The realities suddenly reasserting themselves,
"I have dropped my pistol!" muttered Sime.
He threw off the supporting arm, and turned to that corner behind the heap of débris where was the opening through which they had entered the Satanic temple.
No opening was visible!
"He has closed it!" cried Dr. Cairn. "There are six stone doors between here and the place above! If he had succeeded in shutting one of them before we—?"
"My God!" whispered Sime. "Let us get out! I am nearly at the end of my tether!"
Fear lends wings, and it was with something like the lightness of a bird that Sime descended the shaft. At the bottom—
"On to my shoulders!" he cried, looking up.
Dr. Cairn lowered himself to the foot of the shaft. "You go first," he said.
He was gasping, as if nearly suffocated, but retained a wonderful self-control. Once over into the Borderland, and bravery assumes a new guise; the courage which can face physical danger undaunted, melts in the fires of the unknown.