After he had led us the whole way round the mountain he brought us to the exact spot where we started from and there he came to a dead stop.
“Well,” said Bumpo to Polynesia, “what do you think of the beetle’s sense now? You see he doesn’t know enough to go home.”
“Oh, be still, you Hottentot!” snapped Polynesia. “Wouldn’t you want to stretch your legs for exercise if you’d been shut up in a box all day. Probably his home is near here, and that’s why he’s come back.”
“But why,” I asked, “did he go the whole way round the mountain first?”
Then the three of us got into a violent argument. But in the middle of it all the Doctor suddenly called out,
“Look, look!”
We turned and found that he was pointing to the Jabizri, who was now walking up the mountain at a much faster and more business-like gait.
“Well,” said Bumpo sitting down wearily; “if he is going to walk over the mountain and back, for more exercise, I’ll wait for him here. Chee-Chee and Polynesia can follow him.”
Indeed it would have taken a monkey or a bird to climb the place which the beetle was now walking up. It was a smooth, flat part of the mountain’s side, steep as a wall.