“Certainly you have courage. It is a pity you are not a Son of the Great Selina. Perhaps if you clean out the dangers of this world we may make you an honorary member. You remember the dark chasm beneath the bridge that is near the retreat of our order?”
“I should say. I was just thinking of the terrific battle we had with one of the monsters on that bridge as you were speaking of them.”
“It came up out of that chasm. Drop down to the bottom of that chasm, follow it inside of the planet into a narrow tunnel until you come to the Chamber of Horrors, clean out the Chamber of Horrors, cross it and enter another corridor that leads straight ahead and upward, and if you live you will come to the home of the crickets.”
“Did you ever make that journey?” Epworth demanded sharply.
“No, I care not to meet those terrifying reptiles.”
“How then do you know that this chasm will lead me to the crickets?”
“Other Sons of the Great Selina, more hardy than our present council, made the trip ages ago, and left records.”
Epworth put himself at the head of an army of two hundred thousand Selinites armed with chloroform guns and long sharp steel spears, and with their heads covered with gas masks, and their eyes aided by cavern lamps, lowered the soldiers into the chasm on long ropes, gliders, and various devices of a temporary character. At a point where the chasm extended into the earth and the light of day was shut out he stopped in a narrow defile, and addressed the army briefly.
“We are going into that hole,” he said slowly, instructing all who could hear to carry his words on to the rear ranks. “If we come out your country will be saved. If we do not come out your wives and children will know that you are dead, and become the slaves of the crickets and Taunans.”