CHAPTER 25

SHE COULD see nothing. Fighting like a tiger to free herself, her other hand passed through the bars and caught a wild tangle of beard. “Hush!” The voice was deep, supulchral. “I will not harm you if you tell me what you do here.” It was human, at any rate, more human than the thing that had been chasing her. “I am Sybil—Lansdown,” she gasped. “I came down here to get away from—a horrible——” “So!” The grip on her wrist relaxed. “I will open the door. Stand back, if you please; do not move until I have lit the lamp.…