Twice we mired through carelessness, and several times were obliged to skirt the edge of marshes for considerable distances, before discovering a safe passage beyond.

The night shut about us black, and discouraging, with scarcely a star visible in the sky, by which we could determine our direction.

I was quickly lost in this blind groping, unable to even guess the points of the compass, but Tim apparently possessed the mysterious instinct of the pathfinder, although what dim signs guided him I could not decipher.

To me it was all chance; while he kept steadily moving, occasionally relieving his feelings by an oath, but never hesitating for longer than a moment.
We became mere shadows, groping through the void, barely perceptible to our own strained eyes.

Now and then we drifted apart, and were obliged to call out so as to locate the others.