cautiously he crept away from among them, and made his escape into
the gloomy wood. On one side the forest shadows looked less dark
than the other, and on that side he went, for it was the side on
which the sun rose, and the direction he had been travelling when he
first met with the savages. On and on he went, over the thick bed of
dark decaying leaves, which made no rustling sound, looking like a
little white ghost of a boy in that great gloomy wood. But he came
to no open place, nor did he find anything to eat when hunger
pressed him; for there were no sweet roots and berries there, nor any
plant that he had ever seen before. It was all strange and gloomy,
and very silent. Not a leaf trembled; for if one had trembled near
him he would have heard it whisper in that profound stillness that
made him hold his breath to listen. But sometimes at long intervals
the silence would be broken by a sound that made him start and stand
still and wonder what had caused it. For the rare sounds in the
forest were unlike any sounds he had heard before. Three or four
times during the day a burst of loud, hollow, confused laughter
sounded high up among the trees; but he saw nothing, although most
likely the creature that had laughed saw him plainly enough from its
hiding-place in the deep shadows as it ran up the trunks of the trees.

[Illustration: ]

At length he came to a river about thirty or forty yards wide;
and this was the same river that he had bathed in many leagues
further down in the open valley. It is called by the savages
Co-viota-co-chamanga, which means that it runs partly in the dark
and partly in the light. Here it was in the dark. The trees grew
thick and tall on its banks, and their wide branches met and
intermingled above its waters that flowed on without a ripple, black