“I think the whole of the Duca’s horde came this way, fed, and went on, taking everyone with them,” Kirby finished.
“But which direction did they take?” asked Nini, who was standing at the door of the big hut and had already begun to examine the crowding, green, inscrutable walls of jungle which foamed up to the clearing on all sides.
No less than seven trails wound away into the dark country beyond, and Kirby saw that the question would not be an easy one.
Having hastily circled the clearing and peered down one trail after another without finding a clue, he knew that it was the Duca’s intelligence which had made the ape-people depart without leaving even tracks behind them. He did not like the situation.
“Well,” he rumbled to his companions, “we may as well take our choice. One chance in seven of coming out right!”
But the words were hardly out of his mouth before he pulled himself up with a jerk, and cursed himself for having given in.
“Ivana! Nini!” Sharpness, a sudden ring of hope edged his voice. “Am I seeing things, or is that—”
As he pointed to a huge aloe bush down one of the trails to their left, they started to run. Then Kirby knew that he was not seeing things. What his first inspection of the trails had failed to show, he saw plainly now.
Tied loosely to one branch of the aloe bush, almost concealed amidst the deep green of foliage, was a bit of white cloth! In a second Kirby was holding 409 out to his companions a tiny strip of Naida’s wedding gown.