The torch was extinguished, and they moved forward again.
“She’s in the very cave I told you about,” whispered the scout, “and we kin git right overhead and see who is with her.”
And so they did.
The honeycombed condition of the lava-beds enabled the spies to ascend above the roof of the corridor which they were traversing, and presently they looked down into the chamber wherein the torch burned.
Kit South’s expectations were realized.
His daughter tenanted the lava-bed, and she stood near the fire in a listening attitude. Something had lately roused her from a sound sleep as it seemed—perhaps the shots fired at McKay, and the tall savage who stood at the mouth or door of the chamber, appeared no less excited than herself.
He had stepped from his post of duty which was revealed by a blanket stretched upon the earth near the fire; and his face was turned from the girl whose eyes regarded him closely; for to him she looked, no doubt, for the solution of the mysterious shots.
’Reesa could have touched the low-browed ceiling of the cave with the tips of her fingers, but there was nothing upon which she might stand and draw herself up into the dark passage above.
All at once a pebble dropped at her feet.
She started just the least, and looked into the hole in the roof directly overhead.