It came
from a torch in the hand of one of a party of four green warriors,
who were coming rapidly down the corridor toward me. They had
not yet seen me, and so I lost no time in slipping into the first
intersecting corridor that I could find. This time, however, I
did not advance so far away from the main corridor as on the other
occasion that had resulted in my losing Tars Tarkas and his guards.
The party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway in which
I crouched against the wall. As they passed by I breathed a sigh
of relief. I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party
was the same that I had followed into the pits. It consisted of
Tars Tarkas and his three guards.
I fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which the
great Thark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained without
while the man with the keys entered with the Thark to fasten his
irons upon him once more. The two outside started to stroll slowly
in the direction of the spiral runway which led to the floors above,
and in a moment were lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.
The torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so that its
rays illuminated both the corridor and the cell at the same time.
As I saw the two warriors disappear I approached the entrance to
the cell, with a well-defined plan already formulated.
While I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I had
decided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tars Tarkas and I were
to go back together to my little camp in the hills.
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