For a few minutes I could hear the
clanking of accoutrements, but even this grew fainter and fainter,
until at last the silence was as complete as the darkness. I was
alone with my gruesome companions--with the bones of dead men whose
fate was likely but the index of my own.
How long I stood listening in the darkness I do not know, but the
silence was unbroken, and at last I sunk to the hard floor of my
prison, where, leaning my head against the stony wall, I slept.
It must have been several hours later that I awakened to find
a young man standing before me. In one hand he bore a light, in
the other a receptacle containing a gruel-like mixture--the common
prison fare of Barsoom.
"Zat Arras sends you greetings," said the young man, "and commands
me to inform you that though he is fully advised of the plot to
make you Jeddak of Helium, he is, however, not inclined to withdraw
the offer which he has made you. To gain your freedom you have
but to request me to advise Zat Arras that you accept the terms of
his proposition."
I but shook my head. The youth said no more, and, after placing
the food upon the floor at my side, returned up the corridor, taking
the light with him.
Twice a day for many days this youth came to my cell with food, and
ever the same greetings from Zat Arras. For a long time I tried
to engage him in conversation upon other matters, but he would not
talk, and so, at length, I desisted.
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