Gradually the light increased, and the road became better.
The sand was so hot, however, that Max felt the shoes on his feet drying up, and even baking.
He resolved to remove them, and the hot sand blistered his tender feet.
High up above him was an opening, through which the light and heat came.
“If one of thy enemies shouldst see thee, a little stone from there”—and Girzilla pointed upward—“would make thee fit for a mummy.”
Again the spinal marrow in Max’s back seemed turned to ice, and he was almost afraid to glance upward.
“Where are we?”
“Under the temple of great Isis.”
“Under?”
“Yes, Isis had the temple high above where thou dost stand.”