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"The Riddle of the Frozen Flame"

...
He pulled it out with a look of astonishment upon his face.
"Hello, hello!" he exclaimed. "So that's it, is it? Gad! This is the
approved hiding-place! Then those tubings--Dollops, just a little more
of this wearisome search, just a few telephone calls to be made, and I
believe I shall have untied at least _one_ part of this strange riddle.
And when that knot is unfastened, it will surely lead me to the
rest.... Go on, boy."
They went on, stepping carefully, and hesitating now and again to listen
for any sound of alien footsteps. But the place might have been the grave
for any sign of human habitation that there was. They had it to
themselves that night, and made the most of it.
For some time they walked on, taking the road that most appealed to them,
and in the maze must surely have retraced their own footsteps. Of a
sudden, however, they broke into a sort of rough stone passage, with
concrete floor that ran on for a few yards and ended at a flight of
well-made stone steps, above which was a square of polished oak,
worm-eaten, heavily-carved, and surely not of this generation's
make or structure.


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