Part 50 (1/2)

Oh, what a chance to ridwhere Thak sits a leap to the wall a tug on that rope ”

Petreus had placed one foot lightly over the threshold of the cha dully Suddenly Thak rose and wheeled toward him The unexpected horror of his appearance, where they had thought to behold the hated but faht havoc with their nerves, as the saht upon Murilo With a shriek Petreus recoiled, carrying his companions backith him They stumbled and floundered over each other, and in that instant Thak, covering the distance in one prodigious, grotesque leap, caught and jerked powerfully at a thick velvet rope which hung near the doorway

Instantly the curtains whipped back on either hand, leaving the door clear, and down across it so flashed with a peculiar silvery blur

”He re ”The beast is half a man! He had seen the doom performed, and he remembered! Watch, now! Watch! Watch!”

277

Murilo saw that it was a panel of heavy glass that had fallen across the doorway Through it he saw the pallid faces of the conspirators Petreus, throwing out his hands as if to ward off a charge froestures, said so to his companions Now that the curtains were drawn back, the men in the pits could see all that took place in the chamber that contained the nationalists Completely unnerved, these ran across the chamber toward the door by which they had apparently entered, only to halt suddenly, as if stopped by an invisible wall

”The jerk of the rope sealed that chalass panels work in grooves in the doorways Jerking the rope trips the spring that holds them They slide down and lock in place, and can only be worked frolass is unbreakable; a man with a mallet could not shatter it Ah!”

The trapped ht; they ran wildly fro vainly at the crystal walls, shaking their fists wildly at the implacable black shape which squatted outside Then one threw back his head, glared upward, and began to screa of his lips, while he pointed toward the ceiling

”The fall of the panels released the clouds of dooh

”The dust of the gray lotus, from the Swamps of the Dead, beyond the land of Khitai”

In the old buds; these had opened like the petals of a great carven rose, and froray mist that swiftly filled the chaed from one of hysteria to one of er; they ran in drunken circles Froth dripped fro they fell upon one another with daggers and teeth, slashi+ng, tearing, slaying in a holocaust of lad that he could not hear the screa Like pictures thrown on a screen, it was silent

Outside the chalee, tossing his long hairy ar like a fiend

”Ha, a good stroke, Petreus! That fairly disemboweled him! Now one for you,tear the flesh of the dead with their slavering teeth”

Murilo shuddered Behind hiue Only death was to be seen in the chaled, the conspirators lay

278in a red heap, gaping h the sloirling eddies of gray

Thak, stooping like a giant gnoave it a peculiar sidewise pull

”He is opening the farther door,” said Nabonidus ”By Mitra, he is uessed! See, the mist swirls out of the chamber, and is dissipated He waits, to be safe

Now he raises the other panel He is cautious he knows the doos madness and death By Mitra!”

Murilo jerked about at the electric quality of the exclamation

”Our one chance!” exclaimed Nabonidus ”If he leaves the chamber above for a few minutes, ill risk a dash up those stairs”

Suddenly tense, they watched the h the doorway and vanish With the lifting of the glass panel, the curtains had fallen again, hiding the chaasped Nabonidus, and Murilo saw perspiration break out on his face

”Perhaps he will be disposing of the bodies as he has seen me do Quick! Follow me up those stairs!”

He ran toward the steps and up the nobleman and the barbarian were close at his heels, and they heard his gusty sigh of relief as he threw open the door at the top of the stairs They burst into the broad chamber they had seen mirrored below Thak was nowhere to be seen

”He's in that chamber with the corpses!” exclaimed Murilo ”Why not trap hiasped Nabonidus, an unaccusto his features ”We do not know that he is in there He e before we could reach the trap-rope, anyway! Follow me into this corridor; I must reach my chamber and obtain weapons which will destroy hi from this chamber which is not set with a trap of soh a curtained doorway opposite the door of the death- chamber, and came into a corridor, into which various chaan to try the doors on each side They were locked, as was the door at the other