"
"But what will happen to the girls?"
"Will our death prevent it?" I snapped. "If we rush after him in the
open we'll throw our chances away."
I am a sailor, absolutely ignorant of jungle knowledge, but I had sense
enough to know that Leith would not leave his rear exposed for a moment
after he had received word from the cave. I tried to recall stories of
extraordinary trailing feats as we stumbled forward, but I became
convinced that all the marvellous performances I had ever read of had
been accomplished under conditions that were altogether different from
those that confronted us upon the Isle of Tears. An open piece of
country would have been a sight of joy to our eyes that were weary of
the everlasting mesh of green which encompassed us like the tentacles of
a malignant fate. The green, sweaty leaves, the fat, bloated pods, and
the lengths of pythonesque runners produced a mental nausea. The
vegetation appeared to us to be vicious. Its very luxuriance produced
that fear of the wild which grips one in tropical countries but which is
never felt in lands situated in the temperate zones.
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