"P'raps we're up against something," whispered Holman, "Feel if there's
anything in front, Verslun."
I walked forward a pace and groped in the blackness. My fingers touched
solid rock. It hemmed us in on all sides. One Eye had walked us to the
end of the passage, and we had come up against a blind wall.
I whispered the news to Holman, and he swore softly. Maru's fingers
tightened on the collar of the prisoner till his breath came in short
gasps. Kaipi moved around to the side of the prisoner, but I pushed him
roughly back. The Fijian's desire to use his knife on all occasions was
somewhat irritating.
"What'll we do?" asked Holman.
"Get back," I answered. "He's either fooled us or he's lost his way."
Holman gripped One Eye by the neck and shook him roughly. The
youngster's temper was up, and it looked as if we had wasted the hours
we had spent in capturing the idiot alive, and the time lost in
following behind him through the canon and the crooked passage. And time
was precious when we thought of the agony which Edith and Barbara
Herndon were suffering.
In his temper Holman forgot that the prisoner was deaf, and he shouted
a question at him.
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