uld secure.

Beyond him the other figures could be partly discerned, all standing
motionless until some way should present itself for their advance.

Ashman observed the chieftain, as his eyes followed the ledge until
they rested upon him, crouching behind one of the bowlders with his
rifle leveled at the war party.

The two looked into each other's eyes for a single instant, when
Ziffak, knowing he could not be seen by any of those behind, contracted
his brows and moved his lips.

He did not speak, for that would have "given the whole thing away," but
his dusky mouth was contorted with such vigorous care that the words
were understood, as readily as if shouted aloud.

They formed the single sentence,

"_I am your friend!_"

No need of saying that, for, as we have stated, Fred Ashman had never
doubted it.

Haffgo now began urging his brother to make the leap, which had proven
the death of Waggaman, saying, with reason, that the strength and
activity of the head chieftain of the Murhapas were sure to carry him
over where no one else could succeed.

The two talked in their native tongue, but their meaning was so clear
that the American needed no one to interpret the words.

Ziffak replied that he would gladly do so, but for the treacherous
character of the other side of the ledge. He showed that considerable
had fallen away, and intimated that the fugitives had loosened it for
the purpose of entrapping all the party just as Waggaman had been
entrapped.

Then the king took another look at the chasm. It so happened that
while he was doing this, a large slice of the ledge sloughed off and
went down the abyss, after the miserable wretch who must have been
lying at that moment a shapeless mass far down the fearful gorge.

Haffgo could not gainsay such testimony, and, for the first time, his
face showed an expression of disappointment. It was not the look of a
baffled man, but of one forced to see a sweet pleasure deferred.

He had only to peer up the ledge, as it led toward the roof, to realize
that the fugitives were as safely caged as if bound and secured in his
own home.

They had penetrated as far as possible in the cavern of diamonds. If
the pursuers could not reach them, neither could they return over the
chasm by which they had attained the spot where they still defied him.

The most athletic man living could not leap across that chasm, nor
could it be passed until it was bridged artificially, and