everywhere were thirsting for victims.

Jack had seized one of the poles, and he and young Wharton plied them
with so much sturdiness that the heavy craft made better progress than
at any time since it was used as a vehicle of safety. The course of
the tributary was winding, and our friends had not gone far when they
were shut out from the sight of any persons passing up and down the
main river, even if close to the northern bank.

Would the natives suspect the course taken by the whites? That was the
all-important question that must soon be answered. After searching up
and down the Ganges without success, it was likely they would penetrate
the stratagem and follow them, in which event the fugitives would be in
a critical situation, since the straightness of the stream and the
wooded shores would place them at much greater disadvantage than if
they remained upon the Ganges.

When the boat had ascended the tributary for perhaps an eighth of a
mile it was deemed safe to lessen the work of poling. Careful
listening failed to detect any sound of pursuit, and there was ground
for hoping that their enemies neither knew nor suspected what had been
done.

Several facts had become apparent. The densely wooded shores offered
excellent concealment. By running the boat beneath the dense branches
and among the heavy vegetation the keenest-eyed Asiatics might pass up
or down stream almost within arm's length without suspecting its
presence. But the tributary had perceptibly narrowed and its current
was swifter than at the mouth. All this pointed to the truth of what
Dr. Marlowe suspected--the stream could not serve them much further.