“Most awful stupes!”
“Not half Indians!”
“Not a quarter!”
The whole thing was now so clear to them they could not understand why they had not rightly read the indications or “sign” that at last appeared so self-evident. But they were not the first who have wondered afterwards that they had not been wise before the event. It is so easy to read when the type is set up and the sentences printed in proper sequence; so difficult to decipher defaced inscriptions in an unknown language. When the path is made any one can walk along it and express disdainful surprise that there should ever have been any difficulty.
“But it’s not proper,” said Bevis. “I wish it had been a tiger.”
“It would have been so capital. But we’ve got a slave.”
“Where’s she to sleep to-night?”
“Anywhere in the wood.”
“Slave, you’re to cook the hare for supper.”
“And mind you don’t make a noise when we’re out hunting and frighten the kangaroos.”