o converging
mobs.

With their greatly superior speed it was obvious that the two
fugitives might reasonably expect to win through. They were surprised,
therefore, at the note of triumph in the furious cries of the
Bow-legs. A few hundred yards ahead the comparatively open country
came to an end, and its place was taken by a belt of splendid crimson
bloom, extending to right and left as far as the eye could see. It was
a jungle of shrubs some twenty feet high, with scanty, pale-green
leaves almost hidden by their exuberance of blossom. But jungle though
it was, Grom's sagacious eyes decided that it was by no means dense
enough to seriously hinder their flight. When they reached it, the
jabbering hordes were almost upon them. But, with mocking laughter,
they slipped through, and plunged in among the gray stems, beneath the
overshadowed rosy glow. Their pursuers yelled wildly--it seemed to
Grom a yell of exultation--but they halted abruptly at the edge of the
rosy barrier and made no attempt to follow.

"They know they can't catch us," said Grom, slackening his pace. But
the girl, puzzled by this sudden stopping of the pursuit, felt uneasy
and made no reply.

Loping onward at moderate pace through the enchanting pink light,
which filtered down about them through the massed bloom overhead, they
presently became conscious of an oppressive silence. The cries of
their pursuers having died away behind them, there was now nothing but
the soft thud of their own footfalls to relieve the anxious intentness
of their ears. Not a bird-note, not the flutter of a wing, not the hum
or the darting of a single insect, disturbed the strangely heavy air.
No snake or lizard or squeaking mouse scurried among the fallen
leaves. They wondered greatly at such stillness. Then they wondered at
the absence of small undergrowth, the lack of other shrubs and trees
such as were wont to grow together in the warm jungle. Nothing
anywhere about them but the endless gray stems and pallid slim leaves
of the oleander, with their rose-red roof of blossom.

Presently they felt a lethargy creeping over their limbs, which began
to grow heavy; and a dull pain came throbbing behind their eyes. Then
understanding of those cries of triumph flashed into Grom's mind. He
stopped and clutched the girl by the wrist. "It is poison here. It is
death," he muttered. "That's why they shouted."

"Yes, everything is dead but the red flowers," whispered A-ya, and
clung t