Jai Singh kept them up to their task with an occasional gruff word, and now and then he swung the long staff of his spear over their heads as a hint that he would not permit any “soldiering.”
It was early morning when he said quietly to Nick Carter:
“If the sahib would like, we will stop here. It is time for food and drink, for the coming day.”
“You mean breakfast, eh?” put in Patsy eagerly. “Good idea! You’re all right, Jai.”
Jai Singh glanced at Patsy as if half inclined to call him to account for his familiarity. But he didn’t. He had taken a great liking to Nick Carter’s good-humored second assistant. Therefore, he was inclined to permit him liberties he would not brook from anybody else.
The men rowed the boat inshore, and Jai Singh jumped out and held it while the four white men disembarked.
They helped him pull the boat far up on the bank, and Nick Carter secured it by a strong rope to the trunk of a deodar, which is another name for the Himalayan cedar.
“There’s a cataract not far ahead, I should say, from the way the water rushes down,” observed Nick Carter to Jai Singh.
“The sahib is right. The big falls are not far above. We must carry the boat around. But our men will do it. There will be no trouble for the sahibs. We will build a fire now.”
“Look here, Jai,” broke in Patsy. “How far are we to go before we get action on Leslie Arnold. Aren’t we nearly up to the place he is in?”