“If I had only thought to examine my pockets before I did all that running!” he exclaimed.
He could not help laughing at the thought of his wild dash and the extreme caution and anxiety with which he had freed himself. However, his amusement did not last very long; for once more the terrified cries of the unfortunate prisoner crossed his mind. The last words which he had heard from the man were still ringing in his ears.
“Twenty years!”
He started to make his way back through the jungle in the direction where he hoped to find the road he had left. He trudged on for a considerable time, getting more and more involved in the tangled vines of that swampy region. Finally he concluded that there was nothing else for him to do but wait until the dawn. There was no means of telling what wild animals might be near, and he was haunted with the fear of disturbing some serpent. At last he determined on climbing one of the high trees. From this vantage point he found that he had not much longer to wait. Already the first streaks of dawn were visible in the east.
His tree was one of the tallest in the dense forest, and as soon as it was light he caught sight of a slight opening in the trees, where he discovered the long-sought road, winding up the hillside in front. Without a minute’s hesitation he climbed to the ground and set out through the thicket. No shipwrecked mariner was ever more relieved at the sight of land. “If I get to the road, I am pretty sure to find someone in the end.”
Twice he took the precaution to climb a tree to make sure that he was on the right track, and at last he came out upon the thoroughfare. A single glance was sufficient to tell him that a carriage had passed over it since the recent heavy rain, and he concluded that this was the road over which he had been taken.
He sat down for a short while to rest and think over the situation. “I am going to set out and walk until I come to some place,” he decided finally. “The only question is in which direction to go.”
He had nothing to guide him, and he finally decided haphazard and set out tramping. He found out that the fresh air and the excitement of his escape had served to remove almost all the effects of his recent unpleasant experience.
“I have lost nothing,” he thought, “except my hair and my baggage!”
The latter had been taken into the mysterious house, and that was the last Roberts had seen of it; as he thought the matter over, however, he concluded that in all probability the Frenchmen had left it with him when they drove away. “And I ran away and left it!” he laughed. “Anyway, I have got a hundred dollars to pay for it.”