“Don’t worry about me,” I replied; “I can take care of myself. Do as I tell you.”
I took her into my room and made her lie down on the little platform that serves in Barsoom as a bed. Then I threw the sleeping silks and furs over her in a jumbled heap. Only by close examination could anyone have discovered that her little form lay hidden beneath them.
Stepping into the living room, I took a book at random from the shelf; and seating myself in a chair, opened it. I had scarcely done so, when I heard a scratching on the outside of the door leading to the corridor.
“Come in,” I called.
The door opened, and Fal Sivas stepped into the room.
III. Trapped
Lowering my book, I looked up as Fal Sivas entered. He glanced quickly and suspiciously about the apartment. I had purposely left the door to my sleeping room open, so as not to arouse suspicion should anyone come in to investigate.
The doors to the other sleeping room and bath were also open. Fal Sivas glanced at the book in my hand. “Rather heavy reading for a panthan,” he remarked.
I smiled. “I recently read his Theoretical Mechanics. This is an earlier work, I believe, and not quite so authoritative. I was merely glancing through it.”
Fal Sivas studied me intently for a moment. “Are you not a little too well educated for your calling?” he asked.
“One may never know too much,” I replied.
“One may know too much here,” he said, and I recalled what the girl had told me.
His tone changed. “I stopped in to see if everything was all right with you, if you were comfortable.”
“Very,” I replied.
“You have not been disturbed? No one has been here?”
“The house seems very quiet,” I replied. “I heard someone laughing a short time ago, but that was all. It did not disturb me.”
“Has anyone come to your quarters?” he asked.
“Why, was someone supposed to come?”
“No one, of course,” he said shortly, and then he commenced to question me in an evident effort to ascertain the extent of my mechanical and chemical knowledge.
“I really know little of either subject,” I told him. “I am a fighting man by profession, not a scientist. Of course, familiarity with fliers connotes some mechanical knowledge, but after all I am only a tyro.”
He was studying me quizzically. “I wish that I knew you better,” he said at last; “I wish that I knew that I could trust you. You are an intelligent man. In the matter of brains, I am entirely alone here. I need an assistant. I need such a man as you.” He shook his head, rather disgustedly. “But what is the use? I can trust no one.”
“You employed me as your bodyguard. For that work I am fitted. Let it go at that.”
“You are right,” he agreed. “Time will tell what else you are fitted for.”
“And if I am to protect you,” I continued, “I must know more about your enemies. I must know who they are, and I must learn their plans.”
“There are many who would like to see me destroyed, or destroy me themselves; but there is one who, above all others, would profit by my death. He is Gar Nal, the inventor.” He looked up at me questioningly.
“I have never heard of him,” I said. “You must remember that I have been absent from Zodanga for many years.”
He nodded. “I am perfecting a ship that will traverse space. So is Gar Nal. He would like not only to have me destroyed, but also to steal the secrets of my invention that would permit him to perfect his; but Ur Jan is the one I most fear, because Gar Nal has employed him to destroy me.”
“I am unknown in Zodanga. I will hunt out this Ur Jan and see what I can learn.”
There was one thing that I wanted to learn right then, and that was whether or not Fal Sivas would permit me to leave his house on any pretext.
“You could learn nothing,” he said; “their meetings are secret. Even if you could gain admission, which is doubtful, you would be killed before you could get out again.”
“Perhaps not,” I said; “it is worth trying, anyway. Do you know where they hold their meetings?”
“Yes, but if you want to try that, I will have Rapas guide you to the building.”
“If I am to go, I do not want Rapas to know anything about it,” I said.
“Why?” he demanded.
“Because I do not trust him,” I replied. “I would not trust anyone with knowledge of my plans.”
“You are quite right. When you are ready to go, I can give you directions so that you can find their meeting place.”
“I will go tomorrow,” I said, “after dark.”
He nodded his approval. He was standing where he could look directly into the bedroom where the girt was hidden. “Have you plenty of sleeping silks and furs?” he asked.
“Plenty,” I replied, “but I will bring my own tomorrow.”
“That will not be necessary. I will furnish you all that you require.” He still stood staring into that other room. I wondered if he suspected the truth, or if the girl had moved or her breathing were noticeable under the pile of materials beneath which she was hidden.
I did not dare to turn and look for myself for fear of arousing his suspicions further. I just sat there waiting, my hands close to the hilt of my short sword.
Perhaps the girl was near discovery; but, if so, Fal Sivas was also near death that moment.
At last he turned toward the outer doorway. “I will give you directions tomorrow for reaching the headquarters of the gorthans, and also tomorrow I will send you a slave. Do you wish a man or a woman?”
I preferred a man, but I thought that I detected here a possible opportunity for protecting the girl. “A woman,” I said.
He smiled. “And a pretty one, eh?”
“I should like to select her myself, if I may.”
“As you wish,” he replied. “I shall let you look them over tomorrow. May you sleep well.”
He left the room and closed the door behind him; but I knew that he stood outside for a long time, listening.
I picked I up the book once more and commenced to read it; but not a word registered on my consciousness, for all my faculties were centered on listening.
After what seemed a long time, I heard him move away; and shortly after I distinctly heard a door close on the level above me. Not until then did I move, but now I arose and went to the door. It was equipped with a heavy bar on the inside, and this I slid silently into its keeper.
Crossing the room, I entered the chamber where the girl lay and threw back the covers that concealed her. She had not moved. As she looked up at me, I placed a finger across my lips.
“You heard?” I asked in a low whisper.
She nodded.
“Tomorrow I will select you as my slave. Perhaps later I shall find a way to liberate you.”
“You are kind,” she said.
I reached down and took her by the hand. “Come,” I said, “into the other room. You can sleep there safely tonight, and in the morning we will plan how we may carry out the rest of our scheme.”
“I think that will not be difficult,” she said. “Early in the morning everyone but Fal Sivas goes to a large dining room on this level. Many of them will pass along this corridor. I can slip out, unseen, and join them. At breakfast you will have an opportunity of seeing all the slaves. Then you may select me if you still wish to do so.”
There were sleeping silks and furs in the room that I had assigned to her, and I knew that she would be comfortable; so I left her, and returning to my own room completed my preparations for the night that had been so strangely interrupted.
Early the next morning Zanda awoke me. “It will soon be time for them to go to breakfast,” she said. “You must go before I do, leaving the door open. Then when there is no one in the corridor, I will slip out.”
As I left my quarters, I saw two or three people moving along the corridor in the direction that Zanda had told me the dining room lay; and so I followed them, finally entering a large room in which there was a table that would seat about twenty. It was already over half filled. Most of the slaves were women—young women, and many of them were beautiful.