which he fervently trusted would not be
heard amid the uproar that the Peruvians themselves were creating.

As soon as he had got about ten yards from the path he flung himself
down at full length upon the ground, in a little open space which was
clear of thorns, to recover his breath and listen to the sounds of the
pursuit. At the same time he examined the breach of his carbine and,
finding it empty, loaded it, wondering at the carelessness of the guard
from whom he had so recently taken it. For a second or two the noise of
the runners came nearer and nearer; and then, suddenly, there was a loud
cry of "Halt!" followed by a terrific shouting and hubbub, the snapping
of small branches, the crackling of undergrowth trodden down, and then--
the report of a carbine.

"_Carrajo_!" muttered Jim, "they have sighted that unfortunate Chilian,
then! I wonder how it was that I passed without seeing him? Poor
beggar! I am afraid that they won't show him much mercy--nor me,
either--if they catch me," he added.

But there was no more shooting, and from various parts of the wood men
were heard calling to each other; so Jim surmised that it must have been
a false alarm, and that the Chilian was still undiscovered. The
soldiers were yet rather too far distant for Jim to hear what they were
shouting to one another, but presently they approached near enough for
him to catch the words, and he found that they were inquiring of one
another whether there were any signs of the fugitive, and whether "any
one had seen that swift-running man who entered the wood first." The
replies were to the effect that the _Chileno_ had not yet been sighted,
and that the "runner"--that was, of course, Jim himself--had also
mysteriously vanished, but that the latter must be somewhere about, and
that they would soon come across him.

Douglas was beginning to fear that the last part of the remark might
very soon prove only too true, for it was evident that the Peruvians
were slowly but surely working their way through the wood toward the
place where he was concealed. Observing, therefore, that the
undergrowth was fairly thin ahead of him, he started to crawl along so
as, if possible, to get out of the course of the beaters before they
should arrive on the spot. Grasping his carbine so that his hand
covered the trigger-guard--in order to avoid any accidental discharge in
consequence of the trigger becoming caught in some trailing twig--he
began to cr