CHAPTER XI. AZURMA’S SEARCH.

Dick Vincey gave an agonizing cry as he saw his cousin disappear in the flame and smoke below them.

“He’s lost--he’s lost!” he almost wailed. “What will his parents say when I return without him?”

“It’s too bad,” said Martin Haypole, consolingly, “but I wouldn’t take on so much, if I was you. You know none of us won’t ever git back ter home, anyway--we have took our oaths that we won’t never leave this dod-rotted country.”

“Come,” remarked the professor, “let us get away from this place. Leo is dead long before this--no earthly power could save him.”

“You are right,” assented Andrew Jones. “I am sorry, but it can’t be helped.”

“There is a possibility of his having passed through the flame and smoke alive,” said De Amilo, the Spaniard; “but the rushing stream--if he is not drowned in that, he will be carried over a falls a few hunderd yards further down, and be dashed to pieces on the rocks.”

No one in the party had the least doubt but that Leo Malvern was dead, and with a feeling of sorrow they turned from the spot and started for the village.

“May de good Lor’ save him!” whined Lucky, the darky, wringing his hands. “Massa Leo was de bestest friend dis poor darky eber had, an’ now him done gone an’ got killed. Oh, why did us eber come to de Eberglades, anyhow?”

“It is my fault,” said Prof. Easy; “I had no business to induce him to accompany me on my exploring tour. We have made many discoveries, but this fearful accident spoils all the pleasure there is in it.”

“I don’t blame you, professor,” returned Dick. “It was our own free wills that brought both Leo and myself to the Land of Hez. Say no more about it, please.”

As soon as the village was reached, Dick at once apprised Queen Olive of what had happened.

She sympathized with him, and tried to comfort him, at the same time saying:

“There is a possibility that your cousin is not dead. If that is the case, there is but one who could seek him out in the earth’s bowels and find him.”

“Who is that one?” asked Dick, his hopes arising.

“Azurma,” was the reply. “She has claimed him for her husband, and if sent to look for him, she would never come back without him.”

“Send her, then.”

“There will be no need of me sending her. When she hears what has happened she will start at once on her own hook. She has been unable to see Leo since she left him in the dark cavern, the reason being that I ordered her not to do so, in punishment for leading you and your companions from the magic chamber.”

The queen blew a tiny whistle, and a servant appeared.

“Send Azurma here,” said she, in Spanish.

The servant bowed and retired, and a few minutes later the beautiful Hez girl appeared.

“What is it, O queen?” she asked. “Can I now be permitted to see my future lord and master?”

“You can; but you must first seek him out. He is lost, having fallen into the stream that flows through the Devil’s Kingdom. You are at liberty to go where you please in the Land of Hez.”

An expression of gratefulness, intermingled with fear, came over the girl’s face, and then, without noticing Dick in the least, she bowed and retired.

The brave girl plodded on her way until she came to the point where the four passages met, and here she came to a pause.

“He went down the stream that flows through the Devil’s Kingdom,” she murmured, “and so must I, if I would find him. If he perished, then so shall I! I have said it, and my word shall not be broken!”

Then with an expression of determination upon her face, she started down the passage.

She only stopped for a moment to view the scene that had seemed such a wonder to our friends, and then started off at right angles, with an idea of picking her way to the shores of the stream below, beyond the smoke and fire.

That Azurma knew what she was doing was plainly evident, for after a tedious descent of probably a mile, she came to the point she desired to reach.

The roaring of the flames was behind her, and the swiftly rushing tide was within a few feet of her on the right.

Eagerly she scanned the shores on either side of the subterranean stream for a sign of Leo Malvern.

But not the least trace of him could she see.

But Azurma had not given up all hope yet.

With a resolute air she started along the shore in the direction the water flowed.

She now could hear the roaring of the water as it dashed over the falls, and her face paled.

Had the one she loved been swept over this?

The thought was a sickening one to her, and for a moment she tottered and almost fell to the ground.

Just then the girl caught sight of a number of footprints in the sand.

In a moment she was kneeling upon the ground examining them.

As soon as she saw that they were not made by her own people, a cry of joy escaped her lips.

As the reader has already surmised, they were the footprints of Leo Malvern and Reginald Lacy.

Full of hope now, that her mission would prove successful, Azurma followed the tracks.

She reached the mouth of the passage and was just about to enter it when a warning hiss told her that there was danger ahead.

The girl drew back with a half-smothered cry of alarm.

“The picuasus!” she cried, in her own tongue. “Oh! what shall I do now?”

She hastily withdrew from the mouth of the passage and looked about for a safe place of retreat.

As she did so an immense turtle appeared through the opening, and thrusting a horrible-looking head from its shell, peered around to find the one who had disturbed it.

The moment the creature’s beadlike eyes rested upon Azurma a transformation took place.

From the appearance of a huge turtle, it suddenly changed to a spider of the most gigantic proportions.

Long legs stretched out in every direction, and it began walking toward the poor girl, with its body at least two feet from the ground.

Azurma stood as though petrified, her face the color of ashes.

With rapid strides the many-legged creature neared her.

When it had approached to within ten feet of her she seemed to regain her senses.

Uttering a wild shriek, she started to flee from the spot with all her might.

An ominous hiss came from the picuasus, as Azurma called it, and the horrible thing increased its speed.

Straight for the river the girl ran, and it was evident that rather than be torn to pieces by the underground denizen she would throw herself into the rushing water.

When within ten yards of the water’s edge Azurma stumbled and fell, and the next instant the picuasus stretched forth its long tentacles to seize her.

But they did not reach. At that moment the report of a rifle rang out, and it tumbled to the ground in a heap.

Azurma was saved!