ety I could there, with solid ground under my feet and some kind of
path to guide me, find with comparative ease a way out of my troubles.
After a glance right and left and seeing no one near, I kept my eyes
for a few minutes to their rightful work of aiding my feet whilst I
crossed the swamp. It was rough, hard work, but there was little
danger, merely toil; and a short time took me to the dyke. I rushed up
the slope exulting; but here again I met a new shock. On either side
of me rose a number of crouching figures. From right and left they
rushed at me. Each body held a rope.

The cordon was nearly complete. I could pass on neither side, and the
end was near.

There was only one chance, and I took it. I hurled myself across the
dyke, and escaping out of the very clutches of my foes threw myself
into the stream.

At any other time I should have thought that water foul and filthy,
but now it was as welcome as the most crystal stream to the parched
traveller. It was a highway of safety!

My pursuers rushed after me. Had only one of them held the rope it
would have been all up with me, for he could have entangled me before
I had time to swim a stroke; but the many hands holding it embarrassed
and delayed them, and when the rope struck the water I heard the
splash well behind me. A few minutes' hard swimming took me across
the stream. Refreshed with the immersion and encouraged by the escape,
I climbed the dyke in comparative gaiety of spirits.

From the top I looked back. Through the darkness I saw my assailants
scattering up and down along the dyke. The pursuit was evidently not
ended, and again I had to choose my course. Beyond the dyke where I
stood was a wild, swampy space very similar to that which I had
crossed. I determined to shun such a place, and thought for a moment
whether I would take up or down the dyke. I thought I heard a
sound--the muffled sound of oars, so I listened, and then shouted.

No response; but the sound ceased. My enemies had evidently got a boat
of some kind. As they were on the up side of me I took the down path
and began to run. As I passed to the left of where I had entered the
water I heard several splashes, soft and stealthy, like the sound a
rat makes as he plunges into the stream, but vastly greater; and as I
looked I saw the dark sheen of the water broken by the ripples of
several advancing heads. Some of my enemies were swimming the stream
also.

And now behind me, up the str