how far it goes. The girls can never get through this. I think we are near
the edge of the wood; it looks lighter ahead."

In ten minutes he came back.

"Ned, we are on the river; it is not fifty yards from here."

This was serious news.

"What a pity we did not take to the left instead of the right when we left
the horses. However, they won't know which way we have gone, and must
watch the whole wood. We must push forward, and, by keeping as close as we
can to the river, shall most likely pass them; besides, they will be some
time before they decide upon forming a chain round the wood, and as there
are only about twenty of them they will be a long way apart. There! Do you
hear them? They are coming back! Now let us go on again!"

In ten minutes they reached the edge of the wood. They could see nothing
of the horsemen. Keeping in the fields, but close to the line of jungle
that bordered the river, they walked onward for upward of an hour. Then
they came upon the road. The river had made a bend, and the road now
followed its bank.

"Shall we cross it, and keep in the open country, or follow it, girls?"

"Follow it as long as we can keep on walking," Kate said. "It is in the
right direction, and we can go on so much faster than in the fields. If we
hear them coming along we can get into the jungle on the bank."

"Listen, Kate," Rose said a few minutes afterward; "they are following!"