r seats.

From the balcony the entire room below was in plain view. At the apex of
its triangle sat the judge, on a raised dais of white stone with a
golden canopy over it. He was a man about fifty--this leader of the
court--garbed in a long loose robe of white. His hair, that fell on his
shoulders, was snowy white, and around his forehead was a narrow white
band. He held in his hand a sort of scepter of gold with a heavy golden
triangle at its end.

In six raised tiers of unequal length, like a triangular flight of
stairs across the angle of the room, and directly in front of the judge,
was the jury--twenty men and twenty women, seated in alternate rows. The
men wore loose robes of gray; the women robes of blue. On a seat raised
slightly above the others sat a man who evidently was speaker for the
men of the jury. On a similar elevated seat was the woman speaker; this
latter was Lylda.

Near the center of the room, facing the judge and jury were two
triangular spaces about twenty feet across, enclosed with a breast-high
wall of stone. Within each of these enclosures were perhaps ten or
twelve people seated on small stone benches. Directly facing the members
of the jury and between them and the two enclosures, was a small
platform raised about four feet above the floor, with several steps
leading up to it from behind.

A number of attendants dressed in the characteristic short tunics, with
breastplates and a short sword hanging from the waist, stood near the
enclosures, and along the sides of the room.

The Chemist leaned over and whispered to his friends: "Those two
enclosed places in the center are for the witnesses. Over there are
those testifying for the accused; the others are witnesses for the
government. The platform is where the accused stands when----"

He broke off suddenly. An expectant hush seemed to run over the room. A
door at the side opened, and preceded and followed by two attendants a
man entered, who walked slowly across the floor and stood alone upon the
raised platform facing the jury.

He was a man of extraordinarily striking look and demeanor. He stood
considerably over six feet in height, with a remarkably powerful yet
lean body. He was naked except for a cloth breech clout girdled about
his loins. His appearance was not that of an Oroid, for beside his
greater height, and more muscular physique, his skin was distinctly of a
more brownish hue. His hair was cut at the base of the neck in O