But the face of the seer remained perfectly impassible. Not so much as a finger of his moved. His eyes seemed to open wider, then to close; then to open again, as one awakening from a trance. Their expression was that of slight, unperturbed surprise. "Look here, now," said John Ames, quickly and decidedly. "You have taken care of me when I was in a bad fix, and most likely saved my life. I am deeply grateful, and hope we shall get to know each: other properly. But just now I must not lose a moment in going back to my friend, and if you won't go with me, I'll ask you to put me into my bearings." The stranger did not move in his attitude, or relax a muscle. "You can't go from here now," he said; "nor, in fact, until I allow you." "Can't? But I must!" shouted John Ames. "Heavens! I don't see how you can know all you have been saying; but the bare suggestion that she may be in danger--all alone and helpless--oh, good God, but it'll drive me mad!" "How I can know? Well, perhaps I can't--perhaps I can. Anyway, there's one thing you can't do, and that is leave this place without my aid. If you don't believe me, just take a look round and try." He waved his hand with a throw-everything-open sort of gesture. In feverish strides, like those of a newly caged tiger, John Ames quickly explored the apartment, likewise another which opened out of it. His mind fired with Nidia's helplessness and danger, he gave no thought to the curious nature of this subterranean dwelling; all he thought about was means of egress. At the further end of the apartment in which he had been lying yawned a deep shaft like that of a disused mine. Air floated up this; clearly, therefore, it gave egress. But the means of descent? He looked around and above. No apparatus rewarded his view--not even a single rope. He explored the further chamber, which, like the first, was lighted by a curious eye-shaped lamp fixed in a hole in the rock-partition wall. Here too were several smaller oubliette-like shafts. But no means of exit. The while, his host--or gaoler--had been standing immovable, as though these investigations and their results had not the faintest interest for him. John Ames, utterly baffled, gave up the search, and the terrible conviction forced itself upon him that he was shut up in the very heart of the earth with a malevolent lunatic. Yet there was that about the other's whole personality which was not compatible with the lunatic theory; a strong, mesmeric, compelling force, as far removed from insanity in any known phase as it could possibly be. Power was proclaimed large in every look, in every utterance.