Thucydides grinned, displaying the unsightly gap in his row of front teeth, and secretly resolving to show his sister something worth seeing. He had a theory that he could produce black blossoms on her fine creepers by watering them with ink! Thud had also an ideathat Lightfoot might be cured of his lameness by steady application of mustard plasters.
“Let’s make the best haste that we can,” said Io, as she seated herself on her litter. “The delay has made me more than ready for dinner. Thud has carried off our sandwich-box and all the biscuits, and the sun is getting low.”
“We must indeed make the best speed we can,” said Coldstream. “It is not desirable to go through the forest at night, for the thick foliage cannot be penetrated by the rays of the moon. Had I known how long we should be delayed at Mouang, I would have ordered my men to stop and pitch our tent at this side of the wood.”
“I wish that we had torches,” suggested Io.
“I took the precaution of securing two, and oil to feed them, when we were at Mouang,” said Oscar.
The party reached the edge of the forest just as the sun’s round red globe touched the horizon.
“Our people have evidently gone on,” observed Oscar; “we can see the track of feet and hoofs on the path before us.”
“Then we had better follow, and quickly too,” cried Io, “for we can have neither food nor tent till we catch up with the mules.”
Entering the sombre forest was almost like plunging into sudden night, so dense was the leafy shade. Coldstream ordered the peasants to light the torches, that there might be no risk of losing the track of the partyin front. Io admired the picturesque effect of the red light on huge trunks, gnarled roots, and overhanging boughs, and suppressed, as far as she could, all signs of fatigue and hunger. She could not help thinking of the possibility of leopards, even tigers, haunting those dark, desolate woods. Her ear was quick to detect the slightest sound which imagination might convert into a distant growl, and her glance anxiously scanned the thick undergrowth of bushes to detect the glare of the eye of any wild beast. Oscar had left his gun on one of the mules; except that a few of the Karens had sticks, the party were utterly unarmed and defenceless in case of attack.
Io kept her fears to herself, and whenever she addressed her husband, did so in as cheerful a tone as she could command; but she was exceedingly weary. Oscar walked on silently, being anxious on account of his wife, except when he broke the stillness of the woods by a shout, in hopes that the muleteers might not be far ahead, but able to hear and reply. At last the travellers came to an open space in the forest, which had been formerly cleared for the erection of an idol temple, of which a few ruins still remained. The moon, now from almost vertical height, threw her silvery light on these ruins and the dark encircling wood around. From this open space the road divided; two ways appeared before the travellers, one bearing towards the right, one towards the left. The party came to a halt.