"I shouldn't have attempted it," rejoined Reeves. "Stick to the river would have been my plan."
"I hope we won't have to find our way back by ourselves," remarked Gerald. "I saw that the fellow who picked up Garth's spear seemed mighty careful to cover up his tracks."
"How?" asked the correspondent, and Gerald told him.
"H'm! Perhaps the caution was necessary, though not on our account," he observed. "However, I think I can find the path if we are put to it. But here is another remarkable freak of nature."
He pointed to the gap in the cliffs, which now assumed the appearance of the letter Z turned slightly askew. Hitherto a portion of this had been hidden by the great baobab, but now the opening of the gorge was fully revealed.
"Don't make a noise, as you value your lives!" exclaimed Garth, who again returned to lead the cavalcade. "A shout would bring rocks about your heads."
Owing to the peculiar formation of the gorge, it was impossible for direct light to enter from above, but the gloom was by no means so intense as in the tunnel on the other side of the river. The floor, too, was composed of soft sand, so that the horses' hoofs made little or no noise. Here and there the travellers had to avoid huge boulders that had fallen from above, showing that the Croixilian's caution had not been unnecessary. Throughout the length of this formidable pass the path ran steeply for more than a mile; then the walls of rock began to diverge, so that the sunlight streamed uninterruptedly upon the ground.
"The danger is now past, sirs," said Garth, "although this pass is still some distance in length."
Presently the horn was again blown, and in response a long-drawn note came from the extremity of the narrow way, and the Englishmen saw that nearly a dozen men were awaiting the little cavalcade.