o him: "Remember, Ghek, you
still live!" Then they led her along the interminable tunnels to where
Luud awaited her.

When she was conducted into his presence he was squatting in a corner
of the chamber upon his six spidery legs. Near the opposite wall lay
his rykor, its beautiful form trapped in gorgeous harness--a dead thing
without a guiding kaldane. Luud dismissed the warriors who had
accompanied the prisoner. Then he sat with his terrible eyes fixed upon
her and without speaking for some time. Tara of Helium could but wait.
What was to come she could only guess. When it came would be
sufficiently the time to meet it. There was no necessity for
anticipating the end. Presently Luud spoke.

"You think to escape," he said, in the deadly, expressionless monotone
of his kind--the only possible result of orally expressing reason
uninfluenced by sentiment. "You will not escape. You are merely the
embodiment of two imperfect things--an imperfect brain and an imperfect
body. The two cannot exist together in perfection. There you see a
perfect body." He pointed toward the rykor. "It has no brain. Here,"
and he raised one of his chelae to his head, "is the perfect brain. It
needs no body to function perfectly and properly as a brain. You would
pit your feeble intellect against mine! Even now you are planning to
slay me. If you are thwarted in that you expect to slay yourself. You
will learn the power of mind over matter. I am the mind. You are the
matter. What brain you have is too weak and ill-developed to deserve
the name of brain. You have permitted it to be weakened by impulsive
acts dictated by sentiment. It has no value. It has practically no
control over your existence. You will not kill me. You will not kill
yourself. When I am through with you you shall be killed if it seems
the logical thing to do. You have no conception of the possibilities
for power which lie in a perfectly developed brain. Look at that rykor.
He has no brain. He can move but slightly of his own volition. An
inherent mechanical instinct that we have permitted to remain in him
allows him to carry food to his mouth; but he could not find food for
himself. We have to place it within his reach and always in the same
place. Should we put food at his feet and leave him alone he would
starve to death. But now watch what a real brain may accomplish."

He turned his eyes upon the rykor and squatted there glaring at the
insensate thing. Presently, to the