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That their entrance had not been noted was attributed by Gahan to the
absorption of the two players and their friends in the game. Quietly closing the
door the fugitives moved silently to the next, which they found locked. There was
now but another door which they had not tried, and this they approached quickly
as they knew that the searching party must be close to the chamber. To their
chagrin they found this avenue of escape barred.
Now indeed were they in a sorry plight, for should the searchers have information
leading them to this room they were lost. Again leading Tara to the door behind
which were the jetan players Gahan drew his sword and waited, listening. The
sound of the party in the corridor came distinctly to their ears--they must be
quite close, and doubtless they were coming in force. Beyond the door were but
four warriors who might be readily surprised. There could, then, be but one
choice and acting upon it Gahan quietly opened the door again, stepped through
into the adjoining chamber, Tara's hand in his, and closed the door behind them.
The four at the jetan board evidently failed to hear them. One player had either
just made or was contemplating a move, for his fingers grasped a piece that still
rested upon the board. The other three were watching his move. For an instant
Gahan looked at them, playing jetan there in the dim light of this forgotten and
forbidden chamber, and then a slow smile of understanding lighted his face.
"Come!" he said to Tara. "We have nothing to fear from these. For more than five
thousand years they have sat thus, a monument to the handiwork of some
ancient taxidermist."
As they approached more closely they saw that the lifelike figures were coated
with dust, but that otherwise the skin was in as fine a state of preservation as the
most recent of I-Gos' groups, and then they heard the door of the chamber they
had quitted open and knew that the searchers were close upon them. Across the
room they saw the opening of what appeared to be a corridor and which
investigation proved to be a short passageway, terminating in a chamber in the
center of which was an ornate sleeping dais. This room, like the others, was but
poorly lighted, time having dimmed the radiance of its bulbs and coated them
with dust. A glance showed that it was hung with heavy goods and contained
considerable massive furniture in addition to the sleeping platform, a second
glance at which revealed what appeared to be the form of a man lying partially on
the floor and partially on the dais. No doorways were visible other than that at
which they had entered, though both knew that others might be concealed by the
hangings.
Gahan, his curiosity aroused by the legends surrounding this portion of the
palace, crossed to the dais to examine the figure that apparently had fallen from
it, to find the dried and shrivelled corpse of a man lying upon his back on the
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