I expect the man they have got as a guide has been in the habit of going down the ghauts, and knows his way.
"If it were not that we are in such a hurry to get to Uncle with the news about Tippoo, it would be much better to turn off, altogether, and stay in a wood for a day or two.

They would not stop very long at the top of the ghauts, for they cannot be sure that we are going that way, at all, and when a few hours passed, and we didn't come, the officer would suppose that he was mistaken, and that we really kept on in the line on which we started." They trotted along for some time in silence, and then Surajah said: "Do you not think that it would be better for us to make for the pass to the left?
It is twenty miles off, but we should be there by the evening, and we should surely find some way of getting into it, below where the fort stands." Dick stopped running.
"Why not go the other way, and make for the pass we know ?" he said.
"It can't be more than fifteen miles, at the outside, and once below the fort we know our way, and should get down to the village twelve hours sooner than if we went round by the other pass." "It would be the right plan, if we could do it," Surajah agreed; "but you know the rocks rise straight up on both sides of the fort, and the road passes up through a narrow cleft, with the fort standing at its mouth.

That is why I proposed the other pass." "I think we had better try it, nevertheless, Surajah.

We should not be more than three hours in going straight there, and shall have ample time to follow the edge of the precipice for the last five miles.

We may discover some break, where we can get down.