Viking_ and the
landing of its crew as ordered by Lansa. As the radio was turned off,
the Lord of the Scaly Ones stood up with his thin lipped smile.

"Good! Our plans progress. Now you three will go back to a cell. And,
since you are no longer of any value to us, you will be used when we
hunt the giant Dakta on the shore tomorrow."

* * * * *

The three prisoners were placed in the same cell, all spread-eagled
against the wall with their outstretched arms held by metal cuffs. Angus
McTavish's face was sour and glowering as he turned to Gerry.

"That was an ill thing that ye did, Gerry Norton," he growled.

"I could not see them whip her any more."

"The three of us will probably meet as bad a fate soon anyway, from what
that thin faced devil said at the end, and, meanwhile, ye've lured our
comrades to destruction."

"It couldn't be helped," Gerry said, and closed his eyes. He had taken
what was probably the longest chance of his career, and he was not in a
mood to talk about it. Particularly when every faintest syllable uttered
in one of these metal cells could be heard by the guards in the
corridor outside!

There was little rest for any of them, chained in that awkward position
and with the cell always filled with that pitiless green light. Gerry
dozed fitfully from time to time. Closana seemed to have fallen asleep,
drooping forward in her bonds with her head hanging low, but her long
hair covered her face and it was hard to tell. Angus made no attempt to
sleep at all, and for most of the intervening time he was muttering many
tongued curses into his beard.

At last they were freed from their chains. They were given water in
metal cups, and a bowl of some kind of stew to eat. For perhaps an hour
they rested and eased their stiffened muscles. Then more guards came and
bound their hands behind them and took them away.

It was again broad daylight when they were taken out into the streets of
the city, the peculiarly yellow daylight that filtered through the
cloudy canopy overhead. The three prisoners were surrounded by a heavy
guard of reptile men who marched them across the city and out through a
gate in the far wall. Here a broad plain swept down to the waters of a
saffron colored lake, a sheet of water so vast that its far shore was no
more than a dun line along the horizon. A sort of grandstand had been
erected along one side of the plain.

"I think I begin to understand