CHAPTER XVIII
SEEING THE FIRST SAVAGES
George's patience in teaching Angel was most commendable. Hours were devoted to this work. Even before leaving home the animal would recognize certain sounds, and performed many acts at the word of command. Such words as "come," "go," "take this," and others usually employed, were fully comprehended, and the names of Harry and the Professor were understood.
Frequent tests were made by George and the Professor, acting in concert, as this phase of the education greatly interested the latter, to ascertain whether the orang performed the services from an understanding of the meaning of the words, or whether it proceeded merely from the constant repetitions of the words and acts conjointly.
The value of this proceeding will be made apparent to the reader as we proceed in this history; but when they were educating Angel the idea of utilizing his future services, in a critical time, did not occur to them.
They camped for the night at the end of the trail; and now they hoped that the morrow would open the route over a more comfortable path than the last three days had offered them. Before going an hour on the way, a campfire was found, which evidently had been used not many days before.
There had not been any rains in their section of the country for ten days previous to this, and it was obvious that no rain had fallen on the ashes of this fire. From this it must be inferred that whoever made the fire must have been there recently.
The utmost vigilance would be necessary, in view of this discovery. The wagon moved forward slowly. Every part of the country within the limits of the trail was under scrutiny, and every sound and moving object fully investigated before proceeding. This made travel necessarily slow. The underbrush was very thick, and but few trees remained, and those were scattered, mostly in clumps or in detached groups.
Harry looked at the tall trees longingly many times, and the Professor divined his meaning. "I have a notion to try prospecting from one of these trees. We can, no doubt, see more from them than we can learn in a day's travel. But trees of that kind are pretty hard to climb."