erhaps," she said, "to turn suspicion
from us. He has the key to this chamber upon him. Let us open the door
and drag him out--maybe we shall find a place to hide him."

"Good!" exclaimed Tara of Helium, and the two immediately set about the
matter Lan-O had suggested. Quickly they found the key and unlatched
the door and then, between them, they half carried, half dragged, the
corpse of E-Med from the room and down the stairway to the next level
where Lan-O said there were vacant chambers. The first door they tried
was unlatched, and through this the two bore their grisly burden into a
small room lighted by a single window. The apartment bore evidence of
having been utilized as a living-room rather than as a cell, being
furnished with a degree of comfort and even luxury. The walls were
paneled to a height of about seven feet from the floor, while the
plaster above and the ceiling were decorated with faded paintings of
another day.

As Tara's eyes ran quickly over the interior her attention was drawn to
a section of paneling that seemed to be separated at one edge from the
piece next adjoining it. Quickly she crossed to it, discovering that
one vertical edge of an entire panel projected a half-inch beyond the
others. There was a possible explanation which piqued her curiosity,
and acting upon its suggestion she seized upon the projecting edge and
pulled outward. Slowly the panel swung toward her, revealing a dark
aperture in the wall behind.

"Look, Lan-O!" she cried. "See what I have found--a hole in which we
may hide the thing upon the floor."

Lan-O joined her and together the two investigated the dark aperture,
finding a small platform from which a narrow runway led downward into
Stygian darkness. Thick dust covered the floor within the doorway,
indicating that a great period of time had elapsed since human foot had
trod it--a secret way, doubtless, unknown to living Manatorians. Here
they dragged the corpse of E-Med, leaving it upon the platform, and as
they left the dark and forbidden closet Lan-O would have slammed to the
panel had not Tara prevented.

"Wait!" she said, and fell to examining the door frame and the stile.

"Hurry!" whispered the slave girl. "If they come we are lost."

"It may serve us well to know how to open this place again," replied
Tara of Helium, and then suddenly she pressed a foot against a section
of the carved base at the right of the open panel. "Ah!" she breathed,
a note of sat