EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
“Perhaps it is a demon who lives in the great rift in the wall,” said another. “Let us hasten and tell the masters.”
“Let us wait and watch,” said the first speaker, “until we have something to tell them. If we went and told them that a few rocks had fallen from the great wall they would only laugh at us.”
Von Harben and Gabula had increased the size of the opening until it was large enough to permit the passage of a man’s body. Through it the white man could see the rough sides of the fissure extending to the level of the next terrace and knew that the next stage of the descent was already as good as an accomplished fact.
“We shall descend one at a time, Gabula,” said von Harben. “I shall go first, for I am accustomed to this sort of climbing. Watch carefully so that you may descend exactly as I do. It is easy and there is no danger. Be sure that you keep your back braced against one wall and your feet against the other. We shall lose some hide in the descent, for the walls are rough, but we shall get down safely enough if we take it slowly.”
“Yes, Bwana. You go first,” said Gabula. “If I see you do it then, perhaps, I can do it.”
Von Harben lowered himself through the aperture, braced himself securely against the opposite walls of the fissure, and started slowly downward. A few minutes later Gabula saw his master standing safely at the bottom, and though his heart was in his mouth the black followed without hesitation, but when he stood at last beside von Harben he breathed such a loud sigh of relief that von Harben was forced to laugh loud.
“It is the demon himself,” said the black warrior in the dugout, as von Harben had stepped from the fissure.
From where the dugout of the watchers floated, half concealed by lofty papyrus, the terrace at the base of the fissure was just visible. They saw von Harben emerge and a few moments later the figure of Gabula. “Now, indeed,” said one of the blacks, “we should hasten and tell the masters.”
“No,” said the first speaker. “Those two may be demons,
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