"What the devil is wrong?" he screamed. "Damn you,
will--"
Maru interrupted with a cry of astonishment. The wall at the end of the
passage appeared to slide away, and, standing directly in front of us,
his big frame outlined against a fire of brushwood that blazed behind
him, was Leith!
Holman gave a yell of rage and sprang forward, and Leith turned and sped
into the gloom. In his astonishment at finding himself confronted by the
enemy when the stone door had rolled aside, Holman had forgotten that he
had a revolver in his possession, and Leith had passed the brushwood
fire before I yelled out to the youngster to shoot.
Holman fired immediately, and Leith staggered. For a moment we thought
that he was down, but he picked himself up and ran on. I snatched a
blazing pine limb from the fire as I rushed by, and with the light
flickering upon the walls of the place, we sped madly after the flying
figure that was barely discernible when the blazing branch flung a
splinter of light into the gloom.
Holman emptied the revolver, but the pounding of Leith's feet that came
back to us proved that he was still running.
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