Evidently the place was a regular labyrinth. But the most curious feature of it was the fact that we found no windows anywhere. The inhabitants must have lived eternally in an artificial light or in darkness. The door opening into the room of the voices was closed but not locked, and I flung it open. The room was bare as I remembered it, and I strode across to the door beyond, followed by the Chief. This second door was locked, but the Chief set to work on it at once with his jemmy. And then suddenly the tool slipped out of his hand and clattered on the floor, and he put out his hand to the wall for support. At the same moment he seemed to grow dim before my eyes, receding into a tiny figure. With a yell of “Gas!” that was little more than a croak in my ears, I summoned every bit of strength I had left and jumped for the Chief, catching him about the shoulders and sending him spinning in the direction of the open door through which we had just passed. I followed him and we both fell to our knees in the middle of the room; but he must have realized the danger by now, for he managed somehow to drag himself on his hands and knees as far as the open door and through it. I also succeeded in rolling after him and out of the room, with one last effort kicking the door shut behind me. Then we lay motionless and panting until our wits and strength gradually returned and we were able to sit up and stare at each other. “The Emperor again!” I gasped weakly. “Couple of fools, we are!” grumbled the Chief in reply. “But I won’t forget that, Clayton. That’s twice you’ve pulled me out of a nasty mess. Wow, but that was some gas. You can’t even smell it!” I got slowly to my feet. “Let’s try that staircase,” I said. “We can’t get through this way.” After a moment the Chief, too, struggled to his feet and we made our way laboriously back down the corridor to the main hall. Fortunately the effects of the gas wore off very quickly, and by the time we reached the hall we were both practically ourselves again. There was no one in the main hall as we entered it. But the doors to the banqueting room were still open and I could see our two men still on guard in there. The Chief and I started to cross the hall, making for the little door that led to the staircase to the floor above, but we were not to explore that floor just then, for while we were still in the middle of the hall, part of the wall at the far end of it suddenly flew open in two sections with a crash, and the Chief and I turned to find a crowd of swarthy, jabbering men pouring into the room. “More of them!” shouted the Chief. “Come on, Clayton.” He jumped forward to the big table in the middle of the hall, overturned it and swung it round to form a barrier between us and our oncoming enemies, just as the latter caught sight of us.