ink
of. So, the devils it is; I'll follow them--I'll go where they are. But
I'm not so sure at all of findin' the lad now."

* * * * *

That high-pitched chattering that had come to him at times was his only
guide now. It seemed echoing in greater volume from one passage that
slanted down more sharply than the rest. Spud followed it, clinging with
hands and feet to the steep-pitched floor; but some sudden impulse
seized him and compelled him to stop at intervals while he drew a pistol
from his belt. Its grip was of steelite that rang sharply as a bell when
he struck it upon the walls. And he tapped out the general call of the
Service time after time; then strained his faculties in eager listening
until he went hopelessly on.

But he repeated the call. "For the lad may hear it and be heartened," he
argued. "And if he's free to do it he'll answer--though I think I'd
break down and cry with joy did I hear an answerin' rap."

And still the chattering grew louder, while the watching, creeping man
moved stealthily on. A wave of gas came to him once and set him choking,
while far ahead he saw a reflected glow more red than the pale, lucent
shimmering of the walls.

He stopped dead still as once more there flooded through him a thousand
unnamed fears of this domain of the Evil One where he would trespass.
But he forced his feet to carry him on until he could peer down through
a rift in the rock floor to behold another room whose walls glowed redly
with the light of fires far down in hot-throated pits.

* * * * *

There were figures whose white bodies shone as redly in that
glow--figures that floated on outspread leather wings of dead black.
Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation
of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered:
"'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!"

But there was that which froze his quivering nerves to cold quiet, which
set his lips into a grim, straight line and held him motionless above
the opening from which he saw the room below--as, from a flurry of
bodies against one far side, he saw a girl emerge.

She was in the hands of the black-winged beasts who carried her into the
air then swung out toward the fiery pit. And Spud's incredulous: "Oh,
the poor, beautiful darlin'!" rose unconsciously to his lips to die away
in a quick-drawn breath. For, from the mass of bodies, another figure
was tos