"It isn't, as you observe, the most comfortable of places.
We struck across the hollow to the crevice--we knew
nothing of the entrance you came through. The hollow
was not pleasant, either. But it was penetrable, then.

"We crossed. As we were about to enter the cleft there
issued out of it a most unusual and disconcerting chorus
of sounds--wailings, crashings, splinterings."

I started, shot a look at Dick; absorbed, he was drinking
in Ventnor's every word.

"So unusual, so--well, disconcerting is the best word I
can think of, that we were not encouraged to proceed.
Also the peculiar unpleasantness of the hollow was
increasing rapidly.

"We made the best time we could back to the fortress.
And when next we tried to go through the hollow, to
search for another outlet--we couldn't. You know why,"
he ended abruptly.

"But men in ancient armor. Men like those of Darius."
Dick broke the silence that had followed this amazing
recital. "It's incredible!"

"Yes," agreed Ventnor, "isn't it. But there they were. Of
course, I don't maintain that they WERE relics of Darius's
armies. They might have been of Xerxes before him--or of
Artaxerxes after him. But there they certainly were, Drake,