I tried to break away from the man who held me, but he was very strong.
I did succeed in turning about so that I could strike him; and this I
did repeatedly, hitting him in the face as he sought to reach my throat
with his fingers.
We must have made quite a lot of noise in that quiet street although
neither of us spoke, for soon a head was put out of a window, and
presently men and women came running from their houses. But before any
of them reached us I had tripped my assailant and was on top of him
clutching his throat. I would have choked the life out of him had not
several men dragged me from him.
They were shocked and angry because of this unseemly disturbance and
brawl on a street in Havatoo, and they placed us under arrest, nor
would they listen to what I tried to tell them. All they would say was:
"The judges will listen to you;" "it is not our province to judge."
As every citizen of Havatoo has police powers and there is no other
police force, there was no delay as there would have been in an earthly
city while waiting for the police to answer a summons.
We were bundled into a large car belonging to one of the citizens, and
with an adequate guard we were whisked away toward the Sera Tartum.
They do things with celerity in Havatoo. They may have a jail; I
presume they have, but they didn't waste any time or cause the state
any expense by putting us in to be boarded and lodged by the taxpayers.
Five men were hastily summoned, one from each of the five upper
classes; they were judge, jury, and court of last resort. They sat in a
large room that resembled a huge library; they were served by a dozen
clerks.
One of the judges asked us our names, and when we had given them two
clerks went quickly to the shelves and brought forth books in which
they began to search.
Then the judges asked those who had arrested us to explain why they
brought us in. During the recital of our violation of the peace of
Havatoo one of the clerks, evidently having found what he sought, laid
his book open before the judges; the other was still searching.
From the open book one of the judges read aloud my official record
since I had come to Havatoo, including the result of the examination
that I had undergone and its embarrassing finding.
A judge asked me to state my case. In a few brief words I told of the
unprovoked attack upon us and the abduction of Nalte, and in conclusion
I said, "Instead of wasting time trying me for being the victim of this
unwarranted attack and defending myself against my assailant you should
be helping me search for the girl who has been stolen."
"The peace of Havatoo is of more importance than the life of any
individual," replied a judge. "When we have fixed the responsibility
for this breach of the peace the other matter will be investigated."
The second clerk now approached the judges. "The name of the prisoner
who calls himself Mal Un does not appear in the records of Havatoo."
All eyes turned toward my assailant, Mal Un, and for the first time I
had a good look at him under a bright light. I saw his eyes! Instantly
I recalled what I had evidently noticed only subconsciously before--the
chill of the flesh of his hands and his throat when I had fought with
him. And now those eyes. They were the eyes of a dead man!
I wheeled toward the judges. "I understand it all now," I cried. "When
I first came to Havatoo I was told that there were few bad men in the
city; but that occasionally, none knew how, bad men came from the city
of Kormor across the river and stole men and women from Havatoo. This
man is from Kormor. He is not a living man; he is a corpse. He and his
companion sought to steal Nalte and me for Skor!"
With calm efficiency the judges made a few brief and simple, but none
the less effective, tests upon Mal Un; then they whispered together for
a few seconds without leaving the bench. Following this, the one who
acted as spokesman for the tribunal cleared his throat.
"Mal Un," he announced, "you will be decapitated and cremated
forthwith. Carson Napier, you are exonerated with honor. You are free.
You may conduct a search for your companion and call upon any citizen
of Havatoo to assist you in any way that you desire assistance."
As I was leaving the room I heard a mirthless laugh burst from the dead
mouth of Mal Un. Horribly it rang in my ears as I hastened out into the
night. The dead man laughing because he was sentenced to death!
* * * * *
Naturally, the first person I thought of in my extremity was Ero Shan,
who had rescued me from the ape-men. My own car was parked where I had
left it at the corner of Yorgan Lat and Havatoo Lat; so I hailed a
public conveyance and was driven rapidly to the house at which Ero Shan
was being entertained that evening.
I did not go in but sent word that I wished to speak to him upon a
matter of great urgency, and a moment later I saw him coming from the
house toward me.
