“Hm!” grunted the Sulu. “Dat no good, Mars Sam.”
“Why not?”
“No way to get off top of rock.”
“True; but we can hide there, ’till the thieves go away to the ship. It isn’t likely they’ll climb up there again, for this cave is a better place to sleep in.”
Nux seemed unconvinced, and I had none too much confidence in my own assertion.
“Tonight,” said the black, in a dismal tone, “dey hunt for de gold. All gone. Robber very mad. Dey look ev’rywhere; den dey find us on rock. Den dey kill us.”
“That’s a pretty tough prophecy, Nux,” I returned, as cheerfully as I could. “And it sounds likely enough, I confess. We’ve got the gold again, to be sure; but the robbers have got us; so we’re worse off than we were before.”
Nux took a lump of bread from a provision sack and begun to munch it leisurely. Noticing the action, and remembering that I also was hungry, I proceeded to follow the black’s example.
While we ate, however, my Sulu was busily thinking, and so was I. As a result I presently gave my leg a delighted slap and began to laugh.
Nux looked at me with a grin of sympathy upon his black features.