At the first sign of light we were off, making to the north until we had nearly reached the edge of the wood and then following its curves over the plains toward the west.
In this way we managed to gain a considerable distance northward from the villages, and although we passed some scattered houses and a few groups of farmers who were early in the fields, there was no attempt made to interfere with our progress.
But when we came to the bank of the main river—making the same point where we had first landed—we found a different condition of affairs confronting us. Fully a hundred warriors were gathered on the bank, armed and prepared to receive us. I saw them through our telescope before they could see us, and we halted at once for a conference.
Nalig-Nad had evidently conceived the notion that in order to leave his country we would be forced to pass down the river at this point, and therefore it was here that he had determined to assemble his forces in order to stop us. He was right in his conclusion that we needed the waterway to carry us to our ship, but he was wrong in thinking that we were ready to escape.
The approach to the river was somewhat confined, because the forest was on one side of us and the high-banked stream entered the river on the other side, narrowing the plain whereon we could travel to rather a small space. It would be impossible to proceed without coming into contact with the band of natives ahead of us.
These warriors seemed intent on watching the river, for they had no idea that we had altered our course and would come up behind them. Indeed, we afterward learned that there was a good path around the base of the hills to the eastward, and had we not been so ignorant of the country we need not have turned back at all. But here we were, confronting a grave emergency, and it puzzled us for a time to know what to do.
Duncan solved the difficulty in his own peculiar way.
“Isn’t that a house over there?” he asked, pointing to a roof that showed above a small hollow.
“It is sure to be,” I answered, and the princess, who was quite at home in this section, said we were right.
Without more ado Duncan ran the machine over to the house, passing a man who stood in a field staring at us. As we drew up at the door of the primitive hut and Moit leaped out of the car, a woman sprang away like a startled deer carrying a child in her arms and screaming lustily, although Ilalah called to her not to be afraid.