CHAPTER XII

_In the Shadow of the Pyramid_

They waited, unbreathing, listening to the occasional stealthy sounds.

The pistol was still in Chet's belt; the three men were crouched before

Diane, in their hands the crude weapons that they had made.

And then the sounds ceased. The menace seemed to have passed, or to be

withheld; the men had been tensely prepared for some minutes when Diane

spoke softly.

"Look below," she whispered; "the savages! That big one seems to be

choosing them--selecting some from among them."

Chet forced himself to look away from that corner of the rocky step

where he had been expecting an unknown enemy to appear, and he stared

below them where the Earth-light from the fully risen globe swept across

the arena.

He was amazed at the numbers of the savages that the full light

disclosed. There were hundreds--yes, thousands--of them, he estimated.

And they were standing in black, clotted masses, standing awed and

silent in a world that was all black and white in a dazzling contrast,

while there passed among them one with outstretched arms.

The black, hairy hands would hover over a cowering head; the eyes, Chet

knew, were staring widely, blindly, at the shivering creature before

him. And if Chet's surmise was correct, there was another--a hidden,

mysterious something--who was taking the message of those eyes as the

ape-man's brain transmitted it; taking it and sending back instructions

as to which victims should be selected.

Often the hands passed on; but soon they would descend to touch the

savage face of another in the assemblage. At the touch the selected one

jerked sharply erect, then walked stiffly from the ranks to join a group

that was waiting.

At last there were nearly a hundred savage figures in that group, all

grown men, young and in the full flood of their savage strength. No

women were chosen, nor children, though there were countless little

black bodies huddled with the others.

* * * * *

A prolific race, indeed, Chet thought, and this human automaton down

there was leaving the women to produce more victims; leaving the

children till they were fully grown, taking only the best and strongest

of the pack--for what?

His question was answered in part in the next instant. While the wailing

cry quivered again upon the air, the chosen hundred took up their

somnambulistic walk. The messenger from the pyramid came after like a

herdsman driving cattle to the slaughter. They passed from Chet's view

as they rounded the rear of the pyramid, and then he heard the scuff and

clatter of their ascent.

No need to explain to the others; each of the four saw all too clearly

their predicament. From the rear, coming steadily on, was the savage

throng; before them, plainly visible from below, was the lighted edge

where the altar rock stood. To step out there in full view would bring

the whole pack upon them; to drop down to another level would expose

them as plainly. Only in the dark shelter of the projecting capstone

were they hidden from the upturned faces now massed solidly about.

Their problem was solved for them by the sight of a savage body, black,

ragged with unkempt tufts of hair--another!--a score of them! They were

rounding the corner of the pyramid and walking stiffly toward them,

pressing upon them.

And the arrow on the drawn bow in Chet's hand was never loosed, for each

savage face was wide-eyed and devoid of expression; the ape-men neither

saw nor felt them. They were hypnotized, as Chet was suddenly aware;

they knew only that they must follow the mental instructions that were

guiding them on.

The black, animal bodies were upon them. Chet came from the stupefying

wonder that had claimed them all and sprang to shield the group from the

steady advance. Harkness was beside him, and an instant later, Kreiss;

Diane was at their backs. And the weight of the advancing bodies swept

them irresistibly backward, out into the light, along the wide step

toward the passage that yawned darkly under the projecting cap.

* * * * *

There was no checking the avalanche of bodies--no resisting them: the

men were carried along; it was all they could do to keep their footing.

Harkness sprang backward to take Diane in his arms and retreat with her

before the advancing horde. Chet was waiting for an outcry from below,

for some indication that despite the mass of bodies that smothered them,

their presence had been observed. But only the wailing cry persisted.

There was another advancing column that had circled the other side, and

now both groups were meeting at the passageway. Chet gripped at the

figure of Kreiss who was being swept helpless toward the dark vault and

he dragged him back. The two fought their way out toward the front and

saw Harkness doing the same.

"The altar," gasped Chet; "up on the altar!" And he saw Harkness swing

Diane up on the stone, then turn and extend a helping hand toward the

two men.

Safe in the sanctuary of this altar dedicated to some deity that they

could never imagine, they crouched close to its blood-clotted surface,

and still there was no change in the cry from below.

"Let them all go in," Harkness whispered. "Then follow them into the

shadow. There will no more come up here, I imagine. We will make our

escape after a bit."

The black mouth of the passage had swallowed the ape-men by solid

scores, and now only some stragglers were left. Harkness was speaking in

quick, whispered orders:

"Follow the last ones. Keep stooped over so they won't spot us from

below. Wait in the darkness of the entrance."

Chet saw him crouch low as he crept from the stone. Diane followed, then

Kreiss; and Chet next, close behind a shambling ape-figure that slunk

into the darkness of the passageway.

* * * * *

That it was a passage Chet had not the least doubt. It had taken in

these scores of savage figures, taken them somewhere; but where it led

or why these poor stunned creatures had been chosen he could not know.

Yet he remembered the one message he had caught: "Flesh! Bring flesh!"

It had meant only one thing: it was food that was wanted--human food!

And the fetid stench that was wafted from the darkness of this place of

mystery and horror, that made him reel back and put a hand to his

revolted lips, would not have encouraged him, even had he had any desire

to learn the answer to the puzzle.

Diane was half-crouching; she was choking with the foul air. Harkness

spoke gaspingly as he took her by the arm:

"Outside, for God's sake!... Horrible!... Get Diane outside--try lying

down--we may be out of sight!"

But this time he did not follow his own instructions. He rose erect,

instead, and stood swaying as if dazed; and Chet saw that before him,

outlined against the lighted opening in the rock, was the messenger he

had seen.

