r
of each.

Finally we reached it. The corner was a sharp right angle, and there
were rifts and crevices in the rock.

"This is limestone," I said, "and if we find an exit anywhere it will
be here."

I turned to the right and proceeded slowly along the wall, feeling its
surface with my hand.

We had advanced in this manner several hundred yards when Desiree
suddenly sprang forward to my side.

"See!" she cried, pointing ahead with her spear.

I followed the direction with my eye, and saw what appeared to be a
sharp break in the wall.

It was some fifty feet away. We reached it in another moment, and I
think none of us would have been able to express the immeasurable
relief we felt when we saw before us a broad and clear passage leading
directly away from the cavern. It was very dark, but we entered it
almost at a run.

I think we had not known the extent of our fear of that thing in the
cavern until we found the means of escape from it.

We had gone about a hundred feet when we came to a turn to the left.
Harry stumbled against the corner, and we halted for an instant to wait
for him.

Then we made the turn, side by side--and then we came to a sudden and
abrupt stop, and a simultaneous gasp of terror burst from our lips.

Not three feet in front of us, blocking the passage completely, stood
the thing we thought we had escaped!

The terrible, fiery eyes rolled from side to side as they stared
straight into our own.

Chapter XVIII.

A VICTORY AND A CONVERSATION.

We stood for a long moment rooted to the spot, unable to move. Then,
calling to Harry and grasping Desiree by the arm, I started to turn.

But too late. For Desiree, inspired by a boundless terror, suddenly
raised her spear high above her head and hurled it straight at the
glowing, flashing eyes.

The point struck squarely between them with such force that it must
have sunk clear to the shaft. The head of the monster rolled for an
instant from side to side, and then, before I was aware of what had
happened, so rapid was the movement, a long, snakelike coil had reached
out through the air and twisted itself about Desiree's body.

As she felt the thing tighten about her waist and legs she gave a
scream of terror and twisted her face round toward me. The next
instant the snaky tentacle had dragged her along the ground and lifted
her to the head of the monster, where her white body could be seen in
sharp outline sprawling over its