“Good thing I had that wall built.  Dick will be having his hands full.  Come along; we may get out in time yet to take a share in the fight, for his sake.”

Venning remained staring down, with a look in his face that brought the Hunter back.

“What do you see?”

“Of all the idiots,” said the boy—­“of all the miserable, shortsighted, thick-headed, addle-pated duffers and asses we are the worst!  We took pains to find a way into a fiendish maze of tunnels, pits, and caverns, occupied by vampires and enveloped in darkness, in search of a thing that was never there.”

“As what?”

“Look there!” and the boy pointed down.  “There’s our boat—­down there, out in the broad daylight.”

“You’re mistaken, lad.”

“There—­straight down—­in that patch of reeds on the right of the pool.”

“That’s her, right enough,” said Mr. Hume, excitedly.

“And to think we’ve been wandering about in fear of our lives on a false scent.”

“It makes me feel bad; but the mistake has been made, and now we’ve got to get out, and get out in time to help Dick.”

“Oh, Dick’s all right,” said Venning, crossly.  “He’s got plenty to eat, and a warm bed.”

“Chew this;” and the Hunter handed his last bit of biltong.

Venning took it, and followed on into the passage, chewing and growling over their folly.

“We will laugh over our troubles,” said the Hunter, patiently, “when we get out.”

“When we get out!  I don’t believe there is a way out.  Anyhow, I am not going a step further beyond the place where we found the loopholes.”

Mr. Hume made no reply.

“I have been thinking over it,” Venning went on.

“The place cant be very high above the level of the ground outside.  We could easily attract attention by filing a shot out.  Then we would make a rope out of the rushes in these mats, lower it with a bit of stone at the end, on which we could write directions to Dick with a bit of burnt stick, to hitch on a rope.  We would haul in the rope, make it fast, and then shin down.”

“But suppose Dick is busy beating off the attack of Hassan’s men?”

“Then we’ll wait.  I’m not going further—­not a foot.  If you like, sir, you can go, but I will stay.  I am not going down into those horrible caves.”  His voice rose to a shout.

“All right,” said the Hunter, soothingly.  “In any case, I am afraid we have left it too late.”

“Late or early, I’ll not go on.”

When they did reach the loopholes, they found on looking out that the valley on that side was already in the shadow.

“We will stay, then,” said Mr. Hume.  “Let me unstrap the mat from your shoulders.”

Venning had already sat down with a dogged look in his face, and Mr. Hume had to lift him up to loosen the mat.  The boy—­there was no disguising the matter any farther—­was ill, and it would clearly be dangerous to excite him by opposition.