"Yes, sir, that"s it. I"ve been lost before with half a dozen, sir, and every one thought different. One wanted to go one way; one wanted to go another. Fact is, gentlemen, we neither of us know the way. It"s all guesswork. Once lost, there"s nothing to guide you. I can"t recollect this tree or that tree, because they"re all so much alike, and it"s as puzzling as being in the dark. There"s only one way out of it, and that is to do as I say; you stand fast, and I"ll cast about like a dog does after losing the scent till I find the right track. Only mind this: if I don"t have you to guide me back with whistle and shout I shall be lost more and more."
"You are right, Naylor," said Brazier; "we leave ourselves in your hands. Go on."
"Cheer up, Mr Rob, sir; don"t be down-hearted. I shall find the way out of it yet."
"I was not thinking about myself, Shaddy," said Rob in a choking voice.
"I was thinking about poor Joe."
"Ah!" said Shaddy in a suppressed voice. Then sharply, "I shall whistle at first, and one of you keep answering. By-and-by I shall shout like this."
He uttered a peculiarly shrill cry, and they all started, for it was answered from a distance.
"Why, that"s Joe," cried Rob joyfully. "Ahoy! ahoy!" he cried, and paused to listen.
"Nay, sir, that wasn"t Mr Jovanni, but one of the wild beasts. Sounded to me like one of them little lions. Stop a bit, though; let"s try a shout or two to see if the boys in the boat can hear us now."
He hailed half a dozen times at intervals, but there was no reply.
"Thought not," he said. "Only waste of breath. We"ve wandered away farther than I thought, and the trees shuts in sound. Stand fast, gentlemen, till I come back."
He paused for a few moments, and then forced his way in amongst the trees in a direction which Rob felt to be entirely wrong, but in his despondent state he was too low in spirit to make any opposition, and after marking the spot where Shaddy had disappeared, he turned round suddenly, placed his arm across a huge tree trunk, rested his brow against it, and hid the workings of his face.
"Come, come, Rob, be a man!" cried Brazier, laying his hand upon the lad"s shoulder. "Never despair, my boy, never despair!"
"Joe! Joe!" groaned Rob; "it is so horrible!"
"Not yet. We don"t know that he is lost."
"He must be, sir, he must be, or he would have answered our hails."
At that moment there was a shout from out of the forest, and Rob started round as if thinking it might be their young companion, but the cry was not repeated; a shrill whistle came instead.
Brazier answered it with a whistle attached to his knife.
"It was only Shaddy," groaned Rob. "Mr Brazier, you don"t know," he continued. "We two had quarrelled, and had not made friends, and now, poor fellow, he is gone."
"No, I will not believe it yet," cried Brazier; "for aught we know, he may have escaped. He is too clever and quick a lad not to make a desperate effort to escape. We shall run up against him yet, so cheer up. Ahoy!" he cried in answer to a hail, and followed it up with a whistle.
"Naylor said he should whistle for a time and then hail," said Brazier, trying to speak cheerfully. "Come, lad, make a brave fight of it. You are getting faint with hunger, and that makes things look at their worst, so rouse up. Now then, answer Naylor"s signal."
"I can"t, not yet," said Rob huskily. "I am trying, Mr Brazier, and I will master it all soon."
Just then the peculiar cry they had first heard rang out again from a distance.
"Was that Joe?" whispered Rob, with a ghastly look. "He must be in peril."
"No, no; it was a jaguar, I think. There goes Naylor again! Whistle!
whistle!"
Rob only gazed at him piteously, and Brazier responded to the signal himself.
"Come, come, Rob," he whispered, "be a man!"
The lad made a tremendous effort to conquer his weakness, and turned away from the tree with his lips compressed, his eyes half closed, and forehead wrinkled.
"That"s right," cried Brazier, clapping him on the shoulder. "Who says our English boys are not full of pluck?"
He whistled again in response to a signal from Shaddy, and then they listened and answered in turn for quite half an hour, during which the guide"s whistles and cries came from further and further away, but sounded as if he were at last keeping about the same distance, and working round so as to come back in another direction.
Then for a time all signals ceased, and they heard the cry of the wild beast, followed by quite a chorus of shrieks and chatterings, which ceased as suddenly as they had begun.
"He has gone too far, Mr Brazier," cried Rob suddenly, a complete change having come over him, for he was once more full of excitement and energy.
"I hope not."
"But he is not signalling."
"I"ll try again."
Brazier raised the little metal whistle to his lips and gave out a shrill, keen, penetrating note.
Then they listened, but there was no answer.
Brazier"s brow wrinkled, and he refrained from looking at Rob as he once more raised the whistle to his lips, to obtain for answer the unmistakable cry of some savage, cat-like creature--jaguar or puma, he could not tell which.
"No guns! no guns!" he muttered; and moving away from Rob, he opened the long, sharp blade of his spring knife, one intended for hunting purposes, and thrust it up his sleeve.
Just then Rob whistled as loudly as he could, and they both listened, when, to their intense relief, there came a reply far to their left.
"Hurrah!" cried the boy excitedly, and then, "Oh, Mr Brazier, what a relief!"
Brazier drew a long, deep breath.
"Whistle again, boy," he said; but before Rob could obey there was another distant whistle, and on this being answered the signals went on from one to the other for quite half an hour, and at last there was a breaking and crashing noise, and Shaddy came within speaking distance.
"Hear that lion prowling about?" he shouted.
"Yes, several times."
"Ah, I began to feel as if a gun would be handy. He came too close to be pleasant."
"What have you found--the river?" cried Brazier.
"No, sir, not yet. I went far enough to be sure it ain"t that way."
A few minutes later he forced his way to their side, looking hot and exhausted.
"Why didn"t you answer me when I whistled and shouted?" he cried.