Mr. Dale, a youthful ensign, noticing how hurriedly he plunged into the upland thicket ahead, suspected that he meant to desert. His lieutenant had already found fault with him for one soldier's desertion, and he did not relish the idea of another reprimand of this sort. He, therefore, resolved to follow the lad, watch him, and, if he went far, order him back to the camp.
Entering the thicket, he moved rapidly on. The foliage and the brush became denser as he proceeded. He heard the tapping and humming of bees in the hollows of trees. In and out of the great bell-shaped flowers around him they flew, spitefully buzzing at the big green gnats in their way. Hundreds of large white lilies, enormous tulips, and wild roses brightened the shrubbery. High above hovered the scarlet cardinal-bird, sounding its shrill "fife." Below, the hook-nosed falcon boldly confronted the youth, as if inclined to dispute his progress.
At last he caught sight of Worth down in the jungle, on the opposite side of a deep ravine, which he had evidently reached by a roundabout direction through brambles and vines leading past the front of the chasm. Down where he was could be seen gleaming in profusion the small red globes of the cherrylike fruit he had come to gather for his sick little comrade.
The ravine was evidently hundreds of feet in depth, the bottom hidden by the black shadows from the jungle on both sides.
A few yards below Worth the chasm, which was about eighteen feet wide, was crossed by a tree-trunk—a mere sapling, eight inches thick—probably all that remained of a former bridge.
The trunk was smooth, except within five feet of the end nearest the boy, where there was a clipped branch. This end was in a sort of long hollow, overhung by tough roots.
The ensign cautiously descended on his side of the ravine and watched Worth until he had filled a haversack at his side with the "cherries" and was about to ascend, when he called out sharply:
"That fruit will make you a poor meal, my boy, if you mean to desert!"
The startled lad looked across the gorge, saw the ensign, and answered, much hurt by the officer's suspicion:
"I had no intention of deserting, sir. I came here after the fruit for Jack Winton."