whirling in the air, and descending, lasso-fashion, upon
the shoulders of the intruders. The noose caught Langley over his
arms, which were instantly drawn close against his body as the thong
tightened, so he was thus rendered completely powerless; but Whitson
sprang, quick as lightning, to one side, and escaped. Three shots
from his revolver rang out in as many seconds, and the two men and the
woman--who was in the act of lifting her club to brain Langley--lay
rolling on the ground, each with a bullet through the head.

The four old hags at the fire began to mow and scream, and got up and
hobbled into the cave. Whitson drew his knife and cut the thong with
which Langley was vainly struggling, and then the two men, pale as
death, looked silently at each other with staring eyes.

Whitson replaced his revolver, and then made a sort of torch out of dry
reeds, a pile of which lay close at hand. He then, leaving Langley to
guard the cave, carefully examined all the passages and spaces between
the rocks, but he could find no trace of any one. The two men thereupon
entered the cave, Whitson holding the torch high over his head. They
found that it ran straight in for about fifteen paces, and then curved
sharply to the left.

It was about four paces in width, and about eight feet high, the roof
being roughly arched. The walls and roof were covered with thick black
greasy soot; and an indescribably horrible stench, which increased the
farther they advanced, made them almost vomit. They found that where the
cave curved to the left it ended in a circular chamber about eight paces
in diameter, and at one side of this crouched the four old hags, huddled
together, and mowing and chattering horribly.

Across a cleft about two feet wide, in the right-hand wall of the cave,
a stick was fixed transversely, and hanging to this were some lumps of
half-dried and smoked flesh. Whitson went up close and examined these
carefully. He drew back with a shudder, and his face changed from pale
to ashen gray.

He and Langley then went outside and stood for a while in the fresh air.
They could endure, just then, no more of the fetid atmosphere inside.
After a short time they gathered up some dry twigs and reeds, and set
several little heaps alight at different spots inside. This had the
effect of making the atmosphere more bearable in the course of a few
minutes. They then made a larger fire in the middle of the cave, and
proceeded to examine it