“Ah, Ralph, my boy!” he exclaimed joyfully as I came up, “I’m glad you’ve come. I had begun to fear that you must have been captured. Ay, drink, lad! You seem warm enough, though I scarcely think you can be much more so than I am. What a run we have had, to be sure! But, what, Ralph—your clothes are much torn, and your face and hands are scratched. Why, you must have got among thorns. Not badly hurt, I trust?”
“Oh no; nothing to speak of. I have, however, had a narrow escape. But before I speak of that, what of Peterkin?”
“I don’t know,” replied Jack, with an anxious expression; “and to say truth, I begin to feel uneasy about him, for he ought to have been here almost as soon as myself.”
“How so? Did you, then, run together?”
“Latterly we did. At first we separated, and I knew not what had become either of him or you. The fact is, I had enough to do to look out for myself, for a dozen of rascally niggers kept close upon my heels and tried my powers of running somewhat; so I took to the thick wood and made a détour, to throw them off the scent. All at once I heard a smashing of the bushes right in front of me, and before I knew what I was about, Peterkin bounced through the underwood and almost plunged into my arms. We both gave an involuntary yell of alarm.
“‘There’s two of ’em right on my heels,’ said he in a gasp, as he dashed off again. ‘Come along with me, Jack.’
“I followed as fast as I could, and we crossed an open plain together, when I looked over my shoulder, and saw that all the other fellows had given up the chase except the two mentioned by Peterkin. These kept on after us, and somehow or other we got separated again, just after re-entering the wood on the other side of the plain. Of course I ran on, expecting to see my companion every minute. Finally I came to the rendezvous, and here I found that the savages had given up all hope of overtaking me, for I could see nothing of them.”
“How long ago is that?” I inquired quickly.
“About an hour.”
“Then poor Peterkin must have been caught,” said I, in a voice of despair.