Part 52 (2/2)

”By gad!” exclaimed Harry in a whisper ”Look at hily so Her eyes, dull and sunken, appeared as two large, black holes set back in her skull Her hair, matted about her forehead and shoulders, was thick and coarse, and blacker than night Her body was innocent of any atteht; and we bundled her into a corner and proceeded to look round the rooe of view from the corridor as far as possible

The room was not luxuriously furnished There were two seats of stone, and a couch of the same material covered with thick hides In one corner was a pile of copper vessels; in another two or three of stone, rudely carved Some torn hides lay in a heap near the center of the roo were suspended other hides and some strips of dried fish

Some of the latter we cut doith the points of our spears and retired with it to a corner

”Ought we to ask our hostess to join us?” Harry grinned

”This tastes good, after the other,” I rery as ere, we made sad havoc with the lady's pantry Then we found soivings But ere too thirsty to be particular

Then Harry beca for the appearance of that long row of open doorways, I did not de up our spears, we stepped out into the corridor and turned to the right

We found ourselves running a gantlet wherein discovery seeht as one unbroken series of open doorways, and in each of the rooms, whose interiors we could plainly see, were one or more of the Inca Women; and sometimes children rolled about on the stony floor

In one of theht at us, and I gathered ; but he made no movement of any kind and we passed swiftly by

Once a little black ball of flesh--a boy it was, perhaps five or six years old--tumbled out into the corridor under our very feet We strode over him and went swiftly on

We had passed about a hundred of the open doorways, and were beginning to entertain the hope that wediscovered, when Harry suddenly stopped short, pulling at my arm

At the same instant I saw, far down the corridor, a crowd of black for about their appearance and gait told us that they were not woreat that as they advanced they filled the passage from wall to wall

There was but one way to escape certain discovery; and distasteful as it e did not hesitate to elance I saw that ere directly opposite an open doorith a whispered word to Harry I sprang across the corridor and within the room He followed

Inside were a woman and two children As we entered they looked up, startled, and stood gazing at us in terror For an instant we held back, but there was nothing else for it; and in another ed thely little devils and the woman very little above a brute; still we handled theainst the here we could not be seen from the corridor, and waited

Soon the patter of many footsteps reached our ears They passed; others came, and still others For many minutes the sound continued steadily, unbroken, while we sat huddled up against the wall, scarcely daring to breathe

Immediately in front of me lay the forms of the wo, looking up at me in abject terror Still the patter of footsteps sounded from without, with now and then an interval of quiet

Struck by a sudden thought, I signaled to Harry; and when he hadacross the roo, and he nodded to show that he understood We crouched together flat against the wall

My thought had come just in time, for scarcely another minute had passed when there suddenly appeared in the doorway the form of an Inca

He moved a step inside, and I saw that there was another behind him I had not counted on two of thereat copper vessel, evidently very heavy, for their effort was apparent as they stooped to place the vessels on the ground just within the doorway

As they straightened up and saw that the room before them was empty, their faces filled with surprise At the same moment a lanced at them with a start of wonder; and as I had foreseen, they ran across and bent over the prostrate forms

The next instant they, too, were prone on the floor, with Harry and le, and the one I had chosen proved nearly too s strained under me with a power that made me doubtful for a ht us how to conquer a rasped his throat with all the strength there was in ers