Ahead we heard the sounds of running feet. Into dark doorways and openings the fleeing priests and guards darted at our approach. But though we searched hastily in each, we found no trace of Kinchi Haman. On we rushed; somewhere beyond was the man we sought; misshapen, dwarfed, he could not run fast; we must soon overtake him. A startled yell came from the prince who now was leading. He checked himself and sprang back, collided with me, and together we rolled upon the floor and over us tripped our frightened but still faithful men. A metallic clang echoed through the passage and a massive metal gate dropped like a portcullis, barring the corridor before us. For a moment we stared, dazed, balked. Then with a wild hope I seized the bamboo tube that had fallen from my hand, sprang forward, and pointed it at the metal bars. Instantly they glowed, and like bars of wax, they melted and vanished. Our way was clear; once again we dashed on. Before us rose a low flight of steps, and scrambling up these like a gigantic spider, we saw the high-priest. A moment more and he would gain the doorway at the summit of the steps and we would be too late. Drawing my pistol, I fired as I ran. Like a clap of thunder the report roared in deafening echoes in the narrow passage; sulphurous smoke filled the air. The next second we reached the stairs, but Kinchi Haman had again eluded us. The door through which he had passed had been left ajar and it swung open at our touch. We found ourselves in a circular room like the bottom of a well, for it extended upwards to vast heights--perhaps to the very summit of the temple. The floor was flagged with huge stones so laid that their joints radiated from the centre of the room. The beautifully frescoed stone walls were covered with intricate symbolic paintings of gods, priests, sacrifices and Mayan writing. In the centre of the place was a circular row of polished, tapering columns of vivid blue stone inlaid with gold, and rising for fully fifty feet to support an ornate roof or canopy of intricately-wrought silver. In the centre of the row of columns was a raised dais of blood-red stone, and seated upon this was the image of a hideous, misshapen, bestial god; a thing with human limbs and body, leering savage eyes; with huge gleaming fangs projecting from half-opened jaws from which a slavering tongue protruded. In place of ears were the conventionalized heads of rattlesnakes; the nose was an eagle’s beak; in one claw-like hand he held a human heart, in the other a ghastly distorted human head. He was carved from a single immense block of black stone, and covering his chest was a great, gleaming, gem-studded disk of gold bearing a human face surrounded by rays--the symbol of the sun. * * * * *