right. It may be as good a guess as any; and at best it's only a guess, no matter which one we decide on.'
As they approached the opening they were almost overpowered by the stench that came from it, but von Horst was determined to investigate every possible avenue of escape; so he stepped through the opening into a smaller chamber. The sight that met his eyes brought him to a sudden halt. A dozen human corpses were piled against the far wall of the chamber. A single glance showed von Horst that there was no outer opening leading from the room; so he beat a hasty retreat.
One of the two remaining openings from the large chamber was smoke blackened, and on the floor of the cave just in front of it were the ashes and charcoal of many wood fires. It's appearance gave von Horst an idea. He walked to the second opening and held his smoking torch close to it, but the smoke rose steadily; then he went to that before which fires had been built, and now the smoke from his torch was drawn steadily into the opening.
'This one must lead to the outer opening,' he said, 'and it also served as a chimney when they cooked their feasts. Nice lot, whoever they are that inhabit these caves. I think I prefer Gaz. We'll try this one, La-ja.'
A narrow corridor rose steeply. It was blackened with soot, and the draft that wafted continually up it was laden with the stench from the horror chambers below.
'It can't be far to the top,' said von Horst. 'The cliff didn't look more than fifty feet high, and we have been climbing a little all the time since we first entered the cave.'
'It's getting light ahead,' said La-ja.
'Yes, there's the opening!' exclaimed von Horst.
Ten feet from the surface they passed the openings to two corridors or chambers, one on either side of the shaft they were ascending; but so engrossed were they in escaping from the foul air that surrounded them that they scarce noticed them. Nor did they see the forms lurking in the darkness just within.
La-ja was just behind von Horst. It was she who discovered the danger first—but too late. She saw hands reach out of one of the openings just as von Horst passed it, seize him, and drag him in. She voiced a cry of warning, and at the same instant she was seized and drawn into the opening on the opposite side.
X – GORBUSES
VON HOEST struggled and fought to free himself. He shouted aloud to La-ja to run to the opening they had seen ahead of them and make her escape. He did not know that she, too, had been captured. It seemed that a dozen hands clung to each of his arms, and though he was a powerful man he could neither escape nor wrench his arm free long enough to draw his pistol. His spear had been snatched from him at the moment of his seizure.
It was very dark in the corridor down which he was being dragged along a steep declivity; so that he could not see whether they were men or beasts that had captured him. Yet, though they did not speak, he was sure that they were men. Presently, at a sudden turning of the corridor, they came into a lighted chamber—a vast subterranean room illuminated by many torches. And here von Horst saw the nature of the creatures into whose hands he had fallen. They were of the same race as the man he had seen fleeing from the zarith. They were mostly men; but there were a few women among them and perhaps a dozen children. All had white skins, white hair, and the pink and red eyes of Albinos, which in themselves are not disgusting. It was the bestial, brutal faces of these creatures that made them appear so horrible.
Most of the assemblage, which must have numbered several hundred people, sat or squatted or lay near the wall of the roughly circular chamber, leaving a large open space in the center. To this space von Horst was dragged; then he was thrown to the ground, his hands tied behind his back, and his ankles secured.
As he lay on his side, taking in all that he could see of the repulsive concourse, his heart suddenly sank. From the mouth of a corridor opposite that through which he had been brought into the chamber he saw La-ja being dragged. They brought her to the open space where he lay and bound her as they had bound him. The two lay facing one another. Von Horst tried to smile, but there was not much heart in it. From what he had seen of these people and what he had guessed of their customs, he could draw no slightest ray of hope that they might escape a fate similar to that of those whose ghastly remains they had seen in those other two chambers of the cave.
'It looks like a hard winter,' he said.
'Winter? What is winter?' she asked.
'It is the time of year—oh, but then you don't even know what a year is. What's the use? Let's talk about something else.'
'Why do we have to talk?'
'I don't know why I have to, but I do. Ordinarily I'm not a very loquacious person, but right now I've got to talk or go crazy.'
'Be careful what you say, then,' she whispered, 'if you are thinking of talking of a way to escape.'
'Do you suppose these things can understand us?' he demanded.
'Yes, we can understand you,' said one of the creatures standing near them, in hollow, sepulchral tones.
'Then tell us why you captured us. What are you going to do with us?'
The fellow bared his yellowed teeth in a soundless laugh. 'He asks what we are going to do with them,' he announced in loud tones that were none the less suggestive of the grave because of their loudness.
The audience rocked with silent mirth. 'What are we going to do with them?' echoed several, and then they went off into gales of hideous, mirthless laughter that was as silent as the tomb.
'If they want to know, let's show them now,' suggested one.
'Yes, Torp,' said another, 'now, now.'
'No,' said he who had been addressed as Torp, the same fellow who had originally spoken to von Horst. 'We already have plenty, many of which have aged too long as it is.' He stepped closer to the prisoners; and, stooping, pinched their flesh, digging a filthy forefinger between their ribs. 'They need fattening,' he announced. 'We shall feed them for a while. Plenty of nuts and a little fruit will put a layer of juicy fat on their ribs.' He rubbed his palms together and licked his flabby lips. 'Some of you take them away and put them in that little room over there, get nuts and fruit for them; and keep them there until they get fat.'
As he finished speaking, another of the creatures entered the room from one of the runways that led above. He was very much excited as he ran into the center of the cavern.
'What's the matter with you, Durg?' demanded Torp.
'I was chased by a zarith,' exclaimed Durg, 'but that is not all. A strange gilak with a woman made many loud noises with a little black stick, and the zarith fell down and died. The strange gilak saved Durg's life; but why, I do not know.'
The men who had gathered about von Horst and La-ja to take them to the chamber in which they were to be fattened had removed the thongs from their ankles and dragged them to their feet just as Durg finished his story; so that he saw them now for the first time.
'There they are!' he exclaimed excitedly. 'There is the same gilak that saved Durg's life. What are you going to do with them, Torp?'
'They are going to be fattened,' replied Torp; 'they are too thin.'
'You should let them go, because they saved my life,' urged Durg.
'Should I let them go because the man is a fool?' demanded Torp. 'If he had any sense he would have killed and eaten you. Take them away.'
'He saved a Gorbus!' cried Durg, addressing the assembled tribe. 'Should we let him be killed for that? I say, let them go free.'
'Let them go!' cried a few, but there were more who shrieked, 'Fatten them! Fatten them!'
As the men were pushing them toward the entrance to the chamber in which they were to be confined, von Horst saw Durg facing Torp angrily.
'Some day I am going to kill you,' threatened the former. 'We need a good chief. You are no good.'
'I am chief,' screamed Torp. 'It is I who will kill you.'
'You?' demanded Durg with disgust. 'You are only a killer of women. You murdered seven of them. You never murdered a man. I murdered four.'
'You poisoned them,' sneered Torp.
