They paused and listened, went on, and stopped, and listened again, and then made a fresh halt, making the backs of their necks ache with having to stare straight up in trying to pierce the dense foliage which shut out the sunlight sky. But there was no rustle of bird or buzz of insect; all was profound silence. And this, joined to the deep gloom, affected both the boys in a similar way, for they cocked their pieces, which rarely left their hands, and the sound was so dull and shut in that a curious creepy feeling affected them. "I say," said Dean, at last, in almost a whisper, "I don't want you to laugh at me for being a coward, but this does seem a creepy place. I vote we get out, before we are lost. It would be queer to find that we could not get back." "I am not going to laugh at you and call you a coward, for I feel a little queer myself. Are you sure that if we turned right round now and began to walk back we should get out?" "I think so," said Dean hesitatingly, "but don't let's try both together. Look here." "It's all very fine to say, `Look here,' when one can hardly see. It is just as if we had stepped out of day into night." "Nonsense!" cried Dean impatiently. "I did not want you to look. I meant that I would stand perfectly still looking straight into the darkness till you had turned round and were looking right back the way we came. Then you stand still while I turn round. Then we could not make any mistake, and we could walk out together." "Well," said Mark, "that seems right, only I am afraid we did not come in straight, and I say I think we have done a very stupid thing. We ought to have taken out our knives and chipped the bark off every tree we passed." "Yes, but it is too late to do that, so let's try and get out at once." "But what about Mak?" "Oh, he's a savage, and he could find his way anywhere. Now then, I am standing still. You turn round at once." "Done," said Mark, and he turned sharply and backed close up to his cousin, so that they were looking now in opposite directions. "Now then, this must be right. You turn round while I stand fast." Dean turned and stood side by side with his cousin, who then gave the order to step out. "Yes," he continued, as they began to move back slowly, "I am beginning to want to get out of this. It makes one feel confused. I wish, though, we could hear Mak rustling through the bushes." "How could he rustle through the bushes when there are none to rustle through? It's just like being in an awful great temple, with the tall smooth pillars supporting the roof." "Pish! What nonsense!" cried Mark. "Let's get on. We are just inside the edge of a great forest, and what's the good of imagining all sorts of things? Come along, and let's walk fast."