altar descended a wide, wide stairway ending in
the middle of the hall. All this Cliff saw in a single sweeping
glance; afterward he had eyes for nothing save the lethal horror of a
mad, mad scene, revealed by the dim radiance of the altar fire.

Behind the altar stood five huge figures clad in long, hooded cloaks
of scarlet. The central figure had arms raised wide, his cloak spread
like the wings of some bloody bird of prey; and from his lips came a
guttural incantation, a blasphemous chant in archaic Latin, in time
with the wheeze of the buried organ. Now his arms dropped, and he was
silent.

From the room below came a concerted whine of ceremonial devotion, a
hollow, hungry wail. It rose from the bloodless lips of strangely
assorted human figures ranging down the center of the long stairway in
two facing columns. A hundred or more there must have been,
representing half as many periods and countries, according to their
strange and ancient costumes. Men in the armor of medieval Persia--the
crew of the black galley; yellow-haired Vikings; hawk-faced Egyptians
with leather-brown skins; half-naked islanders; red-sashed pirates
from the Spanish main; men of today! And about all, like the dampness
that clings to a tombstone, hovered a cloud of--death! The undead!

Cliff's gaze roved over the tensely waiting columns, then leaped to
the foot of the stairs. There, cowering dumbly like sheep in a
slaughter-pen, were his friends from the _Ariel_. All clothing had
been stripped from them, and they stood waiting in waxen, statuesque
stiffness. He saw then that three others lay prone before the stone
altar, naked and ominously still.

And far down at the very end of the hall stood Leon Corio, draped in a
hooded cape of unbroken black, a glint of silver in his hand--his horn
of drugging sounds.

Now, as though at a silent command, a girl left the group and began to
mount the stairs, as those motionless three must have mounted!
Vivacious Ann--she had been the life of Cliff's yacht party; but now
she was--changed. Her blanched face was rigid with inexpressible
terror despite the semi-stupor which numbed her senses. Her nude body
glowed like marble in the dim light. Horribly, her feet began their
climb with a little catch step suggested by the moaning chant of that
cracked organ note.

She reached the first of the undead, and Cliff saw light glint on a
knife-blade. A crimson gash appeared in the flesh of her thigh; and
dead l