"The revolver!" hissed Dhondaram. "Shoot, sahib!"
"No, I tell you!" answered Wily. "I'll have none o' that, or——"
With a savage snarl, Dhondaram hurled himself on Wily Bill in a furious effort to secure the revolver and fight off the approaching rescuers.
The trapdoor had been thrown entirely back, and daylight was flooding the pit. The sounds of the struggle between the Hindoo and Wily Bill reached the ears of those above.
"Here they are!" cried the voice of McGlory, and instantly he leaped downward.
With a blow of his fist the Hindoo staggered the cowboy, leaped upward, and gained the floor.
"Dhondaram!" yelled Burton, who was just preparing to follow McGlory down under the floor.
The word was hardly out of his lips before the showman was compelled to drop back to avoid a sweeping blow of the knife in the Hindoo's hand.
McGlory was looking for Matt, and paid little attention to the Hindoo. He found his pard with his groping hands, for his eyes were blinded by the sudden change from day to the darkness of the pit.
"Bully for you, pard!" exclaimed McGlory. "Lashed hand and foot, or I'm a Piegan! Speak to me about this, will you? And gagged, too. Sufferin' blazes, but you've had a time! There, how's that?"