of the day, and after the tide had run its course and become adverse, they tacked from side to side, or glided onward with the wind astern, the men only having at very rare intervals to take to their oars.
It was soon after mid-day that the doctor proposed that the boat should be run ashore and that they should land to dine at a lovely park-like opening where the dense portion of the forest had receded farther from the bank; but the Spaniard shook his head.
“No,” he said, “don’t do that. It looks very nice, but it isn’t safe. There are the crocodiles basking about the bank, snakes and serpents nearly everywhere, and the leopards and other great cats hanging about among the trees. Keep aboard. It’s safer here.”
“He means to take care of us, Morny,” said Rodd, in French, and directly after he gave his companion a meaning look, for the Spanish skipper turned to the doctor and said—
“Tell your men to have their guns handy.”
“What for?” said the doctor. “Do you scent danger?”