"From Hell itself!" shrieked Basil frenzied. "Give me Theodora and I will fill the cup of torture that I have seized on your shadowy altars, and quaff your health at the terrific banquet board of Evil in toasts of torment—in wine of boundless pain!"
In the quickly succeeding flashes of lightning the dark form seemed to rise and to expand.
"I knew you would not fail me! Come!"
For a moment Basil hesitated, fingering the hilt of his poniard.
"Where would you lead me?" he queried, his tone far from steady. "How many of these twilights must I traverse before I see him whom you serve?"
"That you shall know to-night!"
In the deep and frozen silence which succeeded the terrible peals of thunder their retreating footsteps died to silence in the labyrinthine galleries of the Emperor's Tomb.
Only the dog-headed Anubis seemed to stare and nod mysteriously.
[CHAPTER III]
THE CRYSTAL SPHERE
