ething away there on the horizon, just ahead,
which I feel certain must be the ruins. Come along, my hearties; heave
ahead!"

Again they pushed forward, dripping wet, drenched to the skin with the
recent shower, and stumbling every now and then as their feet became
entangled in the long matted grass; now swerving to the right to avoid a
clump of bush, then to the left for the same purpose; but ever keeping
one particular star, low down on the horizon, as nearly straight ahead
as possible. Though the rest of the party felt themselves utterly lost,
without the faintest notion of where they were going, and though neither
of them could distinguish anything even remotely resembling the ruins,
Mildmay still persisted that he was right; and he continued to press
rapidly forward, the rest following him, since they could do no better.
At length they struck a narrow path through the grass, and Mildmay at
once announced his intention of following it.

"It is a little off our course," he said, "but the walking is so much
easier here that we shall gain more than we shall lose by following it;
and I should not be surprised to find that it leads to the ruins."

Half an hour later a brilliant star suddenly appeared in the dense
darkness ahead. It shone steadily for nearly a minute, disappeared, and
almost instantly appeared again.

"Hurrah!" ejaculated the lieutenant joyously, "there is the ship's
light. Now we _know_ that we are right. Another hour's tramp will, if
all be well, take us alongside. How I wish I had a pipe of tobacco!"

"Don't mention it!" fervently ejaculated the professor, who was an
ardent lover of the weed. "However, in another hour, as you say--ah!"

The professor's "ah!" was so very expressive of anticipated pleasure
that his companions with one accord burst into a hearty laugh, which,
however, was abruptly cut short by a low savage growl and a sudden
rustling in the grass close by.

"What was that?" was the simultaneous inquiry as the party came abruptly
to a dead halt.

"Push on, push on!" urged the professor. "It is some nocturnal animal
prowling in search of prey. At this moment he is more frightened than
we are; but if we wait here until he has regained his courage he will
perhaps spring on one of us."

The march was accordingly resumed, with perhaps some little
precipitation; and at length Mildmay's companions began to be conscious
of the presence of certain shapeless blotches of blackness