"Now—" he said. "Now we walk from our prison!"
And he flung open the door.
"Careful!" cried Captain Lane. "The guards, son! 'Ware the Harpy guards!"
But no guards sprang forward to bar their passage. There were guards, a dozen of them. But not a single one of them moved.
And Dorothy, wiping a sudden veil of hoar-frost from her view-pane, saw them and gasped.
"Dead!" she cried. "Tim—they're all dead!"
Tim shook his head.
"Not dead, darling. Just—sleeping! And now let's hurry. Before they waken again!"
When they had reached the uppermost corridor of the caverns, they paused for a moment's rest. It was then that Captain Lane found time for the question that had plagued him.