Part 59 (1/2)
They had come to the descent on the far side of the vast hill by whose top they had been searching There was a stiff slope beyond, and another ainst the sky, in a way that h so far their search had been in vain, they had now before thelers' store
The midshi+pman felt so assured of this, that he whispered his belief freely to Gurr, as he encountered hi the line of men, but the old uess-work, reat places would puzzle a ht, and leave a boat off-shore to signal to us till we get over the spot”
”What's that?” cried Archy excitedly, as one of the men on his left uttered a sharp, ”Look out!”
”Sheep, I think, sir”
”No, it was a dog,” said another
”Hi! Stop him!” cried a third ”Boy!”
There was a rush here and there in the darkness, the line being coht froave chase as it dodged in and out of the bushes, doubling roundlost in one place and found in another, but always proving too active for its pursuers, who stuerous slopes Here for a rowth of mares-tail (_equisetum_), that curious whorled relic of ancient days; driven froround, it led its pursuers upward ah tumbled stones where the brarowing hotter in the chase, and delighted with the sport, which came like a relief froain, to get a dim view of it, and follow it in full cry, like a pack of hounds, over the rounded top of the hill, down the other side into a dah which thetheir breath, but too excited by the chase to notice the direction in which they had gone, and beyond hearing of the recall shouted by their officers
The erly in the chase as any of theat the moment all about discipline, forliure, he made certain that it was Ra the entrance to the cave; and it was not until he had been joined in the hunt for about a quarter of an hour, that he felt that the ht instantly to have been stopped, and the place around thoroughly searched
”How vexatious!” he cried to hi suddenly upon the edge of the cliff, and treo over
All regrets were vain now, and he kept on following the cries he heard, first in one direction and then in another, till at last, after a weary struggle through a great patch of brambles and stones, he found himself quite alone and left behind
But his vanity would not accept this last
”I've quite out-run theloo intently the while, but not a sound could be heard, and in his angry irass
”What an idiot I a thelers should turn upon us now!”
”They would not have any one to turn upon,” he added, after a pause
”Well, it's all over with anything like a surprise,” he continued, after a tiet back to the place where we started from, if we can find it”
”I'll swear that was Raed on up a steep hillside; ”and if they have caught him, we'll make him show us the way
Stubborn brute! He was too much for me in the quarry, but out here with thea different tune”
”Where can they be?” he cried, after wandering about for quite half an hour ”Why! Ah!” he ejaculated ”I can see it all now It was Ra rascal! Oh, if I only get hold of him!
”Yes; there's no doubt about it, and he has been too clever for us He atching by the entrance, and just as the ed about, letting thetheet the o back to the place and soon find it Oh, how vexatious! Which way does the sea lie?”
There was not a star to be seen, and the night was darker than ever
He listened, but the night was too calaze which way he would, there was nothing but diround with occasional slopes of srass
”Ahoy!” he cried at last, and ”Ahoy!” caain, and walking in the direction from which the cry came, doard in one of the combe-like hollows of the district ”No one need be lost for long, if he has a voice Don't hear any of the others though”
He shouted again and again, getting answers, and gradually diure of a stoutly built man, and the next minute he was saluted with,--