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The stairs were very narrow--that was all that saved us--for as I backed slowly

upward, but a single lion could attack me at a time, and the carcasses of those I

slew impeded the rushes of the others.

At last we reached the top. There was a long corridor from which opened many

doorways. One, directly behind us, was tight closed. If we could open it and pass

into the chamber behind we might find a respite from attack.

The remaining lions were roaring horribly. I saw one sneaking very slowly up the

stairs toward us.

Try that door," I called to Victory. "See if it will open."

She ran up to it and pushed.

Turn the knob!" I cried, seeing that she did not know how to open a door, but

neither did she know what I meant by knob.

I put a bullet in the spine of the approaching lion and leaped to Victory's side.

The door resisted my first efforts to swing it inward. Rusted hinges and swollen

wood held it tightly closed. But at last it gave, and just as another lion mounted

to the top of the stairway it swung in, and I pushed Victory across the threshold.

Then I turned to meet the renewed attack of the savage foe. One lion fell in his

tracks, another stumbled to my very feet, and then I leaped within and slammed

the portal to.

A quick glance showed me that this was the only door to the small apartment in

which we had found sanctuary, and, with a sigh of relief, I leaned for a moment

against the panels of the stout barrier that separated us from the ramping

demons without.

Across the room, between two windows, stood a flat-topped desk. A little pile of

white and brown lay upon it close to the opposite edge. After a moment of rest I

crossed the room to investigate. The white was the bleached human bones--the

skull, collar bones, arms, and a few of the upper ribs of a man. The brown was

the dust of a decayed military cap and blouse. In a chair before the desk were

other bones, while more still strewed the floor beneath the desk and about the

chair. A man had died sitting there with his face buried in his arms--two

hundred years ago.

Beneath the desk were a pair of spurred military boots, green and rotten with

decay. In them were the leg bones of a man. Among the tiny bones of the hands

was an ancient fountain pen, as good, apparently, as the day it was made, and a

metal covered memoranda book, closed over the bones of an index finger.

The Lost Continent