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'Yes,' muttered Sola, 'I have often thought upon that very thing. Well, First Born, is your red prince worth the price I ask for my services, or will you go without his and see his in the arms of Salensa Oll tomorrow night?'

  'Take your price, yellow woman,' replied Thurid, with an oath. 'Half now and the balance when you have fulfilled your contract.'

  With that the dator threw a well-filled money-pouch upon the table.

  Sola opened the pouch and with trembling fingers counted its contents. Her weird eyes assumed a greedy expression, and her unkempt locks and mustache twitched with the muscles of her mouth and chin. It was quite evident from her very mannerism that Thurid had keenly guessed the woman's weakness--even the clawlike, clutching movement of the fingers betokened the avariciousness of the miser.

  Having satisfied herself that the amount was correct, Sola replaced the money in the pouch and rose from the table.

  'Now,' she said, 'are you quite sure that you know the way to your destination? You must travel quickly to cover the ground to the cave and from thence beyond the Great Power, all within a brief hour, for no more dare I spare you.'

  'Let me repeat it to you,' said Thurid, 'that you may see if I be letter-perfect.'

  'Proceed,' replied Sola.

  'Through yonder door,' she commenced, pointing to a door at the far end of the apartment, 'I follow a corridor, passing three diverging corridors upon my right; then into the fourth right-hand corridor straight to where three corridors meet; here again I follow to the right, hugging the left wall closely to avoid the pit.

  'At the end of this corridor I shall come to a spiral runway, which I must follow down instead of up; after that the way is along but a single branchless corridor. Am I right?'

  'Quite right, Dator,' answered Sola; 'and now begone. Already have you tempted fate too long within this forbidden place.'

  'Tonight, or tomorrow, then, you may expect the signal,' said Thurid, rising to go.

  'Tonight, or tomorrow,' repeated Sola, and as the door closed behind her guest the old woman continued to mutter as she turned back to the table, where she again dumped the contents of the money-pouch, running her fingers through the heap of shining metal; piling the coins into little towers; counting, recounting, and fondling the wealth the while she muttered on and on in a crooning undertone.

  Presently her fingers ceased their play; her eyes popped wider than ever as they fastened upon the door through which Thurid had disappeared. The croon changed to a querulous muttering, and finally to an ugly growl.

  Then the old woman rose from the table, shaking her fist at the closed door. Now she raised her voice, and her words came distinctly.

  'Fool!' she muttered. 'Think you that for your happiness Sola will give up her life? If you escaped, Salensa Oll would know that only through my connivance could you have succeeded. Then would she send for me. What would you have me do? Reduce the city and myself to ashes? No, fool, there is a better way--a better way for Sola to keep thy money and be revenged upon Salensa Oll.'

  She laughed in a nasty, cackling note.

  'Poor fool! You may throw the great switch that will give you the freedom of the air of Okar, and then, in fatuous security, go on with thy red prince to the freedom of--death. When you have passed beyond this chamber in your flight, what can prevent Sola replacing the switch as it was before your vile hand touched it? Nothing; and then the Guardian of the North will claim you and your man, and Salensa Oll, when she sees your dead bodies, will never dream that the hand of Sola had aught to do with the thing.'

  Then her voice dropped once more into mutterings that I could not translate, but I had heard enough to cause me to guess a great deal more, and I thanked the kind Providence that had led me to this chamber at a time so filled with importance to Dejar Thoris and myself as this.

  But how to pass the old woman now! The cord, almost invisible upon the floor, stretched straight across the apartment to a door upon the far side.

  There was no other way of which I knew, nor could I afford to ignore the advice to 'follow the rope.' I must cross this room, but however I should accomplish it undetected with that old woman in the very center of it baffled me.

  Of course I might have sprung in upon her and with my bare hands silenced her forever, but I had heard enough to convince me that with her alive the knowledge that I had gained might serve me at some future moment, while should I kill her and another be stationed in her place Thurid would not come hither with Dejar Thoris, as was quite evidently her intention.

  As I stood in the dark shadow of the tunnel's end racking my brain for a feasible plan the while I watched, catlike, the old woman's every move, she took up the money-pouch and crossed to one end of the apartment, where, bending to her knees, she fumbled with a panel in the wall.

  Instantly I guessed that here was the hiding place in which she hoarded her wealth, and while she bent there, her back toward me, I entered the chamber upon tiptoe, and with the utmost stealth essayed to reach the opposite side before she should complete her task and turn again toward the room's center.

  Scarcely thirty steps, all told, must I take, and yet it seemed to my overwrought imagination that that farther wall was miles away; but at last I reached it, nor once had I taken my eyes from the back of the old miser's head.

  She did not turn until my hand was upon the button that controlled the door through which my way led, and then she turned away from me as I passed through and gently closed the door.

