? ? ? ? As I cast about for some means of saving as many as possible of the doomed men, I saw a diverging corridor which seemed to rise at a steep angle at my right. The waters were now swirling about my waist. The men directly before me were quickly becoming panic-stricken. Something must be done at once or they would rush forward upon their fellows in a mad stampede that would result in trampling down hundreds beneath the flood and eventually clogging the passage beyond any hope of retreat for those in advance.
? ? ? ? Raising my voice to its utmost, I shouted my command to the dwars ahead of me.
? ? ? ? "Call back the last twenty-five utans," I shouted. "Here seems a way of escape. Turn back and follow me."
? ? ? ? My orders were obeyed by nearer thirty utans, so that some three thousand men came about and hastened into the teeth of the flood to reach the corridor up which I directed them.
? ? ? ? As the first dwar passed in with his utan I cautioned him to listen closely for my commands, and under no circumstances to venture into the open, or leave the pits for the temple proper until I should have come up with him, "or you know that I died before I could reach you."
? ? ? ? The officer saluted and left me.
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