Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/309

Rh choking…. There was such funny music in my ears…. Then I heard the stone torn away, and felt myself being lifted out…. When I opened my eyes, Dick, it was not you, but Huascar.… He carried me into a dark little room, with a torch burning in it, and untied my arms and head…. Then he slipped on that horrible bat-skin dress again.… I couldn't believe I was saved, though he told me so…."

She paused for a moment, choking, and continued:

"He left me where I was, and started working. First he lifted a mummy into my place. 'There is no sacrilege,' he said, 'for the god now has the number of wives he needs.'… He had evidently prepared everything, and dug an opening as deep into the back of my tomb as he dared.… I was horribly afraid, because he said he had done it all for love of me … and I screamed when he tried to pick me up.… I was ever so much more afraid than in the tomb.… He laughed, and said I was lucky to have had him for a friend…. You, he said, had nearly spoiled his plans, and he had had to trap you all to save me.

"When I told him that he had only saved me for a worse fate, he laughed again…. Then he picked me up, for I was too weak to move, and carried me miles and miles through the