“To be sure. It’s a nasty fix we’re in for to-night. Could we not build some kind of a barricade?”
“With a penknife! Guess we’ll roost in a tree.”
“But cannot leopards climb? It seems to me that I have heard–”
“How about lions?”
“They cannot; I’m sure of that.”
“Then we’ll chance the leopards. Just stretch out here, and nurse that ankle of yours. I don’t want to be lugging you all year. I’m going to hunt a likely tree.”
CHAPTER V
THE RE-ASCENT OF MAN
Afternoon was far advanced, and Winthrope was beginning to feel anxious, when at last Blake pushed out from among the close thickets. As he approached, he swung an unshapely club of green wood, pausing every few paces to test its weight and balance on a bush or knob of dirt.
“By Jove!” called Winthrope; “that’s not half bad! You look as if you could bowl over an ox.”