We made no mean bit of progress while the noise continued, after which I felt there was no more need of particular care. The jungle thickets were fearfully dark, as soon as we got away from the clearings, and I was obliged to forge ahead as best I could, guided only by my sense of direction.
Half an hour went by and although we should have been at the river, where the boat was on the bank, there was no immediate prospect of our coming to the proper place. In the midst of my efforts, mental and physical, to extricate myself and the girl from the maze, a peculiar shriek went up in the distance behind us. I paused, inquiringly.
“Oh—that is the voice of the horrid old woman,” said the goddess anxiously. “I think she has found I have gone.”
“The deuce!” said I. “She has alarmed the whole works, the old villain!”
Judging by the noise which was raised one would have thought she had awakened the whole world. I was certain every Link in the camp was up and dancing about that clearing in the wildest confusion.
“Come ahead,” said I, calmly enough, “they are all afraid of the woods at night; they will never catch us now—unless the morning overtakes us before we reach the river.”
I knew she shuddered, but like a brave, good girl she made no fuss. As for the racket, it furnished me with a bearing, as it were. Knowing where their settlement was, I knew the approximate direction in which the boat should be found. Indeed before we had travelled another fifty yards I caught a gleam of reflected moonlight from Outlet river and knew my way directly.
“It’s lucky that beastly old woman didn’t make her discovery sooner,” said I.
“Yes,” replied the trembling voice of the goddess, “that was why I kept you waiting so long; she wouldn’t go to sleep.”
“Um,” was all I muttered. I was thinking about that crimping of her hair, poor girl, and the putting on of tight, new gloves.