In the gloom the prospector could navigate across the big vats with something like accuracy, while the boys carried on their pursuit at a tremendous disadvantage.
Recklessly Ballard ran on.

Merriwell called a warning to him, but Ballard either did not hear it or else paid no attention.
The form of the prospector, leaping and plunging onward, sprang from one row of vats to another.

Each row was a little lower than the row to the north, so that the tiers took on the form of a flight of giant steps.
Porter gained the top tier, and stood for a moment on a plank spanning a vat that was three or four times as large as any of the others.

Ballard climbed to the same plank.

Porter dropped down with a savage, snarling cry.