"What brings you here, Carson?" he asked. "I thought you were spending
the evening with Nalte."
When I told him what had happened he went very white. "There is no time
to be lost!" he cried. "Can you find that house again?"
I told him that I could. "That doorway is indelibly burned into my
memory."
"Dismiss your car; we will go in mine," he said, and a moment later we
were speeding toward the place where I had lost Nalte.
"You have all my sympathy, my friend," said Ero Shan. "To have lost the
woman you love, and such a woman! is a calamity beyond any feeble words
to express."
"Yes," I replied, "and even if I had loved Nalte I could scarcely be
more grieved than I now am."
"'Even if you had loved Nalte'!" he repeated incredulously. "But, man,
you do love her, do you not?"
"We were only the best of friends," I replied. "Nalte did not love me."
Ero Shan made no reply, he drove swiftly on in silence. Presently we
reached our destination. Ero Shan stopped his car beside the stairway,
nearest the house, that led up to the walkway; and a moment later we
were before the door.
Repeated summons elicited no response, and then I tried the door and
found it unlocked.
Together we entered the dark interior, and I regretted that we had
brought no weapons; but in peaceful Havatoo men do not ordinarily go
armed. Ero Shan soon located a light switch, and as the room in which
we stood was illuminated, we saw that it was entirely unfurnished.
The building rose two stories above the walkway, and of course there
was a lower floor on a level with the street. We searched the upper
stories first, and then the roof, for in this part of Havatoo most of
the roofs are developed as gardens; but we found no sign of recent
habitation. Then we went to the ground floor, but with no better
results. Here was space for the parking of cars, and in rear of that a
number of dark storerooms.
"There is no living creature in this house except ourselves," said
Ero Shan. "They must have taken Nalte to some other house. It will be
necessary to make a search, and only under the authority of the Sanjong
itself may the home of a citizen be searched. Come! we will go and get
that authority."
"You go," I said. "I will remain here. We should keep a careful watch
on this house."
"You are right," he replied. "I shall not be gone long."
* * * * *
After Ero Shan's departure I commenced another careful investigation of
the premises. Once again I went through every room searching for some
secret place where a person might be hidden.
I had covered the upper stories of the house thus, and was searching
the first floor. The dust of neglect lay heavy upon everything, but I
noticed that in one of the back rooms it had been disturbed upon the
floor at a point where Ero Shan and I had not walked. Previously this
had escaped my notice. It seemed to me that it might be fraught with
importance.
I examined the floor carefully. I saw footprints. They approached a
wall; and there they stopped; there seemed to be a path worn in the
dust to this point in the wall. I examined the wall. It was covered
with a form of synthetic wood common in Havatoo, and when I rapped upon
it it sounded hollow.
The wall covering was applied in panels about three feet wide, and at
the top of the panel I was examining was a small round hole about an
inch in diameter. Inserting a fore-finger in this hole I discovered
just what I had imagined I would discover--a latch. I tripped it; and
with a slight pressure the panel swung toward me, revealing a dark
aperture beyond it.
At my feet I dimly discerned the top of a flight of steps. I listened
intently; no sound came up to me from the gloom into which the stairs
disappeared. Naturally, I was convinced that Nalte's abductor had
carried her down that stairway.
I should have waited for the return of Ero Shan, but I thought that
Nalte might be in danger. I could not think of wasting a single
precious instant in delay.
I placed a foot upon the stairs and started to descend; and as I did so
the panel closed softly behind me, actuated by a spring. I heard the
latch click. I was now in utter darkness. I had to feel my way. At any
moment I might come upon Nalte's abductor waiting to dispatch me. It
was a most uncomfortable sensation, I can assure you.
The stairway, which was apparently cut from the living limestone that
underlies Havatoo, ran straight down to a great depth. From the bottom
of the stairway I felt my way along a narrow corridor. Occasionally I
stopped and listened. At first I heard not a sound; the silence was the
silence of the grave.
Presently the walls commenced to feel moist; and then, occasionally,
a drop of