“You are right, Pete. Then we will find a snug place, and lie in waiting till it’s dark again; and we shall know by then pretty well where we are, and take our measures for a fresh start.”
“That’s right, sir. Glad I was able to do some good—and, I say, it’s getting close to morning.”
“How do you know?”
“By them things as we have heard howling out in the jungle over and over again.”
“I’ve heard nothing,” said Archie.
“I have, sir; and they’re getting quiet now. I heard a tiger once, and crocs over and over again, but I wouldn’t say anything.”
“I had too much else to think of, Pete,” said Archie, as he toiled hard at his pole, causing an eddy more than once, as if some river-dweller had been disturbed.
It was not long after when the notes of the birds began to proclaim the coming day, and the surroundings began to appear so plainly that at the first favourable opportunity the boat was run in beneath the shelter of the overhanging trees and made fast; while, as the day broadened and they peered out across the river, Archie found they were so high up that no object on the farther bank was familiar; and he said so.
“Well, sir, I must leave that to you,” said Peter. “I ain’t done much boating, and have never been so high as this before. Well, from what you say, I suppose we shall be safe till night, and then we are going to get across and land them cartridges somehow or another where they are wanted. We’ve got a lot of hours to wait, though, first.”
“Yes,” said Archie, with a weary sigh.