“Babs is going to be very good to-day,” said Tandy to his little daughter after breakfast.
“Better than ever, daddy?”
“Yes, much, because I’m going on shore with Captain Halcott here and two men.”
“And me?”
“No, not to-day, dear. We’re going to climb that high hill and look all round us, and perhaps put up a flag; and Ransey will let you look through a spyglass to see us, and we’ll wave our hands to you. Now will you be better than usual?”
“Ye-es, I think I’ll try. And oh, I’ll make the Admiral look through the spyglass too, and when you see him looking through, you must wave your hand and fire your gun. Then we’ll all—all be happy and nicer than anything in the whole world.”
It was not without a feeling of misgiving that Halcott and Tandy left the boat that had taken them on shore, and took their way cautiously towards the bush. There was hard work before them and the two sturdy fellows, Chips and Tom Wilson, whom they had brought with them—hard work to penetrate through the jungle and to effect an ascent of the hill they had already named the Observatory—hard work and danger combined.
The crew of the boat stood gun in hand until they saw the party safe into the bush, then, more easy in their minds now, rowed slowly back to the ship. For if savages had been hiding under cover, the attack would have been made just as the party was stepping on shore.
The exploring party kept to the extreme edge of the bush after penetrating and searching hither and thither for a time, but neither track nor trail of savages could they find. But they came across several little pathways that led here and there through the jungle, and at first they could not make out what these were. They learned before long, however; for Bob, who had gone on ahead a little way, came suddenly and excitedly rushing out from a thicket. In his mouth he held something that Tandy imagined was a rat, but the shrieking and yelling behind the dog soon undeceived him, and, lo! there now rushed into the open a beautiful little boar and a sow. The former flashed his tusks in the sunlight. He wanted the baby back. It was his, his, he said, and his wife’s. He felt full of fight, and big enough to wage war against the whole world for that baby.