www.freeclassicebooks.com

and disappear beneath the surface taking his captive with him, nor, though they

waited excitedly around the rim of the pool, did either of the two again emerge.

When Smith-Oldwick turned to investigate his hiding place, his hands, groping

upon the rear wall, immediately came in contact with the wooden panels of a door

and a bolt such as that which secured the door of the outer room. Cautiously and

silently drawing the wooden bar he pushed gently against the panel to find that

the door swung easily and noiselessly outward into utter darkness. Moving

carefully and feeling forward for each step he passed out of the niche, closing the

door behind him.

Peeling about, he discovered that he was in a narrow corridor which he followed

cautiously for a few yards to be brought up suddenly by what appeared to be a

ladder across the passageway. He felt of the obstruction carefully with his hands

until he was assured that it was indeed a ladder and that a solid wall was just

beyond it, ending the corridor. Therefore, as he could not go forward and as the

ladder ended at the floor upon which he stood, and as he did not care to retrace

his steps, there was no alternative but to climb upward, and this he did, his

pistol ready in a side pocket of his blouse.

He had ascended but two or three rungs when his head came suddenly and

painfully in contact with a hard surface above him. Groping about with one hand

over his head he discovered that the obstacle seemed to be the covering to a trap

door in the ceiling which, with a little effort, he succeeded in raising a couple of

inches, revealing through the cracks the stars of a clear African night.

With a sigh of relief, but with unabated caution, he gently slid the trapdoor to one

side far enough to permit him to raise his eyes above the level of the roof. A quick

glance assured him that there was none near enough to observe his movements,

nor, in fact, as far as he could see, was anyone in sight.

Drawing himself quickly through the aperture he replaced the cover and

endeavored to regain his bearings. Directly to the south of him the low roof he

stood upon adjoined a much loftier portion of the building, which rose several

stories above his head. A few yards to the west he could see the flickering light of

the flares of a winding street, and toward this he made his way.

From the edge of the roof he looked down upon the night life of the mad city. He

saw men and women and children and lions, and of all that he saw it was quite

evident to him that only the lions were sane. With the aid of the stars he easily

picked out the points of the compass, and following carefully in his memory the

steps that had led him into the city and to the roof upon which he now stood, he

214

Tarzan the Untamed