After a time Clay, Case and Mose went to bed, leaving Alex., Jule, Captain Joe, and Teddy on deck. The dog seemed particularly wide awake, moving about as if he scented danger, while the cub sat looking toward the island with twitching nostrils.
“Seems as if the dog and the cub know there’s something coming off here to-night,” Jule remarked, as Captain Joe put his paw on the gunwale and sniffed the air. “Do you really think they have a way of discovering approaching peril which human beings have not? Captain Joe certainly looks as if he saw something unpleasant coming.”
“I often think dogs have an instinct which warns them of danger,” Alex. replied.
“Well,” Jule went on, “we’ll soon see what comes of the signals of danger he is now handing out to us! Whatever he sees or senses is on that island.”
The boys watched for a long time, but there came no sounds of life from the island.
“You’re like the dog,” Jule said to Alex., presently. “You are getting ready for a break of some sort! Suppose you loosen up and tell me what it is?”
“You remember that night on the Amazon, when we scared the life out of a couple of renegade Englishmen and a native Indian?” asked Alex.
“Sure I do!” was the reply. “That was the funniest ever!”
“Well,” Alex. explained, “I’m goin’ to try something like that on these negroes.”
“Better let ’em alone!” advised Jule. “They are wise to tricks!”