may happen if he resists. Chester
is armed, and he is furious; he is beside himself; he would not listen
to me. But he must listen to you. Will you go," the girl begged, "and
speak to him; speak to him, I mean," she added, "as the American
minister?"

Everett already had his foot in the stirrup. "I'm the American
minister only until to-morrow," he said. "I've got my walking-papers.
But I'll do all I can to stop this to-night. Garland," he asked, "will
you take Miss Ward home, and then follow me?"

"If I do not go with you," said Monica, "I will go alone."

Her tone was final. With a clatter of hoofs that woke alarmed echoes
in the sleeping streets the three horses galloped abreast toward Cobre.
In an hour they left the main trail and at a walk picked their way to
where the blocks of stone, broken columns, and crumbling temples of the
half-buried city checked the jungle.

The moon made it possible to move in safety, and at different distances
the lights of torches told them the man-hunt still was in progress.

"Thank God," breathed Monica, "we are in time."

Everett gave the ponies in care of one of the guards. He turned to
Garland.

"Catch up with those lights ahead of us," he said, "and we will join
this party to the right. If you find Ward, tell him I forbid him
taking the law into his own hands; tell him I will protect his
interests. If you meet Peabody, make him give up his gun, and see that
the others don't harm him!"

Everett and the girl did not overtake the lights they had seen flashing
below them. Before they were within hailing distance, that searching
party had disappeared, and still farther away other torches beckoned.

Stumbling and falling, now in pursuit of one will-o'-the-wisp, now of
another, they scrambled forward. But always the lights eluded them.
From their exertions and the moist heat they were breathless, and their
bodies dripped with water. Panting, they halted at the entrance of
what once had been a tomb. From its black interior came a damp mist;
above them, alarmed by their intrusion, the vampire bats whirled
blindly in circles. Monica, who by day possessed some slight knowledge
of the ruins, had, in the moonlight, lost all sense of direction.

"We're lost," said Monica, in a low tone. Unconsciously both were
speaking in whispers. "I thought we were following what used to be the
main thoroughfare of the city; but I have never seen this place before.
From what I hav