"You'll have to come and get me—the same way you got my father."
He leaped away to still another stalagmite. He paused midway to unleash his own burst from the flame lance. It splashed against the cavern wall, but there was no answering fire.
He waited tensely in the darkness. Minutes passed. Surely he could not have killed the Firebird with that blast. The silence could only mean then that she was holding her fire, creeping up on him in the darkness.
"You have no excuse for my father's murder?" Nathan taunted. He slipped away to another protecting rock.
Then the voice of Firebird came again—and she hadn't moved! Nathan's eyes tried hopelessly to pierce the blackness to check the evidence of his ears.
Firebird said, "I was just wondering what I could say to a fool like you. If I killed your father for the Jewels why do you suppose that I didn't take them and go? Why should I have left them, and prepared the trap to destroy the cave mouth?"
"Is there anyone who knows the mysterious ways of the thief and killer, Firebird?"
"I have never stolen except from thieves. I have never killed—except murderers."
"My father was not a murderer!"
"And I did not kill him. Your father and I were partners for many years. We searched together for the Seven Jewels."