“Muswani!” he cried, “kneel!”
At the words the giant brute dropped to its knees. Lifting the engineer, whose wounded limb made walking a matter of great difficulty, Chenobi placed him across the elk’s back, himself mounting behind. A further word of command, and the Ayuti’s strange steed rose and stepped out upon the bridge.
“Come!” Chenobi cried, and the three friends followed across the fire gulf.
[CHAPTER XXI.]
“SUNSHINE!”
THE great flags of the bridge felt almost red-hot to the feet of the adventurers, but they trudged bravely forward through the glare, Seymour supporting Haverly as they went. There was no parapet to the bridge, and the sight of the molten flood below, visible to right and left as far as the eye could see, sent a thrill through each of the trio.
The massive span, which had seemed so solid a structure viewed from the gorge, now appeared a very flimsy affair, dwarfed to nothingness by the stupendous dimensions of the great fire gulf. With their eyes fixed upon the giant form of their guide, the three comrades moved on as steadfastly as possible. Over the vast, vibrating sheet of metal that formed the drawbridge they tramped, and glad indeed were they when they had crossed the last span, and their feet touched solid ground.
Here the Ayuti dismounted and strode to where a great lever projected from the masonry of the bridge. This he pulled over, and instantly, with a clanging rattle, the drawbridge swung upward into place.
“Now that your foes are all destroyed,” he remarked, turning to the baronet, “Nordhu, the priest, will not know whether ye have escaped or no.”
But he was wrong; for, as the party once more moved on, a wolf-man crept from his hiding place amid the rocks on the opposite side of the gorge. A moment he stood there in the glare, shaking his spear menacingly towards the retreating figures of the fugitives, then turned and vanished into the gloom of the defile.