“If you will stop here, Ned, I will push on
through this jungle, and see how far it goes.
The girls can never get through this. I think
we are near the edge of the wood; it looks lighter
ahead.”
In ten minutes he came back.
“Ned, we are on the river; it is not fifty yards
from here.”
This was serious news.
“What a pity we did not take to the left instead
of the right when we left the horses. However,
they won’t know which way we have gone, and must
watch the whole wood. We must push forward, and,
by keeping as close as we can to the river, shall
most likely pass them; besides, they will be some
time before they decide upon forming a chain round
the wood, and as there are only about twenty of them
they will be a long way apart. There! Do
you hear them? They are coming back! Now
let us go on again!”
In ten minutes they reached the edge of the wood.
They could see nothing of the horsemen. Keeping
in the fields, but close to the line of jungle that
bordered the river, they walked onward for upward of
an hour. Then they came upon the road. The
river had made a bend, and the road now followed its
bank.
“Shall we cross it, and keep in the open country,
or follow it, girls?”
“Follow it as long as we can keep on walking,”
Kate said. “It is in the right direction,
and we can go on so much faster than in the fields.
If we hear them coming along we can get into the jungle
on the bank.”
“Listen, Kate,” Rose said a few minutes
afterward; “they are following!”
“I expect,” Ned said, “they find
that the wood is too big to be watched, and some of
them are going on to get some help from the next garrison,
or, perhaps, to rouse up a village and press them
in the work. Trot on, girls; the jungle is so
thick here you could hardly squeeze yourself in.
We have plenty of time; they won’t be here for
five minutes yet.”
BROKEN DOWN.
They ran at the top of their speed, but the sound
of the horses’ feet grew louder.
“There is a path leading to the river,”
Ned said; “let us turn down there; we can hide
under the jungle on the bank.”
Breathlessly they ran down to the river.
“Hurrah! here is a boat, jump in;” and
in another minute they had pushed off from the bank,
just as they heard a body of cavalry—for
that they were troops they knew by the jingling of
their accouterments—pass at a gallop.
The stream was strong; and the boys found that with
the rude oars they could make no way whatever.
“We had better land again, and get further from
the river,” Ned said. “We will push
the boat off, and it will be supposed that we have
gone off in it.”
This was soon done, and having regained the road,
they crossed it and struck over the fields.
