n to him too?" asked Diane. "What do you
suppose they want with us, anyway, daddy?"

"That, my dear, as I told you before," replied her father, "I am not
disposed to conjecture. Time will reveal it. Meanwhile, we can only
wait."

As before, there was a note of anxiety in his voice not lost on either
of them. And as for Larry, though he knew but little of those old
religions, he knew enough to realize that their altars often ran with
the blood of their captives, and he shuddered.

With these grim thoughts between them, the trio fell silent.

A silence that was interrupted presently by the arrival of a native
bearing a tray heaped with strange food.

Bowing, he placed it before them and departed.

Upon examination, the meal proved to consist mainly of some curious
kind of steamed fish, not unpalatable but rather rank and tough. There
were several varieties of fungus, too, more or less resembling
mushrooms and doubtless grown in some sunless garden of the pyramid.

These articles, together with a pitcher of good water that had
obviously been distilled from the sea, comprised their meal, and
though it was far from appetizing, they ate it.

But none of the three slept that night, though Diane dozed off for a
few minutes once or twice, for their apprehension of what the dawn
might hold made it impossible, to say nothing of the closeness of the
air in that windowless subterranean room.

Slowly, wearily, the hours dragged by.

At length the native who had brought their food came again. This time
he spoke.

"He says we are now to be taken before the high priests," Professor
Stevens translated for them.

Almost with relief, though their faces were grave, they stepped out
into the corridor, where an escort waited.

* * * * *

Five minutes later, after proceeding along an inclined gallery that
wound ever upward, they were ushered into a vast vaulted chamber lit
with a thousand phosphorescent lamps and gleaming with idols of gold
and silver, jewels flashing from their eyes.

High in the dome hung a great golden disc, representing the sun. At
the far end, above a marble altar, coiled a dragon with tusks of ivory
and scales of jade, its eyes two lustrous pearls.

And all about the room thronged priests in fantastic head-dress and
long white robes, woven through elaborately with threads of yellow and
green.

At the appearance of the captives, a murmur like a chant rose in the
still