The next instant their retreating footsteps could be heard. In the meantime, the clamor and shooting had redoubled. Evidently whatever was occurring was marked by severe casualties, for the boys could hear groans and cries of pain mingling with the shouts of the fighters.
"Whatever can be happening?" gasped Joe.
"It sounds as if our friends, Colonel Morello's men, were getting the worst of it, anyway," declared Nat. "Hark!"
Savage cries with a triumphant ring to them could be heard, accompanied by a sort of war-like dirge.
"It's the natives!" cried Nat, his doubts cleared away by this last.
"They've attacked the camp!" cried Joe.
"Wer-wer-will they get after us?" gasped Ding-dong through the darkness.
"Impossible to say," was Nat's rejoinder. "All we can do is to hope not. I don't know, though, that we should be worse off in their hands than in the clutches of Colonel Morello."
"If only we could get free of these ropes, we could escape in the excitement," exclaimed Joe. "Oh, what wouldn't I give for a knife!"
"Mer-mer-uch good it would do you wer-wer-when you can't use your hands," scoffed Ding-dong Bell scornfully.