Turning in that direction, I hurried the mule, burning as I did to get on to the direct route to the cavern. I had whispered a few encouraging words to Lilla, and was then thinking how my locking the kitchen door had retarded the enemy and given us time to escape, when I felt that, worn out and overcome by the excitement and terrors of the night, my companion had given way and was sinking, fainting, from the saddle.
By an effort, though, I kept her in her place, and whispered to my uncle to take the lead, so that our mule might follow.
He did so; and then, with the cries of the searching Indians still ringing in our ears, we pushed on till, under my uncle’s guidance, we reached the open track, and I whispered to him the direction we had followed to reach the cave.
“I think if we pursue this path for about a mile, Harry, we can then turn off to the right and reach your track—that is, if we do not lose our way.”
So spoke my uncle; and then, all burdened as I was, I levelled my gun and uttered a warning cry to my companions; for there was a rustling on our left, a heavy panting, and then with a loud and triumphant yell a couple of savages sprang out into the dim twilight of the open space where we were standing.
“Let them have us all dead, not living, Hal,” said my uncle, his sad tones giving place to those of fierce excitement.
And he, too, levelled his piece just as, with a fresh burst of yells, the savages dashed on.
Two loud, echoing reports—two dimly-seen, shadowy figures falling back into the underwood—and then we were hurrying along the track as fast as we could urge the mules.
“There is another path farther on, Harry,” said my uncle; “we must reach that.”
Onward, then, we went through the gloomy shades, black now as night could make them, not even daring to pause to try whether we could detect the sounds of pursuit. That the reports of our guns would bring the Indians to that spot we had no doubt, but I was hopeful that they might not at first find the bodies of their companions; and if they did not, I knew that all endeavours to trace us by the mule-trail until the morning would be futile.