There was no need for Dick to ask himself, or his friend, what was the
nature of this monstrous, indistinctly seen shape that upreared itself
out of the canoe and poised its head within a foot of his face, its two
eyes flashing baleful green fires into his as its long forked tongue
flickered angrily in and out of its slightly opened jaws; he knew it at
once for one of the enormous boas that dispute the sovereignty of the
South American forest with the puma, and the black jaguar, that most
rare and ferocious of all the cat tribe. And, for an instant, so great
was his astonishment at thus unexpectedly finding himself at close
quarters--nay, face to face--with a creature big enough to envelop his
body half a dozen times over, and strong enough to crush him into a
shapeless mass, that he was completely paralysed. He had no fear of the
serpent, although he was perfectly aware of the awful danger in which he
stood--he knew that in another instant the enormous body might fling its
great coils about him and gradually bring into action the tremendous
pressure which should crush every bone in his body to splinters--but, on
the other hand, it never occurred to him to make the slightest effort to
save himself from so hideous a fate. But as he stood there perfectly
quiescent for, as it seemed to him, a quarter of an hour or more--the
actual length of time did not probably exceed three seconds--a sharp
rattling of the dry twigs over his head and a heavy thud met his ears, a
little shower of twigs and leaves rained down upon him, and at the same
instant a terrific upheaval occurred in the canoe, coil upon coil the
vast length of the serpent's body leaped into view, and plunged over the
side, there was a violent rustling and crackling of branches for a few
seconds as the monster snake writhed its irresistible way through the
neighbouring bushes; and then it was gone. And as the last sounds of
its hurried retreat died away, Dick Chichester sank helplessly to the
ground, violently sick.
For a minute or two the paroxysms of vomiting were simply dreadful, and
then the feeling of horrible nausea gradually passed away, and, pulling
himself together, Dick struggled to his feet.
"That's right, lad," he heard Stukely's voice say, as he felt his
friend's encouraging pat on the shoulder. "Feel better, now? That's
capital. Faugh! what a disgusting stench! No wonder it made you sick;
I feel almost as bad myself. But I'll bet a trifle that the brute feels
a good deal worse than either of us, for I must have hit him pretty
hard; indeed if it had not been for the thick growth that baulked me and
hindered my stroke I could have cut his head clean off."
"Well, you--you--have--saved my life, Phil, and I--" gasped Dick
thickly, as he felt for the other's hand and pressed it convulsively.
"Pooh! nonsense; that's all rubbish, you know," interrupted Phil,
patting Dick on the back, "I should have cut at the brute just the same,
if thou hadst not been there. And now, if you feel all right again, let
us get the canoe out and see what she looks like; a nice mess he will
have made of her, I expect, making his lair in her; with a murrain on
him!"
"You have put something worse than a murrain on him, or I am no judge,"
laughed Dick, a trifle hysterically. "The brute will certainly die
before morning. Now, then, are you ready? Then--lift!"
With some difficulty they at length extricated the canoe from her
hiding-place, to find, a good deal to their surprise, that, apart from
two broken paddles, the craft was very little the worse for having been
made the lair of a snake so big that he must have practically filled her
from end to end. Luckily the mast, yard, and sail had been placed in
the bottom of her and so had not been broken, although almost the whole
of the boa's ponderous weight must have rested upon them. So when
presently they put her into the water, they were rejoiced to find that
although she had been lying dry for three months, so completely had she
been shielded from the sun's rays that her hull was still intact and
that she leaked not a drop. This was far better than they had dared to
hope for, so, stepping into her, appropriating the paddles of the other
craft, and leaving the latter moored to the bank, they joyfully shoved
off, and three minutes later were in the main stream, with the canoe's
head pointed up the river.
Meanwhile, the storm still raged as furiously as ever, the flashes of
lightning were incessant, the rolling of the thunder was continuous and
deafening, and the northerly wind was blowing so fiercely that the
surface of the stream was whipped into small, foam-capped waves. But
they were not high enough to imperil the safety of the canoe, moreover
the wind that roared so savagely aloft among the tree-tops and stripped
off the dried leaves and rotten branches in blinding showers was a fair
wind for the fugitives, so they stepped their mast, close-reefed their
sail, and were presently foaming up the river in midstream--where,
although they had a strong current to contend with, they were at least
safe from the branches that flew hurtling through the air--as fast as a
horse could trot.
