on our left when
we turned round, and you helped me down that rock."

"Was it, sir? Then it must be down here."

Billy led the way and Mark followed; but at the end of a few minutes he
called a halt.

"No, no; this can't be right," he cried, as he gazed about a wilderness
of huge rocks and trees, where bushes sprang up on every hand.

"Well, do you know, Mr Mark, sir, that's just what I was a-thinking,"
said Billy. "I've been a-puzzling my head over that there block o'
stone as is standing atop o' that tother one, and couldn't recollect
seeing of 'em afore."

"No; it must be this way," said Mark uneasily. "How stupid, to be sure!
We must find our way back."

"Why, of course, Mr Mark, sir; and we will; but it aren't us as is
stupid, it's these here rocks and trees as is all alike, just as if they
was brothers and sisters, or peas in a pod."

"Don't talk so," said Mark angrily, as he realised more fully their
position; and a sense of confusion made him petulant. "Let's act and
find our way. Now, then, which way does the mud-stream lie?"

Billy scratched his head, stared about, and then said softly:

"Well, sir, I'll be blest if I know."

And Mark thoroughly realised the fact that they were lost.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.

HOW MARK SOUGHT THE CLUE.

Were you ever lost? Most probably not; and hence you will hardly be
able to realise the strange sensation of loneliness, helplessness, and
despair which comes over the spirit as the traveller finds that he
missed his way and is probably beyond the reach of help in some
wilderness, where he knows that he may go on tramping wearily until he
lies down and dies.

Mark Strong's case was not so bad, but he felt it painfully for many
reasons. Among others there was the knowledge that he had utterly
forgotten the injunction given to him to take care and not go too far;
while another was the dread that though they had been nominally
searching all day for the strange beast that had caused so much alarm,
and seen nothing, now that he and his companion were helpless they might
possibly stumble upon its cave.

"Oh, Billy, what have we been doing?" he cried impatiently.

"Well, Mr Mark, sir, I don't know as we've been doing o' hanything
pertickler."

"But we've lost our way."

"Well, yes, sir, I s'pose we've lost that there; but it don't much
matter--do it?"

"Matter!--of course!" cried Mark angrily; and, as if born by nature to
lead, he at once took the com