Scarcely had he done so ere to his ears came the creaking of machinery, and a dazzling light flooded his cell.
Looking up, he saw that the stone slab, which he believed to be the door, had been pulled aside, and in the doorway, his features lit up with a look of fiendish glee, stood a man—but such a man!
Tall he was, and lean as a greyhound. Yet his bare, brown arms looked strong as iron; from his shoulders a fur mantle fell in graceful folds to his feet; his face—distorted now by its malevolent expression into the semblance of a fiend—must have been pleasing once, if not handsome. But passion had left its mark upon the features, and the eyes, cold and merciless in their glitter, betrayed the hideous cruelty of their owner’s nature.
Upon the forehead of the man, bound in place by a tiny metal chain, was a stone, the like of which Mervyn had never seen before.
In fashion it was like a rough-cut diamond, but much larger than any gem ever discovered in the mines of the upper world, and from its glowing heart proceeded the dazzling light which illumined the cell.
All this Mervyn noted in the first few seconds of his surprise.
A little while he sat gazing at the man, then, scrambling to his feet, stood upright before him.
“Wabozi!” The word rang mockingly from the lips of the fellow, and the scientist recognised it in a moment.
“How comes this fellow to speak Ayuti?” he questioned mentally. “Perhaps——”
“Wabozi, zea!”