"No," said Denham, "for if we start a sufficiently large riot at the gate of the stair, the guards behind it will become alarmed and call for help from above. They have a system of signaling with those above and if they think the hordes here are going to attack the gate, those above will open the shaft by swinging aside the temple floor, and will send guards down to repel the attack on the gates. The shaft being open, and the guards gone, Lantin and Wheeler should have no trouble getting out and through the city, to their car."
"But we will meet the guards coming down the stair!" I cried.
"Not so," Denham assured me, "for when there is a call for aid from their fellows below, the guards above don't descend by the stair, since it would take them too long. They unreel great ropes or cables, drop them over the shaft's edge so that they hang clear to the stair's bottom, and then attach a sort of harness to themselves, join that harness to the cables with special pulleys, and slide down to the stair's bottom in a few minutes. Twice, since I have been here, there have been riots around the gate, and each time the guards above came whizzing down in that way, to repel the riot."
"Whatever else they are," added D'Alord, "there are no cowards among the guards. No one ever called me craven yet, but ventre-de-biche, I'd look twice before sliding down a rope into this hell."
"Yet what if some of the guards did come down the stair?" I asked.
Denham shook his head. "I do not think they will do so," he said.
"Yet if they did?" I insisted.
He shrugged his shoulders. "Why, then you would meet them on the stair."
We looked at each other, a little grimly, I think, and then there was a shattering roar of laughter from D'Alord. "Why borrow trouble?" he cried. "Take your sword with you, lad, and if you meet anyone on the stair, have at him. If you are the stronger, you will kill your enemies, and if your enemies are the stronger, they will kill you. What more is there to it?"
I could not help laughing, ruefully, as did the rest, but Lantin suddenly sobered.