Half-stunned, Bradley lay for a minute as he had fallen and thenslowly and painfully wriggled into a less uncomfortable position. He could see nothing of his surroundings in the gloom about himuntil after a few minutes his eyes became accustomed to the darkinterior when he rolled them from side to side in survey of his prison.

He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless,nor could he see any other opening than that through which he hadbeen lowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might havebeen almost anything from a bundle of rags to a dead body.

Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradleycommenced working with his bonds. He was a man of powerfulphysique, and as from the first he had been imbued with a beliefthat the fiber ropes were too weak to hold him, he worked onwith a firm conviction that sooner or later they would part tohis strainings. After a matter of five minutes he was positivethat the strands about his wrists were beginning to give; but hewas compelled to rest then from exhaustion.

As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, andpresently he could have sworn that the thing moved. With eyesstraining through the gloom the man lay watching the grim andsinister thing in the corner. Perhaps his overwrought nerveswere playing a sorry joke upon him. He thought of this and alsothat his condition of utter helplessness might still further havestimulated his imagination. He closed his eyes and sought torelax his muscles and his nerves; but when he looked again, heknew that he had not been mistaken--the thing had moved; now itlay in a slightly altered form and farther from the wall. It wasnearer him.

With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, hisfascinated gaze still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longerwas there any doubt that it moved--he saw it rise in the centerseveral inches and then creep closer to him. It sank and aroseagain--a headless, hideous, monstrous thing of menace. Its verysilence rendered it the more terrible.

Bradley was a brave man; ordinarily his nerves were of steel; butto be at the mercy of some unknown and nameless horror, to beunable to defend himself--it was these things that almostunstrung him, for at best he was only human. To stand in theopen, even with the odds all against him; to be able to use hisfists, to put up some sort of defense, to inflict punishment uponhis adversary--then he could face death with a smile. It was notdeath that he feared now--it was that horror of the unknown thatis part of the fiber of every son of woman.

Closer and closer came the shapeless mass. Bradley laymotionless and listened. What was that he heard! Breathing? He could not be mistaken--and then from out of the bundle of ragsissued a hollow groan. Bradley felt his hair rise upon his head. He struggled with the slowly parting strands that held him. The thing beside him rose up higher than before and the Englishmancould have sworn that he saw a single eye peering at him fromamong the tumbled cloth. For a moment the bundle remainedmotionless--only the sound of breathing issued from it, thenthere broke from it a maniacal laugh.

Cold sweat stood upon Bradley's brow as he tugged for liberation. He saw the rags rise higher and higher above him until at lastthey tumbled upon the floor from the body of a naked man--a thin,a bony, a hideous caricature of man, that mouthed and mummed and,wabbling upon its weak and shaking legs, crumpled to the flooragain, still laughing--laughing horribly.

It crawled toward Bradley. "Food! Food!" it screamed. "There is a way out! There is a way out!"

Dragging itself to his side the creature slumped upon theEnglishman's breast. "Food!" it shrilled as with its bonyfingers and its teeth, it sought the man's bare throat.

"Food! There is a way out!" Bradley felt teeth upon his jugular. He turned and twisted, shaking himself free for an instant; butonce more with hideous persistence the thing fastened itselfupon him. The weak jaws were unable to send the dull teeth throughthe victim's flesh; but Bradley felt it pawing, pawing, pawing,like a monstrous rat, seeking his life's blood.

The skinny arms now embraced his neck, holding the teeth to histhroat against all his efforts to dislodge the thing. Weak as itwas it had strength enough for this in its mad efforts to eat. Mumbling as it worked, it repeated again and again, "Food! Food! There is a way out!" until Bradley thought those two expressionsalone would drive him mad.

And all but mad he was as with a final effort backed by almostmaniacal strength he tore his wrists from the confining bonds andgrasping the repulsive thing upon his breast hurled it halfwayacross the room. Panting like a spent hound Bradley worked atthe thongs about his ankles while the maniac lay quivering andmumbling where it had fallen. Presently the Englishman leaped tohis feet--freer than he had ever before felt in all his life,though he was still hopelessly a prisoner in the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

With his back against the wall for support, so weak the reactionleft him, Bradley stood watching the creature upon the floor. He saw it move and slowly raise itself to its hands and knees,where it swayed to and fro as its eyes roved about in search ofhim; and when at last they found him, there broke from the drawnlips the mumbled words: "Food! Food! There is a way out!" The pitiful supplication in the tones touched the Englishman's heart. He knew that this could be no Wieroo, but possibly once a man likehimself who had been cast into this pit of solitary confinementwith this hideous result that might in time be his fate, also.

