"The lie of the ground is dead against that," said Mr. Haydon. "The place is built in a cup. Leave it where you may, you must go up open hill-side, and he will see us at once."
"Then we must find a hiding-place among the ruins until nightfall," said Jack.
"That's all there is for it now," replied his father. "If we can keep out of their hands until the dark, we can slip off and travel by the stars."
He told the native woman what had been decided upon, and she nodded. She knew perfectly well what terrible fate awaited her and her child if they fell alive into the merciless hands of U Saw. The little party turned in search of a hiding-place, and their steps were quickened by seeing the figures of half a dozen mounted men rise over the rim of the ridge and join the Strangler.
In a few moments the fugitives had lost all sight of the men without the city; they were swallowed up in the maze of narrow lanes and by-ways which had once been thronged by busy crowds of city folk, and were now given up to the snake, the owl, and the wolf.
Here and there they glided, looking on every hand for some secure hiding-place, but found none; every house, every room seemed open to the sun and the broad light of day.
"Surely among so many houses we should hardly be found, if we lay close in some of these open places," murmured Jack, but Mr. Haydon shook his head.
"They will split up, and every man will take a patch of the city for himself," replied Mr. Haydon. "And they are adepts at a search of this kind."
"Hallo, what's that?" said Jack in a low voice. They paused and listened, then looked at each other. The chase was afoot. They could hear afar off the voices of men shouting to each other as they hunted through the deserted city.
"That sounds as if they were about the main street," said Mr. Haydon.