half-witted
creature he set about escaping from the imprisoning walls of the
gully-dungeon. Had it been anything else than a blind creek he would
have found an exit by following the dry bed, and thus have disappeared
entirely from this story. But it was fated otherwise. The one idea that
gained any sort of prominence in his mind was that he must climb the
side of the gully.

He found a pool of clear rainwater in a little cavity in the dry bed of
the creek, and bathed his head in it and drank a little. Its refreshing
coolness acted on his jaded body like the sting of a spur on the flank
of a lazy horse. He crept cautiously in under the overhang of the bank
and searched about for a foothold. Such was not hard to find, and, in
less time than it takes to write of it, he was swinging up the side of
the bank, clinging to projecting ledges of rock with hands and feet that
seemed to possess all the prehensile quality of a monkey's. Once on the
top of the bank he burrowed into the mass of vegetation like some
primeval creature taking to earth, a pitiful caricature of the sane,
strong man he had been a few short hours before. Cautious and all as he
was, his flight was not absolutely noiseless, and so it came about that
presently Bryce heard him, and circled round the spot from which the
sound came like a wolf heading off a herd of deer.

Cumshaw crashed through the bushes and emerged into the open a hundred
yards or so ahead of Bryce. The latter caught sight of him at the moment
of his emergence and called out to him to stop.

"Cumshaw," he called. "Come here!"

The other heard the call and caught his own name, but instead of
slackening he accelerated his pace. He did not look round; he was
convinced in his own warped mind that his pursuer was none other than
the late Mr. Bradby. Accordingly he swung along at such a rate that
Bryce soon dropped behind, breathless and dispirited. He sat down on a
convenient log and mopped his damp face with a large-sized handkerchief.
Presently his breathing became normal again, and his agitated heart
ceased fluttering like a caged bird. He fell to reviewing the position.
The more he thought of it, the less hopeless it appeared to be. His
unrecognisable and nameless antagonists had temporarily withdrawn from
the fight, whether to consolidate their forces and plan some new form of
attack, or because they had received a very salutary lesson, he could
not say. Also it did not worry him over much