“We ask to be taken to your city,” continued Paul.
The man sat motionless.
“If you refuse our reasonable request we will find the way without your guidance,” Allerton went on in a firm voice. He was getting provoked.
“In that case you will sacrifice your lives,” came the threatening rejoinder.
“Not so,” said our leader, bluntly. “Our lives are not to be—”
He paused abruptly, for the ledge was vacant. The Tcha had disappeared as if by magic.
With a bound Bryonia leaped up and caught a projecting rock from which he swung himself to the shelf the red-beard had occupied. Then he also disappeared and we waited anxiously the result of his quest. A few moments later the black protruded his head and shook it gravely.
“Dey’s a tunnel heah,” he announced; “but it blocked up good an’ tight.”
Chaka and Allerton both investigated, we standing below to “boost” them to the shelf. When they came back they reported that a small tunnel, merely a crevice, in fact, led into the cliff for a distance of about twenty feet and then ended in a solid wall.
“Of course it isn’t solid,” added Paul, “for the fellow evidently escaped that way and lowered a big stone to block the tunnel. But from this side it is impossible to remove the obstruction.”