ther slab of my floor rose, wavered and fell over with a crash, and
up through the purplish gas I could see a great round black thing
rising, stretching high up into the room until its top almost touched
the roof.

My God! _It was the projectile!_

When the breach in the floor was cleared, all the gas rushed down into
the lower chamber. The projectile eased over on its side, and out of the
rear port-hole came Hotep with a revolver and a sword. He soon had me
cut loose, and then he told me how it all had happened.

He had been chamberlain but a single day when he discovered the
existence of a secret subterranean chamber under the ante-room of the
banquet hall. His curiosity led him to explore this, and in its darkest
recess, unseen at first entrance, he found our projectile. It had been
there ever since the day of its disappearance. During our interview
before Zaphnath and the wise men, they had learned from us that others
could not come from Earth without the projectile, and that we had left
no third person in charge of it. It must have been with an order to make
away with the projectile, and to secrete it in this chamber, that the
third messenger had been dispatched that day. Also on my first evening
in this very ante-room, I had heard Two-spot barking in the chamber
below, and the servant, on hearing him too, had him hastily released,
lest he should betray the hiding-place.

As soon as Hotep had found the projectile, he had sent for us, but it
was the doctor alone who joined him. They two had been busy all that day
and night repairing the projectile and storing it anew. In this manner
the doctor had escaped the soldiers who came at daybreak to capture us
both. Beyond the projectile, Hotep had discovered a secret passage
leading outside the palace walls, which they could use on their errands
of repairs without being observed.

All night they worked without disturbance, but early in the morning
something happened to alarm them. They heard footsteps outside and a
noise at the door which led to the palace. It probably meant death to be
discovered there, but they extinguished their lights, entered the
projectile, and closed the port-holes and lay there quite still. The
door was opened, and soldiers bearing lights entered. But they made no
search; they carried with them our swords, fire-arms, and the two belts
of cartridges, which they deposited here, it being the natural place
for their safe keeping. When they were go