He kept this pace for a distance of an hundred yards, then stopped to listen intently as he glanced sharply on all sides, after which he was off again.
Half way across this plain Joe's wind began to fail, and his breathing became labored; but he kept close to the hunter's heels.
Once he looked back to see a great wide expanse of waving grass.
They had covered perhaps four miles at a rapid pace, and were nearing the other side of the plain.

The lad felt as if his head was about to burst; a sharp pain seized upon his side; a blood-red film obscured his sight.

He kept doggedly on, and when utterly exhausted fell to the ground.
When, a few minutes later, having recovered his breath, he got up, they had crossed the plain and were in a grove of beeches.

Directly in front of him ran a swift stream, which was divided at the rocky head of what appeared to be a wooded island.

There was only a slight ripple and fall of the water, and, after a second glance, it was evident that the point of land was not an island, but a portion of the mainland which divided the stream.