"Come on!" he shouted, staggering to his feet and making to where an overhanging boulder afforded some slight shelter. With difficulty the others followed him. As they crouched down, completely unmanned, they felt the ground tremble violently; then came a terrific report, as if the very rocks were rent asunder, and the air was filled with blinding steam and scalding mud.
Dead silence reigned for nearly ten minutes, then Brown gave a deep sigh and raised his head.
"All aboard!" he cried out. "Anybody hurt?"
One by one they answered, stood up, and looked around.
"Pretty warm while it lasted," said Morton; "that's an experience one does not get every day. Those fellows in the cavern were best off."
"Were they?" cried Brown excitedly. "Great Scott! Look there!"
He pointed to the brow of the cliff, and they all saw what had happened. The mouth of the cavern had disappeared, and the shape of the cliff was changed. The earth-tremor they had just experienced had brought down the roof of the cave, and their late enemies and their wretched captives lay buried beneath countless tons of rock.
The death-wail they had heard had been the death-wail of a whole tribe. The cannibals and their victims were in one common tomb.
"And the secret of that white man lies buried there too," said Morton, after a long pause.
"No, I hope not," replied Brown. "I brought something away from that heap the old man pointed to;" and from the bosom of his shirt he drew out an old-fashioned leather pocket-book.