heard approaching the veiled doorway. I took the revolver from
Hotep, and motioned him inside the projectile. How cautiously they
opened the door I could not see, for it was behind the great curtain.
Presently, however, the captain who had bound me and bade me wait, drew
aside the curtain, and the Pharaoh stood in the door, and behind him
were a crowd of soldiers armed with cross-bows. In all the number I did
not see the face of Zaphnath. They beheld me alone, and had no reason to
suspect the presence of the others inside the projectile.

"Guard both the doors!" the captain commanded, and a detachment of
soldiers barred the other door, as if thus to prevent me from escaping
with the projectile; for of course they had not seen it rise through the
floor.

"Seize and bind yon traitor!" cried the Pharaoh; "and he who hesitates
shall be flayed!"

"And he who attempts it, shall die ere his first step be taken!" I
replied, levelling the revolver. The captain started for me and I shot
him down.

"If a man of you moves till I have entered this thing, I will kill the
Pharaoh, as I have killed this dog! Ye serve him best who stand still as
ye are!" So saying, I covered the trembling monarch with the revolver,
and with my other hand I opened the rear port-hole; then stooping, I
sprang inside with a quick motion. When the Pharaoh had recovered from
his fright, I heard him cry out,--

"Cast that black thing, and the traitor inside it, into yon poisonous
hole again!"

The soldiers did not fear to act this time, and the whole company seized
the projectile and carried it toward the breach in the floor. As they
lifted it on end to thrust into the hole, I called out to the doctor,
who turned in two batteries, and gently we lifted out of their dumb
hands and rose steadily till we touched the roof. There the vaulted
stonework stopped us, and an exultant shout went up from below. Suddenly
a score of arrows twanged against my window, but the doctor turned in
two more batteries and then gradually we lifted the key of the great
stone arch, broke through the roof, and the whole universe was an open
sea before us!

Crouching by me at the port-hole, Hotep watched the roof collapse and
tumble in. "For thy sake," I said to him, "I hope a falling stone may
have crushed him!"

* * * * *

Thus ended our other-world life. In a time of activity it would never
have occurred to me to write down these events. It w