Without any further ceremony, a door was opened and Doc Clancy, still bound hand and foot, was tumbled into a pit about twenty feet square.
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
THE AFRICAN UTOPIA.
But what became of Van Vincent? the reader might ask.
By the time his companions started to ascend the stairs, he had reached the landing above.
Regardless of the fact that it was pitch dark, and that he was in a strange place, he started to walk straight for the head of the staircase.
He did not take over ten steps before he brought up against a partition with a jar, which immediately gave way.
Van heard the noise made by his friends ascending the stairs, and then he went shooting downward with the velocity of a cannon ball.
He had a recollection of rolling over and over in some damp, foul-smelling place, and then he lost consciousness.