d rushed into the water. It was not deep, and he
struggled forward with all his might. On the opposite side was a steep
hill and thicket. Could he but gain that, hope whispered he might elude
his pursuers and escape. Again he redoubled his exertions; and, joy--joy
to his heart--he reached it, just as the foremost of his adversaries,
a powerful and fleet young warrior, dashed into the stream from the
opposite bank. He now for the first time began to feel weak and
fatigued; but his life was yet in danger, and he still pressed onward.
Alas! alas! just on the point of escape, his strength was failing him
fast, the blood was trickling too from his wound, and a sharp, severe
pain afflicted him in his side. Oh God! he thought--what would he not
give for the strength and soundness of body he once possessed! The
thicket he had entered was dense and dark, so that it was impossible to
move through it with much velocity, or see ahead any distance; and as
the thought just recorded rushed through his brain, he came suddenly
upon a high, steep rock. By this time his nearest pursuer was also
entering the thicket; and in a minute or two more he felt capture would
be certain, unless he could instantly secrete himself till his strength
should be again renewed. Fortune for once now seemed to stand his
friend; for stooping down at the base of the rock, he discovered it
to be shelving and projecting somewhat over the declivity; so that by
dropping upon the ground and crawling up under it, he would, owing to
the density and darkness of the thicket, as before mentioned, be wholly
concealed from any one standing upright. To do this was the work of a
moment; and the next he heard his pursuing foe rush panting by, with
much the same sense of relief that one experiences on awakening from a
horrible dream, where death seemed inevitable, and finding oneself lying
safely and easily in a comfortable bed.

We say Algernon experienced much the same sense of relief as the
awakened dreamer; but unlike the latter, his was only momentary; for
yell upon yell still sounded in his ear; and plunge after plunge into
the stream, followed quickly by a rustling of the bushes around, the
trampling of many feet close by, and the war-whoops of his enemies,
warned him, that, if he had escaped one, there were hundreds yet to
be eluded before he could consider himself as safe. Wildly his heart
palpitated, as now one stirred the bushes within reach of his hand, and,
sligh