Zat Arras will permit you in due time to reflect
further upon the magnanimous offer he has made you. Into the silence
and darkness of the pits you will enter upon your reflection this
night with the knowledge that should you fail within a reasonable
time to agree to the alternative which has been offered you, never
shall you emerge from the darkness and the silence again. Nor
shall you know at what minute the hand will reach out through the
darkness and the silence with the keen dagger that shall rob you
of your last chance to win again the warmth and the freedom and
joyousness of the outer world."
Zat Arras clapped his hands as he ceased speaking. The guards
returned.
Zat Arras waved his hand in my direction.
"To the pits," he said. That was all. Four men accompanied me
from the chamber, and with a radium hand-light to illumine the way,
escorted me through seemingly interminable tunnels, down, ever down
beneath the city of Helium.
At length they halted within a fair-sized chamber. There were rings
set in the rocky walls. To them chains were fastened, and at the
ends of many of the chains were human skeletons. One of these
they kicked aside, and, unlocking the huge padlock that had held
a chain about what had once been a human ankle, they snapped the
iron band about my own leg. Then they left me, taking the light
with them.
Utter darkness prevailed.
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