The Jungle Fugitives | Page 8

scrambling on board,
the water fortunately being deep enough near shore to allow all to step
upon the boat dry shod. The faint moon revealed the smooth surface of
the Ganges for nearly a hundred yards from land, but the further shore
was veiled in darkness. It was at this juncture that Miss Marlowe made
an annoying discovery.
"Oh, papa, I have forgotten my pistol!"
"Wait and I'll soon get it," she added, starting to leap the short distance
from the gunwale to land, but Jack Everson caught her arm.
"You must not think of it; tell me where you left the weapon and I'll
bring it."
"I laid it on the table in the dining-room and in the hurry forgot it when
we left."
Jack turned to his friends.
"Don't wait here," he said, aware of the nervousness of the whole party.
"Push down stream, and I'll quickly overtake you."
Without waiting for further explanation, he leaped the slight space and
started up the lawn on a loping trot. For convenience he left his rifle
behind, but made sure that his revolver was in his hip pocket. He did
not apprehend that he would need the weapon in the short time he
expected to be absent, but if anything went awry it would be more
useful than the rifle.
In that moment of profound stillness following the disappearance of the

young man among the trees grouped about the lawn, the motionless
people on the boat felt a thrill of terror at the unmistakable sound of
oars from some point on the river not distant.
"Let us land and take refuge in your house," suggested young Wharton;
"we cannot make a decent fight in this boat."
"We shall have a better chance than in the house," was the reply of the
physician; "the bank of the river is shaded by trees a little further down;
we must lose no time in getting there, and avoid the least noise."
There were two long poles belonging to the boat, one of which was
grasped by Wharton, while Anderson swayed the other, the remainder
watching their movements, which could not have been more skillful.
Pressing the end against the bank, and afterwards against the clayey
bottom, the craft speedily swung several rods from shore.
While the two men were thus employed, the others peered off in the
gloom and listened for a repetition of the sounds that had frightened
them a few minutes before. They were not heard again, nor could the
straining vision detect anything of the dreaded object, which could not
be far away. Not a person on board doubted that a number of their
enemies were near and searching for them. Dr. Marlowe would have
taken comfort from this fact had the circumstances been different; for
the men who were hunting for him would go to his house, since it was
there they must gain their first knowledge of his flight; but, as he
viewed it, it was impossible that they should be wholly ignorant of the
boat and its occupants, which must have made most of the distance
before night closed in.
It followed, therefore, that if they were looking for the doctor and his
family they were also looking for the boat and the fugitives it contained.
The low-lying shore, with no trees fringing the bank, was the worst
place for him and his friends, and he was in a fever of eagerness to
reach the protecting shadows along shore. The nerves of all were keyed
to the tensest point, when they caught the dim outlines of the
overhanging growth, with the leafage as exuberant as it always is in a
subtropical region at that season of the year. The men toiled with vigor

and care, while the others glanced from the gloom of the river to the
deeper gloom of the bank, which seemed to recede as they labored
toward it. With a relief that cannot be imagined the bulky craft glided
into the bank of deeper gloom, which so wrapped it about that it was
invisible from any point more than a dozen yards distant.
It is inconceivable how a narrower escape could have come about, for
the two men had hardly ceased poling, allowing the boat to move
forward with the momentum already gained, when their enemies were
discovered. Mary Marlowe's arm was interlocked with that of her father,
when she nervously clutched it and whispered:
"Yonder is their boat!"
All saw the terrifying sight at the same moment. Almost opposite, and
barely fifty yards out on the river, could be traced a moving shadow,
the outlines of which showed a craft similarly shaped to their own,
except that it was somewhat smaller and sat lower in the water. The
men were too dimly seen for their