nside of me, was on fire.

My brain sang and whirled. My eyes felt as though they were being
burned from their sockets with red-hot irons. I bounded upward.

A few more steps--I could not see, I could hardly feel--and my head
bumped against the stone at the top of the column. I put out my hand,
groping around half crazily, and by some wild chance it came in contact
with the slide that moved the stone stab. I pushed, hardly knowing
what I did, and the stone flew to one side. I stuck my head through
the opening and saw Desiree.

Her back was toward me. As I emerged from the opening the Incas seated
round the vast amphitheater and the king, seated on the golden throne
in the alcove, rose involuntarily from their seats in astonished wonder.

Desiree saw the movement and, turning, caught sight of me. A sudden
cry of amazement burst from her lips; she made a hasty step forward and
fell fainting into my arms.

I shook her violently, but she remained unconscious, and this added
catastrophe all but unnerved me. For a moment I stood on the upper
step with the upper half of my body, swaying from side to side,
extending beyond the top of the column; then I turned and began to
descend with Desiree in my arms.

Every step of that descent was unspeakable agony. Feeling was hardly
in me; my whole body was an engine of pain. Somehow, I staggered and
stumbled downward; at every step I expected to fall headlong to the
bottom with my burden. Desiree's form remained limp and lifeless in my
arms.

I reached the ledge on which the vats had been placed and passed it;
air entered my burning lungs like a breeze from the mountains. Every
step now made the next one easier. I began to think that I might,
after all, reach the bottom in safety. Another twenty steps and I
could see the beginning of the tunnel below.

Desiree's form stirred slightly in my arms. A glance showed me her
eyes looking up into mine as her head lay back on my shoulder.

"Why?" she moaned. "In the name of Heaven above us, why?" I had no
time for answer; my lips were locked tightly together as I sought the
step below with a foot that had no feeling even for the stone. We were
nearly to the bottom; we reached it.

I placed Desiree on her feet.

"Can you stand?" I gasped; and the words were torn from my throat with
a great effort.

"But you!" she cried, and I saw that her eyes were filled with horror.
No doubt I was a pitiful thing to look at.

B