"We saw him enter it. Besides, we found burnt matches on the ground and the ashes of his pipe...."
"Then he went out by the air-hole...."
"It is too narrow. Ramon, who is slightly built, could not get through...."
"And there is no other cave?"
"No!"
"Evidently he left by the way he entered, and escaped under the noses of your sentries...."
"Impossible, Herr Doktor! By the way he went in, without ropes, both ascent and descent are out of the question! And since early morning the path, which is the only means of access to the cliff, has been guarded...."
Shaking with ague, Clubfoot was struggling to regain his self-control.
"Erlauben Sie!" he said in a voice half-suffocated with rage, "let us get this right. I do not admit miracles. We know that the Engländer and the girl took refuge in this cave. Gut! The girl, we know, came out through the air-hole. Where is then the man?"
Von Hagel looked at Marjorie.