Savage Lands Read Online Free Page B

two days, the supplies would last them for a week should anything unexpected happen. Archie tried to convince Clark to stay behind.
    â€œAn’ miss out on the fortune an’ glory?” hissed Clark as pain shot through his leg. “Not a chance, mate. Not a chance.” He swallowed painkillers and wordlessly hefted his backpack over his shoulders, now made lighter by losing two days’ worth of backup supplies. “We could all do with losin’ a few pounds anyway,” he commented, patting his stomach when Robbie questioned the rash action.
    Mr. David had wanted to come, but Archie needed him to run the camp while they were away. Jane would have felt safer if he had come. She didn’t trust Greystoke at all. She had read up on the family and was all too aware of their merciless streak. There was nothing she liked about the English lord and could all too easily imagine his cruel intentions.
    The sun shone through the canopy, casting a network of shadows across their trail and providing welcome shade from the harsh sunlight. Despite misgivings, Jane and Robbie felt good to be traveling again and led from several yards ahead. They followed a trail that bypassed the Dum-Dum and snaked up a gentle hillside. After three hours, their clothes were damp with sweat and, with Clark lagging behind, Archie called for a break. On a plateau, they could see the jungle spread out beneath them, broken by a patchwork of brown rivers that vanished into the distance, joining the mighty Congo River somewhere over the horizon.
    Robbie couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he confided in Jane. “If you would’ve asked me a couple of months ago if I enjoyed hacking through all this …” he shook his head. “Now I just don’t want to go back. Know what I mean?”
    Jane didn’t have the words to reply. She just smiled and took in the vista; she knew exactly what he meant. Out here was freedom, away from rules and regulations, far from the nightmares that had haunted them both back in so-called civilization. Their near-death experiences had lit a fire within them that made them feel more alive than ever before.
    Archie and Clark broke out the cooking gear and soon had food bubbling away. Greystoke walked in a slow circle, holding a GPS device above his head as he searched for a signal. “Blasted thing!” he muttered.
    Robbie smirked. The previous night he had broken into Greystoke’s equipment and carefully unscrewed the device, breaking a single wire that connected to the antenna—rendering the GPS useless.
    â€œAre you sure we’re headed the right way?” Greystoke said, casting a suspicious sidelong glance at Jane.
    â€œPretty much.”
    â€œ Pretty much? ” His voice was cold. “Out here there is no margin for error, my dear.”
    Jane’s smile dropped and she glared at him. “There are also no street signs, your lordship.”
    She saw her father raise a hand to cover the smile on his face, but Clark’s eyes narrowed and he reached for the GPS.
    â€œGimme that. She knows. They both do. Two heads better than one, eh?” He examined the GPS, carefully rolling it in his hand and giving both Jane and Robbie a suspicious look.
    Archie spoke up. “Well, we need to get going. I don’t like the look of those clouds.” He indicated the black swirl that had appeared over the mountain peak behind them. The weather was unpredictable at the best of times, but the glowering cumulonimbus above looked ominous.
    â€¢ • •
    T he rain came in leaden sheets so heavy that the group could only see a few yards in front of them. Their path meandered close to a sharp slope that dropped to a cliff below, so the reduced visibility was more than an inconvenience.
    Ponchos had been broken out, snugly fitting over their backpacks but doing little to keep anyone’s legs dry below the knees. The ground rapidly changed from parched