George Lardner was frightened. The tommy gun was aimed at his head and he knew Puffy Adams wouldn"t hesitate when the time came to shoot. He sat up slowly, eyes on the pair by the wall. Then like a shot he rolled quickly over and over into the darkness beyond the lighted area. His voice, harsh and powerful shouted.
"Get them, quick!"
A hail of lead swept the air over his head as Puffy jerked backward.
"It"s the firing squad," Adams shouted. He dropped to one knee and opened up wide.
Lardner was snarling something unintelligible. Guns swept around on the men by the wall. Then from within the circle of men compressed h.e.l.l broke loose. Someone was opening up a deadly fire from within the ranks. Gunmen screamed in pain and turned their guns in every direction, trying to determine who had betrayed them.
"Run for it, Drake. Down the tunnel."
The voice was vaguely familiar. Drake didn"t hesitate. He clutched Adams" arm and together they dashed into the blackness ahead. From behind them, the sound of gun shots ceased. Only loud groans of pain drifted to them as they went forward through the midnight blackness.
Then, far behind, single footsteps followed them hesitantly.
Lardner was still alive. Drake had heard him curse softly as they pa.s.sed him. He felt blood on Puffy"s arm.
"You"re hurt," he said quietly. "Where did it hit?"
"Just a nick." Puffy sounded game. "Glanced off the shoulder. A bit of shirt will fix it up. Say! That was a nice poke you took at Lardner."
The tunnel grew wider. Far ahead a pale shower of colored light tossed against the walls like a weak rainbow. There wasn"t a sound ahead or behind them. Drake led the way swiftly. The light seemed stronger, drawing them toward its source.
Then they stood on the edge of a great chamber. From the walls of the circular room a barbaric curtain of rainbowed color sprayed down toward its center.
It flashed and changed as they watched with wide eyes, changing into rich shades of purple, gold, orchid and startling the eye with its everchanging spectrum.
In the direct center of the chamber on a raised dais stood the huge carved statue of a marble polar bear. It towered ten feet high, a magnificent standing beast with lifted outstretched paw. On the back of the bear a small throne had been carved. The blinding flood of color that converged on the throne, hid anything that might be seated there.
Drake clutched his companion"s arm.
"Look!"
He pointed toward the low pit that surrounded the statue.
Puffy nodded.
"The biggest fox farm in the world," he said dryly. "Or I"m going nuts."
As their eyes grew accustomed to the changing light, the pit grew clear. The animals became visible against the floor of the pit. There were thousands of them lying about the chamber. They spread over the floor carpeting it with rich fur like a deep rug of precious black and silver.
One thing held Jim Drake spellbound. Every animal had its head lifted toward the throne atop the bear"s back.
His eyes lifted again slowly. His vision broke through the bright haze of light. Stretched out in sleep across the stony back was the perfect nude figure of a girl. She seemed frozen in death, yet the bronzed flesh was alive and throbbing. It was the same girl he had saved from Wildwood Zoo--_Sylvia Fanton_!
He tried to take his eyes away from the vision but could not. Color seemed to splash and caress her body as though it alone gave her the power to exist. Then he knew what it was that made her look human. The light preserved her body during daylight hours, or she would have been forced to enter the body of a fox and mingle in the pit with her own kind.
A queen, Queen of the Flaming Diamond, doomed to lie dead until she could be restored to her normal life.
"What do we do now?" Puffy asked in a tense whisper.
"What I want to know first," Drake said wonderingly, "is who saved us from Lardner"s mob?"
"Whoever it was," Adams offered, "he"ll never escape them alive."
Soft footsteps came from behind them.
"But you are wrong!"
Drake pivoted, and faced the same man whom he had met in the apartment that night he lost the fur. The man who brought his last message from Sylvia Fanton.
"You see," the man went on quietly, "I am not your enemy. I asked you to stay out of this, but I could not desert you."
Drake"s face was lighted in a relieved smile. His hand gripped the other"s.
"Now you have saved our life, why did you do it?"
"Because," the man said simply, "you are human and you are good.
Sylvia Fanton asked me to help you, and I am her brother."
Puffy Adams sat down abruptly on the cave floor.
"And I," he said unbelievingly, "am the keeper of Cinderella Drake, the sap who still looks for the silver slipper."
"But Sylvia is no fox woman," Drake protested. "She"s too warm, too human!"
For a moment there was silence. Then a warm smile lighted the stranger"s eyes.
"We are all human," he said. "We are early settlers who came to this valley and sought its sanctuary. Only the curse of George Lardner has spoiled our paradise and driven us into animal form. Perhaps you will see...."
He looked hurriedly at the light that was growing dimmer above them.
The rainbow had faded swiftly and darkness was coming down on the cavern.
"I am Silvaris, King of the Fox People," he said swiftly. "On the Flaming Diamond depends our ability to exist. Night is almost upon us again, but unless the diamond can be restored to the paw of the bear, there will be no more night or day."
"But you have it!" Drake protested. "Lardner came here to get it back again...."
"Lardner came by mistake to this valley six months ago," Silvaris said brokenly. "We welcomed him as we welcome all people. He betrayed our trust and stole our life source. We took him to our hearts as Sylvia and I were taken many years ago."
"Then you aren"t really of the same race?" Drake"s voice was filled with relief.
Silvaris shook his head.