Far away on the horizon loomed the towering heights of the exhausted volcano, round whose base was the path we had to follow. The scenery was very beautiful, but somehow we had not the heart to admire it, for we felt like fugitives flying to a castle of refuge, through a land teeming with unknown perils and hidden enemies. We left the river, as the banks were too steep and uneven to follow, and gradually ascended the lower spurs of the mountain, that being by far the easiest route. By noon we halted under the towering crest of the dead volcano. The sides were steep and rocky, though covered with many kinds of vegetation, notably a large tree with leaves and flowers like a rhododendron. Here a deep hollow had become a small lake, fringed with curious rushes, over whose placid waters a large troop of white, legless birds, similar to those we saw before, were disporting themselves.
Here we made a fire, and cooked some food. As we were quietly eating our meal, we were startled by an exclamation from Graham.
"Look! look!" he cried in an excited tone. "The troops! the troops from Edos! We are discovered, surrounded!"
The peril of our position was only too true. Stealthily our pursuers had spread themselves in a wide semicircle from the river, extending their flanks round either side of the mountain; and, though still nearly a mile away, they were closing upon us with frightful haste.
"Leave all but the firearms and ammunition, and follow me," shouted the Doctor, leading the way up the hillside amongst the dense brushwood. Our movement was noticed at once by the approaching soldiers, and with a lusty shout they came on in hot pursuit. But the way was rough and steep, and we had the advantage of being much higher up the mountain slope than they. For quite two miles we struggled on, without losing ground or gaining it, until we reached a part of the mountain-side which was strewn with huge boulders of pumice. Here we lost sight of our pursuers, although we could hear their shouts and trumpet-calls below us, and sank down to rest a moment and get our breath. We had not tarried here for more than half a minute, when Sandy's practised eye caught sight of a hole in the ground, twenty paces lower down the hill. We went to examine it, and found that it was a crevice in the side of the volcano, just large enough at the entrance to squeeze our bodies through, but soon becoming much larger inside.