Leo and Dick thought it high time for them to act.
Dropping to their knees, they began firing into the ranks of the queerly attired strangers.
Crack! crack!
The reports rang out in rapid succession, and at almost every shot a man fell.
At first they seemed to be staggered and amazed, but they soon rallied and answered the rifle shots, by another flight of arrows.
It now behooved our friends to look for a place of cover.
A few yards distant was the mouth of a gallery or passage, and at the command of Leo Malvern they rushed for this with all possible speed.
The inhabitants of the underground place came after them with all their might, uttering, for the first time, loud yells of triumph.
“Hurry up!” cried Dick; “if we can reach the mouth of that passage we’ll give ’em fits.”
The arrows kept flying all around them, and Lucky, the darky, was wounded in the arm.