"All right," said the Hunter, soothingly. "In any case, I am afraid we have left it too late."

"Late or early, I'll not go on."

When they did reach the loopholes, they found on looking out that the valley on that side was already in the shadow.

"We will stay, then," said Mr. Hume. "Let me unstrap the mat from your shoulders."

Venning had already sat down with a dogged look in his face, and Mr.

Hume had to lift him up to loosen the mat. The boy--there was no disguising the matter any farther--was ill, and it would clearly be dangerous to excite him by opposition.

After making the boy comfortable, Mr. Hume sat smoking his pipe, the first time for many hours, in lieu of food. He himself was feeling the effect of the long period of anxiety, for he had scarcely eaten a mouthful, beyond his drink of milk, as he had given his little store to his young friend, who was in more need of it. But it was not of himself he thought. He had a new anxiety about d.i.c.k, and bitterly blamed himself for having so blindly followed the woman into this horrible place, that was one succession of death-traps.

"I'm very thirsty," muttered the boy.

Mr. Home leaned over him. "Keep quiet," he said, "and I'll bring you some water."

Taking only his Ghoorka knife and his match-box, the Hunter went on to the Cave of Skulls. Luckily for the denizens of that ominous place, none of them were there to bar his entrance, for he was in a grim mood, so making a bonfire of some of the mats, he looked about.

One calabash contained water, and this he carried back, together with something equally precious--a bunch of bananas that were black with smoke, yet fit to eat by any one who was very hungry or did not see them. The boy was sitting up waiting with burning eyes.

"You were so long," he muttered.

"But I won't go away again, old chap. I've brought you quite a feast."

Venning took a long drink, ate the bananas, and fell back on his pillow, while the Hunter resumed his seat to watch through another night. It seemed as if they were to be left in peace. Since that solitary, withered, and scared creature dived out of the cave they had seen no one. But still he sat on guard as the hours slipped slowly by, and then there came a surprising thing.

Just the tinkle made by a drop of water falling into a pool!

It came at regular intervals, incessant, musical, and he began to count it, wondering at the height it fell, and marvelling at the noise it made.

And then he leapt to his feet, and stood a moment in breathless amazement. A single drop of water to be heard above all that mult.i.tudinous clamour! What did it mean? It meant a silence so profound that from the black depth of the yawning cavity the tiny tinkle could reach him. It meant that the roaring torrent was stilled!

CHAPTER XXIV

LETTING IN THE RIVER

The river was no longer thundering through the underground pa.s.sage, and as the sudden silence following the stopping of engines on a pa.s.senger steamer will awaken every sleeper even more quickly than the roaring of a gale, so this lull in the tremendous din aroused Venning.

"What is the matter?" he asked, starting up.

"The river has stopped."

They sat straining their ears for the swift roar of the waters, but out of the slumbering depths below there came only the regular splash and tinkle of the falling drops.

"I don't understand it," muttered the Hunter.

"I do," said Venning, with a shout. "Ha.s.san has blocked up the mouth of the canon."

"Nonsense, boy; how could he?"

"Look out of the loophole."

Mr. Hume put his face to the hole. "The water has risen, I think, from the noise."

"You remember what Muata said about the drowning of the valley?

Well, that is what is happening. The Arab has blocked the mouth by blasting a ma.s.s of rock which overhung the river. That's what!"

They pondered over this new phase.

"If we had food, this would be the safest place, after all, then."

"Food, d.i.c.k, and a way out."

"d.i.c.k, of course. Anyhow, sir, it is a relief to have silence; the noise made my head throb so, I did not know what I was doing."

Before, they had to shout into each other's ears, now they spoke in low tones, but even so the echoes seemed to people the dark with whispers, and they desisted from talk. In the silence they heard presently the swirl and lapping of waters out in the canon, then the sound of men talking, and, what was strange, a noise as of paddles, These outside sounds were m.u.f.fled and indistinct, but as the night went on they heard a laugh ring out from below, loud and shrill, followed by a confused murmuring, which quickly gained distinctness in the form of a wild chant. The denizens of the underground world were on the move. Looking down over the parapet they saw a spurt of flame, and as the fire made for itself a ring of red light far down in the dark, they could make out dimly the forms of people sitting round in a circle. Then the smell of smoke reached them, and, after an interval, the strong odour of burning flesh.

"Go to sleep, lad," said Mr. Hume; "they will not disturb us. They have other prey, found, perhaps, on the scene of the fight in the gorge."

Venning shuddered, and sought his mat, while the Hunter continued to look down on the unholy feast in the bowels of the earth, with an itch to send a bullet smashing into the midst of the circle.

"Come and rest," said Venning. "Don't you ever feel tired?"

"Tired enough, lad; but I don't like this news about the river rising;" and ha went to the loophole.

"We're safe enough, sir--safe enough for to-night. There are six miles at the back of the dam, and it would take a lot of water to rise a foot an hour in the canon, and we are more than thirty feet above the normal level, I dare say. Do rest."

Mr. Hume sat down, and closed his eyes, but when he heard the regular breathing of the tired boy, he was up again. It was the thought of d.i.c.k that filled him with sleepless anxiety, and he leant on the parapet, fuming over plans in his mind with wearying reiteration. He was staring straight before him, when a light appeared on his own level, accompanied by the ring of metal on rock.

Instinctively his rifle was levelled, and, with his finger on the trigger, he sighted a foot below the light, which was now quite stationary, but, obedient to a sudden overmastering impulse, he as quickly lowered the rifle.

A moment the light remained fixed; then it was raised, lowered, and moved from side to side as if the holder were examining the ground; then it advanced.

"Stop!" thundered Mr. Hume. "Stand back. There is a chasm at your feet."

He had suddenly remembered the platform on which he and Venning had emerged on their first attempt after leaving the Cave of Skulls, and somehow he felt that the person who held that light had strayed to that very place in ignorance.

He heard a startled exclamation, saw the light fall from the person's band, and marked its swift descent, before the flame was extinguished by the rush of air; then it was his turn to fall back.

"Who are you?"

"It's d.i.c.k," shouted Venning, with a sob in his voice.

"d.i.c.k," muttered the Hunter, cold to the heart at the thought of the falling light.

"Hurrah!" There was no mistaking that shout. "Where are you? How can I get to you?"

"For G.o.d's sake, don't move!" cried the Hunter, in a shaken voice.

"Stay where you are. We'll join you."