The torturers themselves had been selected from among the Green Men of
Giri, instead of the scaly skinned warrior race of Vaaka. They were
squat and heavy men, those torturers, evidently of the most brutal and
debased type that Lansa had been able to find. One in particular, whose
wide green face was made hideous by an old scar that had put out one of
his eyes, licked his thick lips in ghoulish anticipation as his fingers
prodded the flesh about Gerry's ribs and felt the Earth-man's muscles.

"Bring in the other two," Lansa commanded.

All about the room were the tools of the torturer's art. Some were
familiar things that have been used since men first began to mistreat
his fellow creatures--leaded whips and stretching-racks and cradles
lined with pointed spikes. Others were strange looking and probably even
more horrible mechanisms of coils and wires and electrodes. Gerry licked
his lips. The place had the hushed stillness of a chamber that has been
thoroughly sound-proofed. Probably no screams of agonized victims ever
penetrated beyond those smooth walls of polished green metal.

They brought Angus McTavish in first. He looked like some shaggy red
giant, wearing only a loin-cloth with his hair and beard all awry. Then
came Closana. Her crossed wrists were tied together before her by a cord
that was held by one of the guards, and she was very pale.

Lansa nodded quickly.

"Let them begin," said Lansa tonelessly.

"A suggestion, sir!" Olga leaned forward on the bench. The glance of her
brooding eyes was fixed on the young Amazon princess. "Let them work on
the girl first. It will probably succeed more quickly. I think the man
Norton has fallen in love with that empty headed young savage, and you
know how men are."

"You are right. Let it be done that way."

Closana was spread-eagled in mid-air, her upstretched arms fastened to
ropes that led to the ceiling and her ankles lashed to metal rings in
the floor below. She could move nothing but her head as Olga Stark
walked up to stand before her.

"This will repay for the condescension with which I was treated in
Savissa!" the Earth-woman said venomously. Closana looked at her in
silence for a moment, and then suddenly spat squarely in the other
woman's face.

"_Atta girl!_" roared Angus with all the power of his big lungs. Olga
struck the helpless girl twice in the mouth with her clenched fist, then
returned to her seat.

"Begin!" she commanded.

One of the