betray them to any one at a distance.

"The moon will be down in a couple of hours," Ned said; "but by that time
we shall be beyond where any sentries are likely to have been placed on
the road, so we can then trust ourselves on that till it begins to get
daylight. We must keep in the fields till we are past Nussara, which is
five miles by the road; then we can walk straight on. There is a nullah a
few yards on; we had better keep in that for a quarter of a mile; it does
not go quite the way we want, but it will be safer to follow it till we
are well out of sight of any one who may be watching the plain."

They scrambled down into the bed of the nullah. Then Kate said, "Walk on
as fast as you can, Ned; we can keep up with you, and if we hurry on we
shan't be able to think."

"All right," Ned answered; "I will go fast for a bit, but you must not
knock yourselves up; we have a long journey before us."

Walking fast, however, was impossible at the bottom of the nullah, for it
was pitch dark between its steep banks, and there were bowlders and stones
lying here and there. After half an hour's walking Ned scrambled up and
looked back.

"It is quite safe now," he said; "let us make as straight as we can for
Nussara."

Kate Warrener and Rose Hertford have never been able to recall any
incidents of that night's walk. Mechanically, as in a dreadful dream, they
followed Ned's guidance, stumbling across little watercourses, tramping
through marshy rice-fields, climbing into and out of deep nullahs, now