North America

A litt­le effort pro­ved suf­fi­ci­ent to dis­lodge enough of the­se stones to per­mit me to crawl through into the clea­ring, and a moment later I had scur­ried across the inter­vening space to the den­se jungle beyond.

Here I sank pan­ting and trembling upon the mat­ted gras­ses beneath the giant trees, for I felt that I had escaped from the grin­ning fangs of death out of the depths of my own gra­ve. Wha­te­ver dan­gers lay hid­den in this island jungle, the­re could be none so fear­so­me as tho­se which I had just escaped. I knew that I could meet death bra­ve­ly enough if it but came in the form of some fami­li­ar beast or man—anything other than the hideous and uncan­ny Mahars.

I must have fal­len asleep from exhaus­ti­on. When I awo­ke I was very hun­gry, and after busy­ing mys­elf sear­ching for fruit for a while, I set off through the jungle to find the beach. I knew that the island was not so lar­ge but that I could easi­ly find the sea if I did but move in a straight line, but the­re came the dif­fi­cul­ty as the­re was no way in which I could direct my cour­se and hold it, the sun, of cour­se, being always direct­ly abo­ve my head, and the trees so thic­k­ly set that I could see no distant object which might ser­ve to gui­de me in a straight line.

As it was I must have wal­ked for a gre­at distance sin­ce I ate four times and slept twice befo­re I rea­ched the sea, but at last I did so, and my plea­su­re at the sight of it was great­ly enhan­ced by the chan­ce dis­co­very of a hid­den canoe among the bus­hes through which I had stumb­led just pri­or to coming upon the beach.

I can tell you that it did not take me long to pull that awk­ward craft down to the water and sho­ve it far out from shore. My expe­ri­ence with Ja had taught me that if I were to ste­al ano­ther canoe I must be quick about it and get far bey­ond the owner’s reach as soon as possible.