Jack Ryan, bravely following their example, quickly overtook the head-most of the party.
It was a long and fatiguing chase.

The lantern seemed to be carried by a being of small size, but singular agility.
Every now and then it disappeared behind some pillar, then was seen again at the end of a cross gallery.

A sharp turn would place it out of sight, and it seemed to have completely disappeared, when all at once there would be the light as bright as ever.

However, they gained very little on it, and Ryan's belief that they could never catch it seemed far from groundless.
After an hour of this vain pursuit Sir William Elphiston and his companions had gone a long way in the southwest direction of the pit, and began to think they really had to do with an impalpable being.

Just then it seemed as if the distance between the goblin and those who were pursuing it was becoming less.