I had not realized it, but our speed was slackening. I looked back--hundreds of feet behind us fell the slide. An unpleasant chill went through me--should the magnetic grip upon us relax, withdraw, nothing could stop us from falling back along that incline to be broken like eggs at its end; that our breaths would be snuffed out by the terrific descent long before we reached that end was scant comfort. “There are other passages opening up along this shaft,” Drake said. “I'm not for trusting the Emperor too far--he has other things on his metallic mind, you know. The next one we get to, let's try to slip into--if we can.” I had noticed; there had been openings along the ascending shaft; corridors running apparently transversely to its angled way. Slower and slower became our pace. A hundred yards above I glimpsed one of the apertures. Could we reach it? Slower and slower we arose. Now the gap was but a yard off--but we were motionless--were tottering! Drake's arms wrapped round me. With a tremendous effort he hurled me into the portal. I dropped at its edge, writhed swiftly around, saw him slipping, slipping down--thrust my hands out to him. He caught them. There came a wrench that tortured my arm sockets as though racked. But he held! Slowly--I writhed back into the passage, dragging up his almost dead weight. His head appeared, his shoulders; there was a convulsion of the long body and he lay before me. For a minute or two we lay, flat upon our backs resting. I sat up. The passage was broad, silent; apparently as endless as that from which we had just escaped. Along it, above us, under us, the crystalline eyes were dim. It showed no sign of movement--yet had it done so there was nothing we could do save drop down the annihilating slant. Drake arose. “I'm hungry,” he said, “and I'm thirsty. I move that we eat and drink and approximately be merry.” He slung aside the haversack. From it we took food; from the canteens we drank. We did not talk. Each knew what the other was thinking; infrequently, and thank the eternal law that some call God for that, come crises in which speech seems not only petty but when against it the mind rebels as a nauseous thing. This was such a time. At last I drew myself to my feet. “Let's be going,” I said. The corridor stretched straight before us; along it we paced. How far we walked I do not know; mile upon mile, it seemed. It broadened abruptly into a vast hall. And this hall was filled with the Metal Hordes--was a gigantic workshop of them. In every shape, in every form, they seethed and toiled about it. Upon its floor were heaps of shining ores, mounds of flashing gems, piles of ingots, metallic and crystalline. High and low throughout flamed the egg-shaped incandescences; floating furnaces both great and small.