At that point the rail was somewhat rotten, and a shriek of horror broke from the man's lips as he saw it break. He made one desperate effort to spring from the saddle and escape going down into the quarry with the horse, but the pursuers were dismayed to see man and beast disappear into the yawning hole.
"He won't get away to-day, my boy," said the man in the foremost carriage, at whose side was Frank. "We'll find him down at the bottom of the quarry, dead as a flounder."
Finding a place to hitch the horse at the side of the road, the man did so, and they went forward together, while the other pursuers kept coming up.
Reaching the point where the man and horse had fallen into the quarry, they looked down.
Amid the jagged rocks far below were two motionless forms.
"Come," said the man; "we'll go down there by the regular road."
They passed round the quarry till they found a road that wound downward till it reached the bottom. By this road they descended, with scores of others at their heels.
When they came to the man and the horse, great was their astonishment to hear the man moaning and to see him open his eyes and look at them.
"Why, the critter an't dead yet!" exclaimed the constable. "I think it's my sollum duty to arrest him on the spot."
Frank quickly knelt by the side of the mysterious man, who faintly whispered: