“Shut the valve!”
But they might as well have tried to catch the wind.
The Steam Man was off like a flash. Down the avenue he went with clanking tread.
After him with despairing souls ran the explorers, vainly trying to overtake him.
In the cage, unable to extricate himself, the huge anaconda was taking an enforced ride.
What more strange or thrilling predicament could be imagined?
Down the avenue went the strange procession. The Steam Man went on and was soon out of sight through a vista of trees and overhanging vines.
The seriousness of the affair to our adventurers could not be estimated at the moment.
Left in that terrible wilderness to find their way on foot back to Campeachy was not a pleasant thing to contemplate.
There did not seem to remain any doubt but that the Steam Man would keep on until it should come in disastrous collision with some object.