ew
yards, and then hurried down to the camp by an easier way of travelling
than crawling on hands and toes.

He was not long in doubt as to what was to be done, for the doctor gave
his orders at once, all hands setting to work to drive in the mules,
which were rapidly loaded up, Chris being sent back to rejoin Ned and
return from time to time with any news worth communication.

He descended twice to announce that the fire was burning still and the
Indians' mustangs still grazing, there being no suggestion of movement,
and as soon as possible the little mule-train was once more in motion,
the doctor making for a great gully a quarter of a mile beyond in the
mountain side, a rift which opened into one of several by which they
hoped to get round in time to the further side of the peak, though the
way was long and the impediments many--not that this was minded, for
every impediment partook in some way of a screen from the enemy behind,
while the way was so rocky that the trail left was of the slightest
kind.

Camp that night there was none. There was a short halt or two, but they
journeyed on for mile after mile by moonlight, and it was not till
morning was well advanced towards mid-day that a suitable gully was
found, offering all they needed in the way of water and pasturage,
joined to a good lookout place for danger, which could only come to them
from below, while the travellers had opened out to them an entirely
fresh panorama of mountain and plain, any portion of which might contain
the object for which they aimed.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

A BIVOUAC.

"Oh, I say, Griggs, isn't this a lovely place!" said Ned that evening
just before sundown, as they sat beside a glowing wood fire, waiting for
the sufficient cooking of the bread-cakes that had been made. Griggs
was combining the duties of watch and cook; the animals were grazing
contentedly; the rest of the party were sleeping just where they had
wearily thrown themselves down after their long journey--all save Ned.
He had woke up a few minutes before, to sit staring about him, wondering
where he was, and with a vague notion in his head that the setting sun,
whose horizontal rays were searching the gully to its deepest depth and
staining the sky with the most glorious tints wherever they could rest
upon a fleecy cloud, was rising, and that the odour that saluted his
nostrils was given off by the breakfast cakes.

Griggs was busy raking the glowing ashes ove