as before in the tower. Georg had
escaped with Maida, they said; or at least, they hoped so. And they
described the burning of the other tower. The city had been in a
turmoil. It still was; I could hear now the shouts of the crowd outside.
And turning as I lay there, through the casement I could see the
blackened, still smoking ruins of Maida's tower; the broken iron
terrace; the spider bridge melted away, hanging loose and dangling like
an aimless pendulum.

The latest news, Elza and Wolfgar could not give me. The instrument room
of our tower had been disconnected by Tarrano when he left some hours
before. As they said it, we heard a familiar buzz; then the drone of an
announcer's voice. Tarrano's guard had doubtless observed my recovery
and had had orders to throw current into our instruments. Strange man,
this Tarrano! He wished the news spread before us again. Confident of
his own dominance over every crisis, he wanted Elza and me to hear it as
it came from the discs.

We went to the instrument room. I found myself weak, but quite
uninjured. Elza left us there, and went to prepare food which I needed
to strengthen me.

The public events of those hours and days following, I have recounted as
Georg saw them and took part in them in Washington. We observed them,
here in the tower, with alternate hopes and fears. Our life of
imprisonment went on much as before. Occasionally, Tarrano visited us,
always making us sit like children before him, while at his ease he
reclined on our divan.

But he would never give us much real information; the man always was an
enigma.

"Your friend Georg has a wonderful plan," he announced to us ironically
early one evening. He smiled his caustic smile. "You have seen the
tape?"

"Yes," I said. It was Georg's plan to address with Maida, the publics of
Earth, Venus and Mars.

Tarrano nodded. "He and the Princess are going to convince everyone that
I am an impostor."

I did not answer that; and abruptly he chuckled. "That would be
unfortunate for me--if they could do that. Do you think they'll be able
to?"

"I hope so," I said.

He laughed openly. "Of course. But they will not. That long note of mine
to your government--you read it, naturally. But you didn't read in it my
secret instructions to my agents in Washington, did you? Well, they were
there in it--my commands--the letters ending its words made another
message."

He was amused at our discomfiture. "Simple enough? Yet r