"If you will stop here, Ned, I will push on through this jungle, and see how far it goes. The girls can never get through this. I think we are near the edge of the wood; it looks lighter ahead." In ten minutes he came back. "Ned, we are on the river; it is not fifty yards from here." This was serious news. "What a pity we did not take to the left instead of the right when we left the horses. However, they won't know which way we have gone, and must watch the whole wood. We must push forward, and, by keeping as close as we can to the river, shall most likely pass them; besides, they will be some time before they decide upon forming a chain round the wood, and as there are only about twenty of them they will be a long way apart. There! Do you hear them? They are coming back! Now let us go on again!" In ten minutes they reached the edge of the wood. They could see nothing of the horsemen. Keeping in the fields, but close to the line of jungle that bordered the river, they walked onward for upward of an hour. Then they came upon the road. The river had made a bend, and the road now followed its bank. "Shall we cross it, and keep in the open country, or follow it, girls?" "Follow it as long as we can keep on walking," Kate said. "It is in the right direction, and we can go on so much faster than in the fields. If we hear them coming along we can get into the jungle on the bank." "Listen, Kate," Rose said a few minutes afterward; "they are following!" "I expect," Ned said, "they find that the wood is too big to be watched, and some of them are going on to get some help from the next garrison, or, perhaps, to rouse up a village and press them in the work. Trot on, girls; the jungle is so thick here you could hardly squeeze yourself in. We have plenty of time; they won't be here for five minutes yet." CHAPTER IV. BROKEN DOWN. They ran at the top of their speed, but the sound of the horses' feet grew louder. "There is a path leading to the river," Ned said; "let us turn down there; we can hide under the jungle on the bank." Breathlessly they ran down to the river. "Hurrah! here is a boat, jump in;" and in another minute they had pushed off from the bank, just as they heard a body of cavalry--for that they were troops they knew by the jingling of their accouterments--pass at a gallop. The stream was strong; and the boys found that with the rude oars they could make no way whatever. "We had better land again, and get further from the river," Ned said. "We will push the boat off, and it will be supposed that we have gone off in it." This was soon done, and having regained the road, they crossed it and struck over the fields.