returning from
the cliffs, were still pretty close, and he could hear the crashing of
the boughs and twigs as they came on; but he had managed to get out of
their sight, and coming now upon a more open part where the trees were
bigger, he ran with all his might, dashed into another denser patch, and
then feeling that to keep on running was only to grow more and more
exhausted, and to make his capture a matter of time, he began to think
whether he could not make his brains help his legs.

There was no time to lose, for the smugglers had now entered the more
open part, and were, as their shouts indicated, coming on fast. What he
was to do must be done quickly.

Hilary crept on cautiously, making as little noise as possible, dividing
the branches tenderly so as to leave no broken twigs, and finding that
the ground which he had now reached rapidly descended into a deep ravine
or gully--one of the many that drain that part of the country--in a few
minutes he was down between the fern-hung sandstone rocks.

There was a tiny stream at the bottom, now reduced to a mere thread that
joined together a few pools, but the well-washed banks high above his
head showed that in rainy times it must be a rushing torrent.

Here was his road, then; for he argued that this stream, even if it did
not lead right to the sea, would be sure to run into one that did; and
besides, as he needed not rapid travelling, but the cautious creeping
that should keep him concealed from his enemies, he could not have met
with a better way.

Leaping down, then, from stone to stone till he reached the bottom, he
dived under a number of overhanging brambles, and went slowly on.

His pursuers' cries had for the moment ceased, and his spirits rose as
he began to feel that they had gone upon the wrong scent; when suddenly,
as he was forcing his way cautiously along, he heard a loud halloo just
below him, and not fifty yards away.

To his horror, as he stopped short, there came an answering shout from
above, and another from higher up the gully.

"Send a couple down into the river bed!" shouted the voice below. "I'll
stop him here."

Hilary ground his teeth, for cunning as he thought himself, it was
evident that the same idea had occurred to his pursuers.

What was he to do? If he climbed up the banks he was certain to be
seen; if he kept on along the bed of the stream he would walk right into
an enemy's arms; and the same if he worked upward.

He st