Before forty-eight hours the little troop then would have a comfortable shelter where its members could at last repose from their fatigues.
Meanwhile, though the plateau had been almost entirely crossed in its middle part, not a native, not a wanderer had been encountered under the immense forest.
More than once, without saying anything about it, Dick Sand regretted being unable to go ashore on some other point of the coast.

More to the south, or more to the north, villages, hamlets, or plantations would not have been lacking, and long before this Mrs.Weldon and her companions would have found an asylum.
But, if the country seemed to be abandoned by man, animals showed themselves more frequently during these last days.

At times was heard a kind of long, plaintive cry, that Harris attributed to some of those large tardi-grades, habitual denizens of those vast wooded regions, named "ais." On that day, also, during the midday halt, a hissing passed through the air, which made Mrs.Weldon very uneasy, because it was so strange.
"What is that ?"' she asked, rising hastily.
"A serpent!" cried Dick Sand, who gun, in hand, threw himself before Mrs.Weldon.
They might fear, in fact, that some reptile would glide among the plants to the halting place.

It would be nothing astonishing if it were one of those enormous "sucurus," kinds of boas, which sometimes measure forty feet in length.
But Harris reminded Dick Sand that the blacks were already following, and he reassured Mrs.Weldon.
According to him, that hissing could not be produced by a "sucuru," because that serpent does not hiss; but he indicated the presence of several inoffensive quadrupeds, rather numerous in that country.
"Be reassured, then," said he, "and make no movement which may frighten those animals." "But what are they ?" asked Dick Sand, who made it like a law of conscience to interrogate and make the American speak--who, however, never required pressing before replying.
"They are antelopes, my young friend," replied Harris.
"Oh! how I should like to see them!" cried Jack.
"That is very difficult, my good little man," replied the American, "very difficult." "Perhaps we may try to approach than--those hissing antelopes ?" returned Dick Sand.
"Oh! you will not take three steps," replied the American, shaking his head, "before the whole band will take flight.

I beg of you, then, not to trouble yourself." But Dick Sand had his reasons for being curious.