"There's something wrong with the air, by Christopher!" he muttered; and then cried out in astonishment, "Say, do you see that?" By the bright light at the end of the gallery, two figures were visible. Two men wearing clothes like Scottish kilts, bright crimson and emerald-hued, and with bare arms and knees! Over the lips and nostrils of each was a drooping, scarlet-tubed apparatus, a little like a gas-mask, though different from any gas-mask that Downey had ever seen. And in the hand of the foremost was a minute shining stick, from which suddenly a dazzlingly white searchlight ray shot out, illuminating the two trapped persons as if by a blaze of sunlight. Downey thought that the strangers started back in surprise; but all that he was certain of was that, after a second, they were motioning him to come out of the tube. This Downey was able to do only very slowly, while helping the girl, who was tightly clutching at a large beaded handbag. So painful was their progress that the man's mind, still dazed, had little chance to reflect on their rescuers' appearance. Doubtless the strangers were vaudeville performers who, caught by surprise, had had no time to change their costumes. But when Downey finally came to the end of the tube and stared out, he gasped and staggered, clutched one hand to his forehead, and sank full-length to the ground, in reeling bewilderment. Surely, the shock had turned his mind! The long marble lines of the Government buildings, which had dominated the scene only a short while before--they were no longer to be seen! The sandstone mansions of Bannerton Row, just to his left, had vanished! He was in the midst of a wide park, featured by gnarled old elms--gnarled old elms a hundred feet high, where there had been not even a sapling! But if this were only a nightmare, why did Judith share it? For her dazed exclamations showed that her eyes told the same story! As they breathed the clear air outside the tube, the hazes cleared rapidly from their minds; the strength seemed all at once to course back to their limbs, and they were able to rise to their feet. But each second only added to their befuddlement. The red-and-green-clad men were but two out of a score. All wore kilted costumes, with bare arms and knees; and all were arrayed in bright colors: purple and gold, chrome yellow, crimson, and milky white. And all had crowded around them with wild exclamations, calling out in high-pitched tones that neither of them could at first understand. At length, from amid the din, two cries made themselves evident, shrilling in a strange accentuation, "Who are you? Who are you? Where do you come from? Where do you come from?" To this Downey replied, in a voice that sounded cracked and broken even to his own ears. "Who are _you_? Who are _you_? Where do _you_ come from?" His answer was an outburst of laughter which, beginning in a low ripple, gradually rose to an uproarious crescendo.