tox! Help me! It can't
be--There must be some help!_

CHAPTER VI

_On the Plains of Ofrid_

Jlomec the Nadian guided his air car across the grassy plains of Ofrid
but a scant few feet above the tops of the waving grasses.

It was a fine day and the Nadian was taking full advantage of it. One
of a race of proud and noble fighting men, Jlomec was an exception to
the rule in that he was a dreamer rather than a fighter, a thinker
rather than a doer, a poet rather than a military strategist.

Thus, his mind dwelt upon the historic incident of the previous days
when, standing beside his brother, Bontarc, he had watched the gray
tower of Portox the Ofridian explode into a fine cloud of dust.

And it was characteristic of the gentle Jlomec that his mind was more
occupied with the romantic aspect of the incident than the violent. He
thought of the poem, the bit of doggerel carved in the foundation
stone of the tower. For a century all Tarthans had puzzled over the
verse put there by Portox so long ago:

An ape, a boar, a stallion,
A land beyond the stars,
A virgin's feast, a raging beast,
A prison without bars.

Had it any meaning? Jlomec wondered. A thousand different
interpretations had been put upon the verse over the years, but no one
knew for sure.

That it had something to do with the slaughter of the Ofridians,
Jlomec was sure. But what?

As he ruminated thus, Jlomec's attention was caught by moving figures
some ten jeks to the south. He knew this to be the location of one of
the great wells that dotted the Plains of Ofrid.

In the times before the great massacre, these wells had been located
in the hearts of the fine Ofridian cities of which the Abarians stood
in great envy. These wells gushed endlessly of cool crystal water
which kept the fabulous hanging gardens of Ofrid multicolored and
beautiful.

But all that was in the past. The Ofridians had been slain to a man
and their cities leveled until not a stone stood upon a stone. Now
lonely grasses grew where once glittered the results of Portox's great
scientific genius. Now there were only round steel doors in the ground
to mark the locations of the great Ofridian wells.

These thoughts occupied Jlomec's mind as he turned his car and coursed
it in the direction of the well. The figures came clearly into view,
causing Jlomec to frown in puzzlement.

What manner of people were these? There were a half dozen of them--two
men, t