“Better if we’d never fallen behind, sir,” said Disco, in a deep, tremulous voice.
“True,” replied Harold. “We should have been spared these sights, and the pain of knowing that we cannot prevent this appalling misery and cruelty.”
“But surely it is to be prevented somehow,” cried Disco, almost fiercely. “Many a war that has cost mints o’ money has been carried on for causes that ain’t worth mentionin’ in the same breath with this!”
As Harold knew not what to say, and was toiling knee-deep in the swamp at the moment he made no reply.
After marching about half an hour he stopped abruptly and said, with a heavy sigh,—“I hope we haven’t missed our way?”
“Hope not sir, but it looks like as if we had.”
“I’ve bin so took up thinkin’ o’ that accursed traffic in human bein’s that I’ve lost my reckonin’. Howsever, we can’t be far out, an’, with the sun to guide us, we’ll—”
He was stopped by a loud halloo in the woods, on the belt of the swamp.
It was repeated in a few seconds, and Antonio, who, with Jumbo, had followed his master, cried in an excited tone—
“Me knows dat sound!”