“On!” cried Cormac, “on!” and slipping his arm around the girl forced her forward—till the light behind them had disappeared and the rock on either side had given place to damp earth.
“This path leads to the cliffs!” exclaimed Elgiva. And then she gave a sudden cry.
“I slip! I fall!”
Their path descended with terrible rapidity, but she did not fall, for Cormac’s arm prevented her.
“On!” he cried, “on! Though escape lead us to a second death!”
They were almost running now; pitch-dark around them; a slippery and treacherous foothold beneath; thick about them a sudden swarm of startled bats.
Day seemed, in a strange manner, to be dawning from beneath them.
The quick movement, the strange flight, and weird surroundings brought cries and laughter both from Elgiva’s lips—the first sign of weakness she had shown.
“Ah me!” she cried, “we have flown from the pikes and knives of men to the awful dwellings of gnomes and mermen. I can stay my feet no longer—I faint, I fall!”
Full daylight flashed upon them; a rush of earth and stones accompanied them, as they slid, suddenly, into a shell-strewn cave.