woven scarlet cloth, which brought to me a
conjecture that here, perhaps, the Queen was throned.

Wherever there was fire burning there must, of necessity, be attendants
to feed the flame, but I could detect no sign of life, no sign of any
kind, other than the crackling of the blazing log, and the heavy
breathing of my companion. The silence oppressed me.

"Go to the right," I advised at last, nervous from inaction, "I will
try the left, until we meet again. Keep close against the wall, and
move with care."

"'Tis not wholly unlike a visit to hell," he muttered gloomily, "but I
am weary of lying shivering here."

I watched the fellow creep forward on his knees, his brilliant
head-covering revealed in the glare like a flame. Then I took up my
own part of this work of exploration. I had compassed half my distance
amid profound stillness, perceiving nothing strange, and constantly
feeling more intensely the solemn loneliness of the place, which by
now, to my awakened imagination, appeared peopled with bloodless
victims of heathen superstition. I felt no doubt this was a torture
chamber; that many a hapless slave, or shrieking captive, had yielded
up life in agony upon the summit of the gloomy pile, and the haunting
spectres seemed to grin at me with distorted faces from every crevice
along the walls. I was weakly yielding to such weird dreams, when a
wild, shrill scream rang forth from the darkness in front. The cry
contained such note of affright that, for an instant, I connected it
with the fantasies which thronged my brain. I stood still, rooted to
the spot, the blood curdling in my veins, my eyes straining in vain
effort to pierce the darkness. Then there arose a roar not unlike that
of an angry lion; the sound of a fierce struggle; the dull thud of a
blow, and Cairnes's deep voice boomed forth.

"Ye black-faced villain! 'T is the strength of the righteous you have
felt this day. Blessed be the name of the Lord, who hath given me the
victory! Lie there in your sins, and no longer affront your Maker."

I sprang eagerly forward, but at my first step came into contact with a
fleeing figure, which rounded the end of the altar in such blind terror
as nearly to hurl me from my feet. I grasped at the floating robe, but
missed, and the next instant was rushing blindly after the fellow down
the dark passage toward where the moonlight silvered the outer rocks.
Fright gave him wings, but desperate determination