"To be sure I would, sorr. He's gone through the forest and cheated the lions and tigers and all the other beasts and creeping things, ivery wan uv 'm a mighty power cleverer than Elbel."
"Barring the lions and tigers, I think you're right, Barney. Well, if he's to go we must do all we can to help him. Could he get down the gully side, I wonder?"
"He say dat plenty good way, sah. He lib for swim like fish, go through water, come back all same."
"We'll let him down by a rope, Barney, and we'll place Mboyo at the stockade in charge of it; he'll have the greatest interest in seeing that the boy goes in and out safely. And look here, I've heard Samba imitating the cries of various animals; he'd better arrange with Mboyo to be ready for him when he hears a certain cry. And he must carry enough food with him to last a day in case he is prevented from getting back. If he's out more than one day he must fend for himself; but I fancy, after what he has already been through, at least it'd be a very bare country where he couldn't pick up enough to keep him going. He's a splendid little fellow."
"That's the truth's truth, sorr; and sure, whin we leave this haythen country, he'd better come back wid us to London, sorr. Wid him wan side uv me an' Pat the other, I'd be on me way to be Lord Mayor, bedad!"
Thus it was arranged. With a tinful of food slung about him, Samba was let down by a rope from the stockade, and crept in the darkness down the gully. A few minutes later, from some point on the other side, came the strident call of a forest-beetle twice repeated, and Mboyo knew that his son was safely across.
When morning broke, Jack saw that the pickets were placed as they had been on the previous day. He could easily have disposed of several of them, either by rifle fire or by a quick sally; but even at the present stage he had a great reluctance to open hostilities, which must involve much bloodshed and suffering. He resolved to bide his time, knowing that so far as food supply was concerned he had enough for at least a couple of months, and was in that respect probably better placed than Elbel, while the secret of the water supply with good luck would escape detection. Now that the purpose of the tank was known, Jack's prestige among the natives, great as it had been before, was much enhanced, and they had added to their stock of songs one in which the wonderful providence of the Inglesa in arranging that the daily water should not fail was glowingly extolled.
The day passed undisturbed. Jack was puzzled to account for the enemy's silence. Elbel must have a scheme in preparation, he thought. What could it be? Jack had heard a good deal of hammering going on in the camp below, the sound coming faintly on the breeze; except for that there was no sign of activity; and the hammering was sufficiently accounted for by the work of finishing off the construction of the camp.
Before turning in for the night he went to the spot where Mboyo was posted, to learn whether anything had been heard of Samba. While he was there, he caught the low rasping notes of the forest-beetle.
"Samba n'asi!"[[1]] cried Mboyo, springing up.