"Oh! Chunda Lal!" she moaned—"Chunda Lal! It is the trap!"
"The trap!" said Inspector Kelly.
"The cellar trap. He has thrown him down … to the ants!"
Inspector Kelly uttered a short laugh; but Stuart repressed a shudder. He was never likely to forget the skeleton of the Nubian mute which had been stripped by the ants in sixty-nine minutes!
"We are too late!" whispered Miska. "Oh! listen! listen!"
Bells began to ring somewhere above them.
"Max and Dunbar are in!" said Kelly. "Come on, sir! Follow closely, boys!"
He ran up the stairs and along the corridor to the door at the end.
A muffled shot sounded from somewhere in the depths of the house.
"That's Harvey!" said one of the men who followed—"Our man must have tried to escape by the tunnel to the river bank!"