apor which sprung _of its own accord_ upon the silent
upright rank! In an instant it settled like falling snow upon the
doomed soldiers. For a breathless fraction of a second they stood,
eyes wide with horror, then collapsed, kicking and struggling as men
do under the influence of gas.

"Horrible!" gasped Nelson. "What was in the bombs?"

"A vapor," explained Hero Giles shortly. "A fungus vapor which,
falling upon exposed flesh, instantly invades the blood and multiplies
by millions. See--" He pointed to the nearest dead man and Nelson,
with starting eyes, watched a yellowish growth commencing to sprout
from the dead man's nostrils. Swiftly the poisonous mould threw out
tiny branches, spreading with astounding rapidity over the skin until,
in less than a minute after the grenades had exploded, the whole
tumbled heap of dead were covered with a horrible yellow green fungus
growth.

"Thou seest?" Hero Giles demanded. "Powerful, is it not? It is against
the fungus vapor we wear this body armor made from the skin of a small
lizard which inhabits our mountains."

Shocked and appalled, Nelson watched the retreat of the solemn, silent
execution party.

Other soldiers fell to unconcernedly stripping their fallen comrades
of equipment; then, to Nelson's horrified surprise, two hideous
allosauri reappeared, shepherded by some six or eight keepers. Once
the horrible creatures were released, they pounced upon the dead and,
snarling horribly, commenced to rend and devour the corpses.

* * * * *

Too shaken to comment or to make the protest he knew to be futile,
Nelson followed the stalwart English-speaking officer into a bronze
door set in the cavern wall and up a short flight of stairs into what
appeared to be a guard room, where food and wine were immediately set
before the famished aviator.

"Yea," Hero Giles was saying as he set down a beautiful goblet and
wiped the last traces of wine from his beard, "we will soon o'ertake
thy friend. He was but little hurt, and thou wilt assuredly join him
in judgment before our great Emperor, Altorius XXII, at Heliopolis,
our capital."

"Heliopolis?" mumbled Nelson, his mouth full of delicious stew that
seemed to be made of veal. "Heliopolis? How far away is it?"

"A hundred leagues more or less," the other smiled. "Almost a third of
the distance up this great valley."

"One hundred leagues! Three hundred miles! Then we won't be there for
several