And then, too, there was the suggestion of hope held out by theconstant reiteration of the phrase, "There is a way out." Was there a way out? What did this poor thing know?

"Who are you and how long have you been here?" Bradleysuddenly demanded.

For a moment the man upon the floor made no response, thenmumblingly came the words: "Food! Food!"

"Stop!" commanded the Englishman--the injunction might have beenbarked from the muzzle of a pistol. It brought the man to asitting posture, his hands off the ground. He stopped swaying toand fro and appeared to be startled into an attempt to master hisfaculties of concentration and thought.

Bradley repeated his questions sharply.

"I am An-Tak, the Galu," replied the man. "Luata alone knows howlong I have been here--maybe ten moons, maybe ten moons threetimes"--it was the Caspakian equivalent of thirty. "I was youngand strong when they brought me here. Now I am old and very weak. I am cos-ata-lu--that is why they have not killed me. If I tell them the secret of becoming cos-ata-lu they willtake me out; but how can I tell them that which Luata alone knows?

"What is cos-ata-lu?" demanded Bradley.

"Food! Food! There is a way out!" mumbled the Galu.

Bradley strode across the floor, seized the man by his shouldersand shook him.

"Tell me," he cried, "what is cos-ata-lu?"

"Food!" whimpered An-Tak.

Bradley bethought himself. His haversack had not been takenfrom him. In it besides his razor and knife were odds and endsof equipment and a small quantity of dried meat. He tossed a smallstrip of the latter to the starving Galu. An-Tak seized upon itand devoured it ravenously. It instilled new life in the man.

"What is cos-ata-lu?" insisted Bradley again.

An-Tak tried to explain. His narrative was often broken bylapses of concentration during which he reverted to his plaintivemumbling for food and recurrence to the statement that there wasa way out; but by firmness and patience the Englishman drew outpiece-meal a more or less lucid exposition of the remarkablescheme of evolution that rules in Caspak. In it he foundexplanations of the hitherto inexplicable. He discovered why hehad seen no babes or children among the Caspakian tribes withwhich he had come in contact; why each more northerly tribeevinced a higher state of development than those south of them;why each tribe included individuals ranging in physical andmental characteristics from the highest of the next lower race tothe lowest of the next higher, and why the women of each tribeimmersed themselves morning for an hour or more in the warm poolsnear which the habitations of their people always were located;and, too, he discovered why those pools were almost immune fromthe attacks of carnivorous animals and reptiles.

He learned that all but those who were cos-ata-lu came upcor-sva-jo, or from the beginning. The egg from whichthey first developed into tadpole form was deposited, withmillions of others, in one of the warm pools and with it apoisonous serum that the carnivora instinctively shunned. Down the warm stream from the pool floated the countless billionsof eggs and tadpoles, developing as they drifted slowly towardthe sea. Some became tadpoles in the pool, some in the sluggishstream and some not until they reached the great inland sea. In the next stage they became fishes or reptiles, An-Tak was notpositive which, and in this form, always developing, they swamfar to the south, where, amid the rank and teeming jungles, someof them evolved into amphibians. Always there were those whosedevelopment stopped at the first stage, others whose developmentceased when they became reptiles, while by far the greaterproportion formed the food supply of the ravenous creatures ofthe deep.

Few indeed were those that eventually developed into baboons andthen apes, which was considered by Caspakians the real beginningof evolution. From the egg, then, the individual developedslowly into a higher form, just as the frog's egg develops throughvarious stages from a fish with gills to a frog with lungs. With that thought in mind Bradley discovered that it was notdifficult to believe in the possibility of such a scheme--there was nothing new in it.

From the ape the individual, if it survived, slowly developedinto the lowest order of man--the Alu--and then by degrees toBo-lu, Sto-lu, Band-lu, Kro-lu and finally Galu. And in eachstage countless millions of other eggs were deposited in the warmpools of the various races and floated down to the great sea togo through a similar process of evolution outside the womb asdevelops our own young within; but in Caspak the scheme is muchmore inclusive, for it combines not only individual developmentbut the evolution of species and genera. If an egg survives itgoes through all the stages of development that man has passedthrough during the unthinkable eons since life first moved uponthe earth's face.

