. What would await him on the other
side?

Well, he must go through with it. Probably he would find more of such
ghastly relics--that was all. But as he stood upon the apex of the
ridge, with pulses somewhat quickened, no whitening bones met his
gaze--fixed, dilated as that gaze was. The cliff in front--he thought
to descry some faint chance of escape there, for its face was terraced
and sloping backward somewhat. Moreover, it was rent by crannies and
crevices, which, to a desperate and determined man, might afford hand
and foothold.

And now for the first time it flashed upon Laurence that the mystery of
"The Spider" stood explained. This horrible hole whence there was no
escape--where men were thrust to die by inches as all of these had died
before him--the repulsive and blood-sucking insect was in truth a
fitting name allegorically for such a place, which swallowed up the
lives of men. Besides, for all he knew, the configuration of the crater
might, from above, resemble the tutelary insect of the Ba-gcatya. Yes;
he had solved the mystery, as to that he was confident--the next thing
to do was to find some way out, to break through the fatality of the
place.

For the first time now his shoulder began to feel stiff and sore, where
the stick hurled by Lindela had struck him. That was a bad preparation
for the most perilous kind of cliff-climbing. Then the incident recalled
to mind Lindela herself. Her sudden change of front was just such an
oddity as any of the half-ironical incidents which go to make up the sum
of life's experiences. Well, savage or civilized, human nature was
singularly alike. A touch of superstition and the god of yesterday
became the demon of to-day.

Thus musing, he came, suddenly and unexpectedly, upon another skeleton.
But the effect of the discovery of this was even more disconcerting than
that of the first. For, around, lay rotting rags of clothing, and a
gold ornament or two. These remains he recognized at a glance. They were
those of Lutali.

Yes, here was a broad bracelet of gold, curiously worked with the text
of the Koran, which he had seen last on the Arab's sinewy wrist. Now
that wrist was but a grisly bone. There, too, were parchment strips,
also inscribed with Koran passages, and worn in a pouch as amulets. The
identity of these remains was established beyond a doubt.

But the discovery inspired within him a renewed chill of despair. If
Lutali had been unable to find means of es