ere lights burning in the others. Each had an
iron door with a few holes in it, and a small square window, unglazed
and unbarred, cut in the natural rock. Enough light came through some of
those square holes to suffuse the whole crypt dimly.

"None but an aspirant has ever entered here," said the Gray Mahatma.
"Even when India was conquered, no enemy penetrated this place. You
stand on forbidden ground."

He turned to the left and opened an iron cell door by simply pushing it;
there did not seem to be any lock. He did not announce himself, but
walked straight in, and we followed him. The cell was about ten feet by
twelve, with a stone ledge wide enough to sleep on running along one
side, and lighted by an oil lamp that hung by chains from the hewn roof.
There were three bearded, middle-aged men, almost naked, squatting on
one mat facing the stone ledge, one of whom held an ancient manuscript
that all three were consulting; and on the stone ledge sat what once had
been a man before those devils caught him.

The three looked up at the Gray Mahatma curiously, but did not
challenge. I suppose his nakedness was his passport. They eyed King and
me with a butcher's-eye appraisal, nodded, and resumed their
consultation of the hand-written roll. The characters on it looked like
Sanskrit.

The Gray Mahatma faced the creature on the stone ledge, and spoke to
King and me in English.

"That," he said, "is one of those who crossed the Pool of Terrors and
became insane with pride. Consider him. He entered here demanding
knowledge, having only the desire and not the honesty. But since there
is no way backward and even failure must subserve the universal cause,
he was given knowledge and it made him what you see. Now these, who know
a little and would learn more, make use of him as a subject for
experiments.

"That thing, who was once a man, can imagine himself a bird, or a fish,
or an animal--or even an insensate graven stone--at their command. When
he is no more fit to be studied he will imagine himself to be a
_mugger_, and will hurry into the tank with the other reptiles, and that
will be the end of him. Come."

I felt like going mad that minute. I sat down on the rock floor and held
my head to make sure that I still had it. I wanted to think of something
that would give me back my grip on sanity and the good, clean concrete
world outside; I don't think I could have done it if King had not seen
and applied the solution. He