Adventure stories; Americans -- England -- Fiction; Kidnapping -- Fiction
The humming in the air changed to a shrill whistling as the outrider
winds of the storm came upon them. The cutter tossed still more wildly
and black masses of water smashed in upon them from the darkness, dazing
and drenching them.
Suddenly Ennis yelled, "There's the lights of a boat ahead! There,
moving in toward the cliffs!"
He pointed ahead, and Campbell and the helmsman peered through the
blinding spray and darkness. A pair of low lights were moving at high
speed on the waters there, straight toward the towering black cliffs.
Then they vanished suddenly from sight.
"There must be a hidden opening or harbor of some kind in the cliffs!"
Inspector Campbell exclaimed. "But that can't be Chandra Dass' boat, for
it carried no lights."
"It might be others of the Brotherhood going to the meeting-place!"
Ennis exclaimed. "We can follow and see."
* * * * *
Sturt thrust his head through the flying spray and shouted, "There are
openings and water-caverns in plenty along these cliffs, but there's
nothing in any of them."
"We'll find out," Campbell said. "Head straight toward the cliffs in
there where that boat vanished."
"If we can't find the opening we'll be smashed to flinders on those
cliffs," Sturt warned.
"I'm gambling that we'll find the opening," Campbell told him. "Go
ahead."
Sturt's face set stolidly and he said, "Yes, sir."
He turned the prow of the cutter toward the cliffs. Instantly they
dashed forward toward the rock walls with greatly increased speed, wild
waves bearing them onward like charging stallions of the sea.
Hunched beside the helmsman, the searchlight stabbing the dark wildly as
the cutter was flung forward by the waves, Ennis and the inspector
watched as the cliffs loomed closer ahead. The brilliant white beam
struck across the rushing, mountainous waves and showed only the
towering barriers of rock, battered and smitten by the raving waters
that frothed white. They could hear the booming thunder of the raging
ocean striking the rock.
Like a projectile hurled by a giant hand, the cutter fairly flew now
toward the cliffs. They now could see even the little streams that ran
off the rough rock wall as each giant wave broke against it. They were
almost upon it.
Sturt's face was deathly. "I don't see any opening!" he yelled. "And
we're going to hit in a moment!"
"To your left!" screamed Inspector Campbell over the booming thunder.
"There's an arched opening there."
Now Ennis saw it also, a huge arch-like opening in the cliff that had
been concealed by an angle of the wall. Sturt tried frantically to head
the cutter toward it, but the wheel was useless as the great waves bore
the craft along. Ennis saw they would strike a little to the side of the
opening. The cliff loomed ahead, and he closed his eyes to the impact.
There was no impact. And as he heard a hoarse cry from Inspector
Campbell, he opened his eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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