[She and Allan by H. Rider Haggard]@TWC D-Link bookShe and Allan CHAPTER IX 18/25
Yet it was not a road which it would have been possible to follow without a guide, seeing that it also was overgrown with reeds.
Indeed, the only difference between it and the surrounding swamp was that on the road the soil was comparatively firm, that is to say, one seldom sank into it above the knee, whereas on either side of it quagmires were often apparently bottomless, and what is more, partook of the nature of quicksand. This we found out soon after we entered the swamp, since Robertson, pushing forward with the fierce eagerness which seemed to consume him, neglected to keep his eye upon the spoor and stepped off the edge on to land that appeared to be exactly similar to its surface.
Instantly he began to sink in greasy and tenacious mud.
Umslopogaas and I were only twenty yards behind, yet by the time we reached him in answer to his shouts, already he was engulfed up to his middle and going down so rapidly that in another minute he would have vanished altogether.
Well, we got him out but not with ease, for that mud clung to him like the tentacles of an octopus.
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