'No, Sahib, none. I think, from what I hear, that they were more friendly than before. Perhaps they thought they would gain a reward by-and-by. The headman begged them to remain, offering to keep them till the war was over. But the woman would not hear of it. She said, for the child's sake, she must go on to the mountains. But, Sahib, they could not travel fast, and I know the way they have gone----' 'You think it a miracle that they should have lived so long, Bâl Narîn?' 'Sahib, it is the strangest thing I have ever heard. The gods have cared for their own.' 'And since they have got so far, am I mad in thinking they may go farther?' 'Who said that his Excellency was mad?' 'No one said so. I have read it in your eyes, Billy. But we are both sane now. Yes--it is no question of madness. Two days. What could they have done in that time? They could not travel day and night as we will.' 'If we travel at night we may miss them, Sahib.' 'True; I had not thought of that. But, come on now. There are two good hours of light before us. Then you shall rest, and I will watch. Have you been able to get any fresh provisions?' 'They are bringing in bags of dal and rice, which will last us for six more days. By that time we shall have reached the further boundaries of the Terai.' And so they went on once more. I try to imagine it all sometimes, but I confess I find it hard, although Bâl Narîn and the rajah himself, in the moments of confidence that come to him on rare occasions, have again and again given me narratives of their experiences. They went on for two more days. This part of the jungle was haunted by tigers. At night, when they made up their camp-fires, they could hear them howling about the sluggish streams that crept through the jungle. There were serpents, too. Tom slew one monster that reared itself up in his path by striking its head with the butt-end of his musket. But to him the most appalling feature of all this march was the swooping down of the foul birds of prey that came from their eyrie in the hills in search of such meat as the jungle would always yield. The creatures had not the least fear; they came so near, sometimes, that he could have struck at them with his cane. It seemed as if they were waiting for the death that might presently fall upon their victims. He shot down two of these mighty birds in one day, glorying over them as he had gloried over the sepoys whom he had destroyed.