hat was in its rear. After ten minutes'
rapid progress, we gained an open space, from which we could just descry
the ridge we intended to mount looming dimly through the mists of the
tropical shower, and distant from us, as we estimated, something more than
a mile. Our direct course towards it lay through a rather populous part of
the bay; but desirous as we were of evading the natives and securing an
unmolested retreat to the mountains, we determined, by taking a circuit
through some extensive thickets, to avoid their vicinity altogether.

The heavy rain that still continued to fall without intermission, favoured
our enterprise, as it drove the islanders into their houses, and prevented
any casual meeting with them. Our heavy frocks soon became completely
saturated with water, and by their weight, and that of the articles we had
concealed beneath them, not a little impeded our progress. But it was no
time to pause, when at any moment we might be surprised by a body of the
savages, and forced at the very outset to relinquish our undertaking.

Since leaving the canoe-house we had scarcely exchanged a single syllable
with one another, but when we entered a second narrow opening in the wood,
and again caught sight of the ridge before us, I took Toby by the arm, and
pointing along its sloping outline to the lofty heights at its extremity,
said, in a low tone, "Now, Toby, not a word, nor a glance backward, till
we stand on the summit of yonder mountain; so no more lingering, but let
us shove ahead while we can, and in a few hours' time we may laugh aloud.
You are the lightest and the nimblest, so lead on, and I will follow."

"All right, brother," said Toby, "quick's our play, only let's keep close
together, that's all"; and so saying, with a bound like a young roe, he
cleared a brook which ran across our path, and rushed forward with a quick
step.

When we arrived within a short distance of the ridge, we were stopped by a
mass of tall yellow reeds, growing together as thickly as they could
stand, and as tough and stubborn as so many rods of steel; and we
perceived, to our chagrin, that they extended midway up the elevation we
proposed to ascend.

For a moment we gazed about us in quest of a more practicable route; it
was, however, at once apparent that there was no resource but to pierce
this thicket of canes at all hazards. We now reversed our order of march,
I, being the heaviest, taking the lead, with a view of breaki