nd. The
ground where I sat was rough and uneven, and by worming myself against a
projection of rock I found I could do something in that direction. It
was tedious work--tedious and difficult. Twice the knife slipped from
my fingers, then at last I grasped it. Grasped it firmly. I was just
proceeding to prize it open, when my abominable sentinel moved--
stretched himself, snorted, and opened his smoke-filmed eyes. I lay
quite still until the brute had subsided again. Then the knife was
open.

It was not very sharp, and I had some difficulty in working through the
tough raw hide, but none, incidentally, in slicing my fingers over the
job; but for this I didn't care. I was now practically free. The
coils, cut through in several places, fell apart. Heavens! how the
blood surged through my whole being as I realised that escape was within
reach. But first of all I had got to make my way over those sleeping
forms, and, worst of all, over, that of my restless sentinel.

Now I was ready to make the attempt. Drawing myself cautiously up I
gently slid loose from the coil, and as I did so, the abominable
ruffian, uttering a muffled exclamation, started up too. But that was
all he did. Luckily I had practised a little in the boxing line, and
now I let him have it, full, fair and square--a hard, smashing,
knock-out blow under the jaw. It was delivered with battering-ram
force, and laid him out, flat, inert and absolutely noiseless.

The hammering of my heart, with the exertion and excitement, seemed loud
enough to awaken the other sleepers as I stepped, actually _over_ some
of them. One indeed moved, and I stood ready to administer the same
curative to him if he showed sign of waking up, but he subsided again,
and most of the others had their blankets over their heads. A moment
more, a tense, trying moment, and I stood outside in the open air; and
as I did so I noticed the first faint indication of dawn in the far
eastern sky.

The declivity was rough and stony, and the faintest clink or dislodgment
of a stone might be enough to rouse those within, wherefore it behoved
me to tread carefully. But even now, though temporarily free, which way
should I turn, for I had but the most rudimentary idea as to my
bearings? However, acting on my best judgment, I struck a downward
course, and then suddenly a horrible effluvium was wafted to my
nostrils.

I was standing upon the brink of a hollow in the heart of the thick