Now, all this time the storm had been a dry storm, that is to say, not a
drop of rain had fallen from the bosom of the scowling clouds that
seemed bursting with it, but it was bound to come, sooner or later, and
come it did, with a vengeance, when our friends had been under way about
an hour, and just as the canoe had shot into a broad, lagoon-like
stretch of the river where it broadened out to about a mile in width,
and where consequently the water was shallow and the current scarcely
perceptible. And well was it for them that the rain caught them just at
that point, for otherwise they must perforce have landed until the worst
of it had blown over. For it came down, not in the sober, steady,
respectable fashion in which it falls in temperate climates, but
literally in sheets, through which it was not possible to see anything
more distant than an ordinary boat's length. With it came more wind, so
that the canoe, with the gale right behind her and a close-reefed sail
set which, in that condition, was not very much bigger than a man's
shirt, rushed along with the foam boiling up level with her gunwale, and
sometimes even in over it. While this state of affairs prevailed, and
nothing could be seen beyond the dripping sail glistening in the flash
of the lightning, the Englishmen continued their headlong flight up the
river, unable to see where they were steering but keeping the boat
steadily dead before the wind, confident, from the glimpse they had had
just before the rain came on, that so long as they were able to do this
they would be running up the centre line of the river and could not come
to very much harm.
The first violence of the rain lasted about twenty minutes, and then it
settled to a quiet, steady downpour for about an hour, during which the
thunder and lightning gradually subsided until the thunder became a mere
muttering in the extreme distance, and finally died away altogether.
But the sheet lightning continued to play intermittently, low down on
the northern horizon for some time longer, affording light enough for
the fugitives to see where they were going, and as the wind still
continued to blow strongly they held on, hour after hour, making the
most of the splendid opportunity thus afforded them to make good their
escape, so that when at length the morning came and the wind died down
with the rising of the sun, they were far beyond the reach of pursuit by
the Mayubuna.
Now ensued a month of comparative uneventfulness, during which the two
dauntless young Englishmen forced their way up that great river which,
where it falls into the Amazon, is named the Maranon, while in its
higher reaches it is called the Ucayali, and higher still, the
Quillabamba. But although their journey up this magnificent stream may
be fitly described as comparatively uneventful, it must not be inferred
therefrom that they met with no adventures at all; on the contrary,
there was scarcely a day when they did not meet with an adventure of
some sort, but it was scarcely of a sufficiently notable character to
justify amplification in these pages, being merely the sort of
occurrence that is inevitable in a river journey through wild country in
the tropic zone. For example, there were frequent rapids and cataracts
to be negotiated, food to be sought for and obtained, in the course of
which search many strange creatures were seen, many curious and
wonderful sights witnessed, and occasionally savage animals encountered.
Also Indians began to be met with at frequent intervals, some of whom
proved friendly while others were hostile and would fain have disputed
the right of the white men to be in the country at all--thanks to the
tyrannical treatment which they had experienced at the hands of the
Spaniard; and once they encountered a tribe of genuine Amazons, women
who had turned the usual order of things upside down, having usurped the
functions of the men, such as fighting, hunting, and fishing, while
their men folk were compelled to cultivate the land, care for the
cattle, cook the food, look after the children, and so on! Then there
was the gradual change in the nature of the vegetation and the character
of the scenery as the travellers worked their way upward from the level
of the great plains, or pampas, into the mountainous region toward
Cuzco, with the ever-increasing difficulties of the navigation, which at
length became so great that the canoe had to be abandoned altogether,
and the journey continued by land, although they still followed the
course of the river as closely as possible, in order that they might
always be able to get water, and also because it served them as a guide.
But it was not until they had been journeying a full month, after their
escape from the Mayubuna, that their next really important adventure
befell. They had by this time climbed upward out of the low, hot,
tropic forest region, and had attained an altitude at which the climate
might almost be described as temperate, where, while the days were still
distinctly hot, the nights were cool, sometimes even to the extent of
sharpness, and where dense morning-fogs were frequent at that particular
period of the year. Those fogs were the cause of much inconvenience and
delay to the pair; for they could neither hunt nor travel in a fog, the
result being that they were frequently obliged to remain in camp until
eight or nine o'clock in the morning, instead of resuming their journey
at daybreak, as had heretofore been their custom.
