"
"Then when we get across this flat, which looks full two miles wide, we
will camp in the first valley we come to."
As they advanced the ground became more and more boggy, and the troops had
to move carefully, stepping from one tussock of coarse grass to another,
the intervals being filled with black slimy mud.
"Ask him if this gets deeper," Beorn said angrily, "for if it does so we
are like to be all swallowed up. I believe he must be leading us wrong."
Osgod had charge of the boy, and was walking close beside him. As the
question was put by the interpreter the boy muttered that he knew the way.
The man turned to translate his answer to Beorn, when there was a sudden
shout. At the moment that Osgod was making a long step from one tuft to
another the boy stooped and caught his foot, and with a roar of surprise
and fury Osgod fell head-foremost into the morass. At the same moment the
lad darted away with a yell of defiance, leaping from tuft to tuft with the
agility of a hare. Several of the men started after him, but unaccustomed
to the treacherous bog four or five were immersed in it to their waist
before they had gone a dozen paces.
"Shoot! shoot!" Beorn shouted, and a dozen javelins were thrown, but the
boy was almost beyond distance, and his rapid and irregular movements
rendered it well-nigh impossible to take aim with any accuracy. Most of the
javelins flew wide of him, and he was soon beyond reach.
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