On, on, swept this wild chase, and now the pursuers were near enough to shout to them to halt Hilda's steed was beginning to show signs of giving in. Then its rider uttered breathlessly,-- "Herbert, I see a chance. That bend of rock just ahead. Beyond it--the _tangi_--the Syyed's _tangi_." "A chance, indeed," he answered, all athrill at the discovery. "The only thing is will they fight shy of it now, as they did in cold blood?" "They will--they will," she panted. Now they had gained the rock portal--towering up grim and frowning overhead, and the pursuers had nearly gained it too. But these last, the foremost of them, drew up a little way from the entrance. So did others who came up. It was evident they recognised the place, and the force of superstition was strong. Crouched among the boulders the three fugitives could just see what was going on. One who seemed a leader was evidently urging them forward-- riding up and down their line haranguing and gesticulating vehemently. At last six or seven men broke from the others, and, followed by these, the chief advanced towards the mouth of the chasm. "Murad Afzul, _Huzoor_," whispered Mehrab Khan. "It is his last quarter of an hour," grimly answered Raynier, sighting his rifle. And then an inspiration came to him, and he whispered some hurried instructions to Mehrab Khan. The Baluchi immediately left his side, and retired further into the chasm. "Hilda, dearest, do you think you could hold the horses, in case they get a bit of a scare?" he said. "I have a plan which will save us, if anything will. Stand behind that elbow of rock with them." Without a word she obeyed, and now the Gularzai were already within the mouth of the _tangi_, Murad Afzul leading. What followed was weirdly startling. The whole of the grim and gloomy chasm roared with the most appalling sounds, mingled with shriekings and wailings. To and fro-- tossed along those gigantic cliff walls the echoes bellowed, giving forth strange mouthings, and then, over all, from the dim inner recesses of the cavernous rift spake an awful voice. "O unbelievers, violators of my sanctuary, retire, or ye die--die even as those three now lying here, whom none may find until the ending of the world. He who makes one step forward, that moment he dies. In the name of the Great, the Terrible One."