Such was the case on the particular morning when the young Englishmen
encountered their next important adventure. The sun had been above the
horizon nearly two hours when at length the dense fog which had
enveloped their camp cleared sufficiently to permit of their proceeding
upon their journey, but it still hung about here and there in heavy
wreaths, motionless in the still morning air, when they quite
unexpectedly came upon one of the old Peruvian roads constructed by the
Incas. This road bore evidences of having at one time been a
magnificent highway; but under the rule of the Spaniards it had been
neglected until now it was little more than a sandy track over which
Nature was fast resuming her sway. But it happened to lead in
approximately the right direction for the Englishmen, and heavy as was
the travelling over it, it was less laborious than toiling over a rough,
trackless country, they therefore promptly decided to follow it so long
as it ran their way.
About a mile from the spot where our two travellers came upon the road
it entered a dense wood; and here the fog still hung thickly. But the
friends decided that this was of little consequence, since the road,
though its surface was broken up and much overgrown, was still easily
distinguishable; accordingly they plunged into the wood without
hesitation. A quarter of an hour later, as they rounded a bend in the
road, they made the exceedingly unwelcome discovery that they had walked
right into the midst of a party of some fifty Spanish soldiers who,
having recently partaken of breakfast, were now resting by the roadside
until the fog should clear.
The encounter was so sudden, so absolutely unexpected on the part of the
Englishmen, that almost before they realised the presence of the
Spaniards the latter--who had heard Dick and Phil talking together as
they approached--had surrounded them, rendering flight an impossibility,
and in a trice the pair were disarmed and, hemmed in by an escort of a
dozen armed men, conducted to the spot where the captain--a tall, dark,
handsome man, in full armour, but without a helmet--with his horse
standing beside him, was reclining against the trunk of an enormous
pine.
"Ah, Jorge!" exclaimed this individual, in Spanish, rising to his feet,
as the party approached; "what have we here? Prisoners? Who and what
are they? Surely not Indians--although they might well be, from their
garb."
"Truly, senor Capitan, I know not who or what they are," answered the
man addressed as Jorge, and who seemed, from his dress and equipment, to
be some sort of inferior officer, possibly a sergeant; "but we heard
them approaching along the road, and as their speech was strange I
deemed it my duty to seize them; I therefore hastily arranged an ambush,
into which they the next moment walked; and--here they are. If they
were not so dark in colour I should say that they might possibly be
Englishmen."
"Ingles! here!" exclaimed the captain. "But that is impossible! Who
are you, picaros?"
Now, during their six weeks' residence in Cartagena, under the
hospitable roof of the senoritas Clara and Dolores, the two Englishmen
had, by assiduous study, acquired a sufficient knowledge of Spanish to
enable them to understand the nature of the question thus contemptuously
addressed to them; and Phil--who, as usual, took the lead whenever any
talking was to be done--at once replied:
"Impossible or not, senor, we are Englishmen; but, beyond that bare
statement of fact, you must pardon us if we decline to say anything."
"Oh!" retorted the Spaniard. "You decline to say anything, do you?
Very good. I am not at all curious to learn the history of such
vagabonds as you appear to be. The fact that you are--by your own
confession--English, is enough for me. But there are others who may be
more interested than I; and, if so, you may rest assured that they will
find a way to make you speak. Take them away and secure them, Jorge,"
he continued, addressing his subordinate; "and take care that they do
not give you the slip. I shall hold you responsible for their
safekeeping. And as soon as you have secured your prisoners to your
satisfaction, let the men fall in, and we will resume our march."
The man to whose charge our friends had been committed saluted, and then
gave the signal for the prisoners to be led away, adding to his signal
the significant order "Shoot the rascals at once upon the slightest sign
of an attempt to escape."
At a spot among the trees, situated about a hundred yards from where the
captain had been standing, the little party came to the place where a
dozen pack mules had been tethered; and a brief search among the
heterogeneous articles which comprised the packs furnished the sergeant
with a raw-hide rope, from which he cut off a couple of lengths
sufficient to securely bind the hands of Phil and Dick firmly behind
their backs, and this operation was at once so effectually performed
that anything in the nature of escape by simply breaking away and
running for one's life was rendered impossible, quite apart from the
sinister and significant order to shoot which had been given to the
soldiers. A quarter of an hour later the entire party were on the move,
and the two Englishmen had the mortification of finding themselves
marched back along the road by which they had come.
