n. Some good angel had
led him to the main route. Had he fallen asleep in some other cave, he
might still be wandering through the labyrinth.

The rifles taken from Scotty and Zircon by Long Shadow's men had been
found in one of the tents. With Rick's rifle, they were insurance
against treachery. But Long Shadow seemed resigned, for some reason Rick
couldn't fathom, and Ko did nothing but curse the bearers who carried
him.

Before reaching the great cave they stopped at a blank wall. At a signal
from Long Shadow, one of the Tibetans reached behind a stalagmite and
pulled a lever. A section of the wall swung open, disclosing the passage
they had thought stopped in a dead end.

In a few moments they were crossing the outer cave, and Rick saw at once
that the bars across the entrance passage were gone.

"When the inner door opens from the inside, the bars also open," Long
Shadow said. "There is another cave under this one where the mechanism
is located. No, I am not responsible. The ancient ones who made the
Black Buddha also made the doors and the mechanism."

Rick ran ahead through the passage. He found the leather thong that
controlled the door and pulled. The metal tongue came out of its slot
permitting the counterbalance to swing the trap door upward. The others
were behind him with their lights, and Rick saw his shadow loom large on
the wall behind the Black Buddha. In the same way, the Long Shadow had
been projected upward, probably by the light from a candle in the hands
of a Tibetan bearer. He experimented, backing down a few steps. His
shadow seemed to fold downward into the oblong box of light cast by the
flashlights. When he walked up the stairs again, the shadow grew out of
the bottom of the projected oblong of light.

As Rick reached floor level, he froze suddenly, his finger slipping the
hammer of his rifle to full cock. There were lights in the cave! As he
turned to call a warning, yellow-robed lamas, who had seen the reflected
light on the rear wall, poured around the statue with wild yells, their
torches held high.

"Something's up," Rick called to the others. "Watch it!"

Under the threat of Rick's rifle, then Scotty's and Zircon's, the lamas
fell back until the group stood alongside the Black Buddha, looking into
the cave. There were torches everywhere! And cooking fires. Rick's first
thought was that they had returned in the midst of a religious
celebration.

And then he saw Sing. The Chines