Our friends could not have asked anything better, and they straightway gave their pursuers an exhibition of speed that must have astonished them.
Harkins was bearing to the right, but was recalled by a word from Luchman, and the three dashed for the other side of the plain, distant about an eighth of a mile.
What was to be done when the boundary should be reached was a serious question, but before attaining it an unexpected refuge presented itself.
India abounds with interesting ruins, temples and caves, which display an exquisite order of architecture of ancient times. In front of the runners appeared a ruined temple, and the guide called out that if they could reach that they would be safe.
The utmost effort was made, and Harkins and the surgeon were sure they never ran so fast in all their lives. Probably their pursuers believed the same, for they steadily dropped behind. Several fired while on the run, but that was practice in which they did not excel, and their shots went wild.
The structure, as seen from a distance, was simply a ruin. It had been a fine building centuries before, but was fallen to pieces so that naught beside the lower portion remained. Several walls, their tops jagged and uneven, rose to a height of twenty or thirty feet, and piles of masonry lay strewn around where they may have been tumbled by fanatic hands or by the elements. Dense shrubbery and a few twisted trees projected from the debris, and their roots, while helping to disintegrate, also helped to hold what was left in position.
The masonry was of a dull gray color, visible for a long way through the emerald vegetation, though a casual glance might well have caused a doubt as to whether it could be made available as a means of defense. In ancient times, the use of a species of sugar in the mortar gave it a degree of hardness which gradually became like that of stone itself.
But there was no time to think of that: it was all that was left to the fugitives, who continued to put forth their utmost efforts. They kept well together until quite near the refuge, when Luchman shot ahead with a swiftness that astonished the others. He bounded through the arched way that had once spanned the entrance as if he were shot from a catapult.
His companions were scarcely behind him, and they rushed in like a couple of contestants on the home-stretch, all quickly pausing, for they were doubtful of what remained beyond.
"Stop, sahibs," shouted Luchman; "they must not come in!"