Being now acquainted with the way we proceeded more quickly than on the first occasion and were soon treading the damp and musty tunnel leading to the tombs.
When we reached the alcove of the first Kai we looked for Joe’s handkerchief and found that it had been removed from the grating. This was no more than we had expected.
“My idea,” said I, “is to go straight to the alcove of the seventh Kai, old Abon, which the Prince’s book declares is the richest of all. We’ll get that big beryl, for one thing, and anything else that seems especially valuable.”
“All right,” said Archie, unfastening the grating. “It must be the seventh alcove to the left of this, for those on the right are still vacant.”
Joe started first and I came next with the lamp. Archie and Bry were just behind me. Suddenly we all stopped short.
From out of the darkness of the vast domed chamber a harsh cry smote our ears and we heard a rush of footsteps toward us.
Spellbound, we stood peering into the gloom, expecting we knew not what. And then into the dim circle of light made by our lamp there bounded a huge gray form, which like a catapult hurled itself upon Joe.
I gave a scream of fear, and the cry went echoing through the great dome like the roar of a multitude. For in a flash I realized what had happened. The great ape, Fo-Chu—the man-eater—had been loosed upon us.
The body of the ferocious beast beat Joe down as if he had been a feather, and sent him sprawling upon the floor. But at the same time the ape, blinded by the violence of its own onslaught, struck its head with terrific force against a grating and rolled over again and again before it could recover itself.
Instantly Bry seized Joe in his strong arms and fled back to the alcove we had just left, and Archie and I were but an instant behind. Yet so active was the great ape that, just as I pulled the grating to behind me, he made a second leap, and the weight of his body against the bronze bars sent me plunging head foremost into the alcove. The lamp flew from my hand and was extinguished, while in my fall I threw down one of the vases and its contents scattered themselves over the floor and rained around me like hailstones.