e had formerly been imprisoned.

We had nearly reached it when I saw, some distance down the corridor,
moving forms. The light was very dim, but there appeared to be a great
many of them.

I turned, with a swift gesture to Harry and Desiree to follow, and
dashed forward to the light and through the doorway into the room.
Discovery was inevitable, I thought, in any event, but it was better to
meet them at the door to the room than in the open passage. And we had
our spears.

But by a rare stroke of luck we had not been seen. As we stood within
the room on either side of the doorway, out of the line of view from
the corridor, we heard the patter of many footsteps approaching.

They neared the doorway, and I glanced at Harry, pointing to his spear
significantly. He gave me a nod of understanding. Let them come; we
would not again fall into their hands alive.

The footsteps sounded just without the doorway; I stood tense and
alert, with spear ready, expecting a rush momentarily. Then they
passed, passed altogether, and receded down the corridor in the
direction whence we had come. I wanted to glance out at their number,
but dared not. We stood still till all was again perfectly silent.

Then Desiree spoke in a whisper:

"It is useless; we are lost. That was the king. He is going to my
room. In ten seconds he will be there and find me gone."

There was only one thing to do, and I wasted no time in discussing it.
A swift command to Harry, and we dashed from the doorway and down the
corridor to the left, each holding an arm of Desiree. But she needed
little of our assistance; the presence of the Inca king seemed to have
inspired her with a boundless terror, and she flew, rather than ran,
between us.

We reached the bend in the passage, and just beyond it the light--the
first one we had seen on our way in. I had our route marked on my
memory with complete distinctness. Soon we found ourselves in the
wide, sloping passage that carried us to the level below, and in
another five seconds had reached its end and the beginning of the last
stretch.

At the turn Harry stumbled and fell flat, dragging Desiree to her
knees. I lifted her, and he sprang to his feet unhurt.

She was panting heavily. Harry had dropped his spear in the fall, and
we wasted a precious minute searching for it in the darkness, finally
finding it where it had slid, some twenty feet ahead. Again we dashed
forward.

A light appeared