Reaching out my arms, I took my boy within
them, and if ever there arose from any planet a fervent prayer of
gratitude, it was there beneath the crust of dying Mars as I thanked
the Eternal Mystery for my son's life.
The brief instant in which I had seen and recognized Carthoris
before the chain fell must have been ample to check the force of
the blow. He told me that he had lain unconscious for a time--how
long he did not know.
"How came you here at all?" I asked, mystified that he had found
me without a guide.
"It was by your wit in apprising me of your existence and imprisonment
through the youth, Parthak. Until he came for his harness and his
sword, we had thought you dead. When I had read your note I did
as you had bid, giving Parthak his choice of the harnesses in the
guardroom, and later bringing the jewelled short-sword to him; but
the minute that I had fulfilled the promise you evidently had made
him, my obligation to him ceased. Then I commenced to question
him, but he would give me no information as to your whereabouts.
He was intensely loyal to Zat Arras.
"Finally I gave him a fair choice between freedom and the pits
beneath the palace--the price of freedom to be full information as
to where you were imprisoned and directions which would lead us to
you; but still he maintained his stubborn partisanship. Despairing,
I had him removed to the pits, where he still is.
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