er
and die. Evidently he carried her words to Luud, since it was not long
after that he told her that the king had ordered that she be confined
in the tower and to the tower she was taken. She had hoped against hope
that this very thing might result from her conversation with Ghek. Even
to see the sun again was something, but now there sprang to her breast
a hope that she had not dared to nurse before, while she lay in the
terrible labyrinth from which she knew she could never have found her
way to the outer world; but now there was some slight reason to hope.
At least she could see the hills and if she could see them might there
not come also the opportunity to reach them? If she could have but ten
minutes--just ten little minutes! The flier was still there--she knew
that it must be. Just ten minutes and she would be free--free forever
from this frightful place; but the days wore on and she was never
alone, not even for half of ten minutes. Many times she planned her
escape. Had it not been for the banths it had been easy of
accomplishment by night. Ghek always detached his body then and sank
into what seemed a semi-comatose condition. It could not be said that
he slept, or at least it did not appear like sleep, since his lidless
eyes were unchanged; but he lay quietly in a corner. Tara of Helium
enacted a thousand times in her mind the scene of her escape. She would
rush to the side of the rykor and seize the sword that hung in its
harness. Before Ghek knew what she purposed, she would have this and
then before he could give an alarm she would drive the blade through
his hideous head. It would take but a moment to reach the enclosure.
The rykors could not stop her, for they had no brains to tell them that
she was escaping. She had watched from her window the opening and
closing of the gate that led from the enclosure out into the fields and
she knew how the great latch operated. She would pass through and make
a quick dash for the hill. It was so near that they could not overtake
her. It was so easy! Or it would have been but for the banths! The
banths at night and the workers in the fields by day.

Confined to the tower and without proper exercise or food, the girl
failed to show the improvement that her captors desired. Ghek
questioned her in an effort to learn why it was that she did not grow
round and plump; that she did not even look as well as when they had
captured her. His concern was prompted by repeated inqu