Johnny sighed in relief as they reached the end of a narrow pass. That, he thought, would have been a bad place to be caught. His sense of relief was short-lived, however, for out from the wide door of the ancient castle, burst a man with a rifle. Instantly Johnny recognized him as the man whom he had saved from the grip of the octopus.
“Come on!” he exclaimed, as the man leveled his rifle. A shot cracked out, and a bullet burned Johnny’s cheek. Next instant the man dodged and the rifle clattered from his nerveless hands. There had been a flash of steel, as Samatan had thrown his machete. Its point was buried in the door, just back of the spot where the man’s head had been.
Dropping his rifle, Johnny executed a flying tackle, bringing the man to the ground, with a thud. Instantly two powerful natives pinned him to the earth.
“Come on!” Kennedy shouted, as the door stood open a crack. “We’re going in!” His powerful shoulder forced the door so suddenly that a man on the other side of it was instantly floored. A second man—huge, fat, beast-like—lurched at Kennedy with a knife. He was felled with one blow of the old man’s bare fist.
“Now!” Kennedy roared, towering over the prostrate pair. “Tell me where my granddaughter is or I’ll tear you limb from limb!”
“Girl?” the fat man stammered in broken English. “Gone—gone.”
“Where to?” Kennedy touched the man none too gently with his foot. But the halting reply could not be understood.
“Please, sir,” came in a youthful voice from the corner, “if I may, I will tell you.
“But first I must tell you,” said the youth who, until now, had not been noticed, “that I am not one of these!” He nodded at the men on the floor. “I was coming to America to join my father, and they compelled me to accompany them here.”
“Is that true?” Kennedy demanded of the stout man on the floor. The man nodded.