"As if conjured up by magic, a monstrous column of blue flame
arose, swept up scorchingly, and licked like the tongue of a
hungry dragon upon the roof of the cavern. Instantly the trap was
closed again; the tongue of fire dropped back into the lake from
which it had arisen on the draught of air.
"And right past me where I stood, rigid with horror, looking
through those bars, fell a white-robed figure--whether man or
woman I could not determine! Down, down into the fiery pit, a
hundred feet below!
"One long-drawn, dying shriek reached my ears.
"Of my return to the place at which I had left my bundle and
rifle I retain absolutely not one recollection. I was aroused
from a sort of stupor of horror by the sight of a faint light
moving across the platform ahead of me, as I was about to emerge
from the tunnel.
"It was the light of a lantern, carried by a man who might have
been the double of that yellow-robed mendicant who had first
unconsciously led me to this accursed place.
"I won't deny that, up to the moment of sighting him, my one idea
had been to escape, to return, to quit this unholy spot. But now,
as I watched the bearer of the lantern cross the platform and
enter one of the seven corridors, that old, unquenchable thirst
for new experiences got me by the throat again.
"As the light of the lantern was swallowed up in the passage, I
found my bundle and rifle and set out to follow the man.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255