He could return more quickly than he came, and, if he did not lose his way, would regain his camp within half-an-hour after midnight.  There would be plenty of time for the whole party to reach the savages’ encampment before the dawn rendered it dangerous.  Moving away slowly until he was out of earshot, he then walked as quickly as he could back through the forest.  But he was not a mariner, and even a mariner would have been at fault in tracking his course by compass through dense forest.  He judged his general direction accurately, but he swerved a little too far to the right, and suddenly found himself on the brink of the cliff.  He dared not go back into the forest, lest he should lose more time in wandering, so he decided to keep as close to the sea as possible, thinking that he must in time arrive at his camp.  His path was tortuous; once he had to strike inland to avoid a deep, wooded ravine; but presently he heard the sound of falling water, and, quickening his steps, came almost suddenly upon the barricade.

The whole company were awake.  They had almost given him up for lost.  It was one o’clock.  Underhill sternly checked a cheer from the sailors, when Tom ran up.  He told what he had seen.

“Hadn’t we better wait till to-morrow night?” suggested Dr. Smith.

“To-night! to-night!” cried the men eagerly.  The knowledge that food was within reach of them was too much for famishing men.  Who knew if they would have strength or sanity for the task after another sweltering day?  Underhill could not refuse them; he gave orders for the whole company to march at once.

None was left to guard the camp; the little company of sixteen could not be divided.  They set off in single file, Tom leading the way, not because he had any hope of treading in his former course, but because he alone had traversed the forest, and he alone had a compass.

The plan of lighting fires to guide them on the return journey was given up.  The forest was so dense that such fires would have been of little use; further, they might cause an immense conflagration which, though it would effectually scare the enemy, would destroy what the famished men so urgently needed, food.

Their progress was even slower than Tom’s had been.  They had to stop frequently to make sure that all were together, and, as ill luck would have it, Tom found that he was leading them through a part of the forest where the entanglements were more intricate and less penetrable than those he had formerly encountered.  But he plodded on doggedly, speaking to no one of his anxiety when a glance at his watch told how time was fleeting.  If they did not reach the camp of the savages before dawn their toil and fatigue would be wasted, and their peril greater than it had ever been.