It was immediately following his transfer in mid-air that Bradley made
out the shadowy form of a large island far ahead, and not long after,
he realized that this must be the intended destination of his captors.
Nor was he mistaken. Three quarters of an hour from the time of his
seizure his captors dropped gently to earth in the strangest city that
human eye had ever rested upon. Just a brief glimpse of his immediate
surroundings vouchsafed Bradley before he was whisked into the interior
of one of the buildings; but in that momentary glance he saw strange
piles of stone and wood and mud fashioned into buildings of all
conceivable sizes and shapes, sometimes piled high on top of one
another, sometimes standing alone in an open court-way, but usually
crowded and jammed together, so that there were no streets or alleys
between them other than a few which ended almost as soon as they began.
The principal doorways appeared to be in the roofs, and it was through
one of these that Bradley was inducted into the dark interior of a
low-ceiled room. Here he was pushed roughly into a corner where he
tripped over a thick mat, and there his captors left him. He heard
them moving about in the darkness for a moment, and several times he
saw their large luminous eyes glowing in the dark. Finally, these
disappeared and silence reigned, broken only by the breathing of the
creature which indicated to the Englishman that they were sleeping
somewhere in the same apartment.

It was now evident that the mat upon the floor was intended for
sleeping purposes and that the rough shove that had sent him to it had
been a rude invitation to repose. After taking stock of himself and
finding that he still had his pistol and ammunition, some matches, a
little tobacco, a canteen full of water and a razor, Bradley made
himself comfortable upon the mat and was soon asleep, knowing that an
attempted escape in the darkness without knowledge of his surroundings
would be predoomed to failure.

When he awoke, it was broad daylight, and the sight that met his eyes
made him rub them again and again to assure himself that they were
really open and that he was not dreaming. A broad shaft of morning
light poured through the open doorway in the ceiling of the room which
was about thirty feet square, or roughly square, being irregular in
shape, one side curving outward, another being indented by what might
have been the corner of another building jutting int