But it was not long before their pursuit was brought to a standstill. They were obliged even to fall back, for they heard a crackling sound all around them.
Chéri-Bibi had set fire to the forest.
[CHAPTER VII]
THE MYSTERIES OF THE PRIMEVAL FOREST
Chéri-bibi and the Nut had taken a serious step in entering the primeval forest. How many convicts who had escaped and sought refuge in it had found death; death in its most terrible form? They must needs struggle against all and everything—hunger, fever, wild beasts and men.
It sometimes happened that men who were engaged in clearing a new part of the forest came upon partly devoured remains of human bodies. That was all that was left of an escape which had created some sensation at the time of its occurrence.
None but a very old jail-bird regards the forest as a friend who would defend and keep him. As we have said, more than one convict, weary of its savage life, returned and gave himself up as a prisoner.
Nevertheless Chéri-Bibi said to the Nut:
"I know my forest. They can send every warder in the colony after us. I defy them to capture us."
In order to keep back for a while the men who were pursuing them, he had simply set fire to a great accumulation of trees of all sizes and species which had been felled by the ax some months previously, and which the burning hot tropical sun had entirely dried up. This mass became in a few minutes like a gigantic furnace, which spread the blaze to an entire quarter of the living forest, so that, perceiving the extent of the conflagration, the Nut anxiously inquired if they would not themselves fall victims to their own method of defense.