en ground for a short
breathing-space.

George was of opinion that, from the time they had been tramping through
the forest, they ought to have very nearly reached its southern skirts;
but as far as the eye could penetrate, in the uncertain moonlight,
through the sylvan vistas, there was no sign of break or opening of any
kind; nothing but an apparently endless succession of trees and dense
undergrowth. Seeing this, Leicester began to feel uneasy. He knew that
they had been travelling through the timber in anything but a straight
line--indeed, to do so would have been simply a physical impossibility--
and he began to fear that, in spite of all his efforts to avoid such a
misfortune, they had been journeying along the arc of a circle, instead
of progressing steadily in a southerly direction.

The wanderers were beginning to feel thoroughly fatigued, what with
their day's work in the fields, their exposure during the storm, and
their painful tramp afterwards; but George felt that, fatigued or not,
they must push on; liberty _must_ be secured first; when that was won,
they could afford time to rest, but not until then.

The first thing to be done, however, was to get a definite idea of
whereabouts they were; it was obviously useless to continue plodding on,
they knew not whither; besides, it was frightfully fatiguing and painful
work, this marching through the forest, and George felt that it would be
a positive advantage even to deviate somewhat from their direct course,
if by so doing they could earlier gain the open ground once more. So,
looking around him, he picked out the most lofty tree he could find,
and, leaving Tom to keep watch by Walford's side, nimbly scrambled up
its trunk, and was soon among its topmost branches.

A single glance around sufficed to show him that his suspicions were
correct; they were only about half a mile from the _northern_ edge of
the timber; and, consequently, rather worse off than if they had never
left the wrecked waggon at all. And, worse still, George found that,
after all their travelling, they were little more than three miles from
the estate, the whole of which was distinctly visible from his lofty
stand-point. This was rather discouraging, but there was no help for
it; he now knew exactly where they were, and how much greater than even
he had imagined was the necessity for immediate action; so he turned his
glances in a southerly direction, and sought to discover the most