They had seen sacrilege unspeakable, and it behoved them to get away before the Gods and devils of the hills took vengeance.

The Frenchman ran towards the lama, fumbling at his revolver with some notion of making him a hostage for his companion.

A shower of cutting stones--hillmen are very straight shots--drove him away, and a coolie from Ao-chung snatched the lama into the stampede.

All came about as swiftly as the sudden mountain-darkness.
'They have taken the baggage and all the guns,' yelled the Frenchman, firing blindly into the twilight.
'All right, sar! All right! Don't shoot.

I go to rescue,' and Hurree, pounding down the slope, cast himself bodily upon the delighted and astonished Kim, who was banging his breathless foe's head against a boulder.
'Go back to the coolies,' whispered the Babu in his ear.