You eat chop, Major, I pack." Presently they started on their trudge through those endless trees, with Fear for a companion.

Even the porters, who had been told nothing, seemed more afraid than usual, though whether this was because they "smell rat," as Jeekie called it, or owing to the progressive breakdown of their nervous systems, Alan did not know.

About midday they stopped to eat because the men were too tired to walk further without rest.

For an hour or more they had been looking for a comparatively open place, but as it chanced could find none, so were obliged to halt in dense forest.

Just as they had finished their meal and were preparing to proceed, that which they had feared, happened, since from somewhere behind the tree boles came a volley of reed arrows.