climax, then swiftly
died away into silence. A moment later there came the sound of
thousands of claw-like feet scratching over the rocky floor as the
main horde apparently began marching out of the cavern. A detachment
of fifty rat-men appeared at the pit's edge.

A rude metal ladder was shoved down to the captives, and a
metal-collared leader motioned for them to climb up. Seeing nothing
to be gained by refusal, they obeyed. They were seized as they
reached the top, and their hands again bound behind them. The
overwhelming numbers of the rat-men made any attempt at resistance
futile.

There was no sign of the main horde as Joan and Powell were herded
out through the empty cavern and out into the open air again. With
their prisoners in the center of their group, the rat-men started
along a well-worn path that wound through the red vegetation.
Overhead the blood-red moon still blazed down in lurid splendor.

From somewhere ahead of them the captives began to again hear the
distant squealing chant of the main horde. They steadily approached
the sound, until abruptly they emerged into a huge clearing that had
apparently been a ceremonial assembly place for generations, for its
smooth sandy floor was packed down nearly to the hardness of rock.

The main horde of rat-men was there now, countless thousands of
them, packed in a roughly crescent-shaped mob, with the open side of
their formation facing what seemed to be a large deep pit, some
seventy yards in circumference. In the clear space left between the
horde and the edge of the pit was a smaller group, among them the
old king himself.

Powell's heart leaped as he noted that the Silver Belts were still
draped over the mangy old monarch's shoulders. If only he and Joan
could get their hands on those precious Belts before Benjamin
Marlowe broadcast the recall wave that would forever snatch them out
of their reach!

* * * * *

The captives were hurried through the main horde and taken in charge
by a score of picked guards who herded them on to join a small group
of four rat-men near the pit's edge. These four rodents were
apparently also prisoners, for their arms were firmly bound behind
them.

The rat-king, accompanied only by the metal-collared leader, around
whose shoulders the gun-belt was still draped, stood near the pit's
edge some ten yards distant from the guards and captives. Between
the prisoners and the rodent monarch th