Bry laughed, silently.
“I stay with them now, so they not find you,” he said. “But when right time come I steal away an’ come back to you. Did you fill sack with sand, Mars Sam?” glancing enquiringly at the stuffed trousers.
“Yes.”
“That good,” said Bry, approvingly. “They dig up one, when they come back, to see if all safe. Then they hide it again. Very good way to fool bad mans.”
“But we can’t leave here until they go away,” I remarked.
“No. Must be careful. Tomorrow they finish raft. Tomorrow night they go to ship. You stay here and hide till then. After de bad mans go, I come back to you, and we go to camp again.”
“All right, Bry,” said I, as cheerfully as possible.
Then the black bade us good-bye and returned to the cave to report to Daggett that no one was to be seen anywhere about. And now Nux and I, wearied by the adventures of the day, but buoyed by the hope that we might finally escape with the recovered gold, lay down upon the rocky eminence and, bathed by the moon’s silver rays, slept peacefully until morning.