第50章

GHEK PLAYS PRANKS

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

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

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

When Turan the panthan regained consciousness it was to the realization of a sharp pain in one of his forearms.The effects of the gas departed as rapidly as they had overcome him so that as he opened his eyes he was in full possession of all his faculties.The lights were on again and in their glow there was revealed to the man the figure of a giant Martian rat crouching upon the table and gnawing upon his arm.Snatching his arm away he reached for his short-sword, while the rat, growling, sought to seize his arm again.It was then that Turan discovered that his weapons had been removed--short-sword, long-sword, dagger, and pistol.The rat charged him then and striking the creature away with his hand the man rose and backed off, searching for something with which to strike a harder blow.Again the rat charged and as Turan stepped quickly back to avoid the menacing jaws, something seemed to jerk suddenly upon his right ankle, and as he drew his left foot back to regain his equilibrium his heel caught upon a taut chain and he fell heavily backward to the floor just as the rat leaped upon his breast and sought his throat.

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

It was such a thing that leaped upon the breast of the panthan to tear at his jugular.Twice Turan struck it away as he sought to regain his feet, but both times it returned with increased ferocity to renew the attack.Its only weapons are its jaws since its broad, splay feet are armed with blunt talons.With its protruding jaws it excavates its winding burrows and with its broad feet it pushes the dirt behind it.To keep the jaws from his flesh then was Turan's only concern and this he succeeded in doing until chance gave him a hold upon the creature's throat.

After that the end was but a matter of moments.Rising at last he flung the lifeless thing from him with a shudder of disgust.

Now he turned his attention to a hurried inventory of the new conditions which surrounded him since the moment of his incarceration.He realized vaguely what had happened.He had been anaesthetized and stripped of his weapons, and as he rose to his feet he saw that one ankle was fettered to a chain in the wall.

He looked about the room.All the doors swung wide open! His captors would render his imprisonment the more cruel by leaving ever before him tempting glimpses of open aisles to the freedom he could not attain.Upon the end of the table and within easy reach was food and drink.This at least was attainable and at sight of it his starved stomach seemed almost to cry aloud for sustenance.It was with difficulty that he ate and drank in moderation.

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