VII
THE LOCKED DOOR
The reader will perhaps understand that at first everything was so strange about me, and my position was the outcome of such unexpected adventures, that I had no discernment of the relative strangeness of this or that thing about me. I followed the llama up the beach, and was overtaken by Montgomery who asked me not to enter the stone enclosure. I noticed then that the puma in its cage and the pile of packages had been placed outside the entrance to this quadrangle.
I turned and saw that the launch had now been unloaded, run out again, and beached, and the white-haired man was walking towards us. He addressed Montgomery.
"And now comes the problem of this uninvited guest. What are we to do with him?"
"He knows something of science," said Montgomery.
"I'm itching to get to work again—with this new stuff," said the grey-haired man, nodding towards the enclosure. His eyes grew brighter.
"I dare say you are," said Montgomery in anything but a cordial tone.
"We can't send him over there, and we can't spare the time to build him a new shanty. And we certainly can't take him into our confidence just yet."
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