the effort that I had made to free myself from the sticky mess.

"They got away, Walter," he said, lighting a lantern they had
dropped. "By George," he added, I think a little vexed that I had
not been able to stop them, "you are a sight!"

He was about to laugh, when I fainted. I can remember nothing
until I woke up over by the wall of the chamber where he dragged
me.

Kennedy had been working hard to revive me, and, as I opened my
eyes, he straightened up. His eye suddenly caught something on the
rock beside him. There was a little slot carved in it, and above
the slot was a peculiar inscription.

For several minutes, Kennedy puzzled over it, as Wu had done. Then
he discovered the little cup near the ground.

"The ring!" he suddenly cried out.

I was too muddled to appreciate at once what he meant, but I saw
him reach into his fob pocket and draw forth the replica of the
trinket which had caused so much disaster, as if it had been
cursed by the Clutching Hand himself. He dropped it into the slot.

Struggling to my feet, I saw across from me the very rock itself
moving. Was it an hallucination, born of my nervous condition?

"Look, Craig!" I cried involuntarily, pointing.