It was plain that Laputa intended to evade the patrol, not to capture it, and there, consequently, I should be safe.
The next best thing was to find Arcoll's Kaffir, who was not twenty yards away, get some sort of horse, and break for the bush.

Long before morning we should have been over the Berg and in safety.

Nay, if I wanted a mount, there was Henriques' whinnying a few paces off.
Instead I did the craziest thing of all.

With the jewels in one pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I started running back the road we had come..