“I have never followed this stream far,” he remarked, “and, therefore, have less knowledge of it than the rest of the country, but my impression is that it cannot serve us long.”

“It will be time enough to leave the boat and take to the woods when we can go no further,” said Jack Everson; “but we cannot get away from the main stream too soon.”

This was self-evident.  It was not likely that the natives after their decisive repulse would abandon their purpose of massacring the party, but they would be more guarded in what they did and probably secure reinforcements, an easy thing to do when the sanguinary wretches everywhere were thirsting for victims.

Jack had seized one of the poles, and he and young Wharton plied them with so much sturdiness that the heavy craft made better progress than at any time since it was used as a vehicle of safety.  The course of the tributary was winding, and our friends had not gone far when they were shut out from the sight of any persons passing up and down the main river, even if close to the northern bank.

Would the natives suspect the course taken by the whites?  That was the all-important question that must soon be answered.  After searching up and down the Ganges without success, it was likely they would penetrate the stratagem and follow them, in which event the fugitives would be in a critical situation, since the straightness of the stream and the wooded shores would place them at much greater disadvantage than if they remained upon the Ganges.

When the boat had ascended the tributary for perhaps an eighth of a mile it was deemed safe to lessen the work of poling.  Careful listening failed to detect any sound of pursuit, and there was ground for hoping that their enemies neither knew nor suspected what had been done.

Several facts had become apparent.  The densely wooded shores offered excellent concealment.  By running the boat beneath the dense branches and among the heavy vegetation the keenest-eyed Asiatics might pass up or down stream almost within arm’s length without suspecting its presence.  But the tributary had perceptibly narrowed and its current was swifter than at the mouth.  All this pointed to the truth of what Dr. Marlowe suspected—­the stream could not serve them much further.

The night was now so far advanced that the women took the advice of their friends and withdrew to the cabin for slumber.  Their quarters were cramped, but they made themselves fairly comfortable.  The night was cooler than the day, but only sufficiently so to be pleasant.  It was not deemed probable that anything would be seen of their enemies before the morrow, and perhaps not even then.

Dr. Marlowe insisted upon taking his turn in poling, but since there were four vigorous men without him, they would not consent.  When two had toiled for an hour or more, they gave way to the other couple, and the progress thus continued without interruption, while the time slowly dragged along.  The resting spells gave each the opportunity for sleep, thus husbanding their vigor for the morrow.  Finding that there was nothing to which he could turn his hand, the physician reclined at the bow and soon joined the others in dreamland.