Ron Goulart - The Curse of the Obelisk

THE CURSE OF THE OBELISK 65
Two hundred.
His makeshift torch sputtered, the flame starting to die.
Harry stopped. Holding the board between his knees, he fished out his matchbox with his left
hand. He shook out a match, then transferred it to the fingers that stuck out of the cast and struck
the match.
He held it to the burning end of the stick and managed to get the flame to perk up some.
He dropped the box back into his vest pocket and resumed walking.
Three hundred.
Four hundred.
The tunnel, he was near certain, had leveled off.
Six hundred.
Seven hundred.
Eight hundred.
Up ahead Harry saw a stone wall and a heavy oaken door. A large padlock, rusted with age,
dangled from it.
"This had better be a way into the damn castle."
Harry thrust the end of his torch into the large upper hinge and it stayed there, giving him a
dim, flickering light.
He squatted and tugged at the lock.
It broke apart in his hand. At that same moment the torch died.
Blackness took over the tunnel.
Tiny clawed feet started coming closer across the stones.
He felt for the doorknob. He caught it and turned. Then he pulled at the door. For about a half a
minute it didn't budge. Slowly it began to come open. He tugged with his left hand and the
available fingers of his right.
Beyond the door stretched a stone corridor. At its end it was joined by two other corridors and
in them oil lamps were burning.
Leaving the heavy door open behind him, Harry started toward the light.
Returning to the clouded mirror over his bureau, the Great Lorenzo took another admiring look.
"Marvelous," he pronounced. "The entire populace of far Cathay would be fooled."
The magician had tinted his visible skin a pale saffron hue, pasted on a drooping mandarin
moustache and made his eyes look a bit more Oriental.
Pleased, he retreated from the mirror. "But unless Harry and the fair Belphoebe return shortly, I
won't be able to do much beyond a slapdash makeup job on the lad." He glanced out a window at
the declining day, consulted his pocket watch yet again.