Shortly after passing the spot where our friends had struck the road,
the path--for it was little more--curved away toward the left, and led
along the top of an extensive plateau of rich pasture land, upon which,
about midday, they sighted the first herd of cattle that the Englishmen
had seen since their escape from the Mayubuna; and during the afternoon
they saw other herds in the charge of peons, showing that the party were
gradually approaching civilised territory; and about half an hour before
sunset they marched into a small village, composed chiefly of adobe
huts, where a halt was called for the night, and where our friends were
confined in a ramshackle barn of a place in company with the sergeant
and ten men. That the sergeant was quite determined not to get into
trouble by the neglect of any possible precaution soon became perfectly
evident; for when, about half an hour after the arrival of the party at
the village, supper was served, the individual in question gave orders
that before the hands of the prisoners were released to enable them to
convey food to their mouths, their ankles were to be securely bound
together; and this was done. Then, after supper was over, without
unbinding the ankles of the prisoners their wrists were again bound
together behind their backs, after which their ankles and wrists were
drawn as closely together as they could be induced to come, and firmly
lashed behind them; and in this constrained and exceedingly painful
posture they were unceremoniously flung into opposite corners of the
hut, where, upon the bare floor, and suffering torments from the vermin
with which the place was infested, and from which, in their constrained
position, they were helpless to defend themselves, they were left to
pass the night as best they might.
A seemingly interminable night of torture for the hapless prisoners came
laggingly to an end at last when, about half an hour after daybreak, the
lashings which had confined their limbs all through the hours of
darkness were loosed, and they were allowed to scramble to their feet
and walk to and fro for a few minutes before partaking of breakfast.
After breakfast the march was resumed; and--not to dwell at unnecessary
length upon this portion of the narrative--about an hour before sundown
the entire party marched into a city which one of the soldiers surlily
informed Phil was Cuzco; and here the two young Englishmen were at
length safely deposited in an underground dungeon of a building which
had once been one of the Inca's palaces; escape being rendered
impossible by the simple process of chaining them to the wall by means
of a heavy iron chain about six feet in length, one end of which was
attached to an iron girdle locked round the prisoner's waist while the
other end was welded to an iron ringbolt, the shank of which was deeply
sunk into the solid masonry of the dungeon wall.
On the morning of the following day they were temporarily released from
their loathsome prison--where their bed had consisted merely of a thin
layer of damp straw cast upon the stone flags with which the dungeon was
paved, and where the only ventilation consisted of a small iron grating
let into the masonry above the door--and conducted, under a strong
guard, into the presence of the Governor of the city, who questioned
them closely concerning their names, nationality, where they had come
from, where they were bound for, and why they wished to go there. At
first the two Englishmen resolutely refused to answer any of the
questions put to them; but when at length the Governor, growing
exasperated at their obstinacy, threatened them with the torture of the
boot, Phil so far satisfied the man's curiosity as to inform him
truthfully of their names and nationality, adding the fictitious
information that, having quarrelled with their captain, they had been
forcibly put ashore somewhere in the Gulf of Darien, and had since been
wandering aimlessly about the country, not knowing where to go or how to
escape from it. The story was well enough concocted, considering that
it was made up on the spur of the moment; but it was evident that it did
not altogether satisfy his Excellency, who finally ordered them to be
taken back to their dungeon and kept there pending certain enquiries
which he proposed to make. Later in the day, when they once more found
themselves alone, and again chained to the dungeon wall, Dick, in his
simplicity, ventured to question Phil as to his reasons for resorting to
fiction instead of boldly telling the truth, or refusing to say anything
at all; to which Phil replied:
"My gentle buzzard, if I had persisted in refusing the Don's request for
information, we should have been put to the torture; for when these
fellows threaten a thing like that, they usually mean it; or, if they do
not actually mean it at the moment, they would unhesitatingly carry out
their threat, rather than give themselves the lie; and we should show
ourselves singularly deficient in common sense were we to submit to be
tormented for hours, and probably maimed for life, rather than impart a
little information--so long as that information is of such a nature as
to harm nobody. At all costs we must avoid being tortured, if we can;
for how could we hope to escape, or, having escaped, hope to carry out
our plans, if our bones were broken, or our limbs twisted out of joint.
Therefore, as soon as torture was mentioned, I decided that the time had
arrived when speech was to be preferred to silence. But I was careful
to avoid saying anything which might connect us with the _Adventure_;
because sooner or later news of the exploits of that ship is certain to
penetrate as far south even as this, and I have a suspicion that the
participants in those exploits will not be altogether popular with the
dons. Also, we must remember that there was a rumour that two of the
crew of that ship had found shelter and succour in a certain house in
Cartagena; and if two persons belonging to the _Adventure_ should
eventually be found at large in this country a certain colour of
probability might be imparted to the rumour; in which case our gentle
friends Clara and Dolores might get into serious trouble. Therefore I
thought it best on all accounts to mingle a little fiction with my
facts. And I trust that long before his Excellency's proposed enquiries
have borne fruit we shall be far enough away from Cuzco and its
Governor."
