entrust your future. You may trust him implicitly. Do you understand?— implicitly!'
'Thank you,' I said. 'I don't know why you are doing these things for me, but I want you to know that I appreciate your kindness to a friendless stranger and that if I can serve you at any time—well, you know you have only to command me.'
'Oh, it is nothing,' she assured me. 'You saved me from a very bad evening with myself, and I am really doing very little in return.'
Just then a servant opened the door and announced: 'Maltu Mephis! Mantar!'
A tall man in the trappings and with the headdress of a
Zani Guardsman entered the room. He came to the foot of the dais, saluted and said, 'Maltu Mephis!'
'Maltu Mephis!' replied Zerka. 'I am glad to see you, Mantar. This is Vodo,' and to me, 'This is Mantar.'
'Maltu Mephis! I am glad to know you, Vodo,' said Mantar.
'And I am glad to know you, Mantar,' I replied.
A questioning frown clouded Mantar's brow, and he glanced at Zerka. She smiled.
'Vodo is an utter stranger here,' she said. 'He does not yet understand our customs. It is you who will have to inform him.'
Mantar looked relieved. 'I shall start at once,' he said. 'You will forgive me, then, Vodo, if I correct you often?'
'Certainly. I shall probably need it.'
'To begin with, it is obligatory upon all loyal citizens to preface every greeting and introduction with the words Maltu Mephis. Please, never omit them. Never criticize the government or any official or any member of the Zani Party. Never fail to salute and cry Maltu Mephis whenever you see and hear others doing it. In fact, it will be well if you always do what you see everyone else doing, even though you may not understand.'
'I shall certainly follow your advice,' I told him; but what my mental reservations might be I wisely kept to myself, as he probably did also.
'Now, Mantar,' said Zerka, 'this ambitious young man is from far Vodaro, and he wishes to take service as a soldier of Amlot. Will you see what you can do for him! And now you must both be going, as I have many things to attend to. I shall expect you to call and report to me occasionally, Vodo.'
Chapter 9—I Become a Zani
Mantar took me immediately to the palace formerly occupied by the jong, Kord, and now by Mephis and his lieutenants. 'We shall go directly to Spehon,' he said. 'No use wasting time on underlings.'
To Spehon! To the man whom Muso had advised to destroy me! I felt positive that the message must already be in his hands, as it must have been stolen by Zani spies who would have delivered it to him immediately, was going to my doom.
'Why do we go to Spehon?' I asked.
'Because he is head of the Zani Guard, which also includes our secret police. Zerka suggested that I find you a berth in the Guard. You are fortunate indeed to have such a friend as the Toganja Zerka; otherwise, if you had been given service at all, it would have been at the front, which is not so good since Muso enlisted the services of this fellow called Carson of Venus with his diabolical contrivance that flies through the air and rains bombs on everyone.'
'Flies through the air?' I asked, in simulated surprise. 'Is there really such a thing? What can it be?'
'We really don't know much about it,' Mantar admitted. 'Of course everyone at the front has seen it, and we learned a little from some prisoners we took who were members of a Sanaran party making a sortie against our first line. They told us the name of the fellow who flies it and what little they knew of him and of the thing he calls an anotar, but that really was not much. Yes, you will be fortunate if you get into the Guard. If you are an officer, it is something of a sinecure; but you'll have to watch your step. You must hate everything we Zanis hate and applaud everything that we applaud, and under no circumstances must you ever even look critical of anything that is Zani. To demonstrate what I mean: We were listening to a speech by Our Beloved Mephis one evening, when a bright light shining in his eyes unexpectedly caused one of my fellow officers to knit his brows and half close his eyes in what appeared to be a frown of disapproval. He was taken out and shot.'
'I shall be very careful,' I assured him, and you may believe me that I meant it.
The palace of the former jong was, indeed, a magnificent structure; but I'm afraid I didn't fully appreciate it as I walked through its corridors toward the office of Spehon—my mind was on other things. We arrived at last at a waiting room just outside the office of the great man, and there we waited for about half an hour before we were summoned into the presence. Men were coming and going to and from the waiting room in a constant stream. It was a very busy place. Most of them wore the Zani uniform and sported the Zani coiffure, and as they came and went the air was filled with 'Maltu Mephises' and Zani salutes.
At last we were ushered into the presence of Spehon. Like nearly all civilized Amtorians, he was a handsome man; but his mouth was a shade too cruel and his eyes a little too shifty for perfection. Mantar and I each said 'Maltu Mephis' and saluted; Spehon said 'Maltu Mephis! Greetings, Mantar. What brings you here?' He barked the words like a human terrier.
'Maltu Mephis! This is Vodo,' announced Mantar. 'I bring him to you at the suggestion of the Toganja Zerka, his good friend. She recommends him for a commission in the Guard.'
'But he is not even a Zani,' expostulated Spehon.
'He is not even from Anlap,' said Mantar, 'but he wishes to be a Zani and serve Our Beloved Mephis.'
'From what country do you come?' demanded Spehon.
'From Vodaro,' I replied.
'Have you any Atorian blood in your veins?'
'Had I, I should have been killed in Vodaro,' I cried.
'And why?' he asked.
'And why? may I ask, Spehon, do you kill Atorians?' I demanded.
'Naturally, because they have large ears,' he replied. 'We must keep the blood of Korvans pure.'
'You have answered your own question, Spehon,' I told him. 'We Vodaroans are very proud of our pure blood; so we, too, kill the Atorians because they have large ears.'
'Excellent!' he exclaimed. 'Will you swear to love, honor, and obey Our Beloved Mephis, give your life for him, if necessary, and hold him and the Zani Party above all else?'
'I swear!' I said, but I had my fingers crossed; then we all saluted and said, 'Maltu Mephis!'
'You are now a Zani,' he announced. He saluted me, and said, 'Maltu Mephis!'
'Maltu Mephis!' I said, and saluted him.
'I appoint you a tokordogan,' said Spehon, saluting, 'Maltu Mephis!'
'Maltu Mephis!' I replied, and saluted. A tokordogan is somewhat similar to a lieutenant. A kordogan is comparable to a sergeant and as the prefix to means either high or over, my title might be translated as oversergeant.
'You will be responsible for Vodo's training,' Spehon told Mantar; then we all Maltu Mephised and saluted.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I quitted the office of Spehon. Evidently he had not received the message as yet. I still had a little lease on life.
Mantar now took me to the officers' quarters adjoining the barracks of the Zani Guard, which are situated close to the palace; and here a barber gave me an approved Zani haircut, after which I went with Mantar to be outfitted with the regulation uniform and weapons of a tokordogan of the Zani Guard.
On the way back from the outfitters I heard a great commotion ahead of us on the broad avenue along which we were walking. People lining the curbs were shouting something that I could not understand at first, but presently recognized as the incessant chant of the Zanis—Maltu Mephis! As the sound approached I saw that the shouts were being directed at a procession of giant gantors.
'Our Beloved Mephis comes this way,' said Mantar. 'When he approaches, stand at salute and shout Maltu Mephis as loud as you can until he has passed.'
