of
caution.

CHAPTER V.

DIES IRAE.

As a matter of strict fact the place was much further away than I had
anticipated. We must have wandered a considerable distance in the
confusion of the evening's storm and covered more ground than we had
thought. I had positioned the sun as I had left the valley and judged
the time to be about eleven o'clock; "that," I thought, "will bring me
back by two at the very latest." But really it was close on five, and
the shadows were already dropping down over the country-side before I
was ready to return. I found our little store of goods intact, though
most of them were rain-soaked, and as a measure of good fortune I
retrieved the tent whose sudden departure had been the primary cause of
our hurriedly shifting camp. There was a fair load in all, but when I
had made it up and rolled everything packwise in the tent and fastened
it on my shoulders with what odd bits of string I found handy, there
wasn't anything in it that would seriously try the strength of a
seasoned explorer like myself. Then, because the night was beginning to
draw in and I did not want to go stumbling through the valley in the
dark, I set off at my top pace. I don't claim to be anything wonderful
as far as walking is concerned, but if I were ever asked what I
considered my record I would point back to that very night. I forced
myself along, my whole being intent on reaching the valley before the
sun slipped down behind the hills. I think it was more will-power than
sheer physical strength that kept me moving. I was just a little anxious
about Moira too. Cumshaw was a fine chap and clever in his own way,
though he did have occasional spurts of temper; but he lacked my
woodcraft experience, and I wasn't sure but what he might go to pieces
if any prowlers pounced down on him unawares. Neither he nor Moira had
ever come up against anything that would teach them to act as quickly as
they could think, and, though they might work like niggers when they
were under someone else's orders, an emergency that threw them on their
own resources might find them seriously wanting.

The shadows lengthened as I sped along, the tired yellow sun slipped
down behind the hills like a penny-into-the-slot machine, and the early
April twilight touched all inanimate objects with its own drab lack of
coloring. I had no fear of losing my way in the darkness--I had too much
locality sense for that--but the possibilities of my being am