“Is that hole in the rock still there, Shadrach?”
“Without doubt, though I have not been down to look.”
“Then, my boy, you are going now,” remarked Quick grimly.
CHAPTER XII.
THE DEN OF LIONS
We returned to the others and told them everything that we had learned from Shadrach.
“What’s your plan, Sergeant?” asked Oliver when he had heard. “Tell me, for I have none; my head is muddled.”
“This, Captain, for what it is worth; that I should go down through the hole that Cat here speaks of, and get into the den. Then when they let down the Professor, if they do, and pull up the gates, that I should keep back the lions with my rifle while he bolts to the ladder which is ready for him, and I follow if I can.”
“Capital,” said Orme, “but you can’t go alone. I’ll come too.”
“And I also,” I said.
“What schemes do you make?” asked Maqueda eagerly, for, of course, she could not understand our talk.