the wall's
tremendous winged figures this floor design was trivial, ludicrously
insignificant. What could there be about it to stamp that dread upon
Ruth's face?

I leaped the crevice; Dick joined me. Now I could see that the ring was
not continuous. Its broken circle was made of sharply edged cubes about
an inch in height, separated from each other with mathematical exactness
by another inch of space. I counted them--there were nineteen.

Almost touching them with their bases were an equal number of pyramids,
of tetrahedrons, as sharply angled and of similar length. They lay on
their sides with tips pointing starlike to six spheres clustered like
a conventionalized five petaled primrose in the exact center. Five of
these spheres--the petals--were, I roughly calculated, about an inch and
a half in diameter, the ball they enclosed larger by almost an inch.

So orderly was their arrangement, so much like a geometrical design
nicely done by some clever child that I hesitated to disturb it. I bent,
and stiffened, the first touch of dread upon me.

For within the ring, close to the clustering globes, was a miniature
replica of the giant track in the poppied valley!

It stood out from the dust with the same hint of crushing force, the
same die cut sharpness, the same METALLIC suggestion--and pointing
toward the globes were the claw marks of the four spreading star points.

I reached down and picked up one of the pyramids. It seemed to cling
to the rock; it was with effort that I wrenched it away. It gave to the
touch a slight sensation of warmth--how can I describe it?--a warmth
that was living.

I weighed it in my hand. It was oddly heavy, twice the weight, I should
say, of platinum. I drew out a glass and examined it. Decidedly the
pyramid was metallic, but of finest, almost silken texture--and I could
not place it among any of the known metals. It certainly was none I
had ever seen; yet it was as certainly metal. It was striated--slender
filaments radiating from tiny, dully lustrous points within the polished
surface.

And suddenly I had the weird feeling that each of these points was an
eye, peering up at me, scrutinizing me. There came a startled cry from
Dick.

"Look at the ring!"

The ring was in motion!

Faster the cubes moved; faster the circle revolved; the pyramids raised
themselves, stood bolt upright on their square bases; the six rolling
spheres touched them, joined the spinning, and with sleight-