g for all the world as if a colony of gigantic
sand-martins had built their nests in the place. Jack knew that these
were the mouths of caves, and he ran swiftly after the Panthays as
they hurried for a hole which was within easy reach of the ground.

A small fig tree grew below the mouth of the cave. Jack slipped his
foot into the crutch where a bough struck away from the parent stem,
swung himself up, and tumbled into the hollow, which was an irregular
circle about nine feet across. The Panthays at once followed him, and
all three pushed over the broken floor within, towards the shelter of
the cave.

Inside, the place hollowed and widened out. Thirty feet back from the
entrance it was dusky, and here Jack seated himself on a huge fragment
of rock which had fallen from the roof. He was very glad of a rest and
of a chance to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, as it was terribly
punishing for a European to have to hurry on foot through the
frightful heat of so scorching a day.

The elder Panthay had followed Jack to the back of the cave, and was
now squatting on his haunches in front of the English lad. The younger
native had remained nearer the entrance, and, placing himself behind
another big fallen boulder, was keeping watch through the mouth of the
cave.

The Panthay who had accompanied Jack now entered upon a series of
gestures so clear and striking that Jack understood them as if he
spoke. The signs were to the effect that they should stay in the cave
till darkness had fallen, and then they would resume the journey.

Half an hour later, when Jack was lying at full length on the rock,
lazily staring into the gloomy heights above him, a sudden, low, sharp
cry broke into the stillness. The cry had been uttered by the watcher
at the mouth of the cave, and now he said a few quick words. The elder
Panthay leapt to his feet and shot down the cave with the glide of a
panther. Jack sprang from his rock and followed.

The English lad had known at once that the cry meant danger, so deep
an anxiety had lain in the low troubled note. As he crept up to the
boulder behind which the two Panthays crouched, he saw that the peril
which threatened him a short time ago still hung over his head.
Looking through the hole, they commanded a full view of the upper edge
of the opposite side of the ravine. Gathered aloft there, in full
sight, was a bunch of figures, and, in the front of the group, the
scarlet and yellow turbans still blaz