"Then I shall take advantage of the fact, father. Stay here, all of you, while I slip out. If I am seen, I shall be just one of the Mullah's followers, and all the while shall be on the look-out so as to see how we can best escape. Ta, ta. Wait till I return."
Before they could stretch out a friendly arm to detain him, Jim was outside the shaft, and was running up the slope of the hill. Anxiously did his comrades await his return, and more than once they were tempted to throw caution to the winds, and, giving way to their impatience, to rush into the open in search of their leader. But the calmness of the colonel held them back.
"Trust the lad," he said, his head held proudly in the air. "He has done as well as any man, and has shown that he has pluck and plenty of brains. Give him a full half-hour before we make any movement. Ah, what are those sounds?"
"The dogs in search of us," said Ali, placing his hand to his ear, and facing down the shaft. "These walls carry the sound as does the tube which they have in Aden. Have I not listened at one end to hear the sound of a comrade's voice? Have little fear, masters, for those men will hardly dare to follow us into this shaft."
"Hush! Here is someone coming towards us!" exclaimed the colonel, in a warning whisper at this moment. "I think it is Jim; but it may not be. He is evidently hunting for the entrance."
"It is the lad, sure enough," cried John Margetson, staring out of the shaft. "Look at the condition of his linen clothing. No self-respecting follower of Allah would dare to go abroad in such a dress. He is travel-soiled, and there can be no mistake as to his identity. I shall call to him."
Thrusting his arm clear of the opening, he waved it, and called gently to Jim. A second or two later Jim appeared at the entrance of the shaft, his dusky features radiant with smiles.
"Good news!" he cried eagerly. "Not one of the enemy on this side, so far as I have been able to observe, but all are in the ravine beyond, trying to screw up their courage to enter the mine as some of their comrades have done."
"Then they do not suspect that we are on the farther side," said the colonel, in tones of relief. "Nevertheless, the question of escape is still one of difficulty."
"I think not, father," answered Jim quietly. "We have a clear field before us, and scarcely forty miles to cover."