"Yes. By all means, Barrett."
Red raised the trapdoor gingerly. But no sunlight filtered into the inch-wide slit. He lifted it still farther, glanced anxiously down at his companions. "Hey, lookit! This is funny! It's dark! No, wait a minute—there's a little spot of light. And there's another wall here and another ladder."
"Give him the torch, Syd," cried Dr. Aiken. "There.... Got it, Barrett? Go on up. Climb the ladder. See if you can find out where we are, and what—"
The flaming brand bobbed upward ten, twenty feet, for a few seconds weaved in uncertain circles, its light reflecting to those below only a gray formlessness and the foreshortened outlines of the climbing Barrett. Then:
"Ramey! Doc!" cried Red.
"What is it?"
"Come on up here, everybody, quick! Look! There's a platform up here and a couple of peepholes, and—and it's the damnedest thing you ever seen. We ain't moved an inch. We're still in the temple. But—but it ain't empty now. There's about three billion people gathered in it!"