“There’s nothing slow about Jai Singh,” volunteered Patsy.
“His spear is as powerful and quick as a shot, it has always seemed to me,” added Chick.
“At the same time,” went on Patsy, “if you can’t let Jai Singh take it up, what’s the matter with little boy Patsy having some fun with this big lightning bug? I’d make his overcoat rattle, even if I couldn’t plug a few holes in it.”
“Wouldn’t do,” was the veto Nick Carter put on this. “I can’t afford to lose you yet, Patsy.”
Lord Slava evidently admired Patsy Garvan’s pluck, but he agreed with Nick Carter that the young assistant would not be the man to offer the challenge on which so much would depend.
“You will await the signal,” he directed, turning to Nick. “Do not show yourselves before. As you see, the amphitheater is fast filling up. It is not safe for me to stay here any longer. Your escape must have been discovered by this time.”
“Is any one likely to come here after us?” asked Nick. “If there should be an attack on us here, why——”
He held up his rifle significantly. Lord Slava shook his head again.
“There is no danger,” he replied. “Here you are secure. No man can reach you in this tunnel. I will see to that. But when you hear the trumpets that will open the festival, then keep well back, where the shadows are deep, and do not speak overloud.”
“Who is there to hear us if we do speak?” asked Nick, somewhat puzzled.