It was a vast relief for the moment, but little comfort could our friends take from the fact.  Their enemies were not likely to go far, when they would suspect that something of the nature described had occurred, and they would return and grope along shore for their victims.  So certain was Dr. Marlowe of this turn that he believed the wisest course was for the entire party to abandon the boat, and, as may be said, “take to the woods.”  They had the whole night before them, and, with his intimate knowledge of the roads, paths and trails of the country and jungles, he was confident of guiding them beyond danger and to some place where, when morning dawned, there would be little to fear in the way of discovery.

This course would have been taken except for the absence of Jack Everson.  There was no way of apprising him of the change of plan, and, with his ignorance of the topography of their surroundings, he would be certain to go astray, and for any one in his situation, to go astray meant death.

CHAPTER VII.

An unexpected meeting.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jack Everson found matters exceedingly interesting.

When he informed his friends that he would rejoin them in the course of a few minutes the possibility of anything interfering with his promise did not occur to him.  That danger threatened every member of the little company may be set down as self-evident, but what could happen to disturb him in the brief interval spent in running up the slope, dashing into the house and back again to the river’s side?

Such were his thoughts as he entered the shadows and hurriedly approached the front veranda.  Although he had reached this spot within the preceding twenty-four hours the evening meal and the preparations for flight had given him sufficient knowledge of the interior to remove all difficulty in going straight to the table in the dining-room and taking the forgotten revolver therefrom.

The first tingle of misgiving came to the young man when he was close to the porch and about to step upon it.  He remembered that it was himself who had extinguished the lamp on the table as the three were about to pass into the hall and out of doors, but lo! a light was shining from that very room.  What could it mean?

“That’s deuced queer,” he thought, coming to an abrupt halt; “I screwed down that lamp and blew into the chimney in the orthodox fashion, so it couldn’t have been that I unconsciously left the wick burning.”

At this juncture he made another significant discovery.  The front door which he had seen Dr. Marlowe close was partly open.  The inference was inevitable:  some one was in the house.  In the brief time that had passed one or more persons had entered and were busy at that moment in the interior.  Perhaps they had been watching among the shadows on the outside for the occupants to leave the way open for them to pass within.