hours till daylight," said Tom; "let's make for
those woods."

"That's east," said Archer. "_We_ want to go south."

"We want to see where we're going before we go anywhere," Tom answered.
"If we can get into the woods on those hills, we can climb a tree
tomorrow and see where we're at. What I want is a bird's-eye squint to
start off with, 'cause we can't ask questions of anybody."

"No, and believe me, we don't want to run into any cities," said Archer.
"We got through one night anyway, hey?"

Notwithstanding that they were without shelter, and facing the
innumerable perils of a hostile country about which they knew nothing,
they still found action preferable to inaction and their spirits rose as
they journeyed on with the star-studded sky overhead.

They found the meadows low and marshy, which gratified Tom who was
always fearful of leaving footprints. The hills beyond were low and
thickly wooded, the face of the nearest being broken by slides and
forming almost a precipice surmounted by a jumble of rocks and
underbrush. The country seemed wild and isolated enough.

"I suppose it's the beginning of the Alps, maybe," Tom panted as they
scrambled up.

"There's nobody up here, that's surre," Archer answered.

"We'll just lie low till daylight and see if we can get a squint at the
country. Then tomorrow night we'll hike it south. If we go straight
south we've _got_ to come to Switzerland."

"It's lucky we've got the compass," said Archer.

"Maybe this is a ridge we're on," Tom said. "If it is, we're in luck. We
may be able to go thirty or forty miles along it. One thing sure, it'll
be more hilly the farther south we get 'cause we'll be getting into the
beginning of the Alps. There ought to be water up here."

"I wish there were some apples," said Archer.

"You're always thinking about apples and souvenirs. Let's crawl in under
here."

They had scrambled to the top of the precipitous ascent and found
themselves upon the broken edge of the forest amid a black chaos of
piled up rock and underbrush. Evidently, the land here was giving way,
little by little, for here and there they could see a tree canting
tipsily over the edge, its network of half-exposed roots making a last
gallant stand against the erosive process and helping to hold the weight
of the great boulders which ere long would crash down into the marshy
lowlands.

They crept into a sort of leafy cave formed by a fallen tree and
stretched their w