see if it had suffered any harm.
'I hope it isn't scratched,' I said. 'Henriques trod on it when
I hit him.'
Laputa peered at the gems like a mother at a child who has
had a fall. I saw my chance and took it. With a great heave I
pulled the
boulder down into the pool. It made a prodigious
splash, sending a
shower of spray over Laputa and the Collar.
In cover of it I raced up the shelf, straining for the shelter of
the juniper tree.
A shot rang out and struck the rock above me. A second
later I had reached the tree and was scrambling up the crack
beyond it.
Laputa did not fire again. He may have distrusted his
shooting, or seen a better way of it. He dashed through the
stream and ran up the shelf like a klipspringer after me. I felt
rather than saw what was
happening, and with my heart in my
mouth I gathered my dregs of
energy for the last struggle.
You know the
nightmare when you are pursued by some
awful
terror, and, though sick with fear, your legs have a
strange
numbness, and you cannot drag them in
obedience to
the will. Such was my feeling in the crack above the juniper
tree. In truth, I had passed the bounds of my
endurance. Last
night I had walked fifty miles, and all day I had borne the
torments of a
dreadfulsuspense. I had been bound and gagged
and
beaten till the force was out of my limbs. Also, and above
all, I had had little food, and I was dizzy with want of sleep.
My feet seemed leaden, my hands had no more grip than
putty. I do not know how I escaped falling into the pool, for
my head was singing and my heart thumping in my
throat. I
seemed to feel Laputa's great hand every second clawing at
my heels.
I had reason for my fears. He had entered the crack long
before I had reached the top, and his progress was twice as fast
as mine. When I emerged on the topmost shelf he was scarcely
a yard behind me. But an
overhang checked his bulky figure
and gave me a few seconds' grace. I needed it all, for these last
steps on the shelf were the totterings of an old man. Only a
desperate
resolution and an
extremeterror made me drag one
foot after the other. Blindly I staggered on to the top of the
ravine, and saw before me the Schimmel grazing in the light of
the westering sun.
I forced myself into a sort of
drunken run, and crawled into
the
saddle. Behind me, as I turned, I could see Laputa's
shoulders rising over the edge. I had no knife to cut the knee-
halter, and the horse could not stir.
Then the
miracle happened. When the rope had gagged me,
my teeth must have nearly severed it at one place, and this
Laputa had not noticed when he used it as a knee-halter. The
shock of my entering the
saddle made the Schimmel fling up
his head
violently, and the rope snapped. I could not find the
stirrups, but I dug my heels into his sides, and he leaped forward.
At the same moment Laputa began to shoot. It was a foolish
move, for he might have caught me by
running, since I had
neither spurs nor whip, and the horse was hampered by the
loose end of rope at his knee. In any case, being an
indifferentshot, he should have aimed at the Schimmel, not at me; but I
suppose he wished to save his
charger. One
bullet sang past
my head; a second did my business for me. It passed over my
shoulder, as I lay low in the
saddle, and grazed the beast's
right ear. The pain maddened him, and, rope-end and all, he
plunged into a wild
gallop. Other shots came, but they fell far
short. I saw dimly a native or two - the men who had followed
us - rush to
intercept me, and I think a spear was flung. But
in a flash we were past them, and their cries faded behind me.
I found the
bridle, reached for the stirrups, and
galloped
straight for the
sunset and for freedom.
CHAPTER XVIII
HOW A MAN MAY SOMETIMES PUT HIS TRUST IN A HORSE
I had long passed the limit of my strength. Only constant
fear and wild alternations of hope had kept me going so long,
and now that I was safe I became light-headed in
earnest. The
wonder is that I did not fall off. Happily the horse was good
and the ground easy, for I was
powerless to do any guiding. I
simply sat on his back in a silly glow of comfort, keeping a line
for the dying sun, which I saw in a nick of the Iron Crown
Mountain. A sort of
childish happiness possessed me. After