Pepe was the first to earn honors at the listening game. He held up a warning forefinger. Then he pointed under the bluff. Ken saw a doe stepping out of a fringe of willows.
"Don't move--don't make a noise," whispered Ken.
The doe shot up long ears and watched the boat. Then a little fawn trotted out and splashed in the water. Both deer drank, then seemed in no hurry to leave the river.
Next moment Hal heard something downstream and George saw something up-stream. Pepe again whispered. As for Ken, he saw little dark shapes moving out of the shadow of the runway. He heard a faint trampling of hard little hoofs. But if these animals were javelin--of which he was sure--they did not come out into the open runway. Ken tried to catch Pepe's attention without making a noise; however, Pepe was absorbed in his side of the river. Ken then forgot he had companions. All along the shores were faint splashings and rustlings and crackings.
A loud, trampling roar rose in the runway and seemed to move backward toward the jungle, diminishing in violence.
"Pigs running--something scared 'em," said George.
"S-s-s-sh!" whispered Ken.
All the sounds ceased. The jungle seemed to sleep in deep silence.
Ken's eyes were glued to the light patch of sand-bank where it merged in the dark of the runway. Then Ken heard a sound--what, he could not have told. But it made his heart beat fast.
There came a few pattering thuds, soft as velvet; and a shadow, paler than the dark background, moved out of the runway.