"You imp!" he screamed. "To hit a man in uniform! I'll show you what I can do! How do you like that?"
With incredible swiftness he drew his heavy Sabra and leaped upon Dick. The boy tried to retreat, but slipped on the wet ground and went down. On the instant Tucker was upon him, and, with a fierce cry, the infuriated cavalryman raised his blade over Dick's head.
CHAPTER III.
A CAVE AND A CAVE-IN.
Let us go back and see what happened to Pawnee Brown at the time the lariat parted and he found himself going down into what seemed bottomless space.
Instinctively he put out both hands as far as he was able, to grasp anything which might come within reach and thereby check his awful downward course.
The lantern fell from his fingers and jingled to pieces on a protruding rock.
Then his right hand slid over the ends of a bush growing out of a fissure. He caught the bush and held on like grim death.
The bush gave way, but not instantly, and his descent was checked so that the tumble to the bottom of the hole, fifteen feet further down, was not near as bad as it would otherwise have been.