“This very building may have been included within the limits,” I was reflecting, when all at once Philpot came bursting into the apartment where I stood before an inscribed tablet bearing a long history of the doings of some forgotten dignitary of the ancient Cambodian race.
“Look here, Wylde, we are in a precious pickle now!” he broke out.
“What is the trouble?” I inquired, turning with a start, for I had not been conscious of his approach.
“Why that wretched fraud of a priest refuses to go back with us. Says he is obliged to stay here to perform some heathen ceremony or another, and has just informed me that we can stay until morning or return to the Nagkon Wat as best we can.”
“Well, I don’t see anything so very terrible about that,” I answered. “It is scarcely past four o’clock, and the distance is only three miles. For my part I’d as soon be rid of the fellow—he’s only in the way.”
“Precisely, but suppose we miss the path?”
“No danger. It is a straight trail through the forest. We couldn’t miss it if we were to try.”
“Which only goes to show how little you comprehend the dangers of a Siamese forest,” he replied. “I tell you, my dear fellow, we are very likely to miss our way, and that means wandering in the jungle indefinitely, living on all sorts of unpleasant things, with the beautiful prospect of starving to death in the end.”
“Pshaw! You exaggerate. Have you tried all your powers of persuasion?”
“Aye, and of Maurice’s brandy flask and tobacco bag into the bargain. It’s no go. The old fanatic has got some crotchet into his head, and the devil himself couldn’t knock it out.”
I found Maurice less excited than the Doctor, but still anxious, and of the opinion that we ought to start back at once.
“Mr. Philpot is right, George, he said. “There is danger. We are without a compass and the jungle is full of wild beasts. It would be no joke to get lost in these woods.”
Meanwhile the priest had taken himself off and could not be found. Probably he was concealed somewhere among the ruins, but we made no attempt to look for him, simply bundling our traps together and starting off along the narrow trail in single file.
