The doctor was shortsighted, so he sent to the tent for a telescope; then he looked through it at the object to which the negroes pointed, and great surprise showed on his face:
“Call the captain here!” he said.
Before the negroes had reached him the captain appeared outside the tent; he was about to start on an antelope hunt.
“Glen, look!” cried the doctor, pointing upward.
The captain raised his head, covered his eyes with his hands, and showed as much surprise as did the doctor.
“A kite!” he cried.
“Yes; but negroes don’t send up kites! Where can it come from?”
“There may be a settlement of white people or a mission in the neighborhood——”
“This is the third day the wind has blown from the west, over a region as unknown and perhaps as uninhabited as is this jungle. Besides, you know that there are no settlements or missions hereabouts.”
“Indeed, it is very strange and interesting.”