Part 38 (1/2)

”But let's hurry now, Ruth,” he went on hastily to cover their mutual confusion. ”Follow close in my steps and don't keep more than two or three feet behind me at any time.”

They set off on the unknown path whose end meant to them either deliverance or death. The chances were against them, but their hearts were high and their courage steadfast.

They had need of all their fort.i.tude, for they had not advanced forty paces before danger menaced them.

Drew holding his torch high so as to throw its light as far ahead as possible, stepped on what seemed to be a crooked stick in the path.

Instantly the stick sprang to life, and a powerful, slimy coil wound itself around the man's leg as high as the knee.

His first impulse was to spring back. His next was to grind down with crus.h.i.+ng force on the squirming thing beneath his heel. The second impulse conquered the first and he stood like a statue while a cold sweat broke out all over his body.

For he had realized by the feel that it was the reptile's head that was beneath his heel and must be kept there at all costs until the life was crushed out of it.

Gradually the writhings grew feebler, until at last the coils relaxed and fell in a heap about his foot.

”What is it Allen?” asked Ruth in alarm at his sudden stop and rigid pose. ”Do you see anything?”

”There's no danger,” he a.s.sured her, though his voice was not quite steady. ”I must have stepped on a lizard or something like that, and it gave me a start.”

He kicked the mangled reptile out of the path, but not before Ruth's horrified glance had seen that it was no lizard but something far more deadly.

Here was a new terror added to the others. For all they knew there might be a colony of the reptiles in the cave. And in that semi-tropical region, the chances were vastly in favor of their being poisonous. At all events it behooved them to advance with redoubled caution.

They kept a wary lookout for anything that looked like a crooked stick after that, and their progress, already slow, became still slower as they went on.

Before long they came to a place where the cave seemed to divide into three separate pa.s.sageways. Two of them had nothing to distinguish them from each other, but in the third they distinguished a faint light in the distance.

”The blessed light!” exclaimed Ruth fervently.

”I guess that's the path to take, all right,” exulted Drew. ”In all probability that light comes from the outlet of the cave. Hurrah for us, Ruth!”

Ruth echoed his enthusiasm, and they accelerated their pace. The hope that they had cherished seemed now about to become certainty.

But the way was rougher now, and at one place they had to make a long detour. But they made no complaint. As long as no impa.s.sable barrier of rock loomed up before them they could feel that they were getting nearer and nearer to freedom and life.

But before long both became conscious of a steadily-growing heat in the air of the cave. The perspiration flowed from them in streams. At first they were inclined to attribute this to their strenuous exertions and the mental strain under which they were laboring.

”Strange it should be so frightfully hot,” remarked Drew, as he stopped for a moment to wipe his brow.

”It's no wonder,” responded Ruth. ”It's hot enough on this island even when you're in the outer air, and it would naturally be worse still in this confined place.”

”But we didn't feel that way ten minutes ago,” objected Drew.

”We've done a good deal of walking since then,” said Ruth, though rather doubtfully. ”But let's get along, Allen. I'm just crazy to get to the outlet.”

They were about to resume their journey, when a great flame of fire leaped to the very roof of the cave about a hundred yards in front of them.

They stopped abruptly, and in the smoky light of the torch both of their faces were white as chalk, as they faced each other with a question in their eyes.

”Fire!” gasped the man.

”Yes,” a.s.sented Ruth quietly but bitterly. ”What we thought was daylight is nothing other than fire.”