If we had thought on the night before that the quarter mile of country that lay between the camp and the rocky wall was a difficult stretch to negotiate, we were more than doubly certain of its impenetrable character now that daylight had come.  How we had ever managed to get through it in the darkness was a mystery that we tried to solve as we attempted to make our way back.  The place was a mad riot of thorny undergrowth, laced and bound with vines that were as strong as wire hawsers.  The lianas appeared human to us; they lassoed our legs and flung us sprawling upon our faces whenever we tried to quicken our speed.  Thorns of a strange fishhook variety drove their barbed points into us, and each yard of the tortuous path that we cut through the devilish vines was marked by a scrap of our clothing, which the tormenting thorns seemed to wave aloft as an emblem of victory.

“He’ll beat us!” gasped Holman.  “I’m all in, Verslun; that fall has finished me.”

“Keep at it!” I said.  “We must be near the camp by now.”

“We’ve walked three miles,” muttered Holman.  “We’ve lost our way.”

“No, we haven’t!” I cried.  “We’ve struck a bad patch, but we’ll get there soon.”

The youngster clenched his teeth and endeavoured to forget the agony of his leg, but the effort taxed his courage.

“We’ll do it,” I said.  “Don’t let the brute beat us.”

“I—­I won’t!” he stammered.  “If it was anything but my leg!  Verslun!”

He fell on his face, and I helped him up, but once again he collapsed.  The injured limb made it impossible for him to stand or even crawl.

“You get ahead,” he cried hoarsely.  “Leave me, Verslun!  Leave me here!”

“But I’d never find you again,” I protested.

“Yes, you would!  I’ll crawl out after a few hours’ rest.  Run to the camp, and shoot—­shoot the devil the moment you put your eyes on him!”

I took a quick glance at the matted walls of the green creepers that hedged us in on all sides.  Holman was in the last stages of exhaustion, and I reasoned quickly.  If I left him in the middle of the thorny tangle that encompassed us, it would be utterly impossible for me to find him again, and he would probably perish from thirst.  If I rushed away I would be leaving him to certain death, and although our prospects of leaving the island alive did not look too bright at that moment, I considered that I would be making his demise a certainty by leaving him in the maze.

I stopped, gripped him round the waist, and with a great effort managed to lift him upon my shoulder.  Holman’s actions did not help me as I struggled beneath him.  He kicked like a madman when he understood what I intended to do, but I held him in spite of his protests.

“Leave me here!” he screamed.  “Go ahead by yourself, Verslun!  What’s the use of taking me?”

“You’re coming, so you can stop kicking,” I muttered.  “Take your fingers out of my eyes.”