The final stage--that which the Galus have almost attained andfor which all hope--is cos-ata-lu, which literally, meansno-egg-man, or one who is born directly as are the young of theouter world of mammals. Some of the Galus produce cos-ata-luand cos-ata-lo both; the Weiroos only cos-ata-lu--inother words all Wieroos are born male, and so they prey upon theGalus for their women and sometimes capture and torture the Galumen who are cos-ata-lu in an endeavor to learn the secretwhich they believe will give them unlimited power over all otherdenizens of Caspak.

No Wieroos come up from the beginning--all are born of the Wieroofathers and Galu mothers who are cos-ata-lo, and there arevery few of the latter owing to the long and precarious stagesof development. Seven generations of the same ancestor must comeup from the beginning before a cos-ata-lu child may be born;and when one considers the frightful dangers that surround thevital spark from the moment it leaves the warm pool where it hasbeen deposited to float down to the sea amid the voracious creaturesthat swarm the surface and the deeps and the almost equallyunthinkable trials of its effort to survive after it once becomesa land animal and starts northward through the horrors of theCaspakian jungles and forests, it is plainly a wonder that evena single babe has ever been born to a Galu woman.

Seven cycles it requires before the seventh Galu can complete theseventh danger-infested circle since its first Galu ancestorachieved the state of Galu. For ages before, the ancestors ofthis first Galu may have developed from a Band-lu or Bo-lu eggwithout ever once completing the whole circle--that is from aGalu egg, back to a fully developed Galu.

Bradley's head was whirling before he even commenced to grasp thecomplexities of Caspakian evolution; but as the truth slowlyfiltered into his understanding--as gradually it became possiblefor him to visualize the scheme, it appeared simpler. In fact,it seemed even less difficult of comprehension than that withwhich he was familiar.

For several minutes after An-Tak ceased speaking, his voicehaving trailed off weakly into silence, neither spoke again. Then the Galu recommenced his, "Food! Food! There is a way out!"Bradley tossed him another bit of dried meat, waiting patientlyuntil he had eaten it, this time more slowly.

"What do you mean by saying there is a way out?" he asked.

"He who died here just after I came, told me," replied An-Tak. "He said there was a way out, that he had discovered it but wastoo weak to use his knowledge. He was trying to tell me how tofind it when he died. Oh, Luata, if he had lived but a moment more!"

"They do not feed you here?" asked Bradley.

"No, they give me water once a day--that is all."

"But how have you lived, then?"

"The lizards and the rats," replied An-Tak. "The lizards are notso bad; but the rats are foul to taste. However, I must eat themor they would eat me, and they are better than nothing; but oflate they do not come so often, and I have not had a lizard fora long time. I shall eat though," he mumbled. "I shall eat now,for you cannot remain awake forever." He laughed, a cackling, drylaugh. "When you sleep, An-Tak will eat."

It was horrible. Bradley shuddered. For a long time each satin silence. The Englishman could guess why the other made nosound--he awaited the moment that sleep should overcome his victim. In the long silence there was born upon Bradley's ears a faint,monotonous sound as of running water. He listened intently. It seemed to come from far beneath the floor.

"What is that noise?" he asked. "That sounds like water runningthrough a narrow channel."

"It is the river," replied An-Tak. "Why do you not go to sleep?It passes directly beneath the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. It runsthrough the temple grounds, beneath the temple and under the city. When we die, they will cut off our heads and throw our bodies intothe river. At the mouth of the river await many large reptiles. Thus do they feed. The Wieroos do likewise with their own dead,keeping only the skulls and the wings. Come, let us sleep."

"Do the reptiles come up the river into the city?" asked Bradley.

"The water is too cold--they never leave the warm water of thegreat pool," replied An-Tak.

"Let us search for the way out," suggested Bradley.

An-Tak shook his head. "I have searched for it all these moons,"he said. "If I could not find it, how would you?"

Bradley made no reply but commenced a diligent examination of thewalls and floor of the room, pressing over each square footand tapping with his knuckles. About six feet from the floorhe discovered a sleeping-perch near one end of the apartment. He asked An-Tak about it, but the Galu said that no Weiroohad occupied the place since he had been incarcerated there. Again and again Bradley went over the floor and walls as highup as he could reach. Finally he swung himself to the perch,that he might examine at least one end of the room all the wayto the ceiling.

