WHILE Tara of Helium was being led to The Towers of Jetan, Ghekwas escorted to the pits beneath the palace where he wasimprisoned in a dimly-lighted chamber. Here he found a bench anda table standing upon the dirt floor near the wall, and set inthe wall several rings from which depended short lengths ofchain. At the base of the walls were several holes in the dirtfloor. These, alone, of the several things he saw, interestedhim. Ghek sat down upon the bench and waited in silence,listening. Presently the lights were extinguished. If Ghek couldhave smiled he would have then, for Ghek could see as well in thedark as in the light--better, perhaps. He watched the darkopenings of the holes in the floor and waited. Presently hedetected a change in the air about him--it grew heavy with astrange odor, and once again might Ghek have smiled, could hehave smiled.

Let them replace all the air in the chamber with their mostdeadly fumes; it would be all the same to Ghek, the kaldane, who,having no lungs, required no air. With the rykor it might bedifferent. Deprived of air it would die; but if only a sufficientamount of the gas was introduced to stupefy an ordinary creatureit would have no effect upon the rykor, who had no objective mindto overcome. So long as the excess of carbon dioxide in the bloodwas not sufficient to prevent heart action, the rykor wouldsuffer only a diminution of vitality; but would still respond tothe exciting agency of the kaldane's brain.

Ghek caused the rykor to assume a sitting position with its backagainst the wall where it might remain without direction from hisbrain. Then he released his contact with its spinal cord; butremained in position upon its shoulders, waiting and watching,for the kaldane's curiosity was aroused. He had not long to waitbefore the lights were flashed on arid one of the locked doorsopened to admit a half-dozen warriors. They approached himrapidly and worked quickly. First they removed all his weaponsand then, snapping a fetter about one of the rykor's ankles,secured him to the end of one of the chains hanging from thewalls. Next they dragged the long table to a new position andthere bolted it to the floor so that an end, instead of themiddle, was directly before the prisoner. On the table before himthey set food and water and upon the opposite end of the tablethey laid the key to the fetter. Then they unlocked and openedall the doors and departed.

When Turan the panthan regained consciousness it was to therealization of a sharp pain in one of his forearms. The effectsof the gas departed as rapidly as they had overcome him so thatas he opened his eyes he was in full possession of all hisfaculties. The lights were on again and in their glow there wasrevealed to the man the figure of a giant Martian rat crouchingupon the table and gnawing upon his arm. Snatching his arm awayhe reached for his short-sword, while the rat, growling, soughtto seize his arm again. It was then that Turan discovered thathis weapons had been removed--short-sword, long-sword, dagger,and pistol. The rat charged him then and striking the creatureaway with his hand the man rose and backed off, searching forsomething with which to strike a harder blow. Again the ratcharged and as Turan stepped quickly back to avoid the menacingjaws, something seemed to jerk suddenly upon his right ankle, andas he drew his left foot back to regain his equilibrium his heelcaught upon a taut chain and he fell heavily backward to thefloor just as the rat leaped upon his breast and sought histhroat.

The Martian rat is a fierce and unlovely thing. It is many-leggedand hairless, its hide resembling that of a newborn mouse inrepulsiveness. In size and weight it is comparable to a largeAiredale terrier. Its eyes are small and close-set, and almosthidden in deep, fleshy apertures. But its most ferocious andrepulsive feature is its jaws, the entire bony structure of whichprotrudes several inches beyond the flesh, revealing five sharp,spadelike teeth in the upper jaw and the same number of similarteeth in the lower, the whole suggesting the appearance of arotting face from which much of the flesh has sloughed away.

It was such a thing that leaped upon the breast of the panthan totear at his jugular. Twice Turan struck it away as he sought toregain his feet, but both times it returned with increasedferocity to renew the attack. Its only weapons are its jaws sinceits broad, splay feet are armed with blunt talons. With itsprotruding jaws it excavates its winding burrows and with itsbroad feet it pushes the dirt behind it. To keep the jaws fromhis flesh then was Turan's only concern and this he succeeded indoing until chance gave him a hold upon the creature's throat.After that the end was but a matter of moments. Rising at last heflung the lifeless thing from him with a shudder of disgust.