"Do you think, then, that there is the slightest chance of our effecting
our escape?" asked Dick, glancing expressly at the chain which bound him
to the wall.
The darkness of the dungeon was too profound for Phil to detect that
glance; nevertheless he must have guessed at it, for he replied:
"No, my son, I don't think anything of the sort; I know! Don't ask me
how I know, for I cannot tell you; but the knowledge is nevertheless
here," tapping his forehead. "Keep up your courage, youngster," he
continued. "Those chains are nothing. Neither chains nor stone walls
can long hold in restraint the man who is destined to be free; and I
tell you that neither you nor I are doomed to die at the hands of the
Spaniard. More I cannot tell you; for although I am as certain as I am
of my own existence that we shall escape, my foreknowledge is not clear
enough to enable me to say how that escape is going to be effected."
"I wish I felt half as confident as you seem to do about it," grumbled
Dick. "At present it appears to me that nothing short of a miracle can
help us. But--well, we shall see."
The lad's pessimism seemed to be fully justified when, on the following
day, the pair were once more released from the chains that confined them
to the wall, and were summoned by their jailer to follow him. They
obeyed the summons with alacrity, each of them animated by a secret hope
that an opportunity might present itself for them to break away from
their custodian and effect their escape from the building, and
eventually from the city; but this hope was nipped in the bud when,
immediately outside the door of the dungeon, an armed guard, consisting
of half a dozen soldiers and a corporal, were seen to be awaiting them.
Evidently, the moment for escape was not yet.
To the surprise of both, when the prisoners arrived at the top of the
flight of stone steps leading from the dungeon they found that, instead
of being again conducted along the passage which led to the Governor's
quarters, as on the previous day, they were marched along another
corridor, and presently they found themselves in the street. But even
now there was no encouragement for them to attempt to escape, because,
besides being hemmed in by their escort of half a dozen soldiers, the
entire party were surrounded by a gaping, scowling, execrating mob of
ragged, unwashed ruffians, apparently the scum of the city, who would
have effectually frustrated any attempt on the part of the Englishmen to
break away from their guard and take to their heels; indeed if one might
have judged from the expression of their coarse, brutal features, and
the remarks which fell from their lips, nothing would have pleased them
better than for the prisoners to have made such an attempt, since it
would have afforded the mob a legitimate excuse for hunting the pair to
death. Nor were the prisoners permitted to remain very long in suspense
with regard to their destination; for when presently the soldiers
wheeled their charge into a certain street a loud murmur swept through
the accompanying mob of--"Heretics! they are heretics, and are being
taken to the Inquisition!"
So indeed it proved; for some five minutes later they arrived before a
big, gloomy, jail-like building, constructed of great blocks of stone,
and having a number of exceedingly small apertures in the wall, each
aperture being guarded by iron bars of quite unnecessary thickness. The
entrance to this place was a great gateway some twelve feet wide and
nearly twice as high, fitted with a pair of enormously solid wooden
doors, so heavy that each leaf was fitted with a roller running upon a
quadrant rail let into the pavement to facilitate opening. But it soon
became evident that these ponderous gates were only opened on special
occasions; for when, having halted the little party, the corporal in
charge tugged at a handle attached to a chain which hung down from an
aperture in the wall, and a bell was heard to clang somewhere in the far
interior of the building, a small wicket cut in one of the big gates was
presently thrown open by an individual in the garb of a lay brother, and
the soldiers with their prisoners were invited to pass through it.
