went to the face of Dalis.

"What," he asked boldly, in the language of Earth, "does the traitor
Dalis say?"

"I have sworn allegiance to Luar, who addresses you, and am her ally
in all things! I have but one addition to make to what she says: Jaska
belongs to me!"

The sudden leering grin of Dalis was hideous.

Sarka peered at Jaska, framing his answer. But Jaska spoke first.

"For myself, O Dalis," she said swiftly, "I can answer in but one way.
Return me to the Place of the Blue Light, and forget me there!"

Sarka smiled, while his heart leaped with joy.

"And I, O Luar," he said mentally to the Radiant Woman, "prefer death
with Jaska, at the Place of the Blue Light, than life as a traitor to
the world of my nativity!"

Instantly Luar began the clucking sound which was the language of the
Gnomes, at the same time allowing her thoughts as she spoke to impress
themselves upon the brains of the prisoners.

"Take them away! Take them to the Cavern of the Cone, and when they
have suffered as much as such inferior beings are capable of
suffering, thrust them into the base of the Cone!"

CHAPTER XVI

_Cavern of the Cone_

The Gnomes had been bidden to take the prisoners to the Cavern of the
Cone, but to the surprise of Sarka and Jaska, they were taken back to
the Place of the Blue Light! This time the Gnomes entered the place
with them, closing and securing the door behind them.

But the Place of the Blue Light had changed!

Now it had no floor of blue, as it had had before, but only a corridor
perhaps wide enough to allow the passage of four grown men, walking
side by side, while the abyss of which the two had got but the merest
hint through the opening and closing rents filled all the center of
the place!

The Gnomes seemed impervious to the unendurable heat, and these,
moving together, one behind the other, one beside the other, one atop
the other, formed a living wall between Sarka and Jaska and the rim of
the flaming blue abyss, to protect them from the heat.

Yet through the bodies of this living wall of Gnomes, a wall which was
higher than the heads of Sarka and Jaska, the heat forced its way to
the prisoners, and burned them anew with its agony.

To what dread rendezvous were they going? Where, save for the few
guards at the house of Luar, were the people of the Gens of Dalis?
Sarka felt, somehow, that the answers to all these questions would
soon be made manifest, and a feeling of exaltatio