isfaction in her tone, and closed the panel until it
fitted snugly in its place. "Come!" she said and turned toward the
outer doorway of the chamber.

They reached their own cell without detection, and closing the door
Tara locked it from the inside and placed the key in a secret pocket in
her harness.

"Let them come," she said. "Let them question us! What could two poor
prisoners know of the whereabouts of their noble jailer? I ask you,
Lan-O, what could they?"

"Nothing," admitted Lan-O, smiling with her companion.

"Tell me of these men of Manator," said Tara presently. "Are they all
like E-Med, or are some of them like A-Kor, who seemed a brave and
chivalrous character?"

"They are not unlike the peoples of other countries," replied Lan-O.
"There be among them both good and bad. They are brave warriors and
mighty. Among themselves they are not without chivalry and honor, but
in their dealings with strangers they know but one law--the law of
might. The weak and unfortunate of other lands fill them with contempt
and arouse all that is worst in their natures, which doubtless accounts
for their treatment of us, their slaves."

"But why should they feel contempt for those who have suffered the
misfortune of falling into their hands?" queried Tara.

"I do not know," said Lan-O; "A-Kor says that he believes that it is
because their country has never been invaded by a victorious foe. In
their stealthy raids never have they been defeated, because they have
never waited to face a powerful force; and so they have come to believe
themselves invincible, and the other peoples are held in contempt as
inferior in valor and the practice of arms."

"Yet A-Kor is one of them," said Tara.

"He is a son of O-Tar, the jeddak," replied Lan-O; "but his mother was
a high born Gatholian, captured and made slave by O-Tar, and A-Kor
boasts that in his veins runs only the blood of his mother, and indeed
is he different from the others. His chivalry is of a gentler form,
though not even his worst enemy has dared question his courage, while
his skill with the sword, and the spear, and the thoat is famous
throughout the length and breadth of Manator."

"What think you they will do with him?" asked Tara of Helium.

"Sentence him to the games," replied Lan-O. "If O-Tar be not greatly
angered he may be sentenced to but a single game, in which case he may
come out alive; but if O-Tar wishes really to dispose of him he will be
sentenced