Upon the following day, however, Schneider affected a feeling of
remorse for his action, and set to work with a will upon the skiff.
Schmidt also worked good-naturedly, and Lord Greystoke congratulated
himself that at last the men had awakened to the necessity for the
labour which was being asked of them and to their obligations to the
balance of the party.
It was with a feeling of greater relief than he had experienced for
many a day that he set out that noon to hunt deep in the jungle for a
herd of small deer which Schneider reported that he and Schmidt had
seen there the day before.
The direction in which Schneider had reported seeing the deer was
toward the south-west, and to that point the ape-man swung easily
through the tangled verdure of the forest.
And as he went there approached from the north a half-dozen
ill-featured men who went stealthily through the jungle as go men bent
upon the commission of a wicked act.
They thought that they travelled unseen; but behind them, almost from
the moment they quitted their own camp, a tall man crept upon their
trail. In the man’s eyes were hate and fear, and a great curiosity. Why
went Kai Shang and Momulla and the others thus stealthily toward the
south? What did they expect to find there? Gust shook his low-browed
head in perplexity. But he would know. He would follow them and learn
their plans, and then if he could thwart them he would—that went
without question.
At first he had thought that they searched for him; but finally his
better judgment assured him that such could not be the case, since they
had accomplished all they really desired by chasing him out of camp.
Never would Kai Shang or Momulla go to such pains to slay him or
another unless it would put money into their pockets, and as Gust had
no money it was evident that they were searching for someone else.
Presently the party he trailed came to a halt. Its members concealed
themselves in the foliage bordering the game trail along which they had
come. Gust, that he might the better observe, clambered into the
branches of a tree to the rear of them, being careful that the leafy
fronds hid him from the view of his erstwhile mates.
He had not long to wait before he saw a strange white man approach
carefully along the trail from the south.
At sight of the new-comer Momulla and Kai Shang arose from their places
of concealment and greeted him. Gust could not overhear what passed
between them. Then the man returned in the direction from which he had
come.
He was Schneider. Nearing his camp he circled to the opposite side of
it, and presently came running in breathlessly. Excitedly he hastened
to Mugambi.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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