whispered to Joshua, "you must get down off the ladder or
you will betray us all. Nay, it is too late to come up here again, for
already the moonlight strikes just above your head. Go down, or we will
cast the ladder loose and let you fall."

So he went down and hid himself among some ferns and bushes where we
saw no more of him for a while, and, to tell the truth, forgot his
existence.

Far, far above us, from the back of the idol I suppose, came a faint
sound of solemn chanting. It sank, and we heard shouts. Then suddenly
it swelled again. Now Maqueda, who knelt near me, touched my arm and
pointed to the shadow which gradually was becoming infiltrated with the
moonlight flowing into it from either side. I looked, and high in
the air, perhaps two hundred feet from the ground, saw something dark
descending slowly. Doubtless it was the basket containing Higgs, and
whether by coincidence or no, at this moment the lions on the farther
side of the wall burst into peal upon peal of terrific roaring. Perhaps
their sentries watching at the gate saw or smelt the familiar basket,
and communicated the intelligence to their fellows.

Slowly, slowly it descended, till it was within a few feet of the
ground, when it began to sway backward and forward like a pendulum, at
each swing covering a wider arc. Presently, when it hung over the edge
of the shadow that was nearest to us, it was let down with a run and
overset, and out of it, looking very small in those vast surroundings
and that mysterious light, rolled the figure of a man. Although at
that distance we could see little of him, accident assured us of his
identity, for as he rolled the hat he wore fell from him, and I knew
it at once for Higgs's sun-helmet. He rose from the ground, limped very
slowly and painfully after the helmet, picked it up, and proceeded to
use it to dust his knees. At this moment there was a clanking sound.

"Oh! they lift the gates!" murmured Maqueda.

Then followed more sounds, this time of wild beasts raging for their
prey, and of other human beasts shrieking with excitement on the wall
above. The Professor turned and saw. For a moment he seemed about to
run, then changed his mind, clapped the helmet on his head, folded his
arms and stood still, reminding me in some curious way, perhaps, because
of the shortness of his thick figure, of a picture I had seen of the
great Napoleon contemplating a disaster.

To describe what followed is extremely diff