Grasping Inza, he hurried her into the darkness.
The cave narrowed, the walls closed in, and the roof came down.
Crouching and feeling their way, they pressed on. Almost on hands and
knees they crept out into the open air amid a thick screen of brush and
shrubbery that concealed the mouth of the cave.

"Thank Heaven!" murmured Inza, on the verge of collapsing.

"Where is that Indian?" cried Frank. "I cannot leave him alone to face
those men."

"No leave him," said a voice, as Red Ben came leaping out from the cave.
"Him here. Back up, keep um odders front of gun all time. They come now
prit' quick. Go, Merriwell, with gal. Ben stop um here."

He sought cover near the mouth of the cave, urging Merry to get Inza
away. Then came one of the baffled villains hurrying from the cave. A
spout of flame leaped from Red Ben's rifle and the report awoke the
mountain echoes and started a few loose pebbles rolling on the steep
slope above them.

The pursuer dropped just outside the mouth of the cave. If others were
close behind him, they halted instantly, not caring to show themselves
and share his fate.

Frank had lifted Inza and carried her through the brush and shrubbery.
As he emerged he found himself face to face with several men, and his
heart bounded when the voice of Hodge joyously shouted his name. With
Hodge was Bruce Browning, Belmont Bland, and others.

"Merry, you've found her--you've rescued her!" burst delightedly from
Hodge.

"Listen!" gasped Belmont Bland. "What is that sound?"

On the steeps above there was a murmuring movement, and, looking upward,
they seemed to see the mountain stirring slightly in the moonlight. The
rushing murmur grew louder, and pebbles began to rattle amid the
bowlders and ledges near at hand.

"A landslide!" shouted Frank, horrified. "Flee for your lives!"

As he uttered the words he saw Red Ben come leaping like a deer from the
shrubbery.

"Follow!" cried the Indian as he passed them, and fled along the side of
the mountain.

What ensued was like a terrible nightmare to Merriwell. He remembered
lifting Inza bodily and running for their lives with her in his arms.
Pebbles and small stones rained about him, while the rushing murmur grew
louder and louder. Beneath his feet at one time the whole mountain side
seemed sliding into the valley. A great bowlder, weighing many tons,
went bounding and crashing past them like a living thing seeking escape
from the awful peril. Small t