"Don't let him get away!"
These and a dozen other orders were given at the same time, and those rioters who were nearest Fred began the pursuit.
"He'll never reach the store," Donovan said sadly, as he led the way back to the slope when Fred was swallowed up by the darkness. "Even if these fellows don't overtake him there are plenty between here and there who'll hear the alarm."
CHAPTER IX
JOE BRACE
During the first five minutes after he was locked in the short drift, Sam Thorpe gave himself up to unreasoning anger. He threw himself again and again upon the timbers as if believing it would be possible to force them apart, and shouted at the full strength of his lungs until he was literally unable to speak louder than a whisper.
Then recognizing the uselessness of such proceedings, he sat down to think over the matter calmly.
"If Fred succeeded in giving the alarm, I'm not in very much danger of being drowned out," he said to himself; "but if he was caught I can count on dying in about two hours."
With this mental speech came the assurance that he had yet a hundred and twenty minutes in which to fight for life, and he resolved not to waste a single second.