"Why didn't we wait at the door of that place till the brute came out?"
he asked.
I had no answer to give to the question, and after an interval of
silence he fired others at me.
"Why did you let go of One Eye? Why didn't we examine the cavern near
the fire before chasing him? The girls might have been somewhere near
the fire! Do you think they were?"
"I don't think so," I answered, trying to soothe him. "I think Leith was
the only person at the fire. He picked Soma up just before we reached
the gulf."
"But where are they? Where has the devil put them?"
"God alone knows!" I cried. "Here, it's my turn to take the lead."
In silence we went stumbling on into the appalling blackness. We could
not see the dim outlines of each other when we stood only a few inches
apart. The darkness of the Cavern of Skulls had been relieved by the
silver skewers of moonlight, but in the night that rolled around us
there was not a single gleam of light.
We had no matches. Everything that was in our pockets had been jolted
out during the mad jaunt to the stone table, and now the revolver and
cartridges which we had taken from One Eye had been lost by Holman
during the slide down the mountain of volcanic ash that brought us to
the bottom of the underground prison.
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