The party now found themselves in a lofty, vaulted passage, some
twenty-five feet in length, the farther end of which opened upon a paved
courtyard surrounded by cloisters surmounted by lofty buildings
massively constructed of the same dark-grey stone as the building
through which they had just passed, and, like it, provided with windows
strongly protected by massive iron bars, only instead of being all
small, as were the windows in the exterior walls, some of those which
looked out upon the courtyard were of very considerable dimensions. At
the opposite side of the courtyard, facing the passage through which the
party had just passed, was another door, giving admission to what
appeared to be the main building, and to this they were now conducted by
the lay brother, who, having unlocked the door, threw it open and bade
them enter the big, gloomy cavern-like, ill-lighted hall which now stood
revealed. Once inside this place, the prisoners were delivered over to
the custody of a huge, brawny brute in the shape of a man who, from the
fact that he bore a bunch of big keys attached to his belt, was no doubt
the jailer of the institution. Then a tall, thin, ascetic-looking man
in the garb of a priest stepped forward, scanned the two prisoners
attentively, carefully compared their appearance with the description of
them contained in a document, which the corporal handed to him, signed
the document and returned it to the corporal, dismissed him and his
followers, and waved the jailer to lead his charges away, which the
fellow immediately did, in morose silence. Their way lay down a long,
narrow corridor, having doors opening out of it at intervals on either
side; and at the precise moment when the prisoners arrived opposite one
of these doors a long-drawn wail, rising to a piercing shriek, rang out
from behind it, causing their flesh to creep upon their bones with
horror, so eloquent of keen, excruciating, almost unendurable physical
anguish was the sound.
The jailer, who was leading the way, glanced over his shoulder at his
prisoners with a smile of such gloating, Satanic suggestiveness and
cruelty on his heavy features as the cry pealed forth that, on the
instant, the feeling of passive repugnance with which the two Englishmen
had thus far regarded the fellow was converted into fierce, hot, active,
unreasoning hatred; for the fraction of a second they glanced
questioningly into each other's eyes, then, each reading in that
lightning glance the thought of the other, the pair flung themselves
upon the fellow. And while Dick, exerting all his giant strength,
pinned the man's arms to his sides, and at the same time, by a deft
movement of his left foot, tripped the fellow up so that he crashed
violently forward upon his face on the stone pavement of the passage,
Phil clasped the man's throat with his two hands, compressing his
windpipe in such a vice-like grip that it was utterly impossible for the
fellow to utter the slightest sound, and thus locked together, the three
went down in a bunch under the impetus of the sudden attack, the jailer
being undermost. The hard pavement seemed to fairly ring with the
violent impact of the man's skull upon it, and the next instant Dick
felt the fellow's tense muscles relax as though the violence of the blow
had either partially or wholly stunned him, whereupon the youngster,
still acting upon an impulse that seemed to emanate from somewhere
outside himself, pushed Phil on one side, flung himself in a kneeling
posture upon the prostrate jailer's shoulders, and, grasping the man by
the hair with both hands, pulled up the fellow's head and dashed it
furiously upon the pavement again thrice, after which the victim lay
silent, inert, to all appearance dead.
"Roll him over, quick, and unbuckle his belt; we must have his keys,"
hissed Phil in Dick's ear, and before five seconds had passed the two
Englishmen were on their feet standing over their victim, while Phil
rapidly examined the keys, one after the other. Quickly he selected one
that showed signs of more frequent wear than the others, and then
glanced keenly about him. They were near the far end of the corridor,
which ended in a wall lighted by a fair-sized window, and there were
only four more doors to be passed, two on either side, before the end of
the corridor was reached.
"Stay here until I beckon you, and then bring the man to me," whispered
Phil, and darted off to the end of the corridor, leaving Dick to mount
guard over the prostrate body of the jailer. Rapidly, yet with the
utmost coolness, Phil tried the key which he had selected in the lock of
one of the farther doors. It slid in, turned, and the door swung open.
A single glance sufficed to assure Phil that the door was that of a
cell, and that the cell was unoccupied, whereupon he beckoned Dick, who
hoisted the unconscious jailer upon his shoulders, bore him to the cell,
and flung him unceremoniously upon the heap of straw which was
apparently intended to serve as a bed.
"Now, the belt, quick," whispered Phil, who had followed, gently closing
the door behind him; and, rolling the still insensible body over on its
face, the pair bent over it and with deft fingers contrived to fasten
the ankles and wrists of their victim together in such a fashion, that
the more the man struggled the tighter would he draw the ligature. Then
using the formidable-looking knife which the man had worn suspended from
his belt, they formed a gag by cutting strips from their skin clothing
and wrapping it round the largest key of the bunch, which they detached
from the chain and inserted in their victim's mouth, thus rendering it
as impossible for him to cry out as it was for him to move. Having
disposed of the jailer in such a fashion that he would not be likely to
give trouble for the next hour or two, the pair left the cell, closed
and locked the door behind them, and stood listening intently to
ascertain whether the sounds of the recent struggle had attracted
attention.