enemy.
' California ,' he repeated. 'I never heard of such a country. Where is it?'
'In North America ,' I replied, but he only shook his head. 'And who are you,' I asked, 'and what country is this?'
'This is Noobol, but that of course you already know. This part of it is known as Morov. I am Skor, the jong of Morov. But you have not told me your names.'
'This is Duare,' I replied, 'and I am Carson .' I did not give surname as they are seldom used on Venus.
'And where were you going?'
'We were trying to find our way to the sea.'
'From where did you come?'
'Recently we were in Kapdor,' I explained.
I saw his eyes narrow ominously. 'So you are Thorists!' he snapped.
'No,' I assured him, 'we are not. We were prisoners of the Thorists.' I hoped that my guess had been a good one and that he was not kindly disposed toward the Thorists. The slender thread upon which I hung my hopes was no more substantial than the frown that had clouded his brow at my admission that we had just come from Kapdor.
To my relief his expression changed. 'I am glad that you are not Thorists; otherwise I would not help you. I have no use for the breed.'
'You will help us, then?' I asked.
'With pleasure,' he replied. He was looking at Duare as he spoke, and I did not exactly relish the tone of his voice nor the expression on his face.
The kazars were circling around us, cackling and whistling. When one of them approached us too close, Skor would flick it with the lash of a long whip he carried; and the creature would retreat, screaming and cackling the louder.
'Come,' he said presently, 'I will take you to my house; then we may discuss plans for the future. The woman may ride behind me on my zorat.'
'I prefer to walk,' said Duare. 'I am accustomed to it now.'
Skor's eyes narrowed a bit. He started to speak, and then he checked himself. Finally he shrugged. 'As you will,' he said, and turned the head of his mount back in the direction from which he had come.
* * * * *
The creature he rode, which he called a zorat, was unlike any beast that I had ever seen before. It was about the size of a small horse. Its long, slender legs suggested great speed. Its feet were round and nailless and heavily calloused on the bottoms. Its almost vertical pasterns suggested that it might be a hard-gaited beast, but this was not so. Later I learned that almost horizontal femurs and humeri absorbed the jolts and rendered the zorat an easy riding saddle animal.
Above its withers and just forward of its kidneys were soft pads or miniature humps which formed a perfect saddle with natural pommel and cantle. Its head was short and broad, with two large, saucer-like eyes and pendulous ears. Its teeth were those of a grass-eater. Its only means of defense seemed to lie in its fleetness, although, as I afterward had occasion to discover, it could use its jaws and teeth most effectively when its short temper was aroused.
We walked beside Skor on the journey toward his house, the grotesque kazars following docilely behind at the command of their master. The way led toward the great bend of the river, that we had sought to avoid by taking a short cut, and a forest that lined its banks. The proximity of the kazars made me nervous, for occasionally one of them would trot close at our heels; and I was fearful that Duare might be injured by one of the fierce beasts before I could prevent it. I asked Skor what purpose the creatures served.
'I use them for hunting,' he replied, 'but principally for protection. I have enemies; and then, too, there are many savage beasts roaming at large in Morov. The kazars are quite fearless and very savage fighters. Their greatest weakness is their predilection for cannibalism; they will abandon a fight to devour one of their own number that has fallen.'
Shortly after we entered the forest we came upon a large, gloomy, fortress-like building of stone. It was built upon a low rise of ground at the water's edge, the river lapping the masonry upon that side. A stone wall connecting with the river wall of the building inclosed several acres of clear land in front of the structure. A heavy gate closed the only aperture that was visible in this wall.
As we approached, Skor shouted, 'Open! It is the jong,' and the gates swung slowly outward.
As we entered, several armed men, who had been sitting beneath one of the several trees that had been left standing when the ground was cleared, arose and stood with bowed heads. They were a hard and also a sad- looking lot. The feature that struck me most forcibly was the strange hue of their skin, a repulsive, unhealthy pallor, a seeming bloodlessness. I caught the eyes of one that chanced to raise his head as we passed, and I shivered. They were glazed, clammy eyes, without light, without fire. I would have thought the fellow stone blind but for the fact that the instant that my eyes caught his they dropped swiftly. Another had an ugly, open wound across his cheek from temple to chin; it gaped wide, but it did not bleed.
Skor snapped a brief order; and two of the men herded the pack of cackling kazars into a strong inclosure built beside the gateway, as we proceeded on toward the house. Perhaps I should call it castle.
The inclosure across which we passed was barren except for the few trees that had been left standing. It was littered with refuse of all descriptions and was unspeakably disorderly and untidy. Old sandals, rags, broken pottery, and the garbage from the castle kitchens were strewn promiscuously about. The only spot from which any effort had been made to remove the litter was a few hundred square feet of stone flagging before the main entrance to the building.
* * * * *
Here Skor dismounted as three more men similar to those at the gate came lifelessly from the interior of the building. One of these took Skor's mount and led it away, the others stood one on either side of the entrance as we passed in.
The doorway was small, the door that closed it thick and heavy. It seemed to be the only opening on the first floor on this side of the castle. Along the second– and third-floor levels I had seen small windows heavily barred. At one corner of the building I had noticed a tower rising two more stories above the main part of the castle. This, too, had small windows, some of which were barred.
The interior of the building was dark and gloomy. Coupled with the appearance of the inmates I had already seen, it engendered within me a feeling of depression that I could not throw off.
'You must be hungry,' suggested Skor. 'Come out into the inner court—it is pleasanter there—and I will have food served.'
We followed him down a short corridor and through a doorway into a courtyard around which the castle was built. The inclosure reminded me of a prison yard. It was flagged with stone. No living thing grew there. The gray stone walls, cut with their small windows, rose upon four sides. There had been no effort toward architectural ornamentation in the design of the structure, nor any to beautify the courtyard in any way. Here, too, was litter and trash that it had evidently been easier to throw into the inner court than carry to the outer.
I was oppressed by forebodings of ill. I wished that we had never entered the place, but I tried to brush my fears aside. I argued that Skor had given no indications of being other than a kindly and solicitous host. He had seemed anxious to befriend us. That he was a jong I had commenced to doubt, for there was no suggestion of royalty in his mode of living.
In the center of the court a plank table was flanked by grimy, well worn benches. On the table were the remains of a meal. Skor graciously waved us toward the benches; then he clapped his hands together three times before he seated himself at the head of the table.
'I seldom have guests here,' he said. 'It is quite a pleasant treat for me. I hope that you will enjoy your stay. I am sure that I shall,' and as he spoke he looked at Duare in that way that I did not like.
'I am sure that we might enjoy it could we remain,' replied Duare quickly, 'but that is not possible. I must return to the house of my father.'
'Where is that?' asked Skor.
'In Vepaja,' explained Duare.
'I never heard of that country,' said Skor. 'Where is it?'