In the center of the wall close to the top, an area about threefeet square gave forth a hollow sound when he rapped upon it. Bradley felt over every square inch of that area with the tips ofhis fingers. Near the top he found a small round hole a triflelarger in diameter than his forefinger, which he immediatelystuck into it. The panel, if such it was, seemed about aninch thick, and beyond it his finger encountered nothing. Bradley crooked his finger upon the opposite side of the paneland pulled toward him, steadily but with considerable force. Suddenly the panel flew inward, nearly precipitating the man tothe floor. It was hinged at the bottom, and when lowered theouter edge rested upon the perch, making a little platformparallel with the floor of the room.

Beyond the opening was an utterly dark void. The Englishmanleaned through it and reached his arm as far as possible into theblackness but touched nothing. Then he fumbled in his haversackfor a match, a few of which remained to him. When he struck it,An-Tak gave a cry of terror. Bradley held the light far into theopening before him and in its flickering rays saw the top of aladder descending into a black abyss below. How far down itextended he could not guess; but that he should soon knowdefinitely he was positive.

"You have found it! You have found the way out!" screamed An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! And now I am too weak to go. Take me with you! Take me with you!"

"Shut up!" admonished Bradley. "You will have the whole flock ofbirds around our heads in a minute, and neither of us will escape. Be quiet, and I'll go ahead. If I find a way out, I'll come backand help you, if you'll promise not to try to eat me up again."

"I promise," cried An-Tak. "Oh, Luata! How could you blame me?I am half crazed of hunger and long confinement and the horror ofthe lizards and the rats and the constant waiting for death."

"I know," said Bradley simply. "I'm sorry for you, old top. Keep a stiff upper lip." And he slipped through the opening,found the ladder with his feet, closed the panel behind him, andstarted downward into the darkness.

Below him rose more and more distinctly the sound of running water. The air felt damp and cool. He could see nothing of hissurroundings and felt nothing but the smooth, worn sides andrungs of the ladder down which he felt his way cautiously lest abroken rung or a misstep should hurl him downward.

As he descended thus slowly, the ladder seemed interminable andthe pit bottomless, yet he realized when at last he reached thebottom that he could not have descended more than fifty feet. The bottom of the ladder rested on a narrow ledge paved with whatfelt like large round stones, but what he knew from experience tobe human skulls. He could not but marvel as to where so manycountless thousands of the things had come from, until he pausedto consider that the infancy of Caspak dated doubtlessly backinto remote ages, far beyond what the outer world considered thebeginning of earthly time. For all these eons the Wieroos mighthave been collecting human skulls from their enemies and theirown dead--enough to have built an entire city of them.

Feeling his way along the narrow ledge, Bradley came presently toa blank wall that stretched out over the water swirling beneathhim, as far as he could reach. Stooping, he groped about withone hand, reaching down toward the surface of the water, anddiscovered that the bottom of the wall arched above the stream. How much space there was between the water and the arch he couldnot tell, nor how deep the former. There was only one way inwhich he might learn these things, and that was to lower himselfinto the stream. For only an instant he hesitated weighinghis chances. Behind him lay almost certainly the horrid fate ofAn-Tak; before him nothing worse than a comparatively painlessdeath by drowning. Holding his haversack above his head with onehand he lowered his feet slowly over the edge of the narrow platform. Almost immediately he felt the swirling of cold water about hisankles, and then with a silent prayer he let himself drop gentlyinto the stream.

Great was Bradley's relief when he found the water no morethan waist deep and beneath his feet a firm, gravel bottom. Feeling his way cautiously he moved downward with the current,which was not so strong as he had imagined from the noise ofthe running water.

Beneath the first arch he made his way, following the windingcurvatures of the right-hand wall. After a few yards of progresshis hand came suddenly in contact with a slimy thing clinging tothe wall--a thing that hissed and scuttled out of reach. What itwas, the man could not know; but almost instantly there was asplash in the water just ahead of him and then another.

On he went, passing beneath other arches at varying distances,and always in utter darkness. Unseen denizens of this greatsewer, disturbed by the intruder, splashed into the water aheadof him and wriggled away. Time and again his hand touched themand never for an instant could he be sure that at the next stepsome gruesome thing might not attack him. He had strapped hishaversack about his neck, well above the surface of the water,and in his left hand he carried his knife. Other precautionsthere were none to take.

The monotony of the blind trail was increased by the fact thatfrom the moment he had started from the foot of the ladder he hadcounted his every step. He had promised to return for An-Tak ifit proved humanly possible to do so, and he knew that in theblackness of the tunnel he could locate the foot of the ladder inno other way.

