“And double-check!” added Diane.
So they started up, preceded by a handful of their captors and followed by the main party.
The gallery seemed to be leading toward the center of the pyramid, but after a hundred feet or so it turned and continued up at a right angle, turning twice more before they arrived at length in another stone chamber, smaller than the one below.
Here their guides paused and waited for the main party.
There followed another conference, whereupon their leader stepped up again, indicating this time that they were to remove their suits.
At this, Professor Stevens balked.
“It is suicide!” he declared. “The air to which they are accustomed here is doubtless at many times our own atmospheric pressure.”
“But I don’t see that there’s anything to do about it,” said Larry, as their captors danced about them menacingly. “I for one will take a chance!”
And before they could stop him, he had pressed the release-valve, emitting the air from his suit—slowly, at first, then more and more rapidly, as no ill effects seemed to result.
Finally, flinging off the now deflated suit, he stepped before them in his ordinary clothes, calling with a smile: