He discovered himself to be in a bare room which was windowless,
nor could he see any other opening than that through which he had
been lowered. In one corner was a huddled mass that might have
been almost anything from a bundle of rags to a dead body.

Almost immediately after he had taken his bearings Bradley
commenced working with his bonds. He was a man of powerful
physique, and as from the first he had been imbued with a belief
that the fiber ropes were too weak to hold him, he worked on
with a firm conviction that sooner or later they would part to
his strainings. After a matter of five minutes he was positive
that the strands about his wrists were beginning to give; but he
was compelled to rest then from exhaustion.

As he lay, his eyes rested upon the bundle in the corner, and
presently he could have sworn that the thing moved. With eyes
straining through the gloom the man lay watching the grim and
sinister thing in the corner. Perhaps his overwrought nerves
were playing a sorry joke upon him. He thought of this and also
that his condition of utter helplessness might still further have
stimulated his imagination. He closed his eyes and sought to
relax his muscles and his nerves; but when he looked again, he
knew that he had not been mistaken--the thing had moved; now it
lay in a slightly altered form and farther from the wall. It was
nearer him.

With renewed strength Bradley strained at his bonds, his
fascinated gaze still glued upon the shapeless bundle. No longer
was there any doubt that it moved--he saw it rise in the center