hind.

The way led along the corridor which ran parallel with the face of the
cliff for some little distance and then Pan-sat, taking a cresset from
one of the wall niches, turned abruptly into a small apartment at his
left. The tracker followed cautiously in time to see the rays of the
flickering light dimly visible from an aperture in the floor before
him. Here he found a series of steps, similar to those used by the
Waz-don in scaling the cliff to their caves, leading to a lower level.

First satisfying himself that his guide was continuing upon his way
unsuspecting, the other descended after him and continued his stealthy
stalking. The passageway was now both narrow and low, giving but bare
headroom to a tall man, and it was broken often by flights of steps
leading always downward. The steps in each unit seldom numbered more
than six and sometimes there was only one or two but in the aggregate
the tracker imagined that they had descended between fifty and
seventy-five feet from the level of the upper corridor when the
passageway terminated in a small apartment at one side of which was a
little pile of rubble.

Setting his cresset upon the ground, Pan-sat commenced hurriedly to
toss the bits of broken stone aside, presently revealing a small
aperture at the base of the wall upon the opposite side of which there
appeared to be a further accumulation of rubble. This he also removed
until he had a hole of sufficient size to permit the passage of his
body, and leaving the cresset still burning upon the floor the priest
crawled through the opening he had made and disappeared from the sight
of the watcher hiding in the shadows of the narrow passageway behind
him.

No sooner, however, was he safely gone than the other followed, finding
himself, after passing through the hole, on a little ledge about
halfway between the surface of the lake and the top of the cliff above.
The ledge inclined steeply upward, ending at the rear of a building
which stood upon the edge of the cliff and which the second priest
entered just in time to see Pan-sat pass out into the city beyond.

As the latter turned a nearby corner the other emerged from the doorway
and quickly surveyed his surroundings. He was satisfied the priest who
had led him hither had served his purpose in so far as the tracker was
concerned. Above him, and perhaps a hundred yards away, the white walls
of the palace gleamed against the northern sky. The time that it had