As long as we are on the beaten track we know
we are right, but there may be bowlders or anything else close by on
one side or the other."
Marching as closely as they could to each other the party proceeded.
"How on earth are you going to find the place where we turn off, Mr.
Fitzgibbon?" Ralph asked.
"We shall find it easy enough sir. The path regularly forks, and there
is a pile of stones at the junction, which makes as good a guide as
you can want on a dark night. We can't miss that even on a night like
this."
Ralph had struck a light with his flint and steel, and looked at his
watch at the point where they turned off from the road, and he did the
same thing two or three times as they went along.
"It's an hour and twenty minutes since we turned off, Mr. Fitzgibbon.
Even allowing for our stoppages when we have got off the path, we
ought to be near the turning now."
"Yes, I fancy we are not far off now, sir. I can feel that we are
rising more sharply, and there is a rise in the last hundred yards or
so before we reach the place where the road forks. We had better go a
little more slowly now, sir."
Another five minutes there was a stumble and a fall in front of Ralph.
"Halt!" he exclaimed sharply. "What is it, Mr. Fitzgibbon?"
"I have fallen over the pile of stones," the officer said, "and hurt
myself confoundedly.
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