Now he turned his attention to a hurried inventory of the newconditions which surrounded him since the moment of hisincarceration. He realized vaguely what had happened. He had beenanaesthetized and stripped of his weapons, and as he rose to hisfeet he saw that one ankle was fettered to a chain in the wall.He looked about the room. All the doors swung wide open! Hiscaptors would render his imprisonment the more cruel by leavingever before him tempting glimpses of open aisles to the freedomhe could not attain. Upon the end of the table and within easyreach was food and drink. This at least was attainable and atsight of it his starved stomach seemed almost to cry aloud forsustenance. It was with difficulty that he ate and drank inmoderation.

As he devoured the food his eyes wandered about the confines ofhis prison until suddenly they seized upon a thing that lay onthe table at the end farthest from him. It was a key. He raisedhis fettered ankle and examined the lock. There could be no doubtof it! The key that lay there on the table before him was the keyto that very lock. A careless warrior had laid it there anddeparted, forgetting.

Hope surged high in the breast of Gahan of Gathol, of Turan thepanthan. Furtively his eyes sought the open doorways. There wasno one in sight. Ah, if he could but gain his freedom! He wouldfind some way from this odious city back to her side and neveragain would he leave her until he had won safety for her or deathfor himself.

He rose and moved cautiously toward the opposite end of the tablewhere lay the coveted key. The fettered ankle halted his firststep, but he stretched at full length along the table, extendingeager fingers toward the prize. They almost laid hold upon it--alittle more and they would touch it. He strained and stretched,but still the thing lay just beyond his reach. He hurled himselfforward until the iron fetter bit deep into his flesh, but allfutilely. He sat back upon the bench then and glared at the opendoors and the key, realizing now that they were part of awell-laid scheme of refined torture, none the less demoralizingbecause it inflicted no physical suffering.

For just a moment the man gave way to useless regret andforeboding, then he gathered himself together, his brows cleared,and he returned to his unfinished meal. At least they should nothave the satisfaction of knowing how sorely they had hit him. Ashe ate it occurred to him that by dragging the table along thefloor he could bring the key within his reach, but when heessayed to do so, he found that the table had been securelybolted to the floor during the period of his unconsciousness,Again Gahan smiled and shrugged and resumed his eating.

When the warriors had departed from the prison in which Ghek wasconfined, the kaldane crawled from the shoulders of the rykor tothe table. Here he drank a little water and then directed thehands of the rykor to the balance of it and to the food, uponwhich the brainless thing fell with avidity. While it was thusengaged Ghek took his spider-like way along the table to theopposite end where lay the key to the fetter. Seizing it in achela he leaped to the floor and scurried rapidly toward themouth of one of the burrows against the wall, into which hedisappeared. For long had the brain been contemplating theseburrow entrances. They appealed to his kaldanean tastes, andfurther, they pointed a hiding place for the key and a lair forthe only kind of food that the kaldane relished--flesh and blood.

Ghek had never seen an ulsio, since these great Martian rats hadlong ago disappeared from Bantoom, their flesh and blood havingbeen greatly relished by the kaldanes; but Ghek had inherited,almost unimpaired, every memory of every ancestor, and so he knewthat ulsio inhabited these lairs and that ulsio was good to eat,and he knew what ulsio looked like and what his habits were,though he had never seen him nor any picture of him. As we breedanimals for the transmission of physical attributes, so theKaldanes breed themselves for the transmission of attributes ofthe mind, including memory and the power of recollection, andthus have they raised what we term instinct, above the level ofthe threshold of the objective mind where it may be commanded andutilized by recollection. Doubtless in our own subjective mindslie many of the impressions and experiences of our forebears.These may impinge upon our consciousness in dreams only, or invague, haunting suggestions that we have before experienced sometransient phase of our present existence. Ah, if we had but thepower to recall them! Before us would unfold the forgotten storyof the lost eons that have preceded us. We might even walk withGod in the garden of His stars while man was still but a buddingidea within His mind.

