"It is not strange. I will tell you why when we have

more time."

Together we returned to the cell in which Xodar sat; descending to

talk with him until the hour had passed.

There we made our plans for the immediate future, binding ourselves

by a solemn oath to fight to the death for one another against

whatsoever enemies should confront us, for we knew that even should

we succeed in escaping the First Born we might still have a whole

world against us--the power of religious superstition is mighty.

It was agreed that I should navigate the craft after we had reached

her, and that if we made the outer world in safety we should attempt

to reach Helium without a stop.

"Why Helium?" asked the red youth.

"I am a prince of Helium," I replied.

He gave me a peculiar look, but said nothing further on the subject.

I wondered at the time what the significance of his expression

might be, but in the press of other matters it soon left my mind,

nor did I have occasion to think of it again until later.

"Come," I said at length, "now is as good a time as any. Let us

go."

Another moment found me at the top of the partition wall again with

the boy beside me. Unbuckling my harness I snapped it together

with a single long strap which I lowered to the waiting Xodar below.

He grasped the end and was soon sitting beside us.

"How simple," he laughed.

"The balance should be even simpler," I replied. Then I raised

myself to the top of the outer wall of the prison, just so that

I could peer over and locate the passing sentry. For a matter of

five minutes I waited and then he came in sight on his slow and

snail-like beat about the structure.

I watched him until he had made the turn at the end of the building

which carried him out of sight of the side of the prison that was

to witness our dash for freedom. The moment his form disappeared

I grasped Xodar and drew him to the top of the wall. Placing one

end of my harness strap in his hands I lowered him quickly to the

ground below. Then the boy grasped the strap and slid down to

Xodar's side.

In accordance with our arrangement they did not wait for me, but

walked slowly toward the water, a matter of a hundred yards, directly

past the guard-house filled with sleeping soldiers.

They had taken scarce a dozen steps when I too dropped to the

ground and followed them leisurely toward the shore. As I passed

the guard-house the thought of all the good blades lying there

gave me pause, for if ever men were to have need of swords it was

my companions and I on the perilous trip upon which we were about

to embark.

I glanced toward Xodar and the youth and saw that they had slipped

over the edge of the dock into the water. In accordance with our

plan they were to remain there clinging to the metal rings which

studded the concrete-like substance of the dock at the water's

level, with only their mouths and noses above the surface of the

sea, until I should join them.

The lure of the swords within the guard-house was strong upon me,

and I hesitated a moment, half inclined to risk the attempt to take

the few we needed. That he who hesitates is lost proved itself a

true aphorism in this instance, for another moment saw me creeping

stealthily toward the door of the guard-house.

Gently I pressed it open a crack; enough to discover a dozen blacks

stretched upon their silks in profound slumber. At the far side

of the room a rack held the swords and firearms of the men. Warily

I pushed the door a trifle wider to admit my body. A hinge gave

out a resentful groan. One of the men stirred, and my heart stood

still. I cursed myself for a fool to have thus jeopardized our

chances for escape; but there was nothing for it now but to see

the adventure through.

With a spring as swift and as noiseless as a tiger's I lit beside

the guardsman who had moved. My hands hovered about his throat

awaiting the moment that his eyes should open. For what seemed

an eternity to my overwrought nerves I remained poised thus. Then

the fellow turned again upon his side and resumed the even respiration

of deep slumber.

Carefully I picked my way between and over the soldiers until I

had gained the rack at the far side of the room. Here I turned to

survey the sleeping men. All were quiet. Their regular breathing

rose and fell in a soothing rhythm that seemed to me the sweetest

music I ever had heard.

Gingerly I drew a long-sword from the rack. The scraping of

the scabbard against its holder as I withdrew it sounded like the

filing of cast iron with a great rasp, and I looked to see the room

immediately filled with alarmed and attacking guardsmen. But none

stirred.

The second sword I withdrew noiselessly, but the third clanked in

its scabbard with a frightful din. I knew that it must awaken some

of the men at least, and was on the point of forestalling their

attack by a rapid charge for the doorway, when again, to my intense

surprise, not a black moved. Either they were wondrous heavy

sleepers or else the noises that I made were really much less than

they seemed to me.

I was about to leave the rack when my attention was attracted by

the revolvers. I knew that I could not carry more than one away

with me, for I was already too heavily laden to move quietly with

any degree of safety or speed. As I took one of them from its pin

my eye fell for the first time on an open window beside the rack.

Ah, here was a splendid means of escape, for it let directly upon

the dock, not twenty feet from the water's edge.

And as I congratulated myself, I heard the door opposite me open,

and there looking me full in the face stood the officer of the guard.

He evidently took in the situation at a glance and appreciated the

gravity of it as quickly as I, for our revolvers came up simultaneously

and the sounds of the two reports were as one as we touched the

buttons on the grips that exploded the cartridges.

I felt the wind of his bullet as it whizzed past my ear, and at the

same instant I saw him crumple to the ground. Where I hit him I do

not know, nor if I killed him, for scarce had he started to collapse

when I was through the window at my rear.