"Who am I?" The speaker paused long enough for a burst of low whirring laughter. "I am Misthrumb, though that means nothing to you. I am he who fought yesterday with the Peerless Red One, and was driven off, may the curse of the Nine Planets fall on his foul bosom!" "Oh--you mean, Yellow-Claws?" "Yellow-Claws? Well, you may call me that, for my hands are of the soil yellow of royalty! My blood too is yellow, golden-yellow! I am as high-born as the Peerless Red One. Was I not designated by the Grand Potentate, the Barbelcoppi, to share the leadership of this expedition? And has the Peerless One not denied me at every turn?--yes, may the demons of every vile disease prey on his liver!" Not knowing what to reply, Gates said nothing. But hope, dead only a minute before, had revived within him. "As if he had not already injured me enough," went on the invisible, "he ordered me to keep away from the great festival of Dupepu, whereat all my brothers make merry. Forbidden me to enjoy the delectable, sacred fumes of Kishkash! For that he shall suffer!" Yellow-Claws' tones, rasping and angry, indicated that the feud between the giants was far deeper than Gates has suspected. "And when I saw you creeping toward the Amvol-Amvol, O nignig, I knew that you would be the tool of my vengeance!" "Me?" groaned the victim. Had he escaped the frying pan only to be plunged into the fire? "Have no fear, earthling! My purpose matches your own. To be sure, there are perils--appalling perils! Not to master them is to die a horrible death. But to prevail is to escape from the Peerless Red One--and to repay him in full measure for his crimes against us both. Are you ready to take the risk, O earthling?" "I am ready!" "By the stars! That is more than I would have expected of one of your species! Then let us begin! We have but a little time before my brothers recover from the Kishkash." Gates could not see the creature's yellow claws as they entered the pouch and drew out a pale-blue powder. But he felt something soft, cool and tingling being sprinkled over his hands, his face, up his sleeves, and down his neck. And he had one of the strangest sensations of his life; for his body, even as he gazed at it, faded into a haze, and vanished. He could look through himself! could see the meshwork of shimmering cables as if there were nothing between! "Come!" whispered his protector. "There is no time to lose!" And then angrily, beneath his breath, "Zugavl! Zugavl! Zug!" Upheld and guided by Yellow-Claws--since his arms and legs, now that he could not see them, seemed oddly unreliable--Gates started once more down the web, above the spot where the intoxicated monsters, like huge over-turned beetles, lay on their backs with furiously wriggling tentacles, legs and tails. CHAPTER IX Through the Barred Door