Three
strong enough to cope with it?"

There was troubled doubt in her own eyes.

"I do not know," she said at last, frankly. "You have heard their
story. What they promise is that they will help. I do not know--any
more than do you, Goodwin!"

I looked up at the dome beneath which I knew the dread Trinity stared
forth; even down upon us. And despite the awe, the assurance, I had
felt when I stood before them I, too, doubted.

"Well," said Larry, "you and I, uncle," he turned to Rador, "and Olaf
here had better decide just what part of the battle we'll lead--"

"Lead!" the handmaiden was appalled. "_You_ lead, Larry? Why you are
to stay with Goodwin and with me--up there, there we can watch."

"Heart's beloved," O'Keefe was stern indeed. "A thousand times I've
looked Death straight in the face, peered into his eyes. Yes, and with
ten thousand feet of space under me an' bursting shells tickling the
ribs of the boat I was in. An' d'ye think I'll sit now on the
grandstand an' watch while a game like this is being pulled? Ye don't
know your future husband, soul of my delight!"

And so we started toward the golden opening, squads of the frog-men
following us soldierly and disappearing about the huge structure. Nor
did we stop until we came to the handmaiden's boudoir. There we seated
ourselves.

"Now," said Larry, "two things I want to know. First--how many can
Yolara muster against us; second, how many of these _Akka_ have we to
meet them?"

Rador gave our equivalent for eighty thousand men as the force Yolara
could muster without stripping her city. Against this force, it
appeared, we could count, roughly, upon two hundred thousand of the
_Akka_.

"And they're some fighters!" exclaimed Larry. "Hell, with odds like
that what're you worrying about? It's over before it's begun."

"But, _Larree_," objected Rador to this, "you forget that the nobles
will have the _Keth_--and other things; also that the soldiers have
fought against the _Akka_ before and will be shielded very well from
their spears and clubs--and that their blades and javelins can bite
through the scales of Nak's warriors. They have many things--"

"Uncle," interjected O'Keefe, "one thing they have is your nerve.
Why, we're more than two to one. And take it from me--"

Without warning dropped the tragedy!

CHAPTER XXXII

"Your Love; Your Lives; Your Souls!"

Lakla had taken no part in the talk since we had reached her bower.
She had