looks like some sort of a handle—or lever."
His companions joined him. The steward’s discovery was a heavy, straight bar of metal set upright, its lower end vanishing through an open groove in the pavement, standing about the height of a man's shoulder above it.
"It’s a switch," asserted Waring gravely. "Electric light switch. Throw it over—bing! Out will go TNT's 'diamond'!"
Battle glinted again in Tellifer's moody eyes.
"It is an upright lever," said he, "intended to move something. Though I make no pretensions to the practical attitude of some others here, I can do better than stand idly ridiculing my friends when there is a simple problem to be solved in an easy and direct manner."
"TNT! I apologize! Don’t!"
But Tellifer had already grasped the upright bar. He seized it near the top and flung his weight against it. The bar moved, swinging across the groove and at the same time turning in an arc. Where it had been upright, it now slanted at a sharp angle.
"Oh, Lawdy! he's done it! What’ll happen now?"
The correspondent's eyes, and those of the others also, roved anxiously about what could be seen of the walls and central court. But their concern over Tellifer's rash act appeared needless. So far as could be seen or heard, throwing over the lever had produced no result.
Tellifer alone was really disappointed.
"Old, ugly, wornout mechanism!" he muttered. And released the lever.
As if in vengeance for Tellifer's slighting remark, the lever flew back to the upright position with a speed and violence which flung the experimenter sprawling. The reversal was accompanied by a dull, heavy crash that shook the very floor beneath their feet.
"That was out in the central court!" shouted Sigsbee. "He's wrecked his 'diamond,' I'll bet!"
"Nonsense! The light is still there."
Waring started along the nearest lane. Then turned back and went to his friend, who had not risen.
"Hurt?" he demanded.
"Only my arm and a few ribs broken and a shoulder out of joint, thank you. But that frightful crashing noise! Alcot, don't tell me that I have destroyed—destroyed Sunfire!"
"No, no. Your diamond's shining away to beat a Tiffany show-window."
"Hey, there, Waring! Throw that lever again, will you?"
Otway's voice hailed from the central court, whither he and Sigsbee and the steward had gone without waiting for the other two. As Tellifer’s injuries were not keeping him from getting to his feet, the correspondent turned his attention to the lever.
The bar went over without heavy pressure. After a moment Otway's voice was heard again:
"All right. But let her come up easy!"
Once more Waring complied. He found that by slacking the pressure gradually the bar returned to the upright position without violence. This time no crash occurred at the end. Finding that Tellifer had deserted him, Waring left the switch and followed.
He found the other four all draped around Sunfire's supporting columns, staring down into the pit.
"He cracked the bowl," Otway greeted, "and showed us how the sacrificial remains are disposed of. That lever works the dump!"
Waring had selected his oblong safety-path and joined the observers. He saw that one side of the great stone bowl beneath Sunfire now showed a thin, jagged crevice running from upper edge almost to the bottom.
"Don’t understand," frowned Waring.
"I'll work it for you, sir."
The obliging John B. fled to take his turn at the bronze bar. A minute later, Waring saw the whole massive, bowl-shaped pit beneath him shudder, stir, and begin to tip slowly sideways. It continued to tip, revolving as upon an invisible axis. In a few seconds, instead of gazing down into a soot-blackened bowl, he was staring up at a looming hemisphere of flame-orange stone that towered nearly to Sunfire’s lower surface, twice the height of a tall man above him.
"Let her down easy, Blickensderfer!" called Otway again. "Afraid of the jolt," he added in explanation. "The remarkable thing is that when Tellifer allowed it to swing back full weight that first time, it didn’t smash the surrounding pavement and bring these pillars down. But it merely cracked itself a bit."
Waring gasped. "D'you mean—Did I swing all those tons of rock around with one easy little push on that bar?"
"Seeing is believing," asserted Otway, as the revolving mass turned easily back into place, and they once more looked into a hollow, sooty bowl. "Those ancient engineers knew a lot about leverage. How were the enormous stones of this pyramid brought across the lake and lifted into their places? This bowl is somehow mounted at the sides like a smelting pot on bars that pass beneath the pavement. That pavement, by the way," and the explorer cast an eager eye across the space between the pit and the western wall, "will have to come up. Uncovering the mechanism which operates this device may give some wonderful pointers to our modern engineers."
"But what's it for?" pleaded Waring.
"Why, you saw the black depths under the bowl. Likely, there is some superstitious prejudice against touching the charred remains of victims burned here. By throwing over the lever, the pit empties itself into the depths below. As I told you before—that lever works the dump."
"What—sacrilege!" Tellifer murmured.
"Well, of course, from our viewpoint it's not a very respectful way to treat human remains. But if you'll think of the cannibalistic religious rites of many primitive peoples, this one doesn’t seem so shocking."
"You misunderstood me." Tellifer cast a glance of acute distress toward the gleaming mass above the pit. "I meant the dreadful sacrilege of insulting a miracle of loveliness like that, with the agony and ugly after-sights of human sacrifice!"
"That's a viewpoint, too," grinned Otway.
"And we're still talking! Human sacrifices! Here we stand—candidates—fairly begging for it. Angered priestess gone after barbaric hordes. Shoot us down from above. Regular death-trap. We take precautions? Not us! We'd rather talk!"
"Beg pardon, Mr. Waring, but the little lady has come back, and she hasn't brought any barbaric hordes."
John B. had returned and his voice sounded mildly reproachful.
"She seems to me to be acting real considerate and pleasant. I judge she noticed the soot on Mr. Sigsbee and Mr. Tellifer, and she's gone and taken the trouble to bring some water and towels so they can wash it off!"
CHAPTER SIX
ASSAI WINE
THE STEWARD'S latest announcement proved correct, though not quite complete. While the guests had been entertaining themselves by inspecting the premises, the hostess must have quietly gone and returned, not once, but several times.
They found her standing beside an array of things which her slender strength could not possibly have availed to transport in a single trip.
