On came Del Mar’s car, the driver frantically tugging at the emergency brake.  But it was of no use.  There was not room to turn aside.  The car crashed into the hole, like a gigantic plow.

It took one header over the side of the road and down several feet into the stream, just as the masked man and the driver jumped far ahead into the water.

Safe now in our car which was slackening its terrific speed, I looked back.  “They’ve been thrown!” I cried.  “We’re all right.”

On the edge of the water, just covered by some wreckage, the chauffeur lay motionless.  The masked man crawled from under the wreckage and looked at him a moment.

“Dead!” he exclaimed, still mechanically gripping a rifle in his hand.

Angrily he raised it at us and fired.

A moment later, some other men gathered from all directions about him, each armed.

“Don’t mind the wreck,” he cried, exasperated.  “Fire!”

A volley was delivered at us.  But the distance was now apparently too great.

We were just congratulating ourselves on our escape, when a stray shot whizzed past, striking a piece directly out of the head of the steering-post, almost under Elaine’s hands.

Naturally she lost control, though fortunately we were not going so fast now.  Crazily, our car swerved from side to side of the road, as she vainly tried to control both its speed and direction.  On the very edge of the ditch, however, it stopped.

We looked back.  There we could see a group of men who seemed to spring out of the woods, as if from nowhere, at the sound of the shots.  A shout went up at the sight of the bullet taking effect, and they ran forward at us.

One of their number, I could see, masked, who had been in the wrecked car, stumbled forward weakly, until finally he sank down.

A couple of the others ran to him.  “Go on,” he must have urged vehemently.  “One of you is enough to stay with me.  I’m going back to the submarine harbor.  The rest—­go on—­report to me there.”

As the rest ran toward us, there was nothing for us to do but to abandon the car ourselves and run for it.  We left the road and struck into the trackless woods, followed closely now by two of the men who had outdistanced the rest.  Through the woods we fled, taking advantage of such shelter as we could find.

“Look, here’s a cave,” cried Elaine, as we plunged, exhausted and about ready to drop, down into a ravine.

We hurried in and the bushes swung over the cave entrance.  Inside we stopped short and gazed about.  It was dark and gloomy.  We looked back.  There was no hope there.  They had been overtaking us.  On down a passageway, we went.

The two men who were pursuing us plunged down the ravine also.  As ill-luck would have it, they saw the cave entrance and dashed in, then halted.  Crouching in the shadow we could see their figures silhoutted in the dim light of the entrance of the cavern.  One stopped at the entrance while the other advanced.  He was a big fellow and powerfully built and the other fellow was equally burly.  I made up my mind to fight to the last though I knew it was hopeless.  It was dark.  I could not even see the man advancing now.