“It’s no very great hardship to go hungry for twenty-four, or even forty-eight hours,” he said, cheerily. “If we think of eating, it’ll only make matters worse, so let’s sheer off on some other tack.”
“That is not so easily done,” Nelse replied, gloomily.
“I don’t know about it. Look around and see what an odd sort of a forest this is, compared to such as we have at home.”
“We’ve had time to be pretty well acquainted with it since landing yesterday. There doesn’t seem to be anything strange here, except it is the big palm tree near where the old scoundrels are sitting. That——”
Gil would have started to his feet in surprise, had it not been for the bonds, as he cried:
“It is the very tree we were hunting for! There are none others as tall, and it’s surely old enough to have served as a landmark when our chart was made.”
“I believe you are right, my boy,” the mate said, after a short pause. “It would be strange if these villains have shown us just what we wanted to find.”
“I can’t see that it will do us any good, even if we knew a big pile of gold was absolutely buried in the immediate vicinity,” Nelse replied, grumblingly; but at the same time he continued to gaze at the palm, and it could be seen that, for the moment, the pangs of hunger were forgotten.
The possibility of their having finally arrived at the desired place, through no inclination or volition of their own, was sufficient to furnish them with a fruitful topic of conversation, and but little attention was paid to the blacks until the departure of several of the younger men caused Gil to ask:
“Where do you suppose they are going?”