captors through various chambers and
corridors toward the heart of the temple.

Chapter 4

The farther the group progressed, the more barbaric and the more
sumptuous became the decorations. Hides of leopard and tiger
predominated, apparently because of their more beautiful markings, and
decorative skulls became more and more numerous. Many of the latter
were mounted in precious metals and set with colored stones and
priceless gems, while thick upon the hides that covered the walls were
golden ornaments similar to those worn by the girl and those which had
filled the chests he had examined in the storeroom of Fosh-bal-soj,
leading the Englishman to the conviction that all such were spoils of
war or theft, since each piece seemed made for personal adornment,
while in so far as he had seen, no Wieroo wore ornaments of any sort.

And also as they advanced the more numerous became the Wieroos moving
hither and thither within the temple. Many now were the solid red
robes and those that were slashed with blue--a veritable hive of
murderers.

At last the party halted in a room in which were many Wieroos who
gathered about Bradley questioning his captors and examining him and
his apparel. One of the party accompanying the Englishman spoke to a
Wieroo that stood beside a door leading from the room. "Tell Him Who
Speaks for Luata," he said, "that Fosh-bal-soj we could not find; but
that in returning we found this creature within the temple, hiding. It
must be the same that Fosh-bal-soj captured in the Sto-lu country
during the last darkness. Doubtless He Who Speaks for Luata would wish
to see and question this strange thing."

The creature addressed turned and slipped through the doorway, closing
the door after it, but first depositing its curved blade upon the floor
without. Its post was immediately taken by another and Bradley now saw
that at least twenty such guards loitered in the immediate vicinity.
The doorkeeper was gone but for a moment, and when he returned, he
signified that Bradley's party was to enter the next chamber; but first
each of the Wieroos removed his curved weapon and laid it upon the
floor. The door was swung open, and the party, now reduced to Bradley
and five Wieroos, was ushered across the threshold into a large,
irregularly shaped room in which a single, giant Wieroo whose robe was
solid blue sat upon a raised dais.

The creature's face was white with the whiteness of a corpse, its de