"If we stray six feet from the trail we are lost. We
had better trust to fortune and go ahead."
It was impossible to do anything else. The route by which the carriers
had marched from the camping ground was perfectly clear while we
followed their footsteps, but if we diverged ever so slightly the thick
veils of verdure hid the path from our eyes. To follow the party we
would have to hold to the trail and take the chances of an ambush which
Leith would certainly prepare for us the moment he knew we had escaped
from the Cavern of Skulls. It would be easy for him to set his one-eyed
white partner to shoot us down as we staggered along the trail which
Soma or one of the carriers had blazed with an axe.
"They cannot have more than three hours' start of us," cried Holman.
"Give me your arm, Verslun. Now let us move as fast as we can."
"But this is puerile," I protested. "We'll be running our heads into the
noose."
"I don't care if we do. I want to get near Leith."
"But we'll never get near by running after him in this fashion. If we
could find some way to get in front of him and wait.
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