with bleeding knuckles, with wild imprecations bubbling from my
lips, I was battering upon the mighty door--which had been slammed in
my face at the very instant that I had gained it.

"Brace up, man!--Brace up!" cried Smith, and in his strenuous, grimly
purposeful fashion, he shouldered me away from the door. "A battering
ram could not force that timber; we must seek another way!"

I staggered, weakly, back into the room. Hand raised to my head, I
looked about me. A lantern stood in a niche in one wall, weirdly
illuminating that place of ghastly memories; there were braziers,
branding-irons, with other instruments dear to the Black Ages, about
me--and gagged, chained side by side against the opposite wall, lay
Sir Lionel Barton and another man unknown to me!

Already Nayland Smith was bending over the intrepid explorer, whose
fierce blue eyes glared out from the sun-tanned face madly, whose
gray hair and mustache literally bristled with rage long repressed.
I choked down the emotions that boiled and seethed within me, and
sought to release the second captive, a stockily-built, clean-shaven
man. First I removed the length of toweling which was tied firmly
over his mouth; and--

"Thank you, sir," he said composedly. "The keys of these irons are on
the ledge there beside the lantern. I broke the first ring I was
chained to, but the Yellow devils overhauled me, all manacled as I
was, half-way along the passage before I could attract your attention,
and fixed me up to another and stronger ring!"

Ere he had finished speaking, the keys were in my hands, and I had
unlocked the gyves from both the captives. Sir Lionel Barton, his gag
removed, unloosed a torrent of pent-up wrath.

"The hell-fiends drugged me!" he shouted. "That black villain Homopoulo
doctored my tea! I woke in this damnable cell, the secret of which has
been lost for generations!" He turned blazing blue eyes upon Kennedy.
"How did _you_ come to be trapped?" he demanded unreasonably. "I
credited you with a modicum of brains!"

"Homopoulo came running from your room, sir, and told me you were
taken suddenly ill and that a doctor must be summoned without delay."

"Well, well, you fool!"

"Dr. Hamilton was away, sir."

"A false call beyond doubt!" snapped Smith.

"Therefore I went for the new doctor, Dr. Magnus, in the village. He
came at once and I showed him up to your room. He sent Mrs. Oram out,
leaving only Homopoulo and myself there, except you