“Just as I feared,” said Don. “How far is it to this village, Pug!”
“Him telling one two legs,” replied Puggles, meaning leagues. “Village 'long shore; marster giving one rupee, dis'black man showing way.”
Without further parley the rupee was transferred from Don's pocket to the stranger's outstretched palm, and off they started. After following the beach for about a mile, their guide turned his back upon the sea and struck inland, leading them a tortuous course amid ghostly, interminable sand-hills, where the mournful sighing of the night-wind through the tall silver-grass, and the howling of predatory jackals, added to the weird loneliness of the scene. A blurred furrow in the yielding sand formed the only footpath. So slow was their progress that when at last the guide pointed out the village a halfmile ahead, Don, on consulting his watch, found it to be three o'clock. They had wasted fully two hours in walking six miles.
While they were still some little distance short of the village, the guide stopped, and pointing out a pool of water which shone like a boss of polished silver amid the sand-hills, asked leave to go and slake his thirst. His request granted, he disappeared amid the dunes.
“Do you know,” said Jack, while they were impatiently awaiting his return, “I fancy I've seen that fellow before, though I can't for the life of me recall where.”
The guide not returning, they at length went in search of him. But Pug's “bery nice black man” was nowhere to be seen.
“Looks as if he meant to leave us in the lurch,” Jack began, when a shout of “Him here got, sa'b!” from Puggles, brought them back to the footpath at a run.
The new-comer, however, was not the missing guide, but a stranger. He had been belated at the bazaar, he told them, and was now making his way home to the village close by. In answer to inquiries concerning the shark-charmer, he imparted a startling piece of news.
The shark-charmer had indeed taken his departure from the bazaar, but not to this village. He had, the stranger asserted, embarked in a coasting vessel bound for the opposite side of the Strait.
Don uttered an exclamation of impatience and dismay.