Just as he finished speaking a strange thing happened. Bob, who was only a few feet ahead of him, suddenly disappeared as though the ground had swallowed him up. Jack stopped and stared. Then he took a few steps ahead and the next moment the earth dropped from beneath him and he felt himself falling.
CHAPTER XI
THE GROUND OPENS AT THE RIGHT TIME.
Jack dropped but a few feet and landed unhurt in absolute darkness.
“Thought you’d drop in.”
It was Bob’s voice and the next moment Bob’s arm was about his shoulder.
“Keep perfectly still now and they may go past us,” he whispered.
“But suppose they drop in too?”
“I think they are too far to the right. Listen.”
The sound of their pursuers could be plainly heard now as they pushed their way rapidly through the woods.