He had taken two hundred and sixty-nine steps--afterward he knewthat he should never forget that number--when something bumpedgently against him from behind. Instantly he wheeled about andwith knife ready to defend himself stretched forth his right handto push away the object that now had lodged against his body. His fingers feeling through the darkness came in contact withsomething cold and clammy--they passed to and fro over the thinguntil Bradley knew that it was the face of a dead man floatingupon the surface of the stream. With an oath he pushed hisgruesome companion out into mid-stream to float on down towardthe great pool and the awaiting scavengers of the deep.

At his four hundred and thirteenth step another corpse bumpedagainst him--how many had passed him without touching he couldnot guess; but suddenly he experienced the sensation of beingsurrounded by dead faces floating along with him, all set inhideous grimaces, their dead eyes glaring at this profaning alienwho dared intrude upon the waters of this river of the dead--ahorrid escort, pregnant with dire forebodings and with menace.

Though he advanced very slowly, he tried always to take steps ofabout the same length; so that he knew that though considerabletime had elapsed, yet he had really advanced no more than fourhundred yards when ahead he saw a lessening of the pitch-darkness,and at the next turn of the stream his surroundings becamevaguelydiscernible. Above him was an arched roof and on eitherhand walls pierced at intervals by apertures covered withwooden doors. Just ahead of him in the roof of the aqueductwas a round, black hole about thirty inches in diameter. His eyes still rested upon the opening when there shot downwardfrom it to the water below the naked body of a human being whichalmost immediately rose to the surface again and floated off downthe stream. In the dim light Bradley saw that it was a deadWieroo from which the wings and head had been removed. A momentlater another headless body floated past, recalling what An-Takhad told him of the skull-collecting customs of the Wieroo. Bradley wondered how it happened that the first corpse he hadencountered in the stream had not been similarly mutilated.

The farther he advanced now, the lighter it became. The numberof corpses was much smaller than he had imagined, only two morepassing him before, at six hundred steps, or about five hundredyards, from the point he had taken to the stream, he came to theend of the tunnel and looked out upon sunlit water, runningbetween grassy banks.

One of the last corpses to pass him was still clothed in thewhite robe of a Wieroo, blood-stained over the headless neck thatit concealed.

Drawing closer to the opening leading into the bright daylight,Bradley surveyed what lay beyond. A short distance before him alarge building stood in the center of several acres of grass andtree-covered ground, spanning the stream which disappearedthrough an opening in its foundation wall. From the largesaucer-shaped roof and the vivid colorings of the variousheterogeneous parts of the structure he recognized it as thetemple past which he had been borne to the Blue Place ofSeven Skulls.

To and fro flew Wieroos, going to and from the temple. Others passed on foot across the open grounds, assistingthemselves with their great wings, so that they barely skimmedthe earth. To leave the mouth of the tunnel would have beento court instant discovery and capture; but by what otheravenue he might escape, Bradley could not guess, unless heretraced his steps up the stream and sought egress from theother end of the city. The thought of traversing that darkand horror-ridden tunnel for perhaps miles he could notentertain--there must be some other way. Perhaps after darkhe could steal through the temple grounds and continue ondownstream until he had come beyond the city; and so he stoodand waited until his limbs became almost paralyzed with cold,and he knew that he must find some other plan for escape.

A half-formed decision to risk an attempt to swim under water tothe temple was crystallizing in spite of the fact that any chanceWieroo flying above the stream might easily see him, when againa floating object bumped against him from behind and lodgedacross his back. Turning quickly he saw that the thing was whathe had immediately guessed it to be--a headless and winglessWieroo corpse. With a grunt of disgust he was about to push itfrom him when the white garment enshrouding it suggested a boldplan to his resourceful brain. Grasping the corpse by an arm hetore the garment from it and then let the body float downwardtoward the temple. With great care he draped the robe about him;the bloody blotch that had covered the severed neck he arrangedabout his own head. His haversack he rolled as tightly aspossible and stuffed beneath his coat over his breast. Then hefell gently to the surface of the stream and lying upon his backfloated downward with the current and out into the open sunlight.

Through the weave of the cloth he could distinguish large objects. He saw a Wieroo flap dismally above him; he saw the banks of thestream float slowly past; he heard a sudden wail upon the right-hand shore, and his heart stood still lest his ruse had beendiscovered; but never by a move of a muscle did he betray thataught but a cold lump of clay floated there upon the bosom of thewater, and soon, though it seemed an eternity to him, the directsunlight was blotted out, and he knew that he had entered beneaththe temple.

