Pat was not visible; but Bart saw a sight that drove all thoughts of Pat out of his mind. Pat, in fact, had fled, determining to sleep anywhere rather than in the priest’s house; and so Bart saw no signs of him. But the sight that he did see was awful beyond description. There, where his eyes first turned, he saw the gloomy shadow of the forest. Overhead the sky was filled with rolling smoke clouds; and immediately above the range of the forest trees there was a long line of red,--dull, lurid, dark,--yet sustained and unintermittent, lying like a foundation of fire under all the moving mass of smoke. The priest had followed him out. He looked at it for some time in silence. “The fire is nearer,” he said, at last. “And there is where we must go to-morrow,” said Bart; “and Phil is there!” The priest said nothing. Where--where--O, where is Phil? Such was now the one thought of Bart’s mind. XI. _Where? O where is Phil?--The Wanderer in the Woods.--Struggles with Difficulties that always increase.--Approach of Night.--Gloom.--Despair.--Climbing a Tree.--No Hope.--Rallying from the Assault.--A Midnight Meal.--Overworn Nature seeks Repose._ WHERE, O, where was Phil? Had he indeed fallen a victim to the vengeance of the Indian? or had he wandered away through those terrible woods to encounter the fires, and to perish by them? While Bart is racking his mind with these anxious questions, and trying in vain to answer them, let us leave him and follow the fortunes of the wanderer. The rock that had risen on the shore of the river extended for about a hundred yards. Phil could have crossed the river and gone down on the other side, but it seemed swampy over there, and he thought it would be easier to pass over the rock. He also thought that there might be some view from the top which would give him a general idea of the country. He therefore started off, and clambered to the top of the rock. On reaching it, however, he did not find any view in particular, for the trees around it rose so high that they intercepted the prospect. He therefore went on, intending to reach the river again lower down. On traversing the rock and reaching its lower end, he found that it terminated in an abrupt precipice. This precipice here ran back from the river into the woods, and if Phil still wished to reach the lower part of the stream, he saw that it would be necessary to go back into the woods till he found a place where he could clamber down the side of the rock. He therefore set off in that direction, expecting that he would only have to go a short distance. But the rock ran on much farther than he had supposed; and it was still too precipitous for him to descend. Along the edge there was a dense growth of underbrush which prevented his walking close to it, and forced him to go along at some distance away from it, and penetrate from time to time to the edge, to see if he had reached any place which offered a descent.