“He may come in!” gasped Mark. “Heaven help us, we may be saved yet!”
If Mark had only been able to see the savage figure that was dancing like a caged hyena swiftly and silently up and down the shadowy cave he might have doubted his last living hope. At any rate, the crisis was soon to come.
The prisoners were lying on the ground, with staring eyes and ears intent, listening for the faintest sound. The dreadful pattering steps they heard plainly and wondered what they meant. A moment later came another sound.
“Hello! By Zeus, where are you and what are you doing?”
The footsteps ceased abruptly. It was the Parson at the entrance of the cave!
The shouts and yells that followed his voice must have scared the learned scholar out of his boots.
“Go back! Help! Help! Run and get somebody! Look out! Fly for your life! There’s somebody in the cave! Help!”
These and a thousand other warnings the agonized plebes were shrieking at the top of their lungs. Oh, so much depended on the Parson! If he, too, were overpowered! If he, too——
“Hurry back to camp!” roared Mark, at the top of his lungs. “Don’t lose a moment! Fly!”
“By Zeus!” gasped the astonished Parson. “By the nine immortals, the inhabitants of ’the many-peaked Olympus!’ By Apollo and Hercules and the followers of Neptune!”