Part 3, Chapter 14: The First Blow

⁠​​​‌​​​​​​​​​‌​‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌‌​​‌​‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​​‌‌‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​‌⁠I was so pleased at having given the slip to Long John that I began to enjoy myself and look around me with some interest on the strange land that I was in.

I had crossed a marshy tract full of willows, bulrushes, and odd, outlandish, swampy trees; and I had now come out upon the skirts of an open piece of undulating, sandy country, about a mile long, dotted with a few pines and a great number of c