Soon the rain stopped, and the thunder rolled away to the east. There had been no lightning that they could see. The wood grew just a little lighter, as if somewhere above the thick green branches the sun might be shining!

“I hate this wood,” said Dick, crawling out from the bushes. “Come on, for goodness’ sake. Let’s get back to the wheel-rut path.”

He led the way through the trees. Julian called to him. “Wait, Dick. Are you sure this is right?”

Dick stopped, anxious at once. “Well,” he said uncertainly. “I thought it was. But I don’t know. Do you?”

“I thought it was through those trees there,” said Julian. “Where that little clearing is.”

They went to it. “It’s not the same clearing, though,” said Anne at once. “The other clearing had a dead tree at one side. There’s no dead tree here.”

“Blow!” said Julian. “Well — try this way, then.”

They went to the left, and soon found themselves in a thicker part of the wood than ever. Julian’s heart went cold. What an absolute idiot he was! He might have known that it was madness to leave the only path they knew without marking it in some way.

Now he hadn’t the very faintest idea where the wheel-rut way was. It might be in any direction! He hadn’t even the sun to guide him.

He looked gloomily at Dick. “Bad show!” said Dick. “Well — we’ll have to make up our minds which way to go! We can’t just stay here.”

“We might go deeper and deeper and deeper,” said Anne, with a sudden little gulp of fear. Julian put his arm round her shoulder.

“Well, if we go deeper and deeper, we shall come out on the other side!” he said. “It’s not an endless wood, you know.”

“Well, let’s go straight on through the wood, then,” said Anne. “We’ll have to come out the other side some time.”

The boys didn’t tell her that it was impossible to go straight through a wood. It was necessary to go round clumps of bushes, to double back sometimes when they came to an impenetrable part, and to go either to the left or right when clumps of trees barred their way. It was quite impossible to go straight through.

“For all I know we’re probably going round and round in circles, like people do when they’re lost in the desert,” he thought. He blamed himself bitterly for having left the wheel-ruts.

They made their way on and on for about two or three hours, and then Anne stumbled and fell. “I can’t go on any further,” she wept. “I must have a rest.”

Dick glanced at his watch and whistled. Where ever had the time gone? It was almost three o’clock. He sat down by Anne and pulled her close to him. “What we want is a jolly good meal,” he said. “We’ve had nothing since breakfast.”

Anne said she still wasn’t hungry, but when she smelt the meat sandwiches that Joan had made she changed her mind. She was soon eating with the others, and feeling much better.