The men had but scarcely seated themselves when I arose. “I must be getting along, Rapas,” I said; “I have some important work to do tonight. I hope you will forgive me for running off like this, but perhaps I shall see you again tomorrow night.”
He tried to detain me. “Don’t hurry away,” he exclaimed; “wait just a few moments. There are a number of things I should like to talk to you about.”
“They will have to wait until tomorrow,” I told him. “May you sleep well, Rapas,” and with that I turned and left the building.
I went only a short distance along the avenue in the opposite direction to that which led toward the house of Fal Sivas. I concealed myself in the shadows of a doorway then and waited, nor had I long to wait before the two assassins emerged and hurried off in the direction in which they supposed I had gone. A moment or two later Rapas came out of the building. He hesitated momentarily and then he started walking slowly in the direction taken by the assassins.
When all three were out of sight, I came from my hiding-place and went at once to the building on the top of which my flier was stored.
The proprietor was puttering around one of the hangars when I came onto the roof. I could have wished him elsewhere, as I did not particularly care to have my comings and goings known.
“I don’t see much of you,” he said.
“No,” I replied; “I have been very busy.” I continued in the direction of the hangar where my ship was stored.
“Going to take your flier out tonight?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Watch out for the patrol boats,” he said, “if you are on any business you wouldn’t want the authorities to know about. They have been awfully busy the last couple of nights.”
I didn’t know whether he was just giving me a friendly tip, or if he were trying to get some information from me. There are many organizations, including the government, that employ secret agents. For aught I knew, the fellow might be a member of the assassins’ guild.
“Well,” I said, “I hope the police don’t follow me tonight.” He pricked up his ears. “I don’t need any help; and, incidentally, she is extremely good-looking.”
I winked at him and nudged him with my elbow as I passed, in a fashion that I thought his low mentality would grasp. And it did.
He laughed and slapped me on the back. “I guess you’re worried more about her father than you are the police,” he said.
“Say,” he called after me, as I was climbing to the deck of my flier, “ain’t she got a sister?”
As I slipped silently out over the city, I heard the hangar man laughing at his own witticism; and I knew that if he had had any suspicions I had lulled them.
It was quite dark, neither moon being in the heavens; but this very fact would make me all the more noticeable to patrol boats above me when I was passing over the more brilliantly lighted portions of the city, and so I quickly sought dark avenues and flew low among the dense shadows of the buildings.
It was a matter of only a few minutes before I reached my destination and dropped my flier gently to the roof of the building that housed the headquarters of the assassins’ guild of Zodanga.
Rapas’ statement that Ur Jan and his lieutenants were perfecting a plan aimed at my activities against them was the magnet that had lured me here this night.
I had decided that I would not again attempt to use the anteroom off their meeting-place, as not only was the way to it fraught with too much danger but even were I to safely reach the shadowed niche behind the cupboard, I still would be unable to hear anything of their proceedings through the closed door.
I had another plan, and this I put into immediate execution.
I brought my flier to rest at the edge of the roof directly above the room in which the assassins met; then I made a rope fast to one of the rings in her gunwale.
Lying on my belly, I looked over the edge of the roof to make sure of my position and found that I had gauged it to a nicety. Directly below me was the edge of a balcony before a lighted window. My rope hung slightly to one side of the window where it was not visible to those within the room.
Carefully I set the controls of my ship and then tied the end of a light cord to the starting lever. These matters attended to, I grasped the rope and slipped over the eaves of the roof, carrying the light cord in one hand.
I descended quietly, as I had left my weapons on my flier lest they clank against one another or scrape against the side of the building as I descended and thus attract attention to me.
Very cautiously I descended; and when I had come opposite the window, I found that I could reach out with one hand and grasp the rail of the balcony. I drew myself slowly to it and into a position where I could stand securely.
Shortly after I had dropped below the edge of the roof, I had heard voices; and now that I was close to the window, I was delighted to discover that it was open and that I could hear quite well nearly all that was going on within the room. I recognized Ur Jan’s voice. He was speaking as I drew myself to the balcony.
“Even if we get him tonight,” he said, “and he is the man I think he is, we can still collect ransom from the girl’s father or grandfather.”
“And it should be a fat ransom,” said another voice.
“All that a great ship will carry,” replied Ur Jan, “and with it a promise of immunity for all the assassins of Zodanga and their promise that they will not persecute us further.”
I could not but wonder whom they were plotting against now—probably some wealthy noble; but what connection there was between my death and the kidnaping of the girl, I could not fathom, unless, perhaps, they were not speaking of me at all but of another.
At this point, I heard a rapping sound and Ur Jan’s voice saying, “Come in.”
I heard a door open and the sound of men entering the room.
“Ah,” exclaimed Ur Jan, clapping his hands together, “you got him tonight! Two of you were too many for him, eh?”
“We did not get him,” replied a surly voice.
“What?” demanded Ur Jan. “Did he not come to the eating-place tonight?”
“He was there all right,” said another voice, which I recognized instantly as that of Rapas. “I had him there, as I promised.”
“Well, why didn’t you get him?” demanded Ur Jan angrily.
“When he left the eating-place,” explained one of the other men, “we followed him immediately; but he had disappeared when we reached the avenue. He was nowhere in sight; and though we walked rapidly all the way to the house of Fal Sivas, we saw nothing of him.”
“Was he suspicious?” asked Ur Jan. “Do you think that he guessed that you had come there for him?”
“No, I am sure he did not. He did not seem to notice us at all. I did not even see him look at us.”
“I cannot understand how he disappeared so quickly,” said Rapas, “but we can get him tomorrow night. He has promised to meet me there then.”
“Listen,” said Ur Jan; “you must not fail me tomorrow. I am sure that this man is John Carter. After all, though, I am glad that we did not kill him. I have just thought of a better plan. I will send four of you tomorrow night to wait near the house of Fal Sivas. I want you to take John Carter alive and bring him to me. With him alive, we can collect two shiploads of treasure for his princess.”
“And then we will have to hide in the pits of Zodanga all the rest of our lives,” demurred one of the assassins.
Ur Jan laughed. “After we collect the ransom, John Carter will never bother us again,” he said.
“You mean—?”
“I am an assassin, am I not?” demanded Ur Jan. “Do you think that an assassin will let a dangerous enemy live?”