Francis was struck by a sudden grotesque and terrible thought.
"Torres," he said, "there is a key or something inside that stone lady's mouth there. You're the nearest. Stick your hand in and get it."
Leoncia gasped with horror as she divined Francis' vengeance. Of this Torres took no notice, and gaily waded toward the goddess, saying: "Only too glad to be of service."
And then Francis' sense of fair play betrayed him.
"Stop! "he commanded harshly, himself wading to the idol's side.
And Torres, at first looking on in puzzlement, saw what he had escaped. Several times Francis fired his pistol into the stone mouth, while the old priest moaned "Sacrilege!" Next, wrapping his coat around his arm and hand, he groped into the mouth and pulled out the wounded viper by the tail. With quick swings in the air he beat its head to a jelly against the goddess' side.
Wrapping his hand and arm against the possibility of a second snake, Francis thrust his hand into the mouth and drew forth a piece of worked gold of the shape and size of the hole in Hzatzl's ear. The old man pointed to the ear, and Francis inserted the key.
"Like a nickle-in-the-slot machine," he remarked, as the key disappeared from sight. "Now what's going to happen? Let's watch for the water to drain suddenly away."
But the great stream continued to spout unabated out of the hole. With an exclamation, Torres pointed to the wall, an apparently solid portion of which was slowly rising.
"The way out," said Torres.