“I think so too,” agreed Bob. “There should be plenty of branch paths that would take us over there.”
They found one before another five minutes had passed, and turned onto its narrow surface.
“The world’s greatest jungle,” mused Bob, shaking his head.
“Sure is a whopper,” the other agreed. “Wonderful. I had no idea it would have such a wide variety of plants, and that it could be so dense.”
All that morning the boys spent in vainly searching for the river. The trail that they had turned onto continued, but where it would lead to they did not know. It might have gradually circled several miles out of the way.
During that desperate search the chums saw a large number of all types of wild animals, although none happened to be dangerous. Monkeys crowded thickly down to the lowest boughs, small gnawing creatures darted across the path, brightly colored birds flew swiftly overhead. Occasionally the boys could get a glimpse of a snake slinking through the underbrush. It was a wonderful menagerie and could have been enjoyed to the full had they not been in such a terrible plight.
“Do you know,” remarked Bob, his eyes on a small creature, “I believe these animals are used to seeing people.”
Joe looked around inquiringly.
“Now take that small furred creature that just passed,” Bob continued. “Did you notice how wary it seemed? One glance at us was enough to send it running back at full speed. They never did that before. Now here’s what I think: we’re in a country inhabited either by rubber gatherers or Indians. Why rubber gatherers would be so far from civilization I don’t know, unless——”
“I don’t think they would be,” interrupted Joe. “We didn’t come across any boat that they might have come in. And of course they wouldn’t have come all these hundreds of miles by land.”