can hold them for minutes
at least; thou canst perhaps escape. Rest assured I shall take that
High Priest with me, when I cross thy River of Death!"

"But where can I go?" cried the girl. "Nay, Divine One--I shall stay
at thy side!"

* * * * *

The excited yells of Hrihor, urging the others forward, came plainly
to their ears. Swords glittered in the gloom of the corridor, and like
a foam-tipped wave that slowly gathers speed the group of priests and
soldiers charged down on the man and girl. Craig saw that she would
not run.

"Then come!" he shouted, and swung her around. With desperate speed
they retraced their steps. They soon passed their cell, and recklessly
leaped through the deceptive shadows on the far side, on down the
corridor.

The High Priest and the others followed close behind. His crafty face
was distorted with rage, and he kept screaming to his men: "The wrath
of the God on thee if they escape!" Craig's ears caught that, and he
found time for a bitter smile. _If!_ If only they had left him his
automatic! A few bullets flung into them would even matters a trifle.

The corridor twisted and slanted ever downward. They panted around a
corner and came to the brink of a dark pit. "Down!" cried the girl.
She led the way, nimbly dropping down the fifteen-foot rawhide ladder
that was there. Halfway down the ladder Wes reached up with his sword
and cut it from where it was fastened. He fell to the bottom of the
hole with a grunt. As he extricated himself from the ladder's
entangling meshes be yelled up, "Come and get us, you cutthroats--if
you can!" and was off after the lithe form of the girl.

* * * * *

But the action helped them but little, and added only a few feet to
the distance between them and their pursuers, for they boldly made the
deep drop without sending for another ladder. Taia was sobbing for
air, and Wes himself beginning to feel the bitter pang of hopelessness
when they rounded a corner and came to a great chasm--a wide cleft in
the very heart of the volcano. A terrific heat came from its maw of
unbroken black, and a peculiar, choking odor, sulphurous. Across it
was a slender framework of hides and thongs--a mere catwalk over the
terrible depths below.

"You first!" Craig snapped, and as Taia started across a spear came
hurtling from the mob behind, and clanked against the rocky wall on
the far side. Nimbly Taia sped over