Excerpt
Suddenly, Tug began barking. The sharp sound surprised everyone, and made the men jump. Tug stood and darted into the darkness before Preston could react to try to restrain him. The men grabbed their rifles or drew their revolvers and they clambered up from where they sat around the fire. The beams of their electric torches shined ahead of them as the moved away from the camp. Tug’s barking never got too far away, and they found the dog near the crater between the pool and the steps, barking at the massive temple. The men moved their flashlight beams all over the steps and the building, though they were reluctant to get closer because they still had not evaluated the stability of the crater’s edge.
“He is definitely barking at something in that building,” Sir John said. He did not hold a flashlight, but held his rifle to his shoulder and aimed it wherever the light beams touched. He looked over his shoulder at Cadwick. “Maybe it is a tiger …”
Cadwick swallowed and his light beam began to waver a little.
All the men seemed bothered, to some degree, but not overly. They were all confident in their numbers and their arms, thinking that even if it were a large predator, they would be able to drive it off or kill it. Their blood ran cold, however, when Preston made a keen observation …
“No, he’s not,” he said, lowering his flashlight so that it shown on the crater, then on Tug. The dog was angling his head down, not up. “He’s not barking at the building … he’s barking at the hole. Something’s in the hole.”
