- end_line
- 2152
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:25.200Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 2092
- text
- march, I, being the heaviest, taking the lead, with a view of breaking a
path through the obstruction, while Toby fell into the rear.
Two or three times I endeavoured to insinuate myself between the canes,
and by dint of coaxing and bending them to make some progress; but a
bull-frog might as well have tried to work a passage through the teeth
of a comb, and I gave up the attempt in despair.
Half wild with meeting an obstacle we had so little anticipated, I threw
myself desperately against it, crushing to the ground the canes with
which I came in contact, and, rising to my feet again, repeated the
action with like effect. Twenty minutes of this violent exercise almost
exhausted me, but it carried us some way into the thicket; when Toby,
who had been reaping the benefit of my labours by following close at my
heels, proposed to become pioneer in turn, and accordingly passed ahead
with a view of affording me a respite from my exertions. As however
with his slight frame he made but bad work of it, I was soon obliged to
resume my old place again. On we toiled, the perspiration starting from
our bodies in floods, our limbs torn and lacerated with the splintered
fragments of the broken canes, until we had proceeded perhaps as far
as the middle of the brake, when suddenly it ceased raining, and the
atmosphere around us became close and sultry beyond expression. The
elasticity of the reeds quickly recovering from the temporary pressure
of our bodies, caused them to spring back to their original position;
so that they closed in upon us as we advanced, and prevented the
circulation of little air which might otherwise have reached us.
Besides this, their great height completely shut us out from the view of
surrounding objects, and we were not certain but that we might have been
going all the time in a wrong direction.
Fatigued with my long-continued efforts, and panting for breath, I felt
myself completely incapacitated for any further exertion. I rolled up
the sleeve of my frock, and squeezed the moisture it contained into
my parched mouth. But the few drops I managed to obtain gave me little
relief, and I sank down for a moment with a sort of dogged apathy, from
which I was aroused by Toby, who had devised a plan to free us from the
net in which we had become entangled.
He was laying about him lustily with his sheath-knive, lopping the canes
right and left, like a reaper, and soon made quite a clearing around us.
This sight reanimated me; and seizing my own knife, I hacked and hewed
away without mercy. But alas! the farther we advanced the thicker and
taller, and apparently the more interminable, the reeds became.
I began to think we were fairly snared, and had almost made up my mind
that without a pair of wings we should never be able to escape from the
toils; when all at once I discerned a peep of daylight through the canes
on my right, and, communicating the joyful tidings to Toby, we both fell
to with fresh spirit, and speedily opening the passage towards it we
found ourselves clear of perplexities, and in the near vicinity of the
ridge. After resting for a few moments we began the ascent, and after
a little vigorous climbing found ourselves close to its summit. Instead
however of walking along its ridge, where we should have been in full
view of the natives in the vales beneath, and at a point where they
could easily intercept us were they so inclined, we cautiously advanced
on one side, crawling on our hands and knees, and screened from
observation by the grass through which we glided, much in the fashion of
a couple of serpents. After an hour employed in this unpleasant kind
of locomotion, we started to our feet again and pursued our way boldly
along the crest of the ridge.
- title
- Chunk 4