le eyes, while he went the long way
to the pyramid's base, and his feet found the rough stone ascent....

CHAPTER XXI

_The Monstrous Something_

The way to the top of the pyramid was long. One look Chet allowed
himself out over this world--one slow, sweeping gaze that took in the
bare floor at the pyramid's base, a level platform of rock some distance
in front of the pyramid, the hard black and white of the walled oval,
the sea of waving green that was the jungle beyond, and, beyond that,
hills, misty and shimmering in the noonday heat. And nestled there,
beyond that last bare ridge, must be the valley of happiness, Diane
Delacouer's "Happy Valley."

Chet Bullard turned abruptly where the projecting capstone hung heavy
above a shadowed entrance. He entered the blackness within, stopped once
in choking nausea as the first wave of vile air struck him, then fought
his way on till his searching feet found the stairway, and he knew he
was descending into a pit that held something inhumanly horrible--an
abomination unto all gods of decency and right.

And still there persisted that abnormal coolness that made him almost
light-headed, almost carefree. Even the fetid stench ceased to offend.
His feet moved with never a sound to find the first step--and the
next--and the next. He must go cautiously; he must not betray his
presence until he was ready to strike.

Just where that blow would be delivered or against what adversary he
could not tell, and perhaps it would be given him only to save Diane and
Walt by the grace of a merciful bullet. It made no difference. Nothing
made any difference any more; they had had their day, and now if the
night came suddenly that was all he could ask. And still his cautious
feet were carrying him down and yet down....

* * * * *

He was far below the surface of the ground when he found the foot of the
stairs. They had been a spiral; his hand had touched one wall that led
him smoothly around a shaft like a great well. And now there was firm
rock beneath his feet, where, with one hand still guiding him along the
stone wall, he followed the wall into a darkness that was an almost
solid, opaque black. He seemed lost in a great void, smothered in
silence, and buried under the black weight of the pressing dark, until
the sound of a footfall gave him sense of direction and of distance.

It made soft echoings along rock walls that picked up every slightes