a low
level we came upon a number of lighted chambers in which we saw many
Mahars engaged in various occupations. To one of these chambers my
guard escorted me, and before leaving they chained me to a side wall.
There were other humans similarly chained. Upon a long table lay a
victim even as I was ushered into the room. Several Mahars stood about
the poor creature holding him down so that he could not move. Another,
grasping a sharp knife with her three-toed fore foot, was laying open
the victim's chest and abdomen. No anesthetic had been administered
and the shrieks and groans of the tortured man were terrible to hear.
This, indeed, was vivisection with a vengeance. Cold sweat broke out
upon me as I realized that soon my turn would come. And to think that
where there was no such thing as time I might easily imagine that my
suffering was enduring for months before death finally released me!

The Mahars had paid not the slightest attention to me as I had been
brought into the room. So deeply immersed were they in their work that
I am sure they did not even know that the Sagoths had entered with me.
The door was close by. Would that I could reach it! But those heavy
chains precluded any such possibility. I looked about for some means
of escape from my bonds. Upon the floor between me and the Mahars lay
a tiny surgical instrument which one of them must have dropped. It
looked not unlike a button-hook, but was much smaller, and its point
was sharpened. A hundred times in my boyhood days had I picked locks
with a button-hook. Could I but reach that little bit of polished
steel I might yet effect at least a temporary escape.

Crawling to the limit of my chain, I found that by reaching one hand as
far out as I could my fingers still fell an inch short of the coveted
instrument. It was tantalizing! Stretch every fiber of my being as I
would, I could not quite make it.

At last I turned about and extended one foot toward the object. My
heart came to my throat! I could just touch the thing! But suppose
that in my effort to drag it toward me I should accidentally shove it
still farther away and thus entirely out of reach! Cold sweat broke
out upon me from every pore. Slowly and cautiously I made the effort.
My toes dropped upon the cold metal. Gradually I worked it toward me
until I felt that it was within reach of my hand and a moment later I
had turned about and the precious thing was in my grasp.

A