It is no aspersion on their bravery to say that more than one among
them had already begun inwardly to curse this wild-goose chase
into Jannati Shahr. It all had now begun to assume absolutely the
appearance of a well-formulated plan of treachery. Even the Master
gave recognition to this appearance, by saying again: "Be ready for
a quick draw. But whatever you do, don't be the aggressor. Watch your
step!"
The passage suddenly reached its end. Another heavy door of the yellow
metal swung back, and all issued into a hall even more vast than the
one they had quitted.
No windows here admitted light. The air, though pure enough as from
some hidden source of ventilation, hung dead and heavy. Not even the
censers, depending from the dim roof, far above, could freshen it;
nor could the cressets' light make more than a kind of ghostly aura
through the gloom.
By this dim half-illumination the Master beheld, there before him in
the middle of the tremendous golden pavement, a strange,
pyramidal object rising four-square in the shape of an equilateral
triangle--just such a triangle as was formed by the locations of
Mecca, Bab el Mandeb, and El Barr.
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