opped, thinking, but no fresh idea struck him; and setting his
teeth and drawing a long breath, he stepped on into a more open place.

"I'll make a fight for it," he said sharply, "for I don't mean to be
taken back."

Just then he caught sight of a hollow that had evidently been tunnelled
out of the rocks by centuries of floods. There was a perfect curtain of
thin stranded holly, ivy, and bramble hanging before it, and creeping
cautiously forward he parted the hanging strands, passed in, and they
fell back in place, almost shutting out the light of day.

The hollow did not even approach the dimensions of a cave, but was the
merest hollowing out of the soft sand rock; still, it was sufficient to
conceal him from his pursuers, and, cutlass in hand, he crouched down,
holding open one little place in the green curtain and listening for the
next hint of the coming of his pursuers. A dead silence ensued, during
which he could feel the heavy throb, throb of his heart and the hard
labouring of his breath, for his exertions had been tremendous. But
still no sound reached his ears; not a shout was heard, and he began to
grow hopeful.

Five minutes must have passed, and he had recovered his breath. From
out of the tiny opening he had left he saw a robin flit down and perch
upon a twig. Then came a blackbird to investigate the state of the
commissariat department in the gully, turning busily over the leaves;
and so calmly did the bird work that Hilary felt still more hopeful, for
he knew that no one could be near.

Vain hope! All at once the bird uttered its sharp alarm note and flew
like a streak of black velvet up into the dense growth above, but still
there was not a sound to be heard.

Hilary's heart began to beat again, for the excitement was intense.
Then there came a faint rustle, and another. Then silence again, and he
felt that the men must have given up the chase.

Just then there was another faint rustle, and through the screen of
leaves Hilary saw the head and then the shoulders of a strongly-built
man appear, whose eyes were diligently searching every inch of ground
till he came nearer, and then, as his gaze lighted on the screen of
leaves Hilary saw a look of intelligence come upon his stolid features,
and stepping forward, he was about to drag the leafage aside, when there
came a loud shout from below--

"Ahoy! this way. Here he is!"

The man made a rush down the ravine, and the young officer's hear