we are safe. Your
skipper is not the man to let any of his crew get away without an effort
to bring them back."

A short time, however, served to restore our companion's strength, and
we once more set off as fast as our legs could carry us, breaking into a
run whenever the ground was sufficiently level for the purpose. We had
made good, I calculated, fully twenty miles when morning broke. It was
a distance, I hoped, which would prevent the pirates from successfully
pursuing us, but it would not do to rest here, for as soon as it was
discovered that we had fled, Captain Roderick would be informed of it,
and he would certainly tend a party after us.

"If he does, I hope that he'll send some of his white crew, for they'll
soon get tired and give up the chase," observed Harry.

"I am afraid, sir, he won't trust them," remarked Tubbs; "he'll get a
band of black fellows, who will keep on through the heat of day. I
would advise that we should go forward during the cool of the morning,
and try and find a place to conceal ourselves."

To this proposal Harry and I agreed, so did our other companions, though
they would have preferred resting where they were. After a short halt
by the side of a stream to take some food and quench our thirst, we
again pushed on, the vegetation in many places being so dense that it
was not without difficulty that we could force our way through it. The
worst of this was, that while we were thus delayed we should form a road
for our pursuers. However, that was not to be avoided should they get
upon our track.

We had made good nearly a dozen miles, I should think, when we came upon
a broad river, flowing, as we supposed, into the sea.

"If we can find a canoe, or a craft of some sort, we may easily reach
the coast, and save ourselves a good deal of fatigue," observed Tubbs.

The rest of the men, who were pretty well knocked up, seemed highly
pleased at the proposal. Instead of attempting to cross the stream, we
proceeded down it. Harry suggested that we should form a raft if we
could not find a canoe, and should a party be sent in pursuit, they
would thus be puzzled to know what had become of us. I proposed that,
before commencing out voyage down the stream, we should cross to the
opposite bank, and there trample down the grass, and make other marks as
if we had continued our course to the southward. We had not gone far
when we saw a smoke ascending from amid trees on the banks of th