CHAPTER XXVI
THE COLUMN OF SMOKE
"Well, we are lost, that is all there is to it. And I am so dead tired I can't walk another step." And thus speaking, Link Merwell sank down on a tree-root to rest.
He and Dave had been plunging along through the forest and across several clearings for the larger part of an hour. They had found what looked to be a trail, but it had suddenly come to an end in front of a small cave that looked to be the lair of some wild animal, and they had gone on once more. Now the darkness of the tropics shut out the surrounding landscape.
Link Merwell certainly looked the picture of misery. His clothing was much tattered and still wet, and his forehead was swollen from contact with the rocks. One of his shoes was so cut that his bare foot was exposed.
"It looks as if we were lost," replied Dave. "In this darkness it will be difficult to go much further. But I had hoped, by keeping in a straight line, that, sooner or later, we'd reach the shore of the island."
247
