"Let's get there on the sprint!" Tom himself caught at one of the lanterns, leading the way.

Neither the negro nor the Mexican was where the young chief engineer had left them.
Feverishly, Tom began to search the ground, holding his lantern close.
"Hang the luck!" he quivered, pointing to fragments of cord on the sand.
"That negro simply burst his bonds---and now where is he?
Where is Nicolas, for that matter?
I thought the little fellow, with his trick, could easily take care of the big black." But, though they spread out and searched, there was no sign of either the negro or the little brown man.
"I can't understand what has happened," quivered Tom Reade, thinking more of the staunch little Mexican than of the loss of the prisoner..