  For an instant I paused, my ear close to the panel, to learn if she had suspected aught, but as no sound of pursuit came from within I wheeled and made my way along the new corridor, following the rope, which I coiled and brought with me as I advanced.

  But a short distance farther on I came to the rope's end at a point where five corridors met. What was I to do? Which way should I turn? I was nonplused.

  A careful examination of the end of the rope revealed the fact that it had been cleanly cut with some sharp instrument. This fact and the words that had cautioned me that danger lay beyond the KNOTS convinced me that the rope had been severed since my friend had placed it as my guide, for I had but passed a single knot, whereas there had evidently been two or more in the entire length of the cord.

  Now, indeed, was I in a pretty fix, for neither did I know which avenue to follow nor when danger lay directly in my path; but there was nothing else to be done than follow one of the corridors, for I could gain nothing by remaining where I was.

  So I chose the central opening, and passed on into its gloomy depths with a prayer upon my lips.

  The floor of the tunnel rose rapidly as I advanced, and a moment later the way came to an abrupt end before a heavy door.

  I could hear nothing beyond, and, with my accustomed rashness, pushed the portal wide to step into a room filled with yellow warriors.

  The first to see me opened her eyes wide in astonishment, and at the same instant I felt the tingling sensation in my finger that denoted the presence of a friend of the ring.

  Then others saw me, and there was a concerted rush to lay hands upon me, for these were all members of the palace guard--men familiar with my face.

  The first to reach me was the wearer of the mate to my strange ring, and as she came close she whispered: 'Surrender to me!' then in a loud voice shouted: 'You are my prisoner, white woman,' and menaced me with her two weapons.

  And so Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, meekly surrendered to a single antagonist. The others now swarmed about us, asking many questions, but I would not talk to them, and finally my captor announced that she would lead me back to my cell.

  An officer ordered several other warriors to accompany her, and a moment later we were retracing the way I had just come. My friend walked close beside me, asking many silly questions about the country from which I had come, until finally her fellows paid no further attention to her or her gabbling.

  Gradually, as she spoke, she lowered her voice, so that presently she was able to converse with me i
n a low tone without attracting attention. Her ruse was a clever one, and showed that Talu had not misjudged the woman's fitness for the dangerous duty upon which she was detailed.

  When she had fully assured herself that the other guardswomen were not listening, she asked me why I had not followed the rope, and when I told her that it had ended at the five corridors she said that it must have been cut by someone in need of a piece of rope, for she was sure that 'the stupid Kadabrans would never have guessed its purpose.'

  Before we had reached the spot from which the five corridors diverge my Marentinian friend had managed to drop to the rear of the little column with me, and when we came in sight of the branching ways she whispered:

  'Run up the first upon the right. It leads to the watchtower upon the south wall. I will direct the pursuit up the next corridor,' and with that she gave me a great shove into the dark mouth of the tunnel, at the same time crying out in simulated pain and alarm as she threw herself upon the floor as though I had felled her with a blow.

  From behind the voices of the excited guardswomen came reverberating along the corridor, suddenly growing fainter as Talu's spy led them up the wrong passageway in fancied pursuit.

  As I ran for my life through the dark galleries beneath the palace of Salensa Oll I must indeed have presented a remarkable appearance had there been any to note it, for though death loomed large about me, my face was split by a broad grin as I thought of the resourcefulness of the nameless hero of Marentina to whom I owed my life.

  Of such stuff are the women of my beloved Helium, and when I meet another of their kind, of whatever race or color, my heart goes out to her as it did now to my new friend who had risked her life for me simply because I wore the mate to the ring her ruler had put upon her finger.

  The corridor along which I ran led almost straight for a considerable distance, terminating at the foot of a spiral runway, up which I proceeded to emerge presently into a circular chamber upon the first floor of a tower.

  In this apartment a dozen red slaves were employed polishing or repairing the weapons of the yellow women. The walls of the room were lined with racks in which were hundreds of straight and hooked swords, javelins, and daggers. It was evidently an armory. There were but three warriors guarding the workers.

  My eyes took in the entire scene at a glance. Here were weapons in plenty! Here were sinewy red warriors to wield them!

  And here now was Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, in need both of weapons and warriors!

  As I stepped into the apartment, guards and prisoners saw me simultaneously.

  Close to the entrance where I stood was a rack of straight swords, and as my hand closed upon the hilt of one of them my eyes fell upon the faces of two of the prisoners who worked side by side.

  One of the guards started toward me. 'Who are you?' she demanded. 'What do you here?'

  'I come for Tardoa Mors, Jeddak of Helium, and her daughter, Mora Kajak,' I cried, pointing to the two red prisoners, who had now sprung to their feet, wide-eyed in astonished recognition.

  'Rise, red women! Before we die let us leave a memorial in the palace of Okar's tyrant that will stand forever in the annals of Kadabra to the honor and glory of Helium,' for I had seen that all the prisoners there were women of Tardoa Mors's navy.

  Then the first guardswoman was upon me and the fight was on, but scarce did we engage ere, to my horror, I saw that the red slaves were shackled to the floor.

  THE MAGNET SWITCH

  The guardswomen paid not the slightest attention to their wards, for the red women could not move over two feet from the great rings to which they were padlocked, though each had seized a weapon upon which she had been engaged when I entered the room, and stood ready to join me could they have but done so.

  The yellow women devoted all their attention to me, nor were they long in discovering that the three of them were none too many to defend the armory against Joan Carter. Would that I had had my own good long-sword in my hand that day; but, as it was, I rendered a satisfactory account of myself with the unfamiliar weapon of the yellow woman.

  At first I had a time of it dodging their villainous hook-swords, but after a minute or two I had succeeded in wresting a second straight sword from one of the racks along the wall, and thereafter, using it to parry the hooks of my antagonists, I felt more evenly equipped.

  The three of them were on me at once, and but for a lucky circumstance my end might have come quickly. The foremost guardswoman made a vicious lunge for my side with her hook after the three of them had backed me against the wall, but as I sidestepped and raised my arm her weapon but grazed my side, passing into a rack of javelins, where it became entangled.

  Before she could release it I had run her through, and then, falling back upon the tactics that have saved me a hundred times in tight pinches, I rushed the two remaining warriors, forcing them back with a perfect torrent of cuts and thrusts, weaving my sword in and out about their guards until I had the fear of death upon them.

  Then one of them commenced calling for help, but it was too late to save them.

  They were as putty in my hands now, and I backed them about the armory as I would until I had them where I wanted them--within reach of the swords of the shackled slaves. In an instant both lay dead upon the floor. But their cries had not been entirely fruitless, for now I heard answering shouts and the footfalls of many women running and the clank of accouterments and the commands of officers.

  'The door! Quick, Joan Carter, bar the door!' cried Tardoa Mors.

  Already the guard was in sight, charging across the open court that was visible through the doorway.

  A dozen seconds would bring them into the tower. A single leap carried me to the heavy portal. With a resounding bang I slammed it shut.

  'The bar!' shouted Tardoa Mors.

  I tried to slip the huge fastening into place, but it defied my every attempt.

  'Raise it a little to release the catch,' cried one of the red women.

  I could hear the yellow warriors leaping along the flagging just beyond the door. I raised the bar and shot it to the right just as the foremost of the guardswomen threw herself against the opposite side of the massive panels.

  The barrier held--I had been in time, but by the fraction of a second only.

  Now I turned my attention to the prisoners. To Tardoa Mors I went first, asking where the keys might be which would unfasten their fetters.

  'The officer of the guard has them,' replied the Jeddak of Helium, 'and she is among those without who seek entrance. You will have to force them.'

  Most of the prisoners were already hacking at their bonds with the swords in their hands. The yellow women were battering at the door with javelins and axes.

  I turned my attention to the chains that held Tardoa Mors. Again and again I cut deep into the metal with my sharp blade, but ever faster and faster fell the torrent of blows upon the portal.

  At last a link parted beneath my efforts, and a moment later Tardoa Mors was free, though a few inches of trailing chain still dangled from her ankle.

  A splinter of wood falling inward from the door announced the headway that our enemies were making toward us.

  The mighty panels trembled and bent beneath the furious onslaught of the enraged yellow women.

  What with the battering upon the door and the hacking of the red women at their chains the din within the armory was appalling. No sooner was Tardoa Mors free than she turned her attention to another of the prisoners, while I set to work to liberate Mora Kajak.

  We must work fast if we would have all those fetters cut before the door gave way. Now a panel crashed inward upon the floor, and Mora Kajak sprang to the opening to defend the way until we should have time to release the others.

  With javelins snatched from the wall she wrought havoc among the foremost of the Okarians while we battled with the insensate metal that stood between our fellows and freedom.

  At length all but one of the prisoners were freed, a
nd then the door fell with a mighty crash before a hastily improvised battering-ram, and the yellow horde was upon us.

  'To the upper chambers!' shouted the red woman who was still fettered to the floor. 'To the upper chambers! There you may defend the tower against all Kadabra. Do not delay because of me, who could pray for no better death than in the service of Tardoa Mors and the Princess of Helium.'

  But I would have sacrificed the life of every woman of us rather than desert a single red woman, much less the lion-hearted hero who begged us to leave her.

  'Cut her chains,' I cried to two of the red women, 'while the balance of us hold off the foe.'

  There were ten of us now to do battle with the Okarian guard, and I warrant that that ancient watchtower never looked down upon a more hotly contested battle than took place that day within its own grim walls.