He looked just a bit startled, and he hesitated a fraction of a second too long before he replied. 'No,' he said. 'I never saw her before. I do not know what she wanted. She came in just ahead of you. I think she must have made a mistake in the house, and been embarrassed and confused when you came in, you know it is often dangerous, nowadays, to make mistakes, however innocent they may be.'
He could have been tortured and executed for a statement such as that, and he should have known it. I cautioned him.
'You are a strange Zani,' he said. 'You act almost as though you were my friend.'
'Forget it,' I warned him.
'I shall,' he promised.
At the prison I took him at once to Torko's office.
'So you are the great scholar, Narvon,' snarled Torko. 'You should have stuck to your books instead of trying to foment a rebellion. Who were your accomplices?'
'I have done nothing wrong,' said Narvon; 'and so I had no accomplices in anything that was wrong.'
'Tomorrow your memory will be better,' snapped Torko. 'Our Beloved Mephis himself will conduct your trial, and you will find that we have ways in which to make traitors tell the truth. Take him to the lower level, Vodo; and then report back here to me.'
As I passed through the courtroom with Narvon, I saw him pale as his eyes took in the instruments of torture there.
'You will not name your accomplices, will you?' I asked.
He shuddered and seemed to shrink suddenly. 'I do not know,' he admitted. 'I have never been able to endure pain. I do not know what I shall do. I only know that I am afraid—oh, so terribly afraid. Why can they not kill me without torturing me!'
I was very much afraid, myself—afraid for Zerka. I don't know why I should have been—she was supposed to be such a good Zani. Perhaps it was the fact that she had run away from men in the uniform of the Zani Guard that aroused my suspicions. Perhaps it was because I had never been able to reconcile my belief in her with the knowledge that she was a Zani. Quite a little, too, because Narvon had so palpably tried to protect her.
When I returned to Torko's office, the kordogan who had been with me when I made the arrest was just leaving. Torko was scowling ominously.
'I have heard bad reports of your conduct during my absence,' he said.
'That is strange,' I said—'unless I have made an enemy here; then you might hear almost anything, as you know.'
'The information has come from different sources. I am told that you were very soft and lenient with the prisoners.'
'I was not cruel, if that is what is meant,' I replied. 'I had no orders to be cruel.'
'And today you did not search a house where you knew a woman to be hiding—the home of a traitor, too.'
'I had no orders to search the house or question anybody,' I retorted. 'I did not know the man was a traitor; I was not told what his offense had been.'
'Technically, you are right,' he admitted; 'but you must learn to have more initiative. We arrest no one who is not a menace to the state. Such people deserve no mercy. Then you whispered with the prisoner all the way to the prison.'
I laughed outright. 'The kordogan doesn't like me because I put him in his place. He became a little insubordinate. I will not stand for that. Of course I talked with the prisoner. Was there anything wrong in that?'
'The less one talks with anyone, the safer he is,' he said.
He dismissed me then; but I realized that suspicions were aroused; and there was that brother of Lodas just full of them, and of real knowledge concerning me, too; and primed to spill everything he knew or suspected at the first opportunity. Whatever I was going to do, I must do quickly if I were ever going to escape. There were too many fingers ready to point at me, and there was still the message from Muso. I asked permission to go fishing the next day, and as Torko loved fresh fish, he granted it.
'You'd better stay around until after Our Beloved Mephis has left the prison,' he said. 'We may want your help.'
The next day Narvon was tried before Mephis, and I was there with a detail of the guard—just ornamentally. We lined up at attention at each end of the bench where Mephis, Spehon, and Torko sat. The benches at the sides of the room were filled with other Zani bigwigs. When Narvon was brought in, Mephis asked him just one question.
'Who were your accomplices?'
'I have done nothing, and I had no accomplices,' said Narvon. He looked haggard and his voice was weak. Every time he looked at an instrument of torture he winced. I saw that he was in a state of absolute funk. I couldn't blame him.
Then they commenced to torture him. What I witnessed, I would not describe if I could. It beggars description. There are no words in any language to depict the fiendishly bestial cruelties and indignities they inflicted on his poor, quivering flesh. When he fainted, they resuscitated him; and went at it again. I think his screams might have been heard a mile away. At last he gave in.
'I'll tell! I'll tell!' he shrieked.
'Well?' demanded Mephis. 'Who are they?'
'There was only one,' whispered Narvon, in a weak voice that could scarcely be heard.
'Louder!' cried Mephis. 'Give him another turn of the screw! Then maybe he'll speak up.'
'It was the Toganja Z—' Then he fainted as they gave the screw another turn. They tried to revive him again, but it was too late—Narvon was dead.
Chapter 12—Hunted
I went fishing; and I caught some fish, but I couldn't forget how Narvon had died. I shall never forget it. How could I forget his dying words? Coupled with what I had seen in his house, I knew the name that had died in his throat. I wondered if any of the Zanis there had guessed what I knew. Not only did I fish, but I did some reconnoitering and a great deal of thinking. I wondered what to do about Zerka. Should I risk Mintep's life to warn her, with considerable likelihood that I might be arrested with her? Really, there was but one answer. I must warn her, for she had befriended me. I sailed around close to the prison, for there were certain things I must know about the outside of the place. I knew all that was necessary about the inside. After satisfying myself on the points concerning which I had been in doubt, I came ashore, and went to my quarters in the barracks. Here I found an order relieving me of duty at the prison. I guess Torko had found me too soft for his purposes; or was there something else, something far more sinister behind it? I felt a net closing about me.
As I sat there in my quarters with this most unpleasant thought as my sole company, a guardsman came and announced that the commandant wished me to report to him at once. This, I thought, is the end. I am about to be arrested. I contemplated flight; but I knew how futile such an attempt would be, and so I went to the commandant's office and reported. 'A dozen prisoners have been brought from the front at Sanara,' he said. 'I am detailing twelve officers to question them. We can get more out of them if they are questioned separately. Be very kind to the man you question. Give him wine and food. Tell him what a pleasant life a soldier may have serving with the armies of the Zanis, but get all the information you can out of him. When they have all been questioned, we shall turn them over to some private soldiers to entertain for a few days; then we shall send two of them back to the front and let them escape to tell about the fine treatment they received in Amlot. That will mean many desertions. The other ten will be shot.'
The Zanis were full of cute little tricks like that. Well, I got my man and took him to my quarters. I plied him with food, wine, and questions. I wanted to know about Sanara on my own account, but I didn't dare let him know how much I knew about the city and conditions there. I had to draw him out without him suspecting me. It chanced that he was a young officer—a nice chap, well connected. He knew everyone and all the gossip of the court and the
