"After them," Uzali whispered. "The tragedy is done so far as we are concerned. That unfortunate man is beyond salvation. After them! It is not so dark as you think."
After the intense gloom of the vault the garden was by comparison almost light. Russell could see the two forms not more than a hundred yards ahead. He set off doggedly in chase. His blood was up now, his heart was full of anger, and a certain recklessness possessed him. Come what might those people should not escape him again; neither did he need Uzali to tell him who they were. He knew he was in close pursuit of the two Malays whom he had seen not so many hours before lying on the floor in Jansen's sitting-room.
It all grew clear to Russell as he raced along. He was just as anxious to catch up with those men, just as determined to mete out to them the punishment they deserved, but the wild feeling of passion was gone.
Doubtless the Malays had been too cunning for Jansen. To a certain extent they had trusted him, but the Dutchman's drugs had been insufficient. What Jansen had come to Maldon Grange for, Russell could not tell. But there must have been some deep reason for his move, some pressing need of keeping the Malays out of the way till his errand was accomplished.
Russell ran on and on without sense of fatigue, for he was in hard training, his muscles tense and rigid as whipcord, his lungs playing freely. Uzali was far behind and out of the hunt. The Malays, too, showed that they knew they were being followed. For a long time they kept to the road till it began to dawn upon them that their antagonist was gaining ground, then they vaulted lightly over a gate and entered the fields. Russell smiled grimly as he noticed the move. He was not perhaps quite so agile as those in front, but he knew the heavier going would suit him better. Sooner or later he must wear those fellows down and bring them to a sense of their responsibilities. There was consolation in the knowledge that he was armed. He smiled as he felt for his revolver in his hip pocket.
A mile or so and the pace began to tell. The fugitives were not more than sixty or seventy yards away. They were toiling distressfully along, and Russell could see that their limbs were growing heavy under them.