Quickly he felt for bottom with his feet and as quickly stooderect, snatching the bloody, clammy cloth from his face. On bothsides were blank walls and before him the river turned a sharpcorner and disappeared. Feeling his way cautiously forward heapproached the turn and looked around the corner. To his leftwas a low platform about a foot above the level of the stream,and onto this he lost no time in climbing, for he was soaked fromhead to foot, cold and almost exhausted.

As he lay resting on the skull-paved shelf, he saw in the centerof the vault above the river another of those sinister roundholes through which he momentarily expected to see a headlesscorpse shoot downward in its last plunge to a watery grave. A few feet along the platform a closed door broke the blankness ofthe wall. As he lay looking at it and wondering what lay behind,his mind filled with fragments of many wild schemes of escape, itopened and a white robed Wieroo stepped out upon the platform. The creature carried a large wooden basin filled with rubbish. Its eyes were not upon Bradley, who drew himself to a squattingposition and crouched as far back in the corner of the niche inwhich the platform was set as he could force himself. The Wieroostepped to the edge of the platform and dumped the rubbish intothe stream. If it turned away from him as it started to retraceits steps to the doorway, there was a small chance that it mightnot see him; but if it turned toward him there was none at all. Bradley held his breath.

The Wieroo paused a moment, gazing down into the water, then itstraightened up and turned toward the Englishman. Bradley didnot move. The Wieroo stopped and stared intently at him. It approached him questioningly. Still Bradley remained asthough carved of stone. The creature was directly in frontof him. It stopped. There was no chance on earth that it wouldnot discover what he was.

With the quickness of a cat, Bradley sprang to his feet and withall his great strength, backed by his heavy weight, struck theWieroo upon the point of the chin. Without a sound the thingcrumpled to the platform, while Bradley, acting almostinstinctively to the urge of the first law of nature, rolled theinanimate body over the edge into the river.

Then he looked at the open doorway, crossed the platform andpeered within the apartment beyond. What he saw was a largeroom, dimly lighted, and about the side rows of wooden vesselsstacked one upon another. There was no Wieroo in sight, so theEnglishman entered. At the far end of the room was another door,and as he crossed toward it, he glanced into some of the vessels,which he found were filled with dried fruits, vegetables and fish. Without more ado he stuffed his pockets and his haversack full,thinking of the poor creature awaiting his return in the gloomof the Place of Seven Skulls.

When night came, he would return and fetch An-Tak this far atleast; but in the meantime it was his intention to reconnoiter inthe hope that he might discover some easier way out of the citythan that offered by the chill, black channel of the ghastlyriver of corpses.

Beyond the farther door stretched a long passageway fromwhich closed doorways led into other parts of the cellars ofthe temple. A few yards from the storeroom a ladder rose fromthe corridor through an aperture in the ceiling. Bradley pausedat the foot of it, debating the wisdom of further investigationagainst a return to the river; but strong within him was thespirit of exploration that has scattered his race to the fourcorners of the earth. What new mysteries lay hidden in thechambers above? The urge to know was strong upon him though hisbetter judgment warned him that the safer course lay in retreat. For a moment he stood thus, running his fingers through his hair;then he cast discretion to the winds and began the ascent.

In conformity with such Wieroo architecture as he had alreadyobserved, the well through which the ladder rose continuallycanted at an angle from the perpendicular. At more or lessregular stages it was pierced by apertures closed by doors, noneof which he could open until he had climbed fully fifty feet fromthe river level. Here he discovered a door already ajar openinginto a large, circular chamber, the walls and floors of whichwere covered with the skins of wild beasts and with rugs of manycolors; but what interested him most was the occupants of theroom--a Wieroo, and a girl of human proportions. She wasstanding with her back against a column which rose from thecenter of the apartment from floor to ceiling--a hollow columnabout forty inches in diameter in which he could see an openingsome thirty inches across. The girl's side was toward Bradley,and her face averted, for she was watching the Wieroo, who wasnow advancing slowly toward her, talking as he came.

Bradley could distinctly hear the words of the creature, who wasurging the girl to accompany him to another Wieroo city. "Come withme," he said, "and you shall have your life; remain here and He WhoSpeaks for Luata will claim you for his own; and when he is donewith you, your skull will bleach at the top of a tall staff whileyour body feeds the reptiles at the mouth of the River of Death. Even though you bring into the world a female Wieroo, your fatewill be the same if you do not escape him, while with me you shallhave life and food and none shall harm you."

