him Ebony--scorned a hat of any kind; his simple costume consisting
merely of two garments--canvas trousers and a guernsey shirt.

The sailor wore a cutlass in his belt. Ebony was unarmed. The youthful
leader carried a short fowling-piece.

A yell in the far distance, as if from a hundred fiends, told that the
pursuers had discovered the trail of the fugitives, and were gaining on
them.

"We'll have to fight for it, doctor," growled the sailor in a savage
tone, "better stop while we've got some wind left."

"The wood seems more open ahead," replied the youth, "let's push on a
bit further."

"Hi!" exclaimed the negro in surprise, not unmingled with alarm, as they
suddenly emerged on an open space and found themselves on the edge of a
stupendous precipice.

The formation of the region was curious. There was a drop in the land,
as it were, to a lower level. From their elevated position the three
men could see a turbulent river rushing far below, at the base of the
cliffs on the edge of which they stood. Beyond lay a magnificent and
varied stretch of forest scenery, extending away to the horizon, where
the prospect terminated in a blue range of hills. No path was at first
visible by which the fugitives could reach the plain below. The
precipice was almost perpendicular. They were about to leap recklessly
over, and trust to descending by means of an occasional bush or shrub
which grew on the rocky face, when the negro uttered one of his falsetto
exclamations.

"Hi! here am a track."

He dashed aside the branches of an overhanging bush, and ran along a
narrow path, or ledge, which sloped gently downwards. It was a
fearfully giddy position, but this in the circumstances, and to men
accustomed to mast-heads and yard-arms, was of small moment. On they
ran, at a more cautious pace indeed, but still with anxious haste, until
about a quarter of the distance down the face of the precipice, when, to
their horror, they came to a turn in the path where it suddenly ended.
A mass of rock, apparently detached from the cliff by recent rains, had
fallen from above, and in its thundering descent had carried away fully
ten yards of the path into the stream below, where they could see its
shattered fragments in the rushing river. The gap in front of them was
absolutely impassable. On the right, the cliff rose sheer upwards. On
the left, it went sheer down.

A sort of groan escaped from the doctor.

"What's to be done