“I trust indeed that we shall not, my child,” said our father; “but there are other dangers I fear for you, though I pray that you may be preserved from them also.”
“We will not talk of dangers nor of difficulties,” observed Uncle Paul; “the great thing is to face them bravely when they come.”
My father remarked that it was time to return to our log, and to make arrangements for passing the night while there was daylight, as we should find the darkness much greater under the shelter of the trees than we had found it in the open part of the river.
I had just got on my feet and was looking up the stream, when I observed a bright light burst forth from among the trees at a considerable distance. I called the attention of Uncle Paul to it, who was sitting near me. He also got up and looked in the direction to which I pointed.
“It must be produced by a fire,” he observed. “It is either just kindled on the branches of some high tree or else on ground rising considerably above the stream. Can Kallolo and Maco have got there and kindled it as a signal to us? For my part, I confess I cannot make it out?” The rest of the party now got up and looked in the direction in which we were gazing. They were greatly puzzled.
“Can the fire have been lighted by natives?” asked Arthur. “Some of the tribes which inhabit these regions are accustomed to form their dwellings among the trees, I have heard; if so, we must be on our guard. It will be better, at all events, to avoid them; for though it is possible they may prove friendly, they may resent the intrusion of strangers into their territory, and attack us.” Uncle Paul agreed with Arthur that in all probability the fire was lighted by natives. “They cannot, however, as yet have seen us,” he remarked, “and it might be wiser to retreat while we have time, and to try to find another passage.”
“I cannot agree with you there,” observed Captain van Dunk. “We have no reason to fear the natives, who are poor, miserable creatures; and as they believe that white men never go without firearms, they will not venture to attack us.”
“But, captain, if they find that we have no firearms, they will know that we are at their mercy, and may easily overwhelm us by numbers,” observed Arthur.
“But we have our spears, bows, and arrows, and we shall cut some stout cudgels, with which we could easily drive away such miserable savages as they are.”
“Suppose they possess the deadly blowpipe, with its little poisoned darts, they may attack us without giving us a chance of reaching them,” said Arthur.