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"What, Allan? Is there anything wrong?"

"Not wrong, perhaps, but devilish peculiar!"

Speaking, he raised his hand to her The fingers held an arrow-head of flint

"There's been a battle here, that's sure," said he "Look, spear-points--shattered!"

He had already uncovered three obsidian blades The broken tips proved how forcibly they had been driven against the stone in the long ago

"What? A--"

His fingers closed on a sold

"A otten white o!"

Speechless, the girl took the shell froht, Allan," she answered "This certainly is a hollow gold crown Any one can see that, in spite of the patina that's formed over the metal Why--what can it all ave the impression that this eastern expedition set out within thirty years or so of the catastrophe Well, in that short ties fighting with flints and so on But that there certainly was a battle here at this door, and that the cathedral was used as a fort against some kind of invasion is positively certain

"Why, look at the chips of concrete knocked off the jamb of the door here! Must have been so, Beta! If we could know the complete story of this expedition, its probable failure to reach New York, its entrapedy of its end--starvation, sorties, repulses, hand-to-hand fighting at the outer gates, in the nave, here at the crypt door, perhaps on the stairs and in the vaults below--then defeat and slaughter and extinction--what a tremendous drama we could forht depressed her

"Death, everywhere--" she began, but Allan laughed

"Life, youin the rubbish of a distant tragedy Real work awaits us Come!"

He picked up the torch, and with his prihted it The sh the silent air of the cathedral, up into a broad sunlit zone from a tallin the transept, where it writhed blue and lule blow of Allan's ax shattered the last few shreds of oaken plank that still hung froes of the door In front of the explorers a flight of concrete steps descended, winding darkly to the crypt beneath

Allan went first, holding the torch high to light the way

"The records!" he exclaimed "Soon, soon we shall know the secrets of the past!"