Ghek descended into the burrow at a steep incline for some tenfeet, when he found himself in an elaborate and delightfulnetwork of burrows! The kaldane was elated. This indeed was life!He moved rapidly and fearlessly and he went as straight to hisgoal as you could to the kitchen of your own home. This goal layat a low level in a spheroidal cavity about the size of a largebarrel. Here, in a nest of torn bits of silk and fur lay six babyulsios.

When the mother returned there were but five babies and a greatspider-like creature, which she immediately sprang to attack onlyto be met by powerful chelae which seized and held her so thatshe could not move. Slowly they dragged her throat toward ahideous mouth and in a little moment she was dead.

Ghek might have remained in the nest for a long time, since therewas ample food for many days; but he did not do so. Instead heexplored the burrows. He followed them into many subterraneanchambers of the city of Manator, and upward through walls torooms above the ground. He found many ingeniously devised traps,and he found poisoned food and other signs of the constant battlethat the inhabitants of Manator waged against these repulsivecreatures that dwelt beneath their homes and public buildings.

His exploration revealed not only the vast proportions of thenet-work of runways that apparently traversed every portion ofthe city, but the great antiquity of the majority of them. Tonsupon tons of dirt must have been removed, and for a long time hewondered where it had been deposited, until in following downwarda tunnel of great size and length he sensed before him thethunderous rush of subterranean waters, and presently came to thebank of a great, underground river, tumbling onward, no doubt,the length of a world to the buried sea of Omean. Into thistorrential sewer had unthinkable generations of ulsios pushedtheir few handsful of dirt in the excavating of their vastlabyrinth.

For only a moment did Ghek tarry by the river, for his seeminglyaimless wanderings were in reality prompted by a definitepurpose, and this he pursued with vigor and singleness of design.He followed such runways as appeared to terminate in the pits orother chambers of the inhabitants of the city, and these heexplored, usually from the safety of a burrow's mouth, untilsatisfied that what he sought was not there. He moved swiftlyupon his spider legs and covered remarkable distances in shortperiods of time.

His search not being rewarded with immediate success, he decidedto return to the pit where his rykor lay chained and look to itswants. As he approached the end of the burrow that terminated inthe pit he slackened his pace, stopping just within the entranceof the runway that he might scan the interior of the chamberbefore entering it. As he did so he saw the figure of a warriorappear suddenly in an opposite doorway. The rykor sprawled uponthe table, his hands groping blindly for more food. Ghek saw thewarrior pause and gaze in sudden astonishment at the rykor; hesaw the fellow's eyes go wide and an ashen hue replace the copperbronze of his cheek. He stepped back as though someone had struckhim in the face. For an instant only he stood thus as in aparalysis of fear, then he uttered a smothered shriek and turnedand fled. Again was it a catastrophe that Ghek, the kaldane,could not smile.

Quickly entering the room he crawled to the table top and affixedhimself to the shoulders of his rykor, and there he waited; andwho may say that Ghek, though he could not smile, possessed not asense of humor? For a half-hour he sat there, and then there cameto him the sound of men approaching along corridors of stone. Hecould hear their arms clank against the rocky walls and he knewthat they came at a rapid pace; but just before they reached theentrance to his prison they paused and advanced more slowly. Inthe lead was an officer, and just behind him, wide-eyed andperhaps still a little ashen, the warrior who had so recentlydeparted in haste. At the doorway they halted and the officerturned sternly upon the warrior. With upraised finger he pointedat Ghek.

"There sits the creature! Didst thou dare lie, then, to thydwar?"

"I swear," cried the warrior, "that I spoke the truth. But amoment since the thing groveled, headless, upon this very table!And may my first ancestor strike me dead upon the spot if I speakother than a true word!"

The officer looked puzzled. The men of Mars seldom if ever lie.He scratched his head. Then he addressed Ghek. "How long have youbeen here?" he asked.

"Who knows better than those who placed me here and chained me toa wall?" he returned in reply.

"Saw you this warrior enter here a few minutes since?"

