Part 31 (1/2)
”Ay! There will be a houghing shortly after dawn!” he muttered ”Would only that I were there to see! Where are the sepoys?” he demanded
”I know not How should I knoho have been thy guest these hours past? This ”
The priest pressed hard on a stone knob that see on a wall, then he leaned his weight against the wall and a huge stone swung inward, while a fetid breath of air wafted outward in their faces
”None know this road but I!” exclaimed the priest
”None need to!” said the Risaldar ”Pass on, snake, into thy hole We follow”
”Steps!” said the priest, and began descending
”Curses!” said the Risaldar, stu down on top of him ”Have a care, Suliman! The stone is wet and slippery”
Down, down they cli beneath his burden and the Risaldar keeping up a running fire of oaths Each time that he slipped, and that was often, he cursed the priest and cautioned Sulihed, and apparently Suliman was sure-footed, for he never stu down into the bowels of the earth They were in pitch-black darkness, for the stone had swung to behind them of its own accord The wall on either side of thees rose and al, so fast that the other two had trouble to keep up with hih he knew the road and liked it
”The botto is easy, until we rise again We pass now under the city-wall”
But they could see nothing and hear nothing except their own footfalls swishi+ng in the ooze beneath theh he spoke into a blanket, for the air they breathed was thicker than aa level, wet, stone passage for at least fivetheir ith one band on the wall
”Steps, now!” said the priest ”Have a care, now, for the lower ones are slippery”
Ruth was regaining consciousness She began to rowled the Risaldar ”Thou art a younger man than I-come back here Help with the memsahib”
The priest ca vile insults at hirowled ”Get thou behind me, Mahommed Khan, in case I slip!”
So Mahorunted upward, round and round a spiral staircase that was hewn out of solid rock No light cah froh he were accustomed to the stair and knew the way fro the stone grew gradually dry The steps became smaller, too, and deeper, and not so hard to climb Suddenly the priest reached out his ar down in the darkness A stone in the wall rolled open A flood of light burst in and nearly blinded them
”We are below Kharvani's te into a four-square room hewn from the rock below the foundations of the teht that had blinded the but the flicker of two s suspended by brass chains fro The only furniture was mats spread on the cut-stone floor
”By which way did we co in amazement round the walls There was not a door nor crack, nor any sign of one, except that a wooden ladder in one corner led to a trapdoor overhead, and they had certainly not entered by the ladder
”Nay! That is a secret!” grinned the priest ”He who can ! Here can the woman and her servant stay until we need them”
”Here in this place?”
”Where else? No man but I knows of this crypt! The ladder there leads to another room, where there is yet another ladder, and that one leads out through a secret door I know of, straight into the temple Art ready? There is need for haste!”
”Wait!” said the Risaldar
”These soldiers!” sneered the priest ”It is ait with them, always!”
”Hast thou a son”
”Ay! But what of it?”