Part 33 (2/2)

Pita led the way, Hurka followed him, placing as he did so one end of his bow in Stephen's hand, saying, ”Our eyes are more accustomed to the dark than yours. Keep hold of the bow and follow me closely.”

As soon as they were well in the forest the darkness was to Stephen absolute, and had it not been for the bow he could not have followed the little Indian, although treading almost on his heels. He appreciated more strongly than he had ever done before how much keener were the faculties of the Indians in some respects than his own, for they went along at a brisk rate, making their way through the trees with as little hesitation as if it had been broad daylight. Occasionally there was a pause for an instant as Pita slashed through a creeper barring his way.

”How can he see them?” Stephen asked.

”He does not see them, senor, he feels them. He holds his bow at arm's-length before him, and so touches even the smallest of the lianas; the large ones he can see plainly enough, and so could he the small ones were they level with the eye. It is those that are but a foot or two above the ground that are dangerous.”

”It is marvellous to me how you can see anything, Hurka, for I cannot make out even the outline of your figure.”

”We were born so, senor. Life in these forests accustoms the eyes to see in darkness. It is the same with the wild animals that run at night.”

It was not long before Stephen's breath began to come in short gasps. The perspiration streamed from him, but he held on until Pita came to a halt.

”We will stop till you get your breath again, senor. There is no fear of them to-night, but we must hold on until morning, so as to get as long a start as possible before they can find our track and take up the pursuit.

Until we have light we can do nothing to disguise our trail, but we will stop frequently, and go at a slower pace, so that you shall not become exhausted. It would never do to wear you out at the beginning of our journey.”

All through the night the march was continued. They stopped at frequent intervals for a minute or two, and Stephen found himself able to keep up with them without any great difficulty, although long before morning broke he felt terribly exhausted. At last Pita said:

”In two hours it will be dawn. We will wait here, senor, and you can take a short sleep before we go on again.”

Without a word Stephen dropped on to the ground, and almost instantaneously went off to sleep. When he awoke it was broad daylight.

Hurka was beside him.

”We must be moving now, senor,” he said. ”Pita has been away for half an hour, and has just signalled to me to join him.”

Stephen rose to his feet heavily. He felt stiff and sore all over, but the feeling wore off after he had walked a short distance. From time to time a cry like the note of a bird was heard, and towards this they directed their steps. They found Pita standing by the edge of a stream some fifteen yards wide, and without a word he entered the water as they came up and began to walk down it.

”I should have thought,” Stephen said to Hurka, ”that it would be safer to go the other way for a bit, because they would naturally suppose that we should come this way.”

”That is just the reason why Pita is leading us down it,” he said. ”It is, of course, the way we should take to get down to the Madeira, and because it is so they will think that we would surely go the other in order to deceive them. No doubt some will go up and some will go down, but in that case we shall not have so many to fight.”

A mile further another stream fell into that which they were following, and they turned up this and walked until they came to a bough some eight feet above the water. Pita sprung up and hauled himself on to it, then he leaned over and stretched his hands down to Stephen, and, with a strength the latter had hardly given him credit for, hauled him up beside him, and then similarly aided Hurka. They made their way along the bough to the main trunk, then followed another great bough on the other side, and dropped from its extremity nearly thirty yards away from the bed of the stream; then they struck off through the wood until they came upon another stream, and after following it for another half an hour left it by another tree as before.

”Now we can go on,” Pita said, ”it will take them hours to find our track.”

They now continued their course steadily, Pita before they started taking off Stephen's boots and wrapping a broad band of soft leather he had brought with him round and round his feet.

”The heels of your boots make tracks an Indian might almost follow in the dark. You had better throw them into the next clump of bushes you come to; we can get another pair at the mission.”

In the course of the day they crossed two other streams, and at each of them took measures as before to throw the Indians off their track. They kept on till nightfall, and then Stephen and Pita lay down, Hurka saying that he would watch until midnight.

”You don't think the Indians will follow at night?” Stephen asked.

”There is no fear of that, senor. They dread the wild beasts; there are so many in these forests, and they can scent a human being a long distance away. We have chosen this tree because, as you see, the lower branch is near the ground, and it will be easier to climb up into it if I give the alarm.”

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