w;" and without
hesitation he ran after Ned for a few hundred yards, till the boy
stopped to gaze about him wildly, as the voices of their pursuers were
now very plainly heard.

"It was somewhere about here--somewhere about here," whispered Ned.
"Yes, I know! Here!"

He pointed to a narrow rift just before him, and into this, as the
ladies came up, he led them; the others followed, and they had hardly
all passed from the heat and glow of the day into the cool darkness of
the cavern into which Ned had slipped on his first expedition, when a
big swarthy-looking Malay brushed by the bushes which masked the
entrance, followed by two more, who paused and shouted.

"The heathens!" muttered Tim, who was the last to enter; "they've found
us, and I've lost me poipe."

There was an answering shout, and the men went on, while those in the
cave breathed more freely. They were for the moment safe.

There was shout after shout, now more distant, now close at hand, for,
to the dismay of the fugitives, the Malays did not go far, but, as if
scenting their prey, turned back, and came by the narrow crack again and
again, and those within wondered that they passed it unseen, for the
eager excited faces of the Malays were plain enough, and once they were
not more than twenty yards away.

"There is some reason for their hanging about," whispered Mr Braine, as
he stood there pistol in hand. "They must know of the place."

As he spoke there was a fresh shout, and four spear-armed men came to
where the big fellow the fugitives had before seen was standing, rolling
his opal eyes in every direction.

There was an answering shout from high up overhead, and as Ned stood
gazing out past Mr Braine, he saw one of the men down the slope give a
sudden leap, stoop down, and after securing something, hold up a
bamboo-and-reed pipe.

"Bedad, they've found it," murmured Tim. "It fell out of me pocket."

"You've lost us now, Tim," whispered Frank.

"Whisht, sor. I couldn't help it. I haven't been meself since I took
the masther's rat poison."

"You didn't, Tim. Father told me. You drank too much wine."

"Murther! Masther Frank. Why, so it was. It did get right into me
legs."

"Silence!" whispered Mr Braine, sternly. "Ready with your arms."

He raised his revolver as he spoke, for the men who had disappeared had
returned strengthened, and began to search eagerly about. Then one of
them uttered a cry, pointed, and, levelling the