Beside the opening in the floor, just behind the altar, through which he had entered the court from the subterranean chamber below, the Belgian discovered several doors leading from the enclosure upon the level of the floor.
They blocked the way; they seized him, and though he fell, groveling upon his knees before them, begging for his life, they bound him and hurled him to the floor of the inner temple.
Jav was shrieking still, and clawing at the royal couch that had already commenced to slide toward the centre of the room, where both Thuvia and Carthoris suddenly noted a small orifice which grew in diameter as the
floor assumed more closely a funnel-like contour.
And then the visitors were taken to the other parts of the building, to see what became of each particle of the waste material that had vanished through the
floor; and to the pickling rooms, and the salting rooms, the canning rooms, and the packing rooms, where choice meat was prepared for shipping in refrigerator cars, destined to be eaten in all the four corners of civilization.
At sight of the two struggling upon the floor the newcomer raised his voice in a shriek of rage.
The protruding tongue and the popping eyes proclaimed that the end was near and a moment later the red robe sank to the floor of the room, the curved blade slipping from nerveless fingers.
How long he sat thus he did not know; but finally he was aroused by a noise coming from the
floor below.
Presently he resumed pacing to and fro across the
floor, and it was fully fifteen minutes before he again noticed the prisoner, and then it was to issue a curt order to her guards, who immediately conducted her from the apartment.
Even when he had his hand on the key, ready to turn it in the lock in case of necessity, he still looked back at the appalling object on the
floor. There was no possibility of identifying those decayed and distorted features with any living creature whom he had seen-- and, yet, he was conscious of feeling a vague and awful doubt which shook him to the soul.
Here is my sword at your feet," and drawing his weapon I-Gos cast it to the
floor in front of Gahan.
The human quality of his voice had startled the gutter-cat, causing her to forgo her spring as she flattened down her ears and bellied closer to the
floor.
Blood stood upon bruises on his knotty fore-arms where they had scraped against the
floor or the walls in the scuffle.