"Why do you think this is the time for that?" asked Harry.
"Because it was now nearing the dark of the moon, as you call it, and that time is chosen because the Great Spirit, out of anger, is hiding the light."
The boys now understood that this was a rite practiced by some of the tribes on Wonder Island, during that season of the Moon's phase.
"Did you talk with them in that strange language?" asked Harry.
"No; but I tried to find out the key to the language they used."
"Is that their regular language?"
"Oh, no! That is simply the special language which they use on certain occasions," answered Muro.
"The savages here, as everywhere, have a sort of code language, or a species of wireless telegraphy, used by them only when in the presence of enemies," commented John.
"Harry and I thought it might be the Alma Perdita, that we heard at the cave near Cataract."
"No; but it shows the ingenuity of the savages, when I explain that their most favored method is to assume the cry of some bird or animal, and in so[p. 18] doing make it difficult for the enemy to distinguish the assumed from the real."