ed myself to that ledge; I rested one thigh upon it and pressed
against the rock to steady myself. Then the rock gave, and I tumbled
backward into the bottom of a tunnel. Afterwards I escaped to the top
of the cliff in the dark, O God of Israel! in the dark, smelling my way,
climbing like a baboon, risking death a thousand times. It took me two
whole days and nights, and the last of those nights I knew not what I
did. Yet I found my way, and that is why my people name me Cat."

"I understand," said Quick in a new and more respectful voice, "and
however big a rascal you may be, you've got pluck. Now, say, remembering
what I told you," and he tapped the handle of his revolver, "is that
feeding-den where it used to be?"

"I believe so, O Quick; why should it be changed? The victims are let
down from the belly of the god, just there between his thighs where are
doors. The feeding-place lies in a hollow of the cliff; this platform on
which we stand is over it. None saw my escape, therefore none searched
for the means of it, since they thought that the lions had devoured
me, as they have devoured thousands. No one enters there, only when the
beasts have fed full they draw back to their sleeping-dens, and those
who watch above let down the bars. Listen," and as he spoke we heard a
crash and a rattle far below. "They fall now, the lions having eaten.
When Black Windows and perhaps others are thrown to them, by and by,
they will be drawn up again."

"Is that hole in the rock still there, Shadrach?"

"Without doubt, though I have not been down to look."

"Then, my boy, you are going now," remarked Quick grimly.

CHAPTER XII

THE DEN OF LIONS

We returned to the others and told them everything that we had learned
from Shadrach.

"What's your plan, Sergeant?" asked Oliver when he had heard. "Tell me,
for I have none; my head is muddled."

"This, Captain, for what it is worth; that I should go down through the
hole that Cat here speaks of, and get into the den. Then when they let
down the Professor, if they do, and pull up the gates, that I should
keep back the lions with my rifle while he bolts to the ladder which is
ready for him, and I follow if I can."

"Capital," said Orme, "but you can't go alone. I'll come too."

"And I also," I said.

"What schemes do you make?" asked Maqueda eagerly, for, of course, she
could not understand our talk.

We explained.

"What, my friend," she said to Oliver reproachfully,