This exit barred to him Turan turned back into the corridor.  He followed it cautiously and silently.  Occasionally there was a door on one side or the other.  These he tried only to find each securely locked.  The corridor wound more erratically the farther he advanced.  A locked door barred his way at its end, but a door upon his right opened and he stepped into a dimly-lighted chamber, about the walls of which were three other doors, each of which he tried in turn.  Two were locked; the other opened upon a runway leading downward.  It was spiral and he could see no farther than the first turn.  A door in the corridor he had quitted opened after he had passed, and the third warrior stepped out and followed after him.  A faint smile still lingered upon the fellow’s grim lips.

Turan drew his short-sword and cautiously descended.  At the bottom was a short corridor with a closed door at the end.  He approached the single heavy panel and listened.  No sound came to him from beyond the mysterious portal.  Gently he tried the door, which swung easily toward him at his touch.  Before him was a low-ceiled chamber with a dirt floor.  Set in its walls were several other doors and all were closed.  As Turan stepped cautiously within, the third warrior descended the spiral runway behind him.  The panthan crossed the room quickly and tried a door.  It was locked.  He heard a muffled click behind him and turned about with ready sword.  He was alone; but the door through which he had entered was closed—­it was the click of its lock that he had heard.

With a bound he crossed the room and attempted to open it; but to no avail.  No longer did he seek silence, for he knew now that the thing had gone beyond the sphere of chance.  He threw his weight against the wooden panel; but the thick skeel of which it was constructed would have withstood a battering ram.  From beyond came a low laugh.

Rapidly Turan examined each of the other doors.  They were all locked.  A glance about the chamber revealed a wooden table and a bench.  Set in the walls were several heavy rings to which rusty chains were attached—­all too significant of the purpose to which the room was dedicated.  In the dirt floor near the wall were two or three holes resembling the mouths of burrows—­doubtless the habitat of the giant Martian rat.  He had observed this much when suddenly the dim light was extinguished, leaving him in darkness utter and complete.  Turan, groping about, sought the table and the bench.  Placing the latter against the wall he drew the table in front of him and sat down upon the bench, his long-sword gripped in readiness before him.  At least they should fight before they took him.

For some time he sat there waiting for he knew not what.  No sound penetrated to his subterranean dungeon.  He slowly revolved in his mind the incidents of the evening—­the open, unguarded gate; the lighted doorway—­the only one he had seen thus open and lighted along the avenue he had followed; the advance of the warriors at precisely the moment that he could find no other avenue of escape or concealment; the corridors and chambers that led past many locked doors to this underground prison leaving no other path for him to pursue.