CHAPTER XII.

A HORRIBLE FATE.

We must now turn our attention to Jack Howard and the boy, Joe, and see what became of them.

The pair were half stunned from the fall from their horses, and before they could collect their scattered senses they had a vague idea of being picked up and carried away.

Jack was the first to recover the full use of his faculties, and when he did so he found himself in Stygian darkness.

A dozen pairs of arms were clasped about his body, it seemed, and he was being whisked swiftly along in a direction that was unknown to him.

Neither he nor Joe had as yet seen what sort of looking fellows their captors were, so, of course, they had not the remotest idea as to who were carrying them off.

Jack heard a series of doglike noises all around him, and he came to the conclusion that it must be a gang of some mysterious animals who were carrying him to their den.

The brave young Englishman determined to make a desperate effort to escape from them.

Exerting all his strength, he strove to free himself.

But he soon found it to be utterly useless. The more he struggled, the tighter the clutch became about his body.

And Joe! The delicate, little fellow was so badly frightened at his mysterious capture that he fainted.

In a very few minutes Jack beheld a light ahead of him, and in a short space of time he was able to see about him fairly well.

When he found that his captors were such little fellows, he again made a wild effort to free himself.

But, as before, it was of no avail.

Jack concluded not to waste his strength any further, but to wait for a more fitting opportunity.

About ten minutes after he reached this conclusion, the dwarfs came to a halt, and he was deposited upon the ground.

But before he was allowed to rise to his feet his hands were securely tied behind him.

Joe, who had not yet recovered from his faint, was also securely bound.

Jack found that he was in a small cave, which appeared to be situated in a vast cavern.

In front of its opening a fire was burning, and around this those who had brought him there were seated.

The young man soon saw that the cave was reserved solely for the use of Joe and himself, for the dwarfs all remained outside near the fire.

Knowing it was useless to attempt to escape, Jack sat down near the mouth of the cave and watched his captors to see what they were doing.

In a few minutes Joe came to himself, and crept to the side of his friend.

Jack explained their situation as best he could, and then said:

"There is one thing in our favor, and that is they haven't taken our weapons from us. I want you to crawl behind me, Joe, and see if you can't gnaw loose the bonds that hold my hands together. If you can do it I will set you free then; and we will then open fire on these little savages and run for it."

"All right," replied the boy, "I'll do my best."

He crept behind Jack and began the task allotted to him, which he found would be a difficult one, as the thongs which bound them were of leather.

Meanwhile the dwarfs, who had evidently been holding a consultation in regard to their prisoners, suddenly arose to their feet and began singing a weird chant in their queer language.

The moment they began it others came hurrying to the spot, and in five minutes' time it seemed as though there must be fully five hundred congregated about.

The noise they made was not so very loud, but it was mournful, and reminded Jack of the howling of a dog.

"What do you suppose they are making that awful noise for?" whispered Joe, resting from his gnawing task for a moment.

"I don't know," returned Jack, in his restless way, "unless they are singing our funeral hymn."

Joe made no reply, but again tackled the leather thongs with his sharp teeth.

He must have made an extraordinary effort, for in less than a minute Jack felt that his hands were free.

"Good!" he exclaimed. "Now, turn your back toward me, and I'll set you free in short order."

Carefully drawing his knife from his belt, he was as good as his word, and the next minute the two captives were standing upright in the cave with a revolver in either hand.

But the dwarfs paid no attention to them whatever. They still kept up their weird chant, and had now formed themselves into a procession and were marching about in every conceivable shape.

When the bulk of the crowd had moved a few yards from the mouth of the cave, Jack concluded it was time for them to step out.

"Come, Joe," said he, coolly; "we'll have to be going now. Our friends won't know what to make of our long absence."

Joe looked at his companion with a glance of admiration in his large eyes, and then followed him from the cave.

This seemed to be just exactly what the dwarfs wanted them to do, for the moment they stepped from the cave a double line on either side rushed up and completely surrounded them.

Both captives were too much surprised at the unexpected turn of affairs, and before they were scarcely aware of it they were tightly hemmed in like a wedge in a block.

Their arms were forced to their sides, though both still clutched their revolvers.

Jack had been in many a crowd in various cities throughout the world, but never had he been subjected to such a tight squeeze as the dwarfs forced him to undergo.

Joe, who was delicate, anyhow, was nearly crushed.

Presently the crowd began to move, and Jack and Joe were carried along without making a single effort.

Slowly they proceeded, and at length entered a dark passage.

"I say!" exclaimed Jack, "where are you taking us to, I'd like to know?"

The only reply he got was a fresh burst of the chant they had been singing, which sounded worse than ever in the narrow passage.

The two were forced along for perhaps a hundred feet in the same slow manner, and then a wild rush suddenly took place.

Pell-mell went the crowd of dwarfs, and, of course, Jack and Joe had to go with them.

The next thing Jack knew he felt himself going downward, and then he fetched up sprawling on a smooth, rocky floor.

The young Englishman was so badly dazed that it was a minute or two before he could arise to his feet.

He was in total darkness, and could not hear a sound beyond the beating of his heart, which was now throbbing away like a triphammer.

"Joe!" he called. "I say, Joe, where are you?"

But there was no response.

Jack now became very uneasy.

He was more frightened than he had ever been in his whole life before.

There was something so weird and mysterious about his situation that he was completely unnerved.

Suddenly it occurred to him to light a match.

With trembling hands he did so.

The first objects to meet his gaze were his revolvers lying at his feet.

He promptly picked them up and placed them in his belt.

"I wonder what has become of Joe?" he muttered. "Poor boy! I don't want to see any harm come to him, and I shan't, either, if I can help it. But this is enough to scare the life out of a little fellow like him. I wonder...."

At that instant a shrill scream rang out, and Jack started as though he had been shot.

Turning quickly, he held the still burning match in front of him, and beheld a startling, not to say horrible, sight.

Crawling over the ground, a few feet from him, was a monstrous creature resembling a crab!

But that was not the worst of it. Joe was gripped firmly in its huge claws.