they ran, closing with the enemy in great leaps, cutting, thrusting and
slicing with those terrible double-ended weapons in a vicious efficiency
against which the Hans with their swords, knives and spears were utterly
helpless.

And so my prediction that the war would develop hand-to-hand fighting
was verified at the outset.

None of the details of this battle of the Ron-Daks were ever known in
Lo-Tan. Not more than the barest outlines of the destruction of the
survivors of Nu-Yok were ever received by San-Lan and his Council. And
of course, at that time I knew no more about it than they did.

CHAPTER X

Life in Lo-Tan, the Magnificent

San-Lan's attitude toward me underwent a change. He did not seek my
company as he had done before, and so those long discussions and mental
duels in which we pitted our philosophies against each other came to an
end. I was, I suspected, an unpleasant reminder to him of things he
would rather forget, and my presence was an omen of impending doom. That
he did not order my execution forthwith was due, I believe to a sort of
fascination in me, as the personification of this (to him) strange and
mysterious race of super-men who had so magically developed overnight
from "beasts" of the forest.

But though I saw little of him after this, I remained a member of his
household, if one may speak of a "household" where there is no semblance
of house.

The imperial apartments were located at the very summit of the Imperial
Tower, the topmost pinnacle of the city, itself clinging to the sides
and peak of the highest mountain in that section of the Rockies. There
were days when the city seemed to be built on a rugged island in the
midst of a sea of fleecy whiteness, for frequently the cloud level was
below the peak. And on such days the only visual communications with the
world below was through the viewplates which formed nearly all the
interior walls of the thousands of apartments (for the city was, in
fact, one vast building) and upon which the tenants could tune in almost
any views they wished from an elaborate system of public television and
projectoscope broadcasts.

Every Han city had many public-view broadcasting stations, operating on
tuning ranges which did not interfere with other communication systems.
For slight additional fees a citizen in Lo-Tan might, if he felt so
inclined, "visit" the seashore, or the lakes or the forests of any part
of the country, for when such sce