sure whether my eyes aint gone, and my nose and cheeks are scratched
as if I had been fighting with a mad cat."

"Here, Winthorpe, take the lantern and make your way back; darken
it as soon as you get through to the edge of the creek. You cannot
go wrong with the cord to guide you."

Two or three minutes later Dick saw the light approaching again,
and the lieutenant, the coxswain, and two bluejackets joined him,
Winthorpe and another having been left as boat keepers.

"Now, Harris, do you and one of the others go on ahead; we will
follow fifty yards behind you. If you hear anyone coming, give
a low whistle; we will then turn off the light. You can walk on
confidently, for there is no chance of any of these prickly creepers
running across the path. When you see the trees are getting thinner,
or that there is an opening before you, stop and send back word to
us, so that we can shut up the lantern before joining you."

The lieutenant headed the party now, followed by Dick. He held the
lantern close to the ground; the bottom was, like all jungle paths,
worn perfectly smooth by the passage of the barefooted natives.

"Nothing could be better," he said in a low voice to Dick. "We ought
to be able to haul the guns along here at a trot; and the opening
is wide enough on each side for a gun carriage to be carried along
without any difficulty."

In ten minutes one of the men ahead came back.