Chapter XXX

Scream after scream burst from Gloria’s lips; taut nerves seemed to snap all through her body like over-stressed violin strings.  She ran, ran anywhere, ran blindly.  She ran into Benny, who clutched at her; she fled away from him, back toward the darker end of the cave.  The low rumble of a man’s laughter answered her; drunken laughter from Brodie.  Whether drunk with whiskey or with gold or with lust did not matter; drunk he was.  Gloria’s shriek rose like a madwoman’s; Brodie’s thick laughter was its sinister echo.  Another man called out something; the slow, heavy feet of Swen Brodie were following, following.  Boots scuffling, Brodie pursuing with a wide, patient grin; he was in no hurry, he was so sure of her!

His hands were almost on her.  Gloria whipped aside and ran again.  He kept between her and the front of the cave; with all of his grinning patience he was as watchful as a cat.  She was driven back and back, deeper and deeper into the narrowing tunnel.  He came on.  He would be upon her in another half-dozen slow, ponderous strides.  She could not pass him; she could not dart forward and out; his arms were widely extended on either side.  He was expecting that.  She could only save herself from him second by second—­and the seconds were running out swiftly.

She prayed to God in wild passionate supplication.  She prayed for sudden death, death before those horrid, crooked fingers touched her.  But while she prayed to God it was of Mark King that she thought.  And Mark King, because of her usage of him, was miles and miles away, so far that her despairing shrieks died without penetrating one-millionth part of the empty wastes across which he had trudged.  And still she drew back and back and still she prayed for the miracle as she had done that day when she had seen King coming toward her with a rope in his hand, prayed for the earth to split asunder, for a flame to leap out and consume the beast crowding closer upon her—­to consume him or herself.

At last she was at the end.  The end of the passage-way, the end of hope.  Brodie came on, his arms out.  She could hear him breathing.  She could smell the whiskey he reeked with....  Beyond him she saw Jarrold squatting by the fire; Brail leaning on his rifle, guarding the entrance; Benny and the Italian lounging in the shadows.  Figures of hell, watching Brodie’s actions with aloof interest ...Brodie made the last step; she felt his hand on her arm, closing, drawing her forward; the last agonized shriek burst from her....

“Oh, God—­oh, dear God——­”

She did not hear and Brodie did not hearken to a sudden new sound in the cave grown suddenly still; the sound of a cascade of loose stones.  They came with a rush, they piled up near the middle of the open cave, dropping from the shadowy rock roof above.  But Benny, always on nerve edge, shrilled: 

“Look out!  A cave-in”

She heard—­God had heard——­Better crushed under a falling mountain than in those brute arms.