lying where it had fallen when I struck it from his grasp, was at
my disposal.

The fellow whose ruse had put me down was springing toward me,
the point of his gleaming blade directed straight at my heart, and
as he came there rang from his lips the cruel and mocking peal of
laughter that I had heard within the Chamber of Mystery.

And so he died, his thin lips curled in the snarl of his hateful
laugh, and a bullet from the revolver of his dead companion bursting
in his heart.

His body, borne by the impetus of his headlong rush, plunged upon
me. The hilt of his sword must have struck my head, for with the
impact of the corpse I lost consciousness.





CHAPTER IV

THUVIA




It was the sound of conflict that aroused me once more to the realities
of life. For a moment I could neither place my surroundings nor
locate the sounds which had aroused me. And then from beyond the