let no detail elude my eye that might possibly in any way aid me if the time should come when I must make a break for liberty.
It was such thoughts that were uppermost in my mind as I was ushered through wide portals into the presence of a bejeweled warrior. As my eyes first alighted upon him I knew at once that I was in the presence of Haj Osis, Jed of Tjanath.
As my guard halted me before him, the Jed scrutinized me intently with that air of suspicion which is his most marked characteristic.
'Your name and country?' he demanded.
'I am Hadron of Hastor, padwar in the navy of Helium,' I replied.
'You are from Jahar,' he accused. 'You came here from Jahar with a woman of Jahar in a flier of Jahar. Can you deny it?'
I told Haj Osis in detail everything that had led up to my arrival at Tjanath. I told him Tavia's story as well, and I must at least credit him with listening to me in patience, though I was constantly impressed by a feeling that my appeal was being directed at a mind already so prejudiced against me that nothing that I might say could alter its convictions.
The chiefs and courtiers that surrounded the Jed evidenced open skepticism in their manner until I became convinced that fear of Tul Axtar so obsessed them that they were unable to consider intelligently any matter connected with the activities of the Jeddak of Jahar. Terror made them suspicious and suspicion sees everything through distorted lenses.
When I had finished my story, Haj Osis ordered me removed from the room and I was held in a small ante- chamber for some time while, I imagined, he discussed my case with his advisors.
When I was again ushered into his presence I felt that the whole atmosphere of the chamber was charged with antagonism, as for the second time I was halted before the dais upon which the Jed sat in his carved throne- chair.
'The laws of Tjanath are just,' proclaimed Haj Osis, glaring at me, 'and the Jed of Tjanath is merciful. The enemies of Tjanath shall receive justice, but they may not expect mercy. You, who call yourself Hadron of Hastor, have been adjudged a spy of our most malignant enemy, Tul Axtar of Jahar, and as such I, Haj Osis, Jed of Tjanath, sentence you to die The Death. I have spoken.' With an imperious gesture he signalled the guards to remove me.
There was no appeal. My doom was sealed, and in silence I turned and left the chamber, escorted by a guard of warriors, but for the honor of Helium I may say that my step was firm and my chin high.
On my return to the pits I questioned the padwar in charge of my escort relative to Tavia, but if the fellow knew aught of her, he refused to divulge it to me and presently I found myself again fettered in the gloomy dungeon by the side of Nur An of Jahar.
'Well?' he asked.
'The Death,' I replied.
He extended a manacled hand through the darkness and placed it upon one of mine. 'I am sorry, my friend,' he said.
'Man has but one life,' I replied; 'if he is permitted to give it in a good cause, he should not complain.'
'You die for a woman,' he said.
'I die for a woman of Helium,' I corrected.
'Perhaps we shall die together,' he said. 'What do you mean?'
'While you were gone a messenger came from the major-domo of the palace advising me to make peace with my ancestors as I should die The Death in a short time.'
'I wonder what The Death is like,' I said.
'I do not know,' replied Nur An, 'but from the awe-hushed tones in which they mention it, I imagine that it must be very terrible.'
'Torture, do you imagine?' I asked.
'Perhaps,' he replied.
'They will find that the men of Helium who know so well how to live, know also how to die,' I said.
'I shall hope to render a good account of myself also,' said Nur An. 'I shall not give them the satisfaction of knowing that I suffer. Still, I wish I might know beforehand what it is like that I might better be prepared to meet it.'
'Let us not depress our thoughts by dwelling upon it,' I suggested. 'Let us rather take the part of men and consider only plans for thwarting our enemies and effecting our escape.'
'I am afraid that is hopeless,' he said.
'I may answer that,' I said, 'in the famous words of John Carter: 'I still live!''
'The blind philosophy of absolute courage,' he said admiringly, 'but yet futile.'
'It served him well many a time,' I insisted, 'for it gave him the will to attempt the impossible and to succeed. We still live, Nur An; do not forget that-we still live!'
'Make the best of it while you can,' said a gruff voice from the corridor, 'for it will not long be true.'
The speaker entered our dungeon-a warrior of the guard, and with him was a single companion. I wondered how much of our conversation they had overheard, but I was soon reassured, for the very next words of the warrior that had first spoken revealed the fact that they had heard nothing but my assertion that we still lived.
'What did you mean by that,' he asked, ''remember, Nur An, we still live?''
I pretended not to hear his question and he did not repeat it, but came directly to me and unlocked my fetters. As he turned to unlock those which held Nur An, he turned his back to me and I could not but note his inexcusable carelessness. His companion lolled at the doorway while the first warrior bent over the padlock that held the fetters of Nur An.
My ancestors were kind to me; little had I expected such an opportunity as this, yet I waited-like a great banth ready to spring I waited until he should have released Nur An, and then, as the fetters fell away from my companion, I flung myself upon the back of the warrior. He sprawled forward upon his face on the stone flagging, falling heavily beneath my weight, and as he did so I snatched his dagger from its sheath and plunged it between his shoulder blades. With a single cry he died, but I had no fear that the echo of that cry would carry upward out of the gloomy pits of Tjanath to warn his fellows upon the level above.
But the fellow's companion had seen and heard and with a bound he was across the dungeon, his long sword ready in his hand, and now I was to see the mettle of which Nur An was made.
The affair had occurred so quickly, like a bolt of lightning out of a clear sky, that any man might have been excused had he been momentarily stunned into inactivity by the momentousness of my act, but Nur An was guilty of no fatal delay. As though we had planned the thing together it seemed that he leaped forward the instant that I sprang for the warrior and ran to meet his companion. Barehanded, he faced the long sword of his antagonist.
The gloom of the dungeon reduced the advantage of the armed man. He saw a figure leaping to meet his attack and in the excitement of the moment and in the dark of the cell, he did not know that Nur An was unarmed. He hesitated, paused and stepped back to receive the impetuous attack coming out of the darkness, and in that instant I had whipped the long sword of the fallen warrior from its scabbard and was charging the fellow at a slightly different angle from Nur An.
An instant later we were engaged and I found the fellow no mean swordsman; yet from the instant that our blades crossed I knew that I was his master and he must soon have realized it, too, for he fell back, fully on the defensive, evidently bent upon escaping to the corridor. This, however, I was determined not to permit and so I pressed him so closely that he dared not turn to run; nor did he call for help, and this, I guess, was because he realized the futility of so doing.
With the desperation of caged animals, Nur An and I were fighting for our lives. There could be no question here of the scrupulous observance of the niceties of combat. It was his life or ours. Realizing this, Nur An snatched the short sword from the corpse of the fallen warrior and an instant later the second man was lying in a pool of his own blood.
'And now what?' asked Nur An.
'Are you familiar with the palace?' I asked.
