At last they stood together at the foot of the perpendicular rock at the top.  The lightly armed Arab found no difficulty whatever in climbing the rope; but it was harder work for Malchus, encumbered with the weight of his armour.  The numerous knots, however, helped him, and when he was within a few feet of the top, Nessus seized the rope and hauled it up by sheer strength until Malchus was level with the top.  Then he gave him his hand, and assisted him to gain his feet.  They entered the cave and made their way to the further end, and there threw themselves down.  They had not long been there when they saw a flash of light at the mouth of the cave and heard voices.

Malchus seized his spear and would have leaped to his feet, but Nessus pressed his hand on his shoulder.

“They are come for the she bear,” he said.  “It is not likely they will enter.”

Lying hidden in the darkness the fugitives watched the natives roll the bear over, tie its legs together, and put a stout pole through them.  Then four men lifted the pole on their shoulders and started.

Another holding a brand entered the cave.  The two fugitives held their breath, and Nessus sat with an arrow in the string ready to shoot.  The brand, however, gave but a feeble light, and the native, picking up the bodies of three of the young bears, which lay close to the entrance, threw them over his shoulder, and crawled back out of the cave again.  As they heard his departing footsteps the fugitives drew a long breath of relief.

Nessus rose and made his way cautiously out of the cave.  He returned in a minute.

“They have taken the rope with them,” he said, “and it is well, for when they have searched the valley tomorrow, were it hanging there, it might occur to them that we have made our way up.  Now that it is gone they can never suspect that we have returned here.”

“There is no chance of our being disturbed again tonight, Nessus.  We can sleep as securely as if were in our camp.”

So saying, Malchus chose a comfortable place, and was soon asleep.

Nessus, however, did not lie down, but sat watching with unwearied eyes the entrance to the cave.  As soon as day had fairly broken, a chorus of loud shouts and yells far down the ravine told that the search had begun.  For hours it continued.  Every bush and boulder in the bottom was searched by the natives.

Again and again they went up and down the gorge, convinced that the fugitives must be hidden somewhere; for, as Nessus had anticipated, the cliffs at the upper end were so precipitous that an escape there was impossible, and the natives had kept so close a watch all night along the slopes at the lower end, and at the mouth, that they felt sure that their prey could not have escaped them unseen.  And yet at last they were forced to come to the confusion that in some inexplicable way this must have been the case, for how else could they have escaped?  The thought that they had reascended by the rope before it was removed, and that they were hidden in the cave at the time the bodies of the bear and its cubs were carried away, never occurred to them.