The ring of beasts closed in--we could see their yellow eyes glowing in the gloom.

Orme and Quick might have got through by the help of their rifles, but they could not leave the others.

The dreadful climax seemed at hand.
"Follow me," said Maqueda, who all this while had watched panting at my side, and rose to run to the ladder.

I thrust her back.
"Nay," I shouted.

"Follow me, Abati! Shall a woman lead you ?" Of how I descended that ladder I have no recollection, nor do I in the least know how the Mountaineers came after me, but I think that the most of them rolled and scrambled down the thirty feet of rock.