ve got to run for it."

They dashed off, at a rate of speed much higher than that at which
they had before been travelling; keeping, as much as possible, in
ground covered from the sight of their pursuers; and bearing somewhat
to the left, so as to place the latter directly behind them, and to
strike the path Dick had no doubt their pursuers were keeping.

"It is no use running too fast," he said, a few minutes later. "There
is a good long way to go yet--another ten miles, I should think; and
anyhow, I don't think we can get down that steep place, before they
come to the edge of the cliff above. You see, we are not certain as to
where it is. We might strike the cliffs a mile or two on either side
of it, and I have no doubt they will go straight to the spot. I expect
the man they have got as a guide has been in the habit of going down
the ghauts, and knows his way.

"If it were not that we are in such a hurry to get to Uncle with the
news about Tippoo, it would be much better to turn off, altogether,
and stay in a wood for a day or two. They would not stop very long at
the top of the ghauts, for they cannot be sure that we are going that
way, at all, and when a few hours passed, and we didn't come, the
officer would suppose that he was mistaken, and that we really kept on
in the line on which we started."

They trotted along for some time in silence, and then Surajah said:

"Do you not think that it would be better for us to make for the pass
to the left? It is twenty miles off, but we should be there by the
evening, and we should surely find some way of getting into it, below
where the fort stands."

Dick stopped running.

"Why not go the other way, and make for the pass we know?" he said.
"It can't be more than fifteen miles, at the outside, and once below
the fort we know our way, and should get down to the village twelve
hours sooner than if we went round by the other pass."

"It would be the right plan, if we could do it," Surajah agreed; "but
you know the rocks rise straight up on both sides of the fort, and the
road passes up through a narrow cleft, with the fort standing at its
mouth. That is why I proposed the other pass."

"I think we had better try it, nevertheless, Surajah. We should not be
more than three hours in going straight there, and shall have ample
time to follow the edge of the precipice for the last five miles. We
may discover some break, where we can get down. If we should find it
impos