"

He slipped to the ground and led his companions rapidly down the valley
toward the stone village.

They hastened on among the scattered rocks for a quarter of a mile or
more, until the extreme southern edge was reached, and then Canaris
stopped.

"This is the south side," he said; "we must search the rocks for one
with a cross."

They scattered, Guy toward the west, Melton to the east. It was a time
of peril, for the yellow smoke was curling up over the Lion's Head in
heavier columns, and the firing was more distinct, as though the
conflict were spreading toward them across the valley.

"The rock with the cross, on the south side of the stone kraal." A
simple enough direction on the face of it, and yet the eager searchers,
as they hurried from stone to stone, scrutinizing every side and angle,
failed to discover the faintest trace of anything resembling a cross.

Canaris wrung his hands in dismay when they came together after the
fruitless search.

"We are lost, we are lost!" he groaned. "What will become of us? Go,
make another search; inspect the base of every stone; the hidden
entrance must exist."

Guy shook his head.

"That cross was made twenty years ago," he said. "In that time the
storms could have destroyed all trace of it unless the Englishman carved
it very deep, and in that event we should have discovered it already."

"It must be found," persisted Canaris in his terror. "Hark! The firing
is coming nearer. In half an hour the valley will swarm with savage
foes. Go! Go! Go!"

He fairly shrieked out the last words, and threw himself in despair down
amid the jungle grass.

The Greek did not exaggerate the danger. A startling confirmation of his
fears was at hand.

Warned in time by a commotion in the bushes, Guy and Melton dropped
flat, as a savage, spear in hand, and bleeding from a wound in the head,
burst out of the jungle twenty yards distant and made full speed for a
rock a few yards to the north of that by which the Englishmen lay
concealed.

All unconscious of the three pairs of eyes watching his movements, he
stooped, flung the tangled grass madly aside, and, rolling a loose stone
from the base of the rock, revealed a dark cavity in the smooth side.

He threw a frightened glance in the direction he had come, and, dropping
his spear and diving into the hole, pulled the stone back in place from
within.

All this happened in less time than it takes to tell.

"Saved!" burst thankf