They peered into the dark cave cautiously at first. But as soon as they
saw Long Arrow and the other Indians with us, they came rushing
in, laughing, clapping their hands with joy and jabbering away at a
tremendous rate.

Long Arrow explained to the Doctor that the nine Indians we had found
in the cave with him were two families who had accompanied him into the
mountains to help him gather medicine-plants. And while they had been
searching for a kind of moss--good for indigestion--which grows only
inside of damp caves, the great rock slab had slid down and shut them
in. Then for two weeks they had lived on the medicine-moss and such
fresh water as could be found dripping from the damp walls of the cave.
The other Indians on the island had given them up for lost and mourned
them as dead; and they were now very surprised and happy to find their
relatives alive.

When Long Arrow turned to the newcomers and told them in their own
language that it was the white man who had found and freed their
relatives, they gathered round John Dolittle, all talking at once and
beating their breasts.

Long Arrow said they were apologizing and trying to tell the Doctor how
sorry they were that they had seemed unfriendly to him at the beach.
They had never seen a white man before and had really been afraid of
him--especially when they saw him conversing with the porpoises. They
had thought he was the Devil, they said.

Then they went outside and looked at the great stone we had thrown down,
big as a meadow; and they walked round and round it, pointing to the
break running through the middle and wondering how the trick of felling
it was done.

Travelers who have since visited Spidermonkey Island tell me that that
huge stone slab is now one of the regular sights of the island. And that
the Indian guides, when showing it to visitors, always tell THEIR story
of how it came there. They say that when the Doctor found that the rocks
had entrapped his friend, Long Arrow, he was so angry that he ripped the
mountain in halves with his bare hands and let him out.

THE SECOND CHAPTER. "THE MEN OF THE MOVING LAND"

FROM that time on the Indians' treatment of us was very different. We
were invited to their village for a feast to celebrate the recovery of
the lost families. And after we had made a litter from saplings to carry
the sick woman in, we all started off down the mountain.

On the way the Indians told Long Arrow something which