He was quite close to the girl when she replied by striking himin the face with all her strength. "Until I am slain," she cried,"I shall fight against you all." From the throat of the Wierooissued that dismal wail that Bradley had heard so often in thepast--it was like a scream of pain smothered to a groan--and thenthe thing leaped upon the girl, its face working in hideousgrimaces as it clawed and beat at her to force her to the floor.

The Englishman was upon the point of entering to defend her whena door at the opposite side of the chamber opened to admit a hugeWieroo clothed entirely in red. At sight of the two strugglingupon the floor the newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage. Instantly the Wieroo who was attacking the girl leaped to hisfeet and faced the other.

"I heard," screamed he who had just entered the room. "I heard,and when He Who Speaks for Lu-ata shall have heard--" He pausedand made a suggestive movement of a finger across his throat.

"He shall not hear," returned the first Wieroo as, with apowerful motion of his great wings, he launched himself upon thered-robed figure. The latter dodged the first charge, drew awicked-looking curved blade from beneath its red robe, spread itswings and dived for its antagonist. Beating their wings, wailingand groaning, the two hideous things sparred for position. The white-robed one being unarmed sought to grasp the other bythe wrist of its knife-hand and by the throat, while the latterhopped around on its dainty white feet, seeking an opening for amortal blow. Once it struck and missed, and then the otherrushed in and clinched, at the same time securing both the holdsit sought. Immediately the two commenced beating at each other'sheads with the joints of their wings, kicking with their soft,puny feet and biting, each at the other's face.

In the meantime the girl moved about the room, keeping out of theway of the duelists, and as she did so, Bradley caught a glimpseof her full face and immediately recognized her as the girl ofthe place of the yellow door. He did not dare intervene nowuntil one of the Wieroo had overcome the other, lest the twoshould turn upon him at once, when the chances were fair that hewould be defeated in so unequal a battle as the curved blade ofthe red Wieroo would render it, and so he waited, watching thewhite-robed figure slowly choking the life from him of the red robe. The protruding tongue and the popping eyes proclaimed that theend was near and a moment later the red robe sank to the floorof the room, the curved blade slipping from nerveless fingers. For an instant longer the victor clung to the throat of hisdefeated antagonist and then he rose, dragging the body afterhim, and approached the central column. Here he raised the bodyand thrust it into the aperture where Bradley saw it dropsuddenly from sight. Instantly there flashed into his memory thecircular openings in the roof of the river vault and the corpseshe had seen drop from them to the water beneath.

As the body disappeared, the Wieroo turned and cast about theroom for the girl. For a moment he stood eying her. "You saw,"he muttered, "and if you tell them, He Who Speaks for Luata willhave my wings severed while still I live and my head will besevered and I shall be cast into the River of Death, for thus ithappens even to the highest who slay one of the red robe. You saw,and you must die!" he ended with a scream as he rushed upon the girl.

Bradley waited no longer. Leaping into the room he ran for theWieroo, who had already seized the girl, and as he ran, hestooped and picked up the curved blade. The creature's back wastoward him as, with his left hand, he seized it by the neck. Like a flash the great wings beat backward as the creatureturned, and Bradley was swept from his feet, though he stillretained his hold upon the blade. Instantly the Wieroo wasupon him. Bradley lay slightly raised upon his left elbow, hisright arm free, and as the thing came close, he cut at the hideousface with all the strength that lay within him. The blade struckat the junction of the neck and torso and with such force as tocompletely decapitate the Wieroo, the hideous head dropping tothe floor and the body falling forward upon the Englishman. Pushing it from him he rose to his feet and faced the wide-eyed girl.

"Luata!" she exclaimed. "How came you here?"

Bradley shrugged. "Here I am," he said; "but the thing now is toget out of here--both of us."

The girl shook her head. "It cannot be," she stated sadly.

"That is what I thought when they dropped me into the Blue Placeof Seven Skulls," replied Bradley. "Can't be done. I did it.--Here! You're mussing up the floor something awful, you." This lastto the dead Wieroo as he stooped and dragged the corpse to thecentral shaft, where he raised it to the aperture and let itslip into the tube. Then he picked up the head and tossed itafter the body. "Don't be so glum," he admonished the former ashe carried it toward the well; "smile!"

