THE SCROLL OF NEOMRI.
“I RECKON,” remarked Haverly, munching a piece of fungus with manifest relish, “you might as well explain how the blazes you got out of that darned hole, Seymour, an’, incidentally, where you got your tin suit. It’s a rig-out as kinder takes my eye.”
While the explorers slept Chenobi had procured a number of edible fungi, to which they were now doing full justice.
“Well,” Seymour returned, in answer to the Yankee’s suggestion, “it’s a longish yarn, but if you’d care to hear it, here goes.”
With that he launched into an account of his adventures, telling of his fall, of his swim in the reservoir, the second meeting with his wolfish enemy, and all that transpired afterwards. Open-mouthed, his friends listened to his description of the hall of mummies and of the armour chamber.
“But did not Chenobi know of these weapons?” Mervyn asked amazedly. “He told us he had none but the spears taken from the wolf-men, yet below there, you say, are weapons sufficient for an army.”
Rapidly the scientist interpreted Seymour’s story to the king, concluding by questioning him as to his knowledge of the existence of the armoury.
“I knew that there was a secret passage,” observed the king, “but it was the secret of the priests of Ramouni. None but they knew where the dead were laid. When Nordhu destroyed the last of the priests, the secret died with him.”
“We must examine these caverns presently,” remarked Mervyn, attacking a fresh fungus.
“Say, Tom,” Haverly drawled, after some moments of silence, “what game was the old priest playing when he took you out of the cell?”