“I guess the Ayuti didn’t pile it on a bit too thick when he said it was death to touch it,” announced Silas; “but let’s get a move on. We’ll have to follow the trail of the elk now, and we may be in at the death, after all, if we flicker.”
With that they all turned and retraced their steps to the altar chamber. Then, descending to the square, they set the two remaining hounds on the trail of Muswani.
“I reckon,” Haverly averred, as they passed through the city gate, “as Nordhu’s a man of resources. He ought to be a financier. There’s not a blamed coup but what he could bring off.”
“He’s the craftiest brute I ever had dealings with,” returned Seymour; “but I think he’s about at the end of his tether. By this time Chenobi should have reached the end of the passage, and, if so, Nordhu will regret the bravado that inspired him to wait and bid ‘us farewell,’ as he put it.”
“How he comes to know the secrets of the temple so well puzzles me,” admitted Mervyn. “His knowledge of the workings of the place seems almost unlimited.”
“You can bet he’s used that passage before,” remarked the American; “perhaps to sneak into the city on some throat-slitting job or other; but I reckon he’ll have to be real cute to get away from Chenobi. Say, we’ll have to accelerate the pace considerable if we’re to see this job through,” and he set the example by striding forward briskly.
Over the plain they went for perhaps a couple of hours, close at the heels of the hounds, until the sound of the sea came to their ears, the booming of waves against the rocks.
“Great Scott!” the baronet exclaimed; “I did not know we were so near the sea.”
“We may see something of the Seal,” suggested Wilson, his heart leaping at the thought.
“I shouldn’t reckon on it,” replied Silas; “this underground sea appears to be fairly large, and there’s heaps of room for the old boat to get lost if Garth ain’t careful where he’s steering.”