Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/262

 races. Midway between the crumpled, weathered edges and the mouth of the pit, where the sides broke off and descended abruptly, was a ribbon of lava that apparently formed a complete circle.

"To revert to Tib's war-cry, no sooner had he given it than he slowed up in the short passageway leading to the track and commanded me to get to the rear on the luggage. As I mechanically obeyed and knit my hands into the ropes, the bewildered Huancas appeared in view and drew up to see our finish.

"There was no room to turn about, else we'd have rammed 'em. Tib saw the situation in a glance, and, bracing his feet and sparking up, shot us forward as if out of a gun, to be plastered against the slanting walls of the crater. It simply took 'em off their feet, sir. For never having seen an auto, or the saucer-track stunt, they simply had to write us down as tinsmiths or fairies. Yet they had their ancestors' nerve and were determined to see the performance out.

"I could never decide how many laps it was to a mile, or whether it was so many miles to a lap. Tib afterwards said the track was under two thousand feet in diameter. I only know we had whizzed the circumference twice, with as many momentary views of the brown men's astounded faces, before I dared