, rising to go.

"Tonight, or tomorrow," repeated Solan, and as the door closed
behind his guest the old man continued to mutter as he turned back
to the table, where he again dumped the contents of the money-pouch,
running his fingers through the heap of shining metal; piling the
coins into little towers; counting, recounting, and fondling the
wealth the while he muttered on and on in a crooning undertone.

Presently his fingers ceased their play; his eyes popped wider
than ever as they fastened upon the door through which Thurid
had disappeared. The croon changed to a querulous muttering, and
finally to an ugly growl.

Then the old man rose from the table, shaking his fist at the closed
door. Now he raised his voice, and his words came distinctly.

"Fool!" he muttered. "Think you that for your happiness Solan will
give up his life? If you escaped, Salensus Oll would know that
only through my connivance could you have succeeded. Then would
he send for me. What would you have me do? Reduce the city and
myself to ashes? No, fool, there is a better way--a better way
for Solan to keep thy money and be revenged upon Salensus Oll."

He laughed in a nasty, cackling note.

"Poor fool! You may throw the great switch that will give you
the freedom of the air of Okar, and then, in fatuous security, go
on with thy red princess to the freedom of--death. When you have
passed beyond this chamber in your flight, what can prevent Solan
replacing the switch as it was before your vile hand touched it?
Nothing; and then the Guardian of the North will claim you and
your woman, and Salensus Oll, when he sees your dead bodies, will
never dream that the hand of Solan had aught to do with the thing."

Then his voice dropped once more into mutterings that I could not
translate, but I had heard enough to cause me to guess a great deal
more, and I thanked the kind Providence that had led me to this
chamber at a time so filled with importance to Dejah Thoris and
myself as this.

But how to pass the old man now! The cord, almost invisible upon
the floor, stretched straight across the apartment to a door upon
the far side.

There was no other way of which I knew, nor could I afford to
ignore the advice to "follow the rope." I must cross this room,
but however I should accomplish it undetected with that old man in
the very center of it baffled me.

Of course I might have sprung in upon him and with my bare hands
silenced him