Once more I was in that hewn chamber, once more I stood before the great dragon. But we had been wrong: the monster was alive. Down he sprang as I turned to flee, sank his teeth into my shoulder, raised his head high into the air and shook me as a cat shakes a mouse. Then suddenly I knew that it was not all a dream. Teeth _had_ sunk into my shoulder. I struggled madly, but the jaws only closed the harder. And, horror of horrors, the spot in which I had lain down was now in utter blackness. Then I was wide awake: the teeth were Rhodes' fingers, and I heard his voice above me in the darkness: "Not a word, Bill--unless guarded." "What is it?" I whispered, sitting up. "And where are our phosphorus-lamps?" "In their cylinders," was Rhodes' low answer. "We want to see without being seen, that is why. I can turn on the electric, of course, at any instant. Wish the Dromans had been nearer, on this side of that rock-mass; I would have darkened theirs too." "Without being seen?" I queried. "In Heaven's name, Milton, what does it mean?" "I don't know. Got your revolver handy?" "Yes." "Good! Keep it so!" "But what is it?" "Did you," said he, "notice that passage in the opposite wall, a few yards back?" I whispered that I had. "Well," said Milton Rhodes, "there is something in there. And it's coming this way!" Chapter 29 THE GHOST We waited, listening intently; but the place was as silent as the tomb. "What," I asked, "did you hear?" "I have no idea, Bill, what it was." "What were the sounds like?" "I don't know." "Were they loud or faint?" "Faint--mysterious." "Great Heaven," said I, "what can it be? How long since you first heard it?" "Only a few minutes. I can't imagine why the sounds have ceased. It certainly was coming this way. I wonder if it has discovered our presence." "In that case, we had better look out." "Well, that is what we are doing." "Hadn't we better wake the Dromans?" "I see no necessity for it. When the thing comes--it was coming, I know--they may be awakened suddenly enough. The men are farther from the passage of course, than we are, the ladies farther still. It must pass us before it can reach them; and we have our revolvers." "Yes; we have our revolvers. But we don't know what's coming." "There!" Rhodes exclaimed, his voice a whisper. "We'll soon know. Did you hear _that_?" "I heard it. And there it is again!" "It's coming, Bill!" It _was_ coming. What were we to see issue from that passage? I gripped my revolver and waited in a suspense that was simply agonizing. The sound ceased. It came again. It was a _pad-pad_. Once or twice another sound was heard. I thought that that one was produced by something _brushing along the wall_. "Look!" I said, crouching forward. "Light!" The rays grew stronger, casting long shadows--shadows swaying, shaking, crawling.