they must have missed us!"

"Shall we get up and run then?"

"No, no, they may not come this way. Hark! what's that?"

"Wind. Why, I didn't see it coming, only thought it was evening. We're
in for a storm."

"Never mind, if it will only keep them from following us, Ned."

They struggled on, finding their limbs less helpless. Minute by minute,
and just before plunging into the darkness beneath the trees, Jack
turned to raise his head slightly, and to his great delight saw ten or
twelve of the blacks far below the smoke of their camp, and evidently
descending the mountain slope, but the next instant his hopes were
crushed, for there in full pursuit, coming along the stony hollow up
which they had crawled, was another party of the enemy.

"In with you, Ned," he whispered, as he dropped down again to creep into
the dense growth which swallowed him like a verdant sea, while before
they had penetrated many yards the gloom beneath the spreading branches
was lit up by a flash of lightning. The next minute the flashes came so
quickly that the forest seemed turned into one vast temple, whose black
pillars supported a ceiling of flame, and as the deafening detonations
shook the earth around them, they were glad to crouch as quickly as they
could in a recess formed at the foot of a gigantic tree which sent out
flat buttresses on every side, more buttresses passing down into roots.

They were none too soon, for the storm was, brief as the time had been,
now in full force; the rain dashed and swept in amongst the groaning
trees, and the noise and confusion were deafening, and made the more
awe-inspiring by the lashing of the branches as they were driven here
and there by the wind.

"What's that, sir?" cried Ned, with his lips to his companion's ear, for
a tremendous crash had succeeded a roar of thunder.

"Tree gone down."

"Oh!" said Ned, pressing Jack close up into the recess. "Well, so long
as it ain't this one I suppose we mustn't grumble. But I'd rather have
undressed myself before I took my bath, sir, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, how can you talk like that!" shouted Jack.

"'Cause I feel so jolly and satisfied," said Ned, with his lips again to
Jack's ear. "A bit ago it was all over with us, going to be took and
tied up again, sir. P'r'aps to be taken away and fatted and eaten. Now
there's nothing the matter, only it's a bit dark. Don't seem, sir, as
if I'm doing any good in trying to be your umbrella. You are