All at once he reappeared from quite a different part, and came quickly up to Nic.
“I am obliged to be watchful,” he said. “I did not know but that you might have some one following you; but all seems to be clear. Now then, come along.”
He struck off in among the trees, and Nic followed closely, till, wondering at the course his companion was taking, he said suddenly:
“Are you making some short cut? Does the gorge bend round anywhere here?”
“Oh no: I am going quite right.”
“But you are leaving the edge of the precipice right behind.”
“Yes; that is right. No one would look for the way down where I am leading.”
Nic gazed at him wonderingly, for the man’s manner seemed moment by moment to grow more strange; but they trudged on for quite a quarter of an hour, through a wonderful chaos of rocks and stunted trees, which formed a dense thicket through which it was hard to pass, and which was at last barred by the rocks closing in.
Here the convict turned sharply to his left, went in, and out for a couple of score yards, and then came to a halt at a rock face, from beneath which a little stream of water gurgled down a long gully for a short distance, and then disappeared.
“Is the water good?” said Nic eagerly.