"But how can he smile?" questioned the girl, a half-puzzled,half-frightened look upon her face. "He is dead."

"That's so," admitted Bradley, "and I suppose he does feel a bitcut up about it."

The girl shook her head and edged away from the man--toward the door.

"Come!" said the Englishman. "We've got to get out of here. If you don't know a better way than the river, it's the river then."

The girl still eyed him askance. "But how could he smile when hewas dead?"

Bradley laughed aloud. "I thought we English were supposed tohave the least sense of humor of any people in the world," hecried; "but now I've found one human being who hasn't any. Of course you don't know half I'm saying; but don't worry, littlegirl; I'm not going to hurt you, and if I can get you out ofhere, I'll do it.

Even if she did not understand all he said, she at least readsomething in his smiling, countenance--something which reassured her. "I do not fear you," she said; "though I do not understand allthat you say even though you speak my own tongue and use wordsthat I know. But as for escaping"--she sighed--"alas, how canit be done?"

"I escaped from the Blue Place of Seven Skulls," Bradleyreminded her. "Come!" And he turned toward the shaft andthe ladder that he had ascended from the river. "We cannotwaste time here."

The girl followed him; but at the doorway both drew back, forfrom below came the sound of some one ascending.

Bradley tiptoed to the door and peered cautiously into the well;then he stepped back beside the girl. "There are half a dozen ofthem coming up; but possibly they will pass this room."

"No," she said, "they will pass directly through this room--theyare on their way to Him Who Speaks for Luata. We may be able tohide in the next room--there are skins there beneath which wemay crawl. They will not stop in that room; but they may stop inthis one for a short time--the other room is blue."

"What's that go to do with it?" demanded the Englishman.

"They fear blue," she replied. "In every room where murder hasbeen done you will find blue--a certain amount for each murder. When the room is all blue, they shun it. This room has muchblue; but evidently they kill mostly in the next room, which isnow all blue."

"But there is blue on the outside of every house I have seen,"said Bradley.

"Yes, " assented the girl, "and there are blue rooms in each ofthose houses--when all the rooms are blue then the whole outsideof the house will be blue as is the Blue Place of Seven Skulls. There are many such here."

"And the skulls with blue upon them?" inquired Bradley. "Did they belong to murderers?"

"They were murdered--some of them; those with only a small amountof blue were murderers--known murderers. All Wieroos are murderers. When they have committed a certain number of murders without beingcaught at it, they confess to Him Who Speaks for Luata and areadvanced, after which they wear robes with a slash of some color--I think yellow comes first. When they reach a point where theentire robe is of yellow, they discard it for a white robe with ared slash; and when one wins a complete red robe, he carries sucha long, curved knife as you have in your hand; after that comesthe blue slash on a white robe, and then, I suppose, an all blue robe. I have never seen such a one."

As they talked in low tones they had moved from the room of thedeath shaft into an all blue room adjoining, where they sat downtogether in a corner with their backs against a wall and drew apile of hides over themselves. A moment later they heard anumber of Wieroos enter the chamber. They were talking togetheras they crossed the floor, or the two could not have heard them. Halfway across the chamber they halted as the door toward whichthey were advancing opened and a dozen others of their kindentered the apartment.

Bradley could guess all this by the increased volume of sound andthe dismal greetings; but the sudden silence that almostimmediately ensued he could not fathom, for he could not knowthat from beneath one of the hides that covered him protruded oneof his heavy army shoes, or that some eighteen large Wieroos withrobes either solid red or slashed with red or blue were standinggazing at it. Nor could he hear their stealthy approach.

The first intimation he had that he had been discovered was whenhis foot was suddenly seized, and he was yanked violently frombeneath the hides to find himself surrounded by menacing blades. They would have slain him on the spot had not one clothed all inred held them back, saying that He Who Speaks for Luata desiredto see this strange creature.

As they led Bradley away, he caught an opportunity to glance backtoward the hides to see what had become of the girl, and, to hisgratification, he discovered that she still lay concealed beneaththe hides. He wondered if she would have the nerve to attemptthe river trip alone and regretted that now he could notaccompany her. He felt rather all in, himself, more so thanhe had at any time since he had been captured by the Wieroo,for there appeared not the slightest cause for hope in hispresent predicament. He had dropped the curved blade beneath thehides when he had been jerked so violently from their fancied security. It was almost in a spirit of resigned hopelessness that he quietlyaccompanied his captors through various chambers and corridorstoward the heart of the temple.