g way at a
rate that threatened the most serious consequences.

He again cautioned the maiden, who seemed to dart over the rocky ground
with the graceful ease of a bird, and without producing any more
effect, with her dainty sandals.

Suddenly she paused. She had reached the margin or break in the ledge.
A chasm, whose black depths the eye could not fathom, yawned between
her and the support on the opposite side.

"We will make our stand here," said he; "keep behind me--"

He checked himself in astonishment; for, at that moment, she bounded as
lightly across as a fawn. He never would have permitted it had he
dreamed of her intention; but it was done.

He could only follow, and, gathering his muscles, he ran rapidly the
slight distance and bounded from the support.

It was a tremendous leap, and, for one instant, he believed he would
fail; but he cleared the chasm of breathless darkness and landed on the
edge, where, for a single second, he tottered between life and death.

But, at the critical instant, a tiny hand was outstretched, and,
seizing one of the fluttering arms, his poise was restored, and he
stood firmly by her side.

Even then, as he stepped forward, the ground crumbled and gave way for
fully two feet, the debris rattling down the abyss as long as the ear
could detect the sound, growing fainter and fainter as it hastened
toward the far-away bottom.

"There is no one in that party except Ziffak who can leap it now," said
Ashman, gazing with a shudder behind him.

By this time the pursuers were close at hand and gaining fast.

The ledge led straight away and upward for a hundred feet, when it
terminated at a point in the dome as high as the middle portion. There
the rocks were piled in irregular masses, and, knowing they could go no
further, Ashman resolved that the last stand should be made there.

As he hurried onward, another shout fell upon his ear. It was a
different voice, and he recognized it as Waggaman's, who was leading
the advance.

The fugitive glanced backward, while toiling up the slope, and saw that
the white man in his eagerness was fully a rod ahead of the herculean
Ziffak, while the rest were stringing along behind him.

He might have wondered how the chieftain contrived to lose so much
ground had he not seen him clambering to his feet. It followed that he
must have fallen in his hurry to get forward.

"We have them!" shouted the exultant convict; "there is no escape; t