"If he succeeds in finding his way back, which I doubt very much, we will be forced to make a change regardless of the consequences, and if he is captured it becomes a case of our putting the greatest possible distance between this cave and ourselves," Cummings replied bitterly.
"I might go out and try to find him," Neal suggested, and his companion put an end to any such idea by saying impatiently:
"Your efforts to aid him would only result in making our own position just so much the worse. We must wait until Poyor comes back, and learn what he has to say in regard to the affair."
"But it seems cruel to let him run into danger without saying a word."
"It is not half as bad as it is for him to jeopardize all our lives. He did the same thing once before, and the consequence was that instead of making back tracks to my shanty, as could easily have been done, we are forced to skulk around two or three weeks with no certainty of escaping even at the end of that time."
Both Neal and Teddy understood that it would be useless to say anything more in Jake's favor, and as a matter of fact, they felt quite as bitter toward him as did Cummings, for it was not difficult to see what might be the result of his foolish excursion.
In silence the little party waited until the Indian returned bringing the carcass of a tapir, a small quantity of alligator pears, and two so-called cabbages cut from palm trees.
"It is not difficult to get all the food that may be needed provided we can keep the fact of our being here a secret," he said in a tone which showed how greatly he was pleased by his success.
"And that we shall not be able to do many hours longer except by some piece of rare good luck," Cummings said bitterly. "Jake went out a long while ago, and is now, I presume, roaming around in order to give the enemy an opportunity of looking at him."
"Went out?" the Indian repeated in surprise. "Do you mean that he has left the cave?"