"It's Chefano," gasped Harry. "Chefano, come to see us suffer."
"Stay there, Jupe," came the order.
The black-robed figure moved to the top of the table; it leaned over the faces of the stretched men, and its huge shadow seemed to bury them in blackness. Harry felt those eyes upon him. It spoke again — but no longer in Chefano's voice. Its words were uttered in a strange, sibilant whisper that Vincent recognized from the past.
"Attack Chefano and Frenchy," said the deliberate voice. "You will find weapons beside the stone steps. The two men are within the meeting room. I shall handle the monster."
The winches were released. With amazing quickness the mysterious figure in black released the prisoners. Jupe began to snarl. The hissing whistle silenced him. But as the men on the table raised themselves to a sitting position, the monster sensed that it had been deceived. With a hideous cry of rage, it sprang toward the cloaked being.
Harry saw the tall form merge into the shadows at the end of the room. The ape-man missed his goal.
"Hurry!" came the commanding whisper. "Go!"
Jupe's sharp eyes detected the figure in the gloom. The ape-man, his arms extended wide, approached the shadowy form, to drive it toward the corner. Harry and the major were on the floor, hurrying toward the door as fast as their limbs would respond.
Glancing over his shoulder, Harry saw the black-robed shape elude the ape-man's grasp. With amazing speed it gained the stairway in the corner of the room; it vanished upward in the darkness, with the snarling monster in pursuit.
Down from the stairs, through the low-ceilinged room, echoed a hollow, mocking laugh.