larger, and that the
ribs were out of all proportion to the rest of the skeleton.

They stopped awe-stricken before this strange spectacle. Redgrave
stooped down and took hold of one of the bones, a huge femur. It broke
in two as he tried to lift it, and the piece which remained in his hand
crumbled instantly to white powder.

"Whoever they were," he said, "they were giants. When air and water
failed above, they came down here by some means and built this city. You
see what enormous chests they must have had. That would be Nature's last
struggle to enable them to breathe the diminishing atmosphere. These, of
course, were the last descendants of the fittest to breathe it; this was
their temple, I suppose, and here they came to die--I wonder how many
thousand years ago--perishing of heat, and cold, and hunger, and thirst;
the last tragedy of a race, which, after all, must have been something
like ourselves."

"It's just too awful for words," said Zaidie. "Shall we go into the
temple? That seems one of the entrances up there, only I don't like
walking over all those bones."

"I don't suppose they'll mind if we do," replied Redgrave, "only we
mustn't go far in. It may be full of cross passages and mazes, and we
might never get out. Our lamps won't be much use in there, you know, for
there's no air. They'll just be points of light, and we shan't see
anything but them. It's very aggravating, but I'm afraid there's no help
for it. Come along."

They ascended the steps, crushing the bones and skulls to powder beneath
their feet, and entered the huge, square doorway, which looked like a
rectangle of blackness against the grey-white of the wall. Even through
their asbestos-woven clothing they felt a sudden shock of icy cold. In
those few steps they had passed from a temperature of tenfold summer
heat into one below that of the coldest spots on earth. They turned on
the electric lamps which were fitted to the breastplates of their
dresses, but they could see nothing save the thin thread of light
straight in front of them. It did not even spread. It was like a
polished needle on a background of black velvet.

All about them was darkness impenetrable, and so they reluctantly turned
back to the doorway, leaving all the mysteries which that vast temple of
a long-vanished people might contain to remain mysteries to the end of
time.

They passed down the steps again and crossed the square, and for the
next half-hour Zaidie was