"It might be worse," commented Tom. "Now if they'll help us pack up
we'll travel on."
More sign language was resorted to, and the chief, after another
present had been made to him, sent some of his men to help put the
packs on the animals. The steers, which Tom did not regard with much
favor, proved to be better than the mules, and by noon our friends
were all packed up again, and ready to take the trail. The chief
gave them a good dinner,--as native dinners go,--and then, after
telling them that, though he had never seen the giants it had long
been known that they inhabitated the country to the north, he waved
a friendly good-bye.
"Well, we'll see what luck we'll have by ourselves," remarked Tom,
as he mounted a bony mule, an example followed by Ned, Mr. Damon and
Eradicate, They had left behind some of their goods, and so did not
have so much to carry. Food they had in condensed form and they were
getting into the more tropical part of the country where game
abounded.
It was not as easy as they had imagined it would be for, with only
four to drive so many animals, several of the beasts were
continually straying from the trail, and once a big steer, with part
of the aeroplane on its back, wandered into a morass and they had to
labor hard to get the animal out.
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