Black against the bright Earth-light, his features were lost; no

expression could be seen. But his eyes, that were dead and white like

the upturned belly of a fish, came suddenly to life. They glared from

the dark face with a light that came almost visibly from them to the

staring eyes of Walt Harkness. Chet saw Harkness stiffen, one upraised

hand falling woodenly to his side; a cry of warning was strangled in his

throat, and then the glaring eyes passed on to the face of Diane.

Chet had forgotten this messenger from the pyramid's hidden horror. If

he had thought of him at all he had assumed that he had passed in with

the other crowding ape-men; he was one like them, undistinguishable from

the rest. And now the savage figure was before them in terrifying

reality.

* * * * *

The eyes passed on to Kreiss. Then the ugly face swung toward Chet, and,

as their eyes met, it seemed to Chet that a blow had crashed stunningly

upon his brain. He tried to move--he knew that he must move. He must

reach for his bow, must leap upon this hulking brute and beat at the

glaring eyes with his bare fists. And his muscles that he tried to rouse

to action might have changed to stone, so unresponsive were they, and

unmoving.

The hairy hands reached out and touched Harkness. They passed on and

lingered upon the blanched features of the girl, and Chet raged inwardly

at his inability to resist and her utter helplessness to draw away. Then

Kreiss; and again Chet's turn. And, with the touching of those rough

animal hands, he felt that a contact had been established with some

distant force--a something that communicated with him, that sent

thoughts which his brain phrased in words.

"Curious!" said those thoughts. "How exceedingly curious! We shall be

interested in learning more. We shall learn all we can in one way and

another of this new race. We shall dismember them slowly, all but the

woman: we find her strangely attractive.... You will bring them to us at

once."

And Chet knew that the instructions were for the messenger whose hands

came stiffly upward to point the way; while, with a portion of his mind

that was functioning freely, Chet raged as he saw Diane take the first

stiff, involuntary step forward. Then Harkness and Kreiss! and he knew

that he too must follow, knew himself to be as helpless as the driven

brutes he had seen herded down below. And then, with the same mind that

was still able to comprehend the messages of his own eyes and ears, he

knew that from behind the savage figure there had come a sound.

* * * * *

His senses were alert, sharpened to an abnormal degree; the almost

silent footfall otherwise could never have been heard.

The raised hand swung toward him; he knew that he must turn and follow

the others to whatever awaited.... But the hand paused! Then swiftly the

savage figure swung to face toward the entrance, and those blazing eyes,

as Chet knew, were a match for any opponent.

But the eyes never found what they looked for and the quick swing of the

big ape-body was never completed. In the portal of light there was

framed a naked figure which sprang as if from nowhere, squat, savage and

ape-like, but hairless. Its arms were upraised; the hands held a bow;

and the twang of the bowstring came as one with the ripping thud of a

shaft that was tearing through flesh.

The savage fell in mid-turn; and it seemed as if the blazing light of

the terrible eyes must have flicked out before the breath of Death. And,

protruding from the thick neck, was the shaft of a crude arrow.... There

were others that flashed, thudding and quivering, into the body that

jerked with each impact, then lay still, a darker blot on the floor of a

dark cave.

Chet was breathless; it was an instant before he realized that he was

free, that the hypnotic bonds that had bound him were loosed. It was

another instant before he sensed that his companions were still

marching--trudging stiffly, woodenly off through the dark. He bounded

after, heedless of bruising walls; he followed where the sound of their

scuffling feet marked their progress to a sure doom.

There were stairs; how he sensed them Chet could not have told. But he

paused, hesitated a moment, then found the first step and half ran, half

fell, through the utter darkness of the pit into which they had gone.

* * * * *

The odors that had seemed the utmost of vileness now came to him a

hundred times worse. They tore at his throat with a strangling grip, and

he was weak with nausea when he crashed upon a figure that he knew, was

Kreiss. Then on, to grasp at Diane and Harkness; to drag them to a

standstill in the darkness that pressed upon them smotheringly, while he

shook them, beat at them, shouted their names.

"Diane! Walt! Wake up! Wake up, I tell you! We're going back!"

He swung them around; forced them to face about.

"Walt, for God's sake, wake up! Diane! Kreiss!" The deep, sobbing breath

of Diane was the first encouraging response.

Then: "Free!" she gasped. "I'm free!" And Harkness and Kreiss both

mumbled incoherently as they came from their hypnotic stupor.

"How--" began Harkness, "how did you--" But Chet waited for no

explanation of the seeming miracle that had just taken place.

"Go back," he told them, "--back up the steps!" And a babble of cries

that were terrifying in their inhuman savagery welled up from the depths

of the pyramid to urge them on.

The body of their captor was prone on the floor above: they stepped over

it to reach the entrance. No figure showed there now; Chet stooped low

and stepped forth cautiously that the surging horde on the ground might

not see him. The others followed. He felt Harkness' hand in a sudden

warning grip upon him.

"Chet!" said Harkness, "there is something there in the shadow--there!"

And Chet saw, even before Walt pointed, a wriggling figure that crept

toward them.

He struck down the bow that Kreiss had raised, and a ray of light came

through a jagged niche in the rock above to fall upon the face of the

one who drew near.

Abjectly, in utmost humility, the naked figure crept toward their feet,

and the savage face that was raised to theirs was wreathed in a

distorted smile.

Beside him, Chet felt Harkness struggling to speak. In wondering tones

that were almost unbelieving, Harkness choked out one word.

"Towahg!" he said. "Towahg!"

And the thick lips in that upraised face echoed proudly:

"Towahg! Me come!"