From somewhere, muffled behind that grotesque mask, came a hoarse: “My God, are you hurt?”
Before I could speak the bonds were slashed from my ankles and wrists. A strong arm raised me and pulled me from the slab.
“For God’s sake, hurry!” cried Hazen, as half supporting me he rushed toward the altar stairs. “I’ve got ’em buffaloed for a minute, but the Lord alone knows how long it’ll hold ’em.”
Rapidly as my numbed limbs would permit I rushed down the sloping, spiral way. Half carried by Hazen I raced across the few yards of grass between the base of the pyramid and the plane, and as I did so I caught a fleeting glimpse of a huddled, shapeless, bloodly bundle of green and white. It was all that remained of the priest whom Hazen had hurled from the altar top!
The next moment I was in the plane and Hazen was twirling the propeller. There was a roar as the motor started. Hazen leaped like an acrobat to his seat and slowly the machine moved across the plain.
Everywhere the people were prostrate, but as the machine started forward one after another glanced up. Ere we had traveled a score of yards the creatures were rising and with frightful screams were scattering from our pathway. It was impossible to avoid them. With sickening shocks the whirring propeller struck one after another. Blood spattered our faces and becrimsoned the windshield and the wings. But uninjured the plane gathered headway; the uneven bumping over the ground ceased; we were traveling smoothly, lifting from the earth.
Then with a strange wild roar the people rushed for us. Racing on their hands they came. Rocks and missiles whizzed about us. An arrow whirred by my head and struck quivering in a strut. But now we were rising rapidly. We were looking down upon the maddened hosts, their arrows and sling-flung stones were striking the under surface of the fuselage and wings. We were safe at last. A moment more and we would be above the crater rim.
A sudden exclamation from Hazen startled me. I glanced up. Straight ahead rose the precipitous mountain side above the quarry. To clear it we must ascend far more rapidly than we were doing.
“Must have splintered the blades!” jerked out Hazen. “She’s not making it. Can’t swing her. Rudder’s jammed. Heave out everything you can find. Hurry or we’ll smash!”
Before us loomed the ragged, rocky wall. We were rushing to our doom at lightning speed. At Hazen’s words I grasped whatever I could find and tossed it over the side. A box of provisions, a roll of tools, a leather jacket, a thermos bottle, canteens, an automatic pistol and a cartridge belt all went. I glanced up. We were rising faster. A few pounds more overboard, a few feet higher and we would be clear. Was there anything else I could throw out? Frantically I searched. I saw a canlike object resting on a frame. Spare gasoline I decided, but fuel was of no value now. With an effort I dragged it out. I lifted it and hurled it over.