thud.

A jubilant reassurance sang gayly through him. He had expected
this--this was what he had predicted. Hamdi was no foul friend. He
was a devilish uncomfortable customer with antiquated notions of
revenge, but now he had shot his wad and was going to undo his
tricks.

Ryder braced himself to present a carefree jauntiness--an air
somewhat difficult to assume when one is trussed like a spitted
bird, in a hot coffin space, with hair falling dankly over a
steaming brow, with a collar like a string, and an indescribable
pallor beneath the bronze of one's face.

Something stirred. One end of a brick was driven in against his
chest. Then he felt the blind working of some tool that caught it
and worried it free.

It seemed to him that through that dark aperture a current of cold,
delicious air came rushing in about him. The blows sounded against
the adjoining bricks and he thought of the glorious joy of seeing
out again, feeling that he would welcome even the sight of Hamdi's
blond mustache and the eunuch's hideous grin.

Now the aperture admitted a pale gleam upon his chest. Staring
steadily down he caught a glimpse of the fingers curving about a
brick, and his heart that had steadied, began to race again wildly.
For they were not the fingers of the black nor yet the wiry joints
of the general.

They were soft, white fingers, with a gleam of rings.

Aimee! Somehow, somewhere, she had managed to come to him, to
achieve this rescue....

"Aimee!" He breathed the name.

"S-sh!" came a warning little whisper, and impatiently he waited
until that opening should be greater and permit of sight and speech.

His helplessness was maddening. If only he could raise his hands,
could get those bonds off! He twisted, he writhed, he tried to lift
his elbows and get his wrists in reach of the opening, but the
coffin was too diabolically cramped for movement until the hole was
very much larger. Then with a convulsive pressure he swung his
wrists within reach and after a moment's wait he felt a thin blade
drawn across the silk.

The relief was glorious. He swung his hands free, rubbing the chafed
wrists, then thrust an opened hand out into the opening, and with
instant comprehension a short, pointed bit of iron was put within
it.

Now he could do something! With furious strength he attacked the
bricks edging the hole and as he pried free each brick he could
again get a glimpse of those white delicate fingers lifting it
ca