It was the supreme moment for the Englishman, who bounded forward as if shot from a catapult, striking fiercely at every one within reach and clearing a path through which he dashed down the street like a frightened deer, his yellow hair streaming in the wind.
The sight of the fugitive running for life brought back the senses of the mob, and they swarmed after him. Dr. Avery was quick to see that this diversion gave him a chance to save himself during the moments that the attention of the heathen was drawn toward the flying fugitive.
Stepping quickly back into the shadow, he walked deliberately away without attracting notice.
"I would like to know whether they caught him," he muttered, full of solicitude for the stranger. "He knew what to do, and he got along a good deal better than he would had I reached his side. For that matter, it was mighty lucky for me that I failed. He can outrun all of those yawping devils, and, if he doesn't get tangled up in the streets, he has a good chance of giving them the slip—helloa! what's up now?"
CHAPTER VII.
THE PURSUIT.
That which arrested the eye of Dr. Avery was another crowd, or more properly the same one. He had been drawn away from his true course, and in trying to regain it, he came face to face with the wild mob. Should he be recognized, he would be set upon at once; but with the coolness of a veteran he sauntered along, keeping in the shadow as much as he could. Providentially he was soon clear from all danger from that source.
His heart gave a sympathetic throb when he caught the meaning of enough of the broken exclamations to learn that the fugitive had escaped from the throng that had chased him only a short way before he left them out of sight.
"Luchman gave me this street because it is the most direct one to the Cashmere Gate, and I am less likely to lose my way, but it seems to me it has more moonlight and the natives are altogether too plentiful. I shouldn't wonder now if they are so impatient that they will not wait for the sepoys to begin their deviltry. I think I will turn off and take a road where there are not so many neighbors."
He speedily reached such a street, which appeared to run parallel to the one he had just left, and certainly was much safer. He decided to keep it as long as he could, and when convinced that he was following a wrong course, he would make his way back to the main road that Luchman had directed him to follow.