You can't butt in now." "Great Scott!" gasped Alan.

"You mean that Mary Standish--" "I'm not talking about Mary Standish," said Stampede.

"It's Nawadlook.
If it wasn't for my whiskers--" His words were broken by a sudden detonation which came out of the pale gloom ahead of them.

It was like the explosion of a cannon a long distance away.
"One of them cussed bums," he explained.

"That's why they hurried on ahead of us, Alan.