, and we might fancy that it only wanted a couple of hours to
midnight. Well, let's go a little farther."

"Very well," replied Dean, stepping out; "but we could not see Mak if he
was close at hand."

"No, but we shall hear him directly. He will try to cooey, and he will
as soon as he has caught the little black chap. I say, didn't he
scuttle along just like a rabbit!"

"Yes, but I say, let's keep together, for I am sure we shall lose
ourselves directly."

"Oh, we shan't lose ourselves; but let's keep on quite straight."

"How are we to keep on quite straight when we can't get along without
winding in and out?"

"That's true," said Mark; "but I say, do took upward! What trees! What
a height! Just stand still and listen for a minute or two. We may get
a shot at some beautiful bird such as we have never seen before."

They paused and listened, went on, and stopped, and listened again, and
then made a fresh halt, making the backs of their necks ache with having
to stare straight up in trying to pierce the dense foliage which shut
out the sunlight sky.

But there was no rustle of bird or buzz of insect; all was profound
silence. And this, joined to the deep gloom, affected both the boys in
a similar way, for they cocked their pieces, which rarely left their
hands, and the sound was so dull and shut in that a curious creepy
feeling affected them.

"I say," said Dean, at last, in almost a whisper, "I don't want you to
laugh at me for being a coward, but this does seem a creepy place. I
vote we get out, before we are lost. It would be queer to find that we
could not get back."

"I am not going to laugh at you and call you a coward, for I feel a
little queer myself. Are you sure that if we turned right round now and
began to walk back we should get out?"

"I think so," said Dean hesitatingly, "but don't let's try both
together. Look here."

"It's all very fine to say, `Look here,' when one can hardly see. It is
just as if we had stepped out of day into night."

"Nonsense!" cried Dean impatiently. "I did not want you to look. I
meant that I would stand perfectly still looking straight into the
darkness till you had turned round and were looking right back the way
we came. Then you stand still while I turn round. Then we could not
make any mistake, and we could walk out together."

"Well," said Mark, "that seems right, only I am afraid we did not come
in straight, and I say I think we have done