Suddenly a flash of realization came to him. He saw it all. Frank and Jack had slipped away and preceded him to the tent. Camp was near the river bank. It would have been easy enough to walk along the edge of the stream with a flashlight, and by its glare surprise a frog and capture it. Easy enough, indeed; and, undoubtedly, that was what had been done. Then the two rascals had put the frog in his blankets.
Assured of this, Bob’s first idea was to tumble his comrades out of bed at once and roughhouse them. He had been badly scared. In fact, his nerves still quivered. He considered they had gone a bit too far in the matter of practical joking. Then he decided against instant action.
That was just what they would be looking for. Undoubtedly, they were awake and watching his every movement, enjoying his discomfiture. If he started to tumble them about, they would join forces against him. The result would be a rough-and-tumble combat, endangering the safety of various articles of equipment scattered about the tent.
“I’ll not give them any satisfaction,” thought Bob. “I’ll just turn in, and not say anything. They’ll be worried as to what I mean to do. And when my chance comes—”
Switching off the flashlight, and tossing the frog aside, he crawled back into his blankets. Once he believed he heard a subdued chuckle, whether on the part of Frank or Jack he could not decide. But nothing was said to him.
As for the others, they felt foolish. Both experienced an uncomfortable sense that their practical-joke had been too startling in character. Besides, old Bob had robbed them of their enjoyment by refusing to display resentment.
Presently, all three were asleep.
But Bob was first to wake. He had an infallible system. If he decided on retiring that he wanted to wake at a certain hour, at that hour he would wake. It is a power many people possess. Bob called it “setting his mental alarm clock.”
At four-thirty his eyes flew open and after a few seconds spent in collecting his thoughts, he carefully surveyed the interior of the tent without stirring or making a sound. Darkness had gone, and a dim gray light penetrated the tent walls, making it possible to distinguish objects. Bob could see his comrades, both sleeping soundly. He smiled in satisfaction.
Crawling out of his blankets, he dressed with infinite caution to avoid making any sound which might disturb the sleepers. Then he stole away to the bearers’ camp. The Negroes still slept, but Bob shook Wimba into wakefulness and then held whispered consultation with him.