First ran Oliver, then Japhet, whom he had outpaced, and after them came a number of priests or guards, waving knives, while in the background Higgs rolled on the rock with his captors.
The rest was very short.

Orme slid down the rump of the idol on to the tail, followed by the Mountaineer, and after them in single file came three Fung, who apparently thought no more of the perilous nature of their foothold than do the sheiks of the Egyptian pyramids when they swarm about those monuments like lizards.

Nor, for the matter of that, did Oliver or Japhet, who doubled down the tail as though it were a race track.

Oliver swung himself on to the ladder, and in a second was half across it, we holding its other end, when suddenly he heard his companion cry out.

A Fung had got hold of Japhet by the leg and he lay face downward on the board.
Oliver halted and slowly turned round, drawing his revolver as he did so.