It was extremely fortunate, for the coming day would make us an easy mark, the pale-grey light that was stealing down having resulted in several arrows coming dangerously near; and though there were equal advantages for us in the bodies of our enemies becoming easier to see, we were not eager to destroy life, our object, as I have before said, being to escape.
We followed Ti-hi, to find that the narrow shelf slowly rose now higher and higher, till at the end of a couple of hundred yards it gained its highest point of some five-and-twenty feet above the river; while to add to the advantage of our position, the rock above the path stretched over it like the commencement of some Titan’s arch, that had been intended to bridge the stream, one that had either never been finished, or had crumbled and fallen away.
In support of this last fanciful idea there were plenty of loose rocks and splinters of stones that had fallen from above, mingled with others whose rounded shapes showed that they must have been ground together by the action of water.
I did not think of that at the time, though I had good reason to understand it later on.
The position was admirable, the ledge widening out considerably; we were safe from dropping arrows, and we had only to construct a strong breastwork, some five feet long, to protect us from attack by the enemy. In fact in five minutes or so we were comparatively safe; in ten minutes or a quarter of an hour our breastwork was so strengthened that we began to breathe freely.
By this time it was morning, but instead of its continuing to grow light down in the ravine, whose walls towered up on either side, the gathering light seemed suddenly to begin to fade away. It grew more obscure. The soft cool refreshing morning breeze died away, to give place to a curious sultry heat. The silence, save the rushing of the river, was profound, and it seemed at last as if it was to be totally dark.
“What does this mean, doctor?” I said, as I glanced round and noted that the sombre reflection from the walls of the chasm gave the faces of my companions a ghastly and peculiar look.
“A storm, my lad,” he said quietly. “Look how discoloured the water seems. There has been a storm somewhere up in the mountains, I suppose, and now it is coming here.”
“Well, we are in shelter,” I said, “and better off than our enemies.”
“What difference does that make?” grumbled Jack Penny in ill-used tones. “They can’t get wet through, for they don’t wear hardly any clothes. But, I say, ain’t it time we had our breakfast? I’ve given up my night’s rest, but I must have something to eat.”