The fellow uttered a cry of amazement as he saw that he was once more on the earth. He looked wildly around him for an instant.
“Go on. Be off with you!” admonished the captain. “You’ve made us trouble enough.”
Without a word the Indian made a rush for the side of the machine. With one bound he was over it and in another minute the forest had swallowed up his rapidly retreating form. Naturally this incident, which had its serious as well as its ludicrous side, came in for a good deal of discussion by the adventurers, while the bag was being refilled.
In the midst of their talk, Tom noticed some odd-looking holes which were distributed at fairly regular intervals all over the swamp. Motioning to Dick, he slipped out of the machine and proceeded to investigate. The holes were all about seven or eight feet in diameter and filled almost to the top with muddy water. They had every appearance of having been made by man.
Considerably puzzled, the boys examined several of the holes carefully, and by the motion of the water in one of them judged that they might contain fish.
They hastened back to the ship and told the professor the result of their investigations. The little man at once became interested.
“Maybe dey vos spezimens of some kindt,” he declared eagerly. “Ve catch some, hein?”
“Don’t be too long,” warned Jack; “we’re ready to start now, but we can wait a while if you don’t take too much time.”
The professor assured him that they would hurry their investigations, and in company with Tom and Dick he moved off, armed with a big landing net which formed a part of his paraphernalia. He commenced dabbling with this in the hole where the boys had noticed the commotion. Suddenly he gave a shout.
“I godt idt! I godt idt! Himmel! Idt vos a big vun, too. Ach! mein leiber, I got you, ain’d idt?”