anxiety to cover the ground, he went with
extreme caution. If it had not been for Dusty Star, he would have
travelled much more quickly. As it was, he kept looking behind,
impatiently waiting for the boy to catch up. Yet the speed at which they
travelled did not seem to carry them out of reach of that mysterious
danger threatening them behind.

For a long time Dusty Star had observed that they were travelling
uphill; so that when, at last, they reached more open ground and came
out on the top of a cliff, at the edge of a deep ravine, he was not
surprised. The place was utterly unknown to him; yet Kiopo appeared to
be on familiar ground. He trotted on down a shelving ledge dividing the
upper from the lower part of the cliff, and Dusty Star followed. At a
point where the ledge turned abruptly round an angle of the cliff, Kiopo
suddenly looked back, stopped, and showed his teeth. Dusty Star saw an
Indian come out from the forest almost at the same point at which they
themselves had left it, and then turn towards the ledge. A moment
afterwards he was followed by several more.

Without waiting to see if a still larger band now followed, Dusty Star
ran quickly on, with Kiopo closely at his heels. As they proceeded, the
gorge grew narrower.

Suddenly the ledge came to an end, so that it was impossible for them to
continue any further. Above them, rose a precipitous wall of rock.
Below, the precipice plunged sheer to the bed of the ravine. To return
by the way they had come, was to run straight into the arms of their
pursuers. One chance only remained: to leap the chasm before them.

It was not more than could be cleared by a vigorous jump; but down below
was a terrifying depth where the shrunken stream sent up a hollow sound
among the stones. If, after jumping you failed to make good foothold,
you would go down to almost certain destruction in the black throat of
the gorge.

Dusty Star was fully alive to the danger. But he knew that a still
greater danger was coming on behind. He pressed himself against the rock
at his back, in order to make the most of the few steps possible for a
run, drew a deep breath, and then took a flying leap over the chasm. He
heard the dull roar of the water, he saw the yawning blackness below,
and then found himself clinging for dear life to the roots of a stone
pine on the opposite bank.

He pulled himself into safety, and looked back, expecting to see Kiopo
follow him at once; but Kiopo di