my turn,
I advanced.

"Two words, if you please, sir," I said brutally. "I will not hide
from you that these historical discussions seem to me absolutely out
of place. It is not my fault if you have had trouble with the
University, and if you are not to-day at the College of France or
elsewhere. For the moment, just one thing concerns me: to know just
what this lady, Antinea, wants with us. My comrade would like to know
her relation with ancient Egypt: very well. For my part, I desire
above everything to know her relations with the government of Algeria
and the Arabian Bureau."

M. Le Mesge gave a strident laugh.

"I am going to give you an answer that will satisfy you both," he
replied.

And he added:

"Follow me. It is time that you should learn."

X

THE RED MARBLE HALL

We passed through an interminable series of stairs and corridors
following M. Le Mesge.

"You lose all sense of direction in this labyrinth," I muttered to
Morhange.

"Worse still, you will lose your head," answered my companion _sotto
voce_. "This old fool is certainly very learned; but God knows what he
is driving at. However, he has promised that we are soon to know."

M. Le Mesge had stopped before a heavy dark door, all incrusted with
strange symbols. Turning the lock with difficulty, he opened it.

"Enter, gentlemen, I beg you," he said.

A gust of cold air struck us full in the face. The room we were
entering was chill as a vault.

At first, the darkness allowed me to form no idea of its proportions.
The lighting, purposely subdued, consisted of twelve enormous copper
lamps, placed column-like upon the ground and burning with brilliant
red flames. As we entered, the wind from the corridor made the flames
flicker, momentarily casting about us our own enlarged and misshapen
shadows. Then the gust died down, and the flames, no longer flurried,
again licked up the darkness with their motionless red tongues.

These twelve giant lamps (each one about ten feet high) were arranged
in a kind of crown, the diameter of which must have been about fifty
feet. In the center of this circle was a dark mass, all streaked with
trembling red reflections. When I drew nearer, I saw it was a bubbling
fountain. It was the freshness of this water which had maintained the
temperature of which I have spoken.

Huge seats were cut in the central rock from which gushed the
murmuring, shadowy fountain. They were heaped with silky cushions.