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pressed together for mutual encouragement as they slowly crossed the dimly-
lighted room.
Following the tracks of Gahan and Tara they found that though each doorway
had been approached only one threshold had been crossed and this door they
gingerly opened, revealing to their astonished gaze the four warriors at the jetan
table. For a moment they were on the verge of flight, for though they knew what
they were, coming as they did upon them in this mysterious and haunted suite,
they were as startled as though they had beheld the very ghosts of the departed.
But they presently regained their courage sufficiently to cross this chamber too
and enter the short passageway that led to the ancient sleeping apartment of O-
Mai the Cruel. They did not know that this awful chamber lay just before them, or
it were doubtful that they would have proceeded farther; but they saw that those
they sought had come this way and so they followed, but within the gloomy
interior of the chamber they halted, the three chiefs urging their followers, in low
whispers, to close in behind them, and there just within the entrance they stood
until, their eyes becoming accustomed to the dim light, one of them pointed
suddenly to the thing lying upon the floor with one foot tangled in the coverings of
the dais.
"Look!" he gasped. "It is the corpse of O-Mai! Ancestor of ancestors! we are in the
forbidden chamber." Simultaneously there came from behind the hangings
beyond the grewsome dead a hollow moan followed by a piercing scream, and the
hangings shook and bellied before their eyes.
With one accord, chieftains and warriors, they turned and bolted for the doorway;
a narrow doorway, where they jammed, fighting and screaming in an effort to
escape. They threw away their swords and clawed at one another to make a
passage for escape; those behind climbed upon the shoulders of those in front;
and some fell and were trampled upon; but at last they all got through, and, the
swiftest first, they bolted across the two intervening chambers to the outer
corridor beyond, nor did they halt their mad retreat before they stumbled, weak
and trembling, into the banquet hall of O-Tar. At sight of them the warriors who
had remained with the jeddak leaped to their feet with drawn swords, thinking
that their fellows were pursued by many enemies; but no one followed them into
the room, and the three chieftains came and stood before O-Tar with bowed
heads and trembling knees.
"
Well?" demanded the jeddak. "What ails you? Speak!"
"
O-Tar," cried one of them when at last he could master his voice. "When have we
three failed you in battle or combat? Have our swords been not always among the
foremost in defense of your safety and your honor?"
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