"I saw him," replied Ghek.

"And you sat there where you sit now?" continued the officer.

"Look thou to my chain and tell me then where else might I sit!"cried Ghek. "Art the people of thy city all fools?"

Three other warriors pressed behind the two in front, craningtheir necks to view the prisoner while they grinned at thediscomfiture of their fellow. The officer scowled at Ghek.

"Thy tongue is as venomous as that of the she-banth O-Tar sent toThe Towers of Jetan," he said.

You speak of the young woman who was captured with me?" askedGhek, his expressionless monotone and face revealing naught ofthe interest he felt.

"I speak of her," replied the dwar, and then turning to thewarrior who had summoned him: "return to thy quarters and remainthere until the next games. Perhaps by that time thy eyes mayhave learned not to deceive thee."

The fellow cast a venomous glance at Ghek and turned away. Theofficer shook his head. "I do not understand it," he muttered."Always has U-Van been a true and dependable warrior. Could itbe--?" he glanced piercingly at Ghek. "Thou hast a strange headthat misfits thy body, fellow," he cried. "Our legends tell us ofthose ancient creatures that placed hallucinations upon the mindof their fellows. If thou be such then maybe U-Van suffered fromthy forbidden powers. If thou be such O-Tar will know well how todeal with thee." He wheeled about and motioned his warriors tofollow him.

"Wait!" cried Ghek. "Unless I am to be starved, send me food."

"You have had food," replied the warrior.

"Am I to be fed but once a day?" asked Ghek. "I require foodoftener than that. Send me food."

"You shall have food," replied the officer. "None may say thatthe prisoners of Manator are ill-fed. Just are the laws ofManator," and he departed.

No sooner had the sounds of their passing died away in thedistance than Ghek clambered from the shoulders of his rykor, andscurried to the burrow where he had hidden the key. Fetching ithe unlocked the fetter from about the creature's ankle, locked itempty and carried the key farther down into the burrow. Then hereturned to his place upon his brainless servitor. After a whilehe heard footsteps approaching, whereupon he rose and passed intoanother corridor from that down which he knew the warrior wascoming. Here he waited out of sight, listening. He heard the manenter the chamber and halt. He heard a muttered exclamation,followed by the jangle of metal dishes as a salver was slammedupon a table; then rapidly retreating footsteps, which quicklydied away in the distance.

Ghek lost no time in returning to the chamber, recovering thekey, relocking the rykor to his chain. Then he replaced the keyin the burrow and squatting on the table beside his headlessbody, directed its hands toward the food. While the rykor ateGhek sat listening for the scraping sandals and clattering armsthat he knew soon would come. Nor had he long to wait. Ghekscrambled to the shoulders of his rykor as he heard them coming.Again it was the officer who had been summoned by U-Van and withhim were three warriors. The one directly behind him wasevidently the same who had brought the food, for his eyes wentwide when he saw Ghek sitting at the table and he looked veryfoolish as the dwar turned his stern glance upon him.

"It is even as I said," he cried. "He was not here when I broughthis food."

"But he is here now," said the officer grimly, "and his fetter islocked about his ankle. Look! it has not been opened--but whereis the key? It should be upon the table at the end opposite him.Where is the key, creature?" he shouted at Ghek.

"How should I, a prisoner, know better than my jailer thewhereabouts of the key to my fetters?" he retorted.

"But it lay here," cried the officer, pointing to the other endof the table.

"Did you see it?" asked Ghek.

The officer hesitated. "No but it must have been there," heparried.

"Did you see the key lying there?" asked Ghek, pointing toanother warrior.

The fellow shook his head negatively. "And you? and you?"continued the kaldane addressing the others.

They both admitted that they never had seen the key. "And if ithad been there how could I have reached it?" he continued.

"No, he could not have reached it," admitted the officer; "butthere shall be no more of this! I-Zav, you will remain here onguard with this prisoner until you are relieved."

I-Zav looked anything but happy as this intelligence wastransmitted to him, and he eyed Ghek suspiciously as the dwar andthe other warriors turned and left him to his unhappy lot.