“Am I the victim of a delusion?” he queried in a low tone. “Surely I saw marks on the wall—marks which were not there when I left this place four days since.”
Within several feet of the rock he paused, and looked straight ahead, but saw nothing save gray stone, highly polished by the hand of nature.
For a moment he was inclined to laugh at this deception, when suddenly Ahdeek leaped from the fire and with a cry of “The ring!—the ring!” bounded toward him.
Was Ahdeek a victim of the delusion as well as himself?
“There’s no ring here, boy,” began the Destroyer, with a bright smile. “Our eyes—”
But his sentence was broken abruptly, for the half-breed jerked him, with much rudeness, to one side, and pointed to the wall obliquely to their right.
The youth uttered a cry of profound wonderment, for on the glittering surface of the wall, he saw a large ring which, notwithstanding the rude tracery, resembled the bauble that Ahdeek had lately lost!
For a minute the twain looked from the picture into each others’ faces.
What did the ring mean? Who had traced it on the wall?
The Destroyer stepped nearer, and letters suddenly grew into being on the smooth stone. The changing of the torch revealed them.