er a
brief rest he got to his feet and stared at the festooned trees that
surrounded the spot.

"I'm ready, Verslun," he muttered. "Which way did they go?"

I pointed to the marks made in the soft ground by the shoes of the two
girls, and Holman limped forward.

"But we can't follow this fashion," I protested.

"Why not?"

"We'll be shot down before we get within half a mile of them. Leith
cannot know that we have escaped from the cavern or he would have left
some one here to interview us."

"Well, we can't do any high-class tracking in this country," said the
youngster grimly. "If we stray six feet from the trail we are lost. We
had better trust to fortune and go ahead."

It was impossible to do anything else. The route by which the carriers
had marched from the camping ground was perfectly clear while we
followed their footsteps, but if we diverged ever so slightly the thick
veils of verdure hid the path from our eyes. To follow the party we
would have to hold to the trail and take the chances of an ambush which
Leith would certainly prepare for us the moment he knew we had escaped
from the Cavern of Skulls. It would be easy for him to set his one-eyed
white partner to shoot us down as we staggered along the trail which
Soma or one of the carriers had blazed with an axe.

"They cannot have more than three hours' start of us," cried Holman.
"Give me your arm, Verslun. Now let us move as fast as we can."

"But this is puerile," I protested. "We'll be running our heads into the
noose."

"I don't care if we do. I want to get near Leith."

"But we'll never get near by running after him in this fashion. If we
could find some way to get in front of him and wait."

"But what will happen to the girls?"

"Will our death prevent it?" I snapped. "If we rush after him in the
open we'll throw our chances away."

I am a sailor, absolutely ignorant of jungle knowledge, but I had sense
enough to know that Leith would not leave his rear exposed for a moment
after he had received word from the cave. I tried to recall stories of
extraordinary trailing feats as we stumbled forward, but I became
convinced that all the marvellous performances I had ever read of had
been accomplished under conditions that were altogether different from
those that confronted us upon the Isle of Tears. An open piece of
country would have been a sight of joy to our eyes that were weary of
the everlasting mesh of green which encompassed us like