XLIV.
HOW AUGUSTUS FINALLY PROPOSED.
After this there was a lull; and Penn, who had forgotten every thing else whilst the conflict was raging, remembered that he had seen Bythewood at the ravine, and hastened to inform Pomp of the circumstance.
The death of Cudjo had plunged Pomp into a fit of stern, sad reverie. His surgical task performed, he stood leaning on his rifle, gazing abstractedly at the darkly gliding waves, when Penn's communication roused him.
"Ha!" said he, with a slight start. "We must look to that! The danger here is over for the present, and two or three of us can be spared."
"Shall I go, too?" said Carl. "It is time I vas seeing to my prisoner."
"Come," said Pomp. And the three set out to return.
Having but slight anticipations of trouble from the side of the ravine, they came suddenly, wholly unprepared, upon a scene which filled them with horror and amazement.
The prisoner, as we know, had fled. We left him on his way back to the cave with a squad of men. Since which time, this is what had occurred.