ificed a living victim? Or was it something
else, some real monster that the Ogrum believed to be divine?

Guided by the fitful flickering of light ahead of him, Craig slipped
along what was in effect an artificial tunnel. He reached the end of the
tunnel, and stopped, appalled at what he saw.

The temple was built like a gigantic amphitheater, like some large bowl
in which athletic contests were held. Circling downward in ordered rows
were tier on tier of rough stone steps. Down below him, in a huge cup
that apparently rose from the solid foundation of the mountain itself
was--_a seething mass of white-hot bubbling lava_!

* * * * *

The city of the Ogrum was located in the crater of a supposedly extinct
volcano. The volcano was not extinct. It was merely inactive. Fires
still seethed in its heart, and the white-hot lava, held in balance by
some subterranean arrangement of pressures, bubbled up here, like a
geyser that never overflows and never subsides.

This bowl of lava, rising from the volcano beneath, was what Guru called
the white beast that was always hungry. It was the god of the Ogrum. In
a flash Craig saw why they worshipped it and why they fed human
sacrifices to it. It was bright and hot like the sun. Therefore, by the
laws of sympathetic magic, a sacrifice offered to the lava was the same
as a sacrifice offered to the sun. The Ogrum, creatures of the dawn
world, in spite of their planes and their poison gas, had no real
knowledge of science, of the laws of cause and effect. The Ogrum thought
that they could assure the return of the warming and life-giving sun by
offering a living sacrifice to this bubbling lava!

If their reasoning was erroneous and false, it was nonetheless hideous
and real for all that. For they would certainly offer in sacrifice,
here, every man taken from the Idaho, unless they were prevented by
force.

Across the arena he could see a larger opening closed by a grill of
wooden poles. The flickering light from the pool of bubbling lava
enabled him to see faces behind the grill--the prisoners. Involuntarily
he started toward them. Then he saw the company of shaven-headed yellow
clad guards standing beside the enclosure.

The Ogrum were on watch!

Studying the situation, Craig could see no way by which he could effect
the release of the men. He had a handful of sailors to help him. There
were thousands of the Ogrum. The Ogrum had planes and if they