d off abruptly at
right angles. From this pit arose such a horrible effluvium that the
explorers recoiled in disgust.

"Look down. Look down," repeated Josane.

The luminous disk from the lantern swept round the pit. Upon its nearly
level floor crawled the loathsome, wriggling shapes of several great
serpents. Human skulls strewn about, grinned hideously upwards, and the
whole floor of this ghastly hell-pit seemed literally carpeted with a
crackling layer of pulverised bones. But the most awful sight of all
was yet to come.

Gathered in a heap, like a huge squatting toad, crouched a human figure.
Human? Could it be? Ah! it had been once. Nearly naked, save for a
few squalid rags black with filth, this fearful object, framed within
the brilliantly defined circle of the bull's-eye, looked anything but
human. The head and face were one mass of hair, and the long, bushy,
tangled beard screening almost the whole body in its crouching attitude
imparted to the creature the appearance of a head alone, supported on
two hairy, ape-like arms, half man, half tarantula. The eyes were
glaring and blinking in the light with mingled frenzy and terror, and
the mouth was never still for a moment. What a sight the grizzly
denizen of that appalling hell-pit--crouching there, mopping and mowing
among the gliding, noisome reptiles, among the indescribable filth and
the grinning human skulls! No wonder that the spectators stood
spell-bound, powerless, with a nerveless, unconquerable repulsion.

Suddenly the creature opened its mouth wide and emitted that fearful
demoniacal howl which had frozen their blood but a few moments back.
Then leaping to its feet, it made a series of desperate springs in its
efforts to get at them. Indeed it was surprising the height to which
these springs carried it, each failure being signalled by that
blood-curdling yell. Once it fell back upon a serpent. The reptile,
with a shrill hiss, struck the offending leg. But upon the demoniac
those deadly fangs seemed to produce no impression whatever. Realising
the futility of attempting to reach them, the creature sank back into a
corner, gathering itself together, and working its features in wild
convulsions. Then followed a silence--a silence in its way almost as
horrible as the frightful shrieks which had previously broken it.

The spectators looked at each other with ashy faces. Heavens! could
this fearful thing ever have been a man--a man wit