Now he could no longer see them. Tony was stirring again; and Phil believed it safe to send a whisper toward the swamp lad, desirous of seeking information from the one who ought to know.
"They have gone away, Tony!" he said, carefully; but it could not be that he feared arousing Larry, who slept on peacefully through it all, lost to the world.
"Yep, I reckoned they would," came the immediate answer.
"But why did they drop back when they might have climbed aboard, and captured us while we slept?" Phil continued.
"Huh! not gone far. Phil wait, an' see how!"
"Oh! is that it?" echoed the other, as a light began to dawn upon him; and he continued to sit there, watching for a sign.
Perhaps five minutes passed. Phil had no means for marking the flight of time, and doubtless it seemed much more than that to him.
Then he suddenly saw something a little distance down the stream, that told him a fire had been started. Rapidly it grew in volume, until the entire vicinity was brilliantly illuminated; and he could easily see the two squatters moving back and forth, piling brush on the flames.
Of course Phil understood that this was a signal fire. These men, searching all along the river for the mysterious craft that was coming down toward the settlement from the hostile country above, had doubtless arranged to call their fellows to the spot in case they made a discovery.
"It means the coming of the whole bunch, don't it, Tony?" he asked, as he saw the flames shooting upward, so that the light might easily have been seen a mile or more away.