Back they darted towards the entrance, but the lascar, anticipating this manouvre, was on his guard. As Jack dashed past, the cunning spy thrust out his foot and sent him sprawling on the flagstones. Don, hearing the noise, turned back to his friend's assistance, and by the time Jack regained his feet the lascar had reached the entrance mid raised the hue-and-cry.
“This way!” cried Don, making for a narrow side door, as the lascar's shouts began to echo through the precincts of the temple. “Get your knife ready, he's raised the alarm!”
Through the door they dashed, only to find themselves in the court, hemmed in on every side. The frenzied cries of the lascar continued to ring through the enclosure; but, fortunately for the mock pilgrims, so vast was the concourse of natives, and so deafening the uproar, that only those nearest the shrine understood, his words, while even they failed, as yet to penetrate the clever disguise of the intruders. This gave them time to draw breath, and look about them.
Close, on their left Jack's quick eye discovered an exit, about which the crowd was less dense than elsewhere. The great doors stood wide open, disclosing a narrow street. Between this exit and the spot where they stood at bay, a number of sacred bulls were quietly feeding off a great heap of corn which the devotees had poured out upon the flags of the court. All this Jack's eyes took in at a glance.
A roar, terrific as that of ten thousand beasts of prey, burst from the surging multitude. The lascars words were understood. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, Jack saw that this man, from his place upon the steps of the shrine, was pointing them out.
Another instant, and their disguise would avail them nothing; the maddened, fanatical crowd would be upon them.
“Don,” he said, in rapid, husky tones, as he grasped his friend's hand for what he believed to be the last time, “there's but one chance left us, and that's a slim one. You see the door on our left, and those bulls? Do you take one of the two big fellows feeding side by side, and I'll take the other. Use your knife to guide the brute, and with God's help——”
A tremendous roar of voices and a thunderous rush-of feet cut his words short.