I knew that I was dealing with killers, expert swordsmen all; and I did not try to deceive myself into believing that I would be any match for a dozen or more of them.
However, men who live by the sword are not unaccustomed to taking chances, sometimes far more desperate chances than their mission may seem to warrant.
Perhaps such was the case now, but I had come to Zodanga to learn what I could about the guild of assassins headed by the notorious Ur Jan; and now that fortune had placed me in a position where I might gain a great deal of useful information, I had no thought of retreating because a little danger confronted me.
Stealthily I crept forward, and at last I reached the door. Very cautiously I surveyed the interior of the room beyond, as I moved, inch by inch, across the doorway.
It was a small room, evidently an anteroom; and it was untenanted. There was some furniture in it-a table, some benches; and I noticed particularly an old-fashioned cupboard that stood diagonally across one corner of the room, one of its sides about a foot from the wall.
From where I stood in the doorway, I could now hear the voices quite distinctly; and I was confident that the men I sought were in the adjoining room just beyond.
I crept into the anteroom and approached the door at the opposite end. Just to the left of the door was the cupboard that I have mentioned.
I placed my ear close to the panels of the door in an effort to overhear what was being said in the room beyond, but the words came to me indistinct and muffled. This would never do. I could neither see nor hear anything under these conditions.
I decided that I must find some other point of approach and was turning to leave the room when I heard footsteps approaching along the corridor. I was trapped!
CHAPTER IV. DEATH BY NIGHT
On more than one occasion in my life have I been in tight places, but it seemed to me at the time that I had seldom before blundered into such a trap. The footsteps were approaching rapidly along the corridor. I could tell by their sound that they were made by more than one person.
If there were only two men, I might fight my way past them; but the noise of the encounter would attract those in the room behind me, and certainly any sort of a fight whatever would delay me long enough so that those who were attracted by it would be upon me before I could escape.
Escape! How could I escape if I were detected? Even if I could reach the balcony, they would be directly behind me; and I could not climb out of reach toward the roof before they could drag me down.
My position seemed rather hopeless, and then my eye fell upon the cupboard standing in the corner just beside me and the little foot-wide crack between it and the wall.
The footsteps were almost opposite the doorway. There was no time to be lost.
Quickly I slipped behind the cupboard and waited.
Nor was I a moment too soon. The men in the corridor turned into the room almost immediately, so soon, in fact, that it seemed to me that they must have seen me; but evidently they had not, for they crossed directly to the door to the inner chamber, which one of them threw open.
From my hiding place I could see this man plainly and also into the room beyond, while the shadow of the cupboard hid me from detection.
What I saw beyond that door gave me something to think about. There was a large room in the center of which was a great table, around which were seated at least fifty men-fifty of the toughest looking customers that I have ever seen gathered together. At the head of the table was a huge man whom I knew at once to be Ur Jan. He was a very large man, but well proportioned; and I could tell at a glance that he must be a most formidable fighter.
The man who had thrown open the door I could see also, but I could not see his companion or companions as they were hidden from me by the cupboard.
Ur Jan had looked up as the door opened. "What now?" he demanded. "Who have you with you?" and then, "Oh, I recognize him."
"He has a message for you, Ur Jan," said the man at the door. "He said it was a most urgent message, or I would not have brought him here."
"Let him come in," said Ur Jan. "We will see what he wants, and you return to your post."
"Go on in," said the man, turning to his companion behind him, "and pray to your first ancestor that your message interests Ur Jan; as otherwise you will not come out of that room again on your own feet."
He stood aside and I saw a man pass him and enter the room. It was Rapas the Rat.
Just seeing his back as he approached Ur Jan told me that he was nervous and terrified. I wondered what could have brought him here, for it was evident that he was not one of the guild. The same question evidently puzzled Ur Jan, as his next words indicated.
"What does Rapas the Ulsio want here?" he demanded.
"I have come as a friend," replied Rapas. "I have brought word to Ur Jan that he has long wanted."
"The best word that you could bring to me would be that someone had slit your dirty throat," growled Ur Jan.
Rapas laughed-it was a rather weak and nervous laugh.
"The great Ur Jan likes his little joke," mumbled Rapas meekly.
The brute at the head of the table leaped to his feet and brought his clenched fist down heavily upon the solid sorapus wood top.
"What makes you think I joke, you miserable little slit throat? But you had better laugh while you can, for if you haven't some important word for me, if you have come here where it is forbidden that outsiders come, if you have interrupted this meeting for no good reason, I'll put a new mouth in your throat; but you won't be able to laugh through it."
"I just wanted to do you a favor," pleaded Rapas. "I was sure that you would like to have the information that I bring, or I would not have come."
"Well, quick! out with it, what is it?"
"I know who does Fal Sivas's killing."
Ur Jan laughed. It was rather a nasty laugh. "So do I," he bellowed; "it is Rapas the Ulsio."
"No, no, Ur Jan," cried Rapas, "you wrong me. Listen, Ur Jan."
"You have been seen entering and leaving the house of Fal Sivas," accused the assassin chief. "You are in his employ; and for what purpose would he employ such as you, unless it was to do his killing for him?"
"Yes, I went to the house of Fal Sivas. I went there often. He employed me as his bodyguard, but I only took the position so that I might spy upon him. Now that I have learned what I went there to learn, I have come straight to you."
"Well, what did you learn?"
"I have told you. I have learned who does his killing."
"Well, who is it, if it isn't you?"
"He has in his employ a stranger to Zodanga-a panthan named Vandor. It is this man who does the killing."
I could not repress a smile. Every man thinks that he is a great character reader; and when something like this occurs to substantiate his belief, he has reason to be pleased; and the more so because few men are really good judges of character, and it is therefore very seldom that one of us is open to self-congratulation on this score.
I had never trusted Rapas, and from the first I had set him down as a sneak and a traitor. Evidently he was all these.
Ur Jan glowered at him skeptically. "And why do you bring me this information? You are not my friend. You are not one of my people, and as far as I know you are the friend of none of us."
"But I wish to be," begged Rapas. "I risked my life to get this information for you because I want to join the guild and serve under the great Ur Jan. If that came to pass, it would be the proudest day of my life. Ur Jan is the greatest man in Zodanga-he is the greatest man on all Barsoom. I want to serve him, and I will serve him faithfully."