Onwards, however, they rushed past the human food, without turning to the right or left; down they wound their course towards the open plain.
For three and a half hours they filed along, until the sun had almost set.
Our heroes and their followers stood meanwhile with their feet in the water, and their eyes fixed anxiously on that moving mass that had hitherto left them alone.
Ned saw a large black snake drop from a crevice in the rock amongst them. They at once closed upon it, and passed over it. A ripple-like movement took place amongst the compact multitude where the snake had dropped. This motion only lasted for a few seconds, then it ceased, and the army scurried on with methodical and ruthless order.
At last they saw the end of this frightful army. Ned had attempted a futile joke about the Jubilee Procession, but no one had laughed. These little beasts were not suitable subjects to jest about—at least, not while they were on the war-path.
They had come in one straight valley-filling line in the van, and they terminated at the rear in the same rigid form, with no stragglers dragging up behind. As the last rank filed slowly past, all uttered a glad cry of relief.
Cocoeni pointed silently to the trail which this army had left, and our heroes no longer dared to doubt his assertion.
Where the black snake had been was a gleaming necklace of white vertebrae, and a flat grinning skull, and shining fangs. Scattered over the ground were specks of varied sizes and shades. These were the excavated and polished shells of insects and reptiles that had not been so prudent and lucky as were Ned and his followers. The devastating bashikonay had passed along that way, and, like the Grand Army of France, had cleaned out thoroughly their line of march.
It was some time after the last of these resistless conquerors had disappeared before any of Ned’s band dared to venture out of their sanctuary. These might only be the advance guard; the main body might be coming on behind.
Therefore, uncomfortable as it was to have to stand passive for hours in the centre of a stream of running water, this was infinitely to be preferred to being caught between two such formidable hosts.