"
"Impossible!" James Walsham said.
"It sounds impossible, sir; but I am afraid it isn't, for the officer
gave him a note to bring to the general, telling him all about it, and
that note I have got in my pocket now."
The midshipman then related the whole circumstances of his discovery.
"It is an extraordinary affair," James said. "However, you are
certainly not to blame for making your escape when you did. You could
not have got back into your tent till too late; and, even could you
have done so, it might have gone hard with you, for of course they
would have known that you were, what they would call an accomplice, in
the affair."
"I will go on if you like, sir," the boy said, "and hide somewhere
else, so that if they track me they will not find you."
"No, no," James said, "I don't think there's any fear of our being
tracked. Indian eyes are sharp; but they can't perform miracles. In the
forest it would be hopeless to escape them, but here the grass is short
and the ground dry, and, without boots, we cannot have left any tracks
that would be followed, especially as bodies of French troops have been
marching backwards and forwards along the edge of these heights for the
last fortnight. I won't say that it is impossible that they can find
us, but it will not be by our tracks.
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