Death . I moved more rapidly than I had when I had come through it to Kormor, for I knew now that no pitfalls lay in my path.
At last I felt the stairs leading upward at the tunnel's end, and a moment later I stopped behind the door that would let us into Havatoo. I did not wait; I did not listen. Nothing could have stopped me then. I would have grappled a dozen of the gruesome corpses of Kormor had they stood in my way, and I believe that I should have overcome them, so desperate was my mood.
But we met neither dead nor living as we stepped out onto the lower floor of the dismal building off the Havatoo Lat. Quickly we crossed to the front of the building and out through the door there to the street beyond, and a moment later we stood in the Havatoo Lat with its brilliant lights and its two streams of traffic.
* * * * *
We were a conspicuous trio in our mean garments of rags with which we had sought to disguise ourselves in Kormor, and many were the suspicious glances cast in our direction.
As quickly as I could I hailed a public conveyance and instructed the driver to take us to the home of Ero Shan, and as we settled down upon the cushions we relaxed for the first time in many a day.
We talked a great deal during the drive, particularly Nalte and I. Duare was very quiet. She spoke of the beauty of Havatoo and the wonders that surrounded us, all strange and new to her, but only briefly and then lapsed into silence again.
Our driver had eyed us suspiciously when we entered his car, and when he deposited us in front of the house of Ero Shan he behaved peculiarly.
But Ero Shan was delighted to see us. He ordered food and drink, and plied us with questions until he had had the whole story from us several times. He congratulated me upon finding Duare, but I could see that his greatest happiness lay in the return of Nalte.
The girls were tired and needed rest, and we were preparing to take them to Nalte's home when the first blow fell that was to put the lives of two of us in jeopardy and plunge us all from the heights of happiness to the depths of despair.
There was a summons at the main entrance, and presently a servant entered the room. Behind him was a file of warriors commanded by an officer.
Ero Shan looked up in surprise. He knew the officer and called him by name, asking him what brought him here with armed men.
'I am sorry, Ero Shan,' the man replied, 'but I have orders from the Sanjong itself to arrest three suspicious- appearing people who were seen to enter your house earlier in the evening.'
'But,' exclaimed Ero Shan, 'no one has entered my house but Carson Napier, whom you know, and these two young women. They are all my friends.'
The officer was eyeing our mean apparel and evidently not without suspicion. 'These must be those I was sent to arrest if no one else has entered your house this evening,' he said.
There was nothing to do but accompany the warriors and this we did. Ero Shan came with us, and a short time later we were before an investigating board of three men. The complaining witness was the driver who had brought us from the house that hid the entrance to the tunnel to Ero Shan's. He said that he lived in the neighborhood, and having known of the abduction of Nalte he was immediately suspicious when he saw three people, garbed as we were, in the vicinity of the place.
He accused us of being spies from Kormor and insisted that we were but painted corpses like the man I had grappled with at the time of the abduction of Nalte.
The examining board listened to my story; then they examined Nalte and Duare briefly. They questioned Ero Shan concerning us, and without leaving the room they discharged Nalte and myself and ordered Duare back for a further examination by the official examining board the following day.
I thought that they seemed a little suspicious of Duare; and so did Ero Shan, though he only admitted this after we had returned the girls to Nalte's home and were alone.
'Justice sometimes miscarries in Havatoo,' he said gravely. 'The loathing that we feel for Kormor and everything connected with it colors all our decisions in matters concerning it. Duare admits having been in Kormor for some time. She admits having resided in the palace of Skor , the jong. The examining board knows nothing about her other than what she claims and what you tell them, but they do not know that they can believe either of you. You will recall that the result of your examination was not such as to create considerable confidence in you.
'And you think that Duare may be in danger?' I asked.
'I cannot tell,' he replied. 'Everything may come out all right; but, on the other hand, if the board has the slightest suspicion concerning Duare, it will order her destroyed, for our theory of justice is that it is better to do an injustice to a single individual than to risk the safety and welfare of many. Sometimes that policy is a cruel one, but results have demonstrated that it is better for the race than a policy of weak sentimentalism.'
I did not sleep well that night. The weight of a great fear for the outcome of tomorrow's trial oppressed me.
Chapter 21—Flight
I WAS NOT permitted to accompany Duare to her examination. She was placed in charge of the same woman who had guarded Nalte at the time of her examination, Hara Es.
To pass the hours until the result should be made known, I went to the hangar to inspect my plane. It was in perfect condition. The motor hummed almost noiselessly. I could not, under ordinary circumstances, have withstood the urge to have the ship wheeled out onto the plain before the city for a trial flight; but my mind was so distraught with apprehension concerning the fate of Duare that I had no heart for anything.
I spent an hour alone in the hangar. None of my assistants were there, they having all returned to their ordinary duties after the completion of the plane. Then I returned to the house that I shared with Ero Shan.
He was not there. I tried to read, but I could not concentrate long enough to know what I was reading about. My eyes followed the strange Amtorian characters, but my thoughts were with Duare. At last I gave it up and walked in the garden. An unreasoning terror enveloped me like a shroud, numbing my faculties.
How long I walked I do not know, but at last my sad reveries were interrupted by the approach of footsteps through the house. I knew that Ero Shan must be coming to the garden. I stood waiting, looking toward the doorway through which he must come; and the instant that I saw him my heart turned cold. I read the confirmation of my worst fears in the expression on his face.
He came and laid a hand upon my shoulder. 'I have bad news for you, my friend,' he said.
'I know,' I replied; 'I read it in your eyes. They have ordered her destroyed?'
'It is a miscarriage of justice,' he said, 'but there is no appeal. We must accept the decision as the board's honest conviction that they are thus serving the best interests of the city.'
'Is there nothing I can do?' I asked.
'Nothing,' he replied.
'Won't they let me take her away from Havatoo?'
'No; they are so afraid of the contaminating influence of Skor and his creatures that they will never permit one to live that falls into their hands.'
'But she is not one of Skor's creatures!' I insisted.
'I am quite sure that they had their doubts, but the benefit of the doubt is given to the city and not to the accused. There is nothing more to be done.'
'Do you think they would let me see her?' I asked.
'It is possible,' he replied. 'For some reason she is not to be destroyed until to-morrow.'
'Will you try to arrange it for me, Ero Shan?'
'Certainly,' he replied. 'Wait here, and I will see what I can do.'
I have never spent such long and bitter hours as those while I was awaiting the return of Ero Shan. Never before had I felt so helpless and hopeless in the face of an emergency. Had these been ordinary men with whom I had to deal, I might have seen somewhere a ray of hope, but there was none here. Their uprightness precluded the
