at the marks which my feet had made as I sprang up the bank. I
saw them standing consulting eagerly together, but whether their
sagacity would enable them to decide if I had gone forward across the
country, or leaped back into the water, I could not tell. I anxiously
watched, in order to ascertain to what decision they had come. At
length one of them climbed up the bank and looked about; then the others
followed, and walked for some distance, closely scrutinising the ground.
At first I hoped that they were at fault. I had noticed that the bank
was composed, a little way on, of hard stones, which could scarcely, I
thought, receive any impression from my feet.

They went on for some distance; and then I saw from their gestures that
they were fairly puzzled. At length they came back to the bank, and
gazed down at the rapidly-flowing stream. They were evidently of
opinion that I could not have swam across it. Greatly to my relief, I
saw them continuing their course down the river, examining the bank as
they went along, under the belief that I must have landed again further
down, or else have been swept away by the current. This greatly
relieved my mind. I sincerely hoped that they would give me up as lost,
and abandon the idea that they should have the pleasure of exhibiting me
to their squaws, and torturing me.

On and on they went, until they disappeared among the trees which grew
on the bank. Whether or not they would again cross the stream I could
not tell, or if indeed they had the means of doing so. They had come
from the right bank, so I concluded that they must know of some way or
other to get back to it. Still, I was anxious to be certain that they
had done this before I left my shelter. I had made up my mind to swim
back, and to descend the stream on the left bank, following it down till
I reached home. There were by this time ripe fruits of all sorts to be
found, I knew, so that I had no fear of starving.

I sat crouched dowd, feeling very much as I suppose a hare does,
listening for the hunters--eager to be off, yet not daring to leave her
cover. Hour after hour passed by, but I could hear no sounds except the
notes of the birds in the trees, the woodpeckers searching for insects
in the bark, and the cries of the squirrels as they skipped from branch
to branch. I really wished that one of them would poke his nose into my
nest, that I might have the chance of capturing him, for I was getting
ve