wooden toys half-come to life. And they, too, vanished where
Walt and Diane had gone through the high arch of the jungle's open door.

Chet knew Kreiss was beside him; at a short distance, Towahg, staring
above the palisade, buried his unkempt, hairy head in the shelter of his
arms. All of Towahg's savage bravery had oozed away at direct sight of
the pyramid men; Chet, even through his heavy-hearted dismay, was aware
of the courage that must have carried this primitive man to their rescue
on that other black night when the pyramid had been about to swallow,
them up.

* * * * *

To the pyramid all Chet's thoughts had been tending. There Diane and
Harkness were bound; there he, too, must go, though the thought of
driving himself into that black maw, through the overpowering stench and
down to the pit where some horror of mystery lay waiting, was almost
more than his conscious mind could accept. But, with the sight of Towahg
and the abject fear that had overwhelmed him, Chet found his own mind
calmly determined, though through that cool self-detachment came savage
spoken words.

"If poor Towahg could go near that damned place," he reasoned, "am I
going to be stopped by anything between heaven and hell?"

And his mind was suddenly at ease with the certainty of the next step he
must take. He turned to speak to Kreiss, but paused instead to stare
into the dark where shadows that were not the ghosts of clouds were
moving. Then his whispered orders came sharply to the scientist and to
Towahg.

"Come!" he commanded. "Come quickly; follow me!"

The two were behind him as he found the narrow opening in the barrier's
farther side, passed through, and crouched low in the darkness as he ran
toward the lake where the shallow water of the shore took no mark of
their hurrying feet.

* * * * *

At the end of the lake he stopped. Beside him, Kreiss, weakened by his
wound, was panting and gasping; Towahg, moving like a dark shadow, was
close behind.

"I saw them," said Kreiss, when he had breath enough for speech, "--more
beasts from the pyramid. They were coming for us! But we can go back
there after a day or so."

"You can," Chet told him; "Towahg and I are going on."

"Where?" Kreiss demanded.

"To the pyramid."

Chet's reply was brief, and Kreiss' response was equally so. "You're a
fool," he said.

"Sure," Chet told him: "I know there's nothing I can do