Bobby Cole's heart leaped as she saw him run crouching to meet Tom Beck, and her gun leaped to position ... and she waited there in the darkness for the next flash of light ... as men waited below ... as Jane Hunter waited, with her heart racing in despair; as Dick Hilton, gibbering under his breath, waited....
The big brown horse stumbled and Tom Beck cried aloud in fear and pain, cried drunkenly, as his blood drenched the saddle. Twenty yards to the shelter of solid rock ... ten ... five....
And a scarecrow figure leaped from it at them, revealed by a long, green glimmer.
"Damn you, Beck! Damn you, you've ruined me; you drove me to this.... Now, take th—"
His gun had whipped up even as the gun of the girl they saw behind him whipped up.
Neither fired.
Down below had come those winking fangs again and Hilton's voice trailed into a rising, rasping gasp as missiles from his compatriots drilled his body.
His pistol dropped to the rock. He put his hands to his stomach.
"Damn your—"
He choked on the word, and as he choked he took one blind step forward, over the brink. As he fell he threw up his hands and sailed downward into the depths, into the coming darkness....