my; naturally the shot had sounded loud in
this enclosed cavern. Lastly, the pull of gravity down here seemed upset
somehow. But why should it not seem so, at this distance within the
earth? The American was no scientist; the conclusions he reached seemed
very reasonable to him.

All told, the last thing Kirby found he needed to do was pinch himself
to see if he was awake.

A place of indefinite extent, the cavern seemed to be exactly what he
had already judged it--a giant pocket within the earth. The ceiling, or
the sky, was of some kind of natural glass--no doubt the same kind which
was crackling on his clothes now--and from it emanated the brilliant,
many colored glow which lighted the cavern. Radium? Perhaps it was that.
Perhaps the rays were cast off from some other element even less
understood than mysterious radium. As for the plant and animal life with
which the cavern teemed, it was amazing.

* * * * *

But Kirby did not give himself up to silent observation any longer.

"Will you finish telling me," he asked of Naida, "about the task I am to
perform for you here?"

Naida, walking with lithe strides along a path jungle-hemmed on both
sides, smiled at him.

"You are to be our leader."

"Yes?"

Now both Naida and the other girls became sober.

"You will lead us in a revolt."

"Ah!" Kirby whistled softly.

"In a revolt against the caciques--the wise men--whose kind have
governed the People of the Temple since the beginning."

Her statement was received with acclaim by the whole troop, who crowded
close around, the while they smiled at Kirby.

"You mean I am to lead a revolt," he asked, "against these same caciques
whom we are going now to face?"

Naida nodded emphatically.

"Yes, if revolt proves necessary. And it probably will."

"Hum." Kirby scratched behind his ear. "You'd better tell me what you
can about it."

* * * * *

Then, as they hurried on, Naida spoke rapidly.

The situation before the People of the Temple was that for a long time
now, the only children to be born had been girls. Worse still, not even
a girl had been born during a period equal to sixteen upper-world years.
The only remaining members of a race which had flourished in this
underground land for countless thousands of years, consisted of the
caciques, a handful of aged people, and the thirty-four girls, including
Naida, who accompanied Kirby now.

On