the cruelest human faces I have ever seen. Unlike most Amtorians, he was ill-favored. His manner was gruff and surly, and I sensed immediately that he did not like me. Well, our dislike was mutual.
'I never saw you before,' he growled, after I had reported. 'Why didn't they send someone I knew? What do you know about running a prison?'
'Nothing,' I assured him. 'I didn't ask for the assignment. If I can put up with it, I guess you can.'
He grunted something I couldn't understand, and then said, 'Come with me. Now that you're here, you've got to familiarize yourself with the prison and with my system of administration.'
A second door in his office, opposite the one through which I had entered, opened into a guardroom full of Zani Guardsmen, one of whom he ordered to go to the courtyard and fetch my men; then he crossed to another door, heavily bolted and barred. When this was opened it revealed a long corridor on either side of which were partitions of heavy iron bars back of which were huddled several hundred prisoners, many of whom were covered with wounds and sores.
'These mistals,' explained Torko, 'have been guilty of disrespect to Our Beloved Mephis or to the glorious heroes of the Zani Guard. Show them no mercy.'
Next he took me to the end of the corridor, through another door, and up a flight of stairs to the second floor, where there were two rows of individual cells, each cell containing from one to three prisoners, although each would have been cramped quarters for one.
'These are traitors,' said Torko. 'They are awaiting trial. We really haven't enough room here; so every day, when we receive a new batch, we take some of them out and shoot them. Of course, we give them a chance to confess first. If they do, why naturally a trial isn't necessary; and we shoot them. If they don't confess, we shoot them for impeding justice.'
'Very simple,' I commented.
'Very,' he agreed, 'and eminently fair, too. It was my idea.'
'Our Beloved Mephis knows how to choose his lieutenants, doesn't he?'
He looked very pleased at that, and really smiled. It was the first time I had seen him smile, and I hoped he wouldn't do it again—his smile seemed only to make his face appear more cruel and repulsive.
'Well,' he exclaimed, 'I guess I was wrong about you—you talk like a good man and an intelligent one. We shall get along splendidly. Are you very close to Our Beloved Mephis?'
'I'm sorry to say that I'm not,' I told him. 'I merely serve him.'
'Well, you must know someone who is,' he insisted.
I was about to reply, telling him that I was afraid I knew no one who had the ear of Mephis, when he caught sight of the ring hanging on a chain around my neck. It was too small to fit on any of my fingers; I wore it thus.
'I should say you do know someone close to Mephis,' he exclaimed. 'The Toganja Zerka! Man! but are you lucky!'
I did not reply, as I had no stomach to discuss Zerka with this beast; but he insisted. 'She was right to come over to the Zanis,' he said. 'Most of her kind were killed; and those that did come over are usually under suspicion, but not Toganja Zerka. They say Mephis has the utmost confidence in her and often consults her in matters of policy. It was her idea to have the Zani Guard patrol the city constantly looking for traitors and beating up citizens who couldn't give a good account of themselves. Playing the life of Our Beloved Mephis constantly in all the theaters was also her idea, as was that of having civilians stand on their heads and cheer whenever Our Beloved Mephis passed. Even the expression Our Beloved Mephis was coined by her. Oh, she's a brilliant one. Mephis owes her a lot.'
All this was most illuminating. I had always felt that Zerka applauded Mephis with her tongue in her cheek. I had even doubted her loyalty to him or to the Zani cause, Now I didn't know what to think, but I certainly congratulated myself upon the fact that I had not confided in her. Somehow, I felt a little sad and depressed, as one does when disillusioned, especially if the disillusionment concerns a friend he has admired.
'Now,' continued Torko, 'if you should put in a good word for me with the toganja, it would be sure to reach the ear of Our Beloved Mephis. How about it, my excellent friend?'
'Wait until I know you better,' I said; 'then I shall know what to report to the toganja.' This was almost blackmail, but I felt no compunction.
'You'll have nothing but the best to report of me,' he assured me; 'we shall get along splendidly. And now I'll take you down to the courtroom where the trials are conducted and show you the cells where Our Beloved Mephis keeps his favorite prisoners.'
He led me down into a dark basement and into a large room with a high bench running across one end. Behind the bench were a number of seats, the whole being raised a couple of feet above the floor level. Around the sides of the room were low benches, which evidently served as seats for spectators. The rest of the room was devoted to an elaborate display of the most fiendish instruments of torture the mind of man might conceive. I shall not dwell upon them. It is enough to say that all were horrible and many of them absolutely unmentionable. All my life I shall be trying to forget them and the hideous things I was forced to see perpetrated there upon both men and women.
Torko made a wide, sweeping gesture, proudly. 'These are my pets,' he said. 'Many of them are my own invention. Believe me, just a look at them usually gets a confession; but we give them a taste of them anyway.'
'After they have confessed?' I asked.
'Why certainly. Is it not a treasonable thing to cheat the state of the usefulness of these ingenious contrivances that have cost so much in thought and money to produce?'
'Your logic is unimpeachable,' I told him. 'It is evident that you are a perfect Zani.'
'And you are a man of great intelligence, my friend, Vodo. And now, come with me—you shall see some more of this ideal plant.'
He led me into a dark corridor beyond the torture chamber. Here were small cells, feebly illuminated by a single dim light in the central corridor. A number of men were confined, each in a cell by himself. It was so dark that I could not distinguish the features of any of them, as all remained in the far corners of their cramped quarters; and many sat with their faces hidden in their hands, apparently oblivious of the fact that we were there. One was moaning; and another shrieked and gibbered, his mind gone.
'That one,' said Torko, 'was a famous physician. He enjoyed the confidence of everyone, including Our Beloved Mephis. But can you imagine how heinously he betrayed it?'
'No,' I admitted, 'I cannot. Did he attempt to poison Mephis?'
'What he did was almost as bad. He was actually apprehended in the act of alleviating the agony of an Atorian who was dying of an incurable disease! Can you imagine?'
'I am afraid,' I said, 'that my imagination is permanently incapacitated. There are things that transcend the limits of a normal imagination. Today you have shown me such things.'
'He should have been executed; but when he went mad, we felt that he would suffer far more if he lived. We were right. We Zanis are always right.'
'Yes,' I agreed, 'it is the indisputable privilege of all Zanis to be always right.'
He took me next down a dark corridor to another room at the far side of the building. There was nothing here but an enormous furnace and a foul odor.
'Here is where we burn the bodies,' Torko explained; then he pointed to a trap door in the floor. 'Be careful not to step on that,' he cautioned. 'It is not very substantial. We dump the ashes down there into the bay. The chute is quite large. If the door gave way with you, you'd land in the bay.'
I spent a week undergoing a sort of training in inhumanity; and then Torko obtained a leave of absence, and I was left in charge as acting governor of The Prison of Death. During the time that he was away I did what I could to alleviate the sufferings of the inmates of that hideous sink of misery and despair. I permitted them to clean up their foul cells and themselves, and I gave them quantities of good food. There were no 'trials' while I was in charge and only one execution, but that was ordered by a higher authority—in fact, by Mephis himself. I received word about the 11th hour one day that Mephis would visit the prison at the 13th hour—2:00 P.M. E.T. As I had never met the great man and had no idea how to receive him or conduct myself, I was in something of a quandary; as I knew that a single error, however unintentional, would affront him and result in my execution. At last it occurred to me that my kordogan might help me out. He was more than anxious to display his knowledge; and so, as the 13th hour
