Page:Weird Tales Volume 2 Number 2 (1923-09).djvu/55

Waring watched these ministrations with concern. Discovery that her watch over a tortured man's death, and the cold-blooded dumping of his corpse afterward, had been acts only of seem- ing, had wrought a change in even the correspondent's feeling toward her. Why she had "gone through the mo- tions," as Waring phrased it, was not at all clear. But Tellifer's story re- vealed that he had certainly not been present while she wept over his supposed agony. The thing actually dumped, when she threw the lever, was a piece of rock. Use of the lantern for examination of the pit confirmed his tale. Near the bottom of the great bowl was now a large, irregular aperture. The shock which cracked the stone when Tellifer allowed it to swing back, full weight, the first evening, had saved the experi- menter's life. There had then been a jaggd, branching crevice. The shrink- ing effect of next day's white-hot noon- focus had completed the work. Tellifer explained that about the time he ceased answering their halls, he had discovered that a part of the bowl's curving side was in actual fragments, only held in place by pressure. With the buckle of his metal girdle he had managed to pry out one of the smaller pieces till he could get finger-grip on it. After its removal, taking out the larger fragments was easy. He had, he said, refrained from tell- ing his friends of this, partly because he was too dry to speak easily, and partly out of consideration-lest he raise false hopes. No, he hadn't ex- pected them to thank him for that. But how could he know that he was going to get through alive? Very well. He would continue the story if there were not too many interruptions. His first idea had been a dive into the depths. On casting down several of the rock fragments, resulting splash- es told him that there was water below. Well, if his friends had heard no such splashes, he was not responsible for that. They were making so much noise yelling at him that the fact was not surprising. Such a dive, however, proved needless. Through the hole he had found him- self able to swing by his hands and fling himself sideways into an open, floored space beneath the upper pave- ment. It was very dark down there, but, feeling about, he had come upon a system of great metal bars and cylin- ders. It dawned on him that the an- cient engineers had arranged the ma- chinery which revolved the bowl in an open horizontal shaft, probably for SUNFIRE convenience in case of breakdown. There seemed a chance that at the other end of this shaft he might find an exit. Stumbling through blackness, he had come upon a narrow flight of stairs, had fallen down them, and, upon recover- ing from that a little, had found him- self near an open doorway at the back of one of the outer buildings, in the fifth terrace of the pyramid's western plane. Though privations, a bad night and his latest tumble had left him very weak, he remembered the need of his friends. He had managed to drag him- self around to the eastern stair and down it to water-level. After drinking and getting himself a little food aboard the canoe, he had lain down to rest a few minutes. Nature had betrayed him and it was dusk when he awoke. Yes, certainly he had slept all afternoon. While in the bowl he had hardly been able to sleep at all. Their shouts had dis- turbed him. Very well. He would accept the apologies and continue. Though not a practical man, he had deemed best to be prepared in every way possible to meet difficulties. There- fore he had taken time to eat again and exchange that abominable jaguar-hide for a more dignified costume. Also to shave. Yes, he felt that the moral sup- port received from these two latter acts was worth the time expended on them. He was not a practical man- "Oh, get on with it, TNT!" grinned his friend. "Providence looks out for such as you-and us. You surely made a clean finish. Maybe the shave helped. How'd you happen to think of the air- gun?" Tellifer had, it seemed, recalled ef- forts of his own to shoot loons on the northern lakes. This is an impossible feat since the birds dive at the flash and are beneath the surface before the charge can reach them. Applying past experience to present emergency, it oc- curred to him that if there was no flash, the monstrous centipede could not take warning. The air-rifle, which belonged to Ot- way, was a very powerful one. Because of its small caliber, however, Tellifer had not meant to use it except in dire need. Climbing to the pyramid's rim, he had seen his comrades led forth, and watched with much interest and curi- osity the singular evolutions of Waring and Sigsbee. When they finally flew at one another's throats, and the ven- omous yellow head poised to strike, he had perceived that the air-gun idea must be tried out at once. The first shot struck one of the mon- ster's enormous eyes. The second missed the head and hit the great orys- tal. Like any diamond that has been sub- jected to high temperatures, Sunfire had acquired a brittleness that made it more fragile than glass. It had "splin- tered" at the impact, with such com- pleteness as had all the effect of a silent explosion. The monster had been slain, not by the bullets, but by Sunfire. Over a dozen feet above floor-level, Sunfire had per- ished without claiming any further human victims. But the head of its monstrous votary, almost in contact with the exploding crystal, had been perforated by the sharp dust and splin- ters. Practical man or not, it appeared that with a couple of shots from an air- gun TNT had made a complete clean- up of the two main perils of the pyra- mid. The third-if peril she could be termed outside her relations with the other two-was left at the mercy of her victims. It was decided to carry the girl with them to the canoe. Food, a night's rest, and counsel, were needed before any effort was made to seek out the pyramid's other and strangely retiring inhabitants. For one thing, there was the question of weapons. Beside the air-rifle, a couple of shotguns and a spare Winchester had been left on But all their small board the canoe. fire-arms and the rifles they had ear- ried the first night, were in the ene- mies' hands. Even were the "tribe" few in number, this superiority of armament made seeking them an adven- ture to be approached cautiously. They had had enough of reckless in- discretion. Hereafter every act should be well considered. The conquest of the pyramid, begun by Tellifer, should be carried to a finish with the least possible risk. So they spoke, like wise, intelligent men, the while they viewed pityingly the unconscious form of their de- throned tyrant. Waring in particular, seeing her, frail, graceful, with her face of a sleep- ing child supported on Sigsbee's knee, felt a hot wave of shame and a great wonder at himself. This child had been brought up in these barbaric surroundings. Doubtless religious training had fought the gen- tle instincts natural to her, and made her bitterly unhappy. She had done as she had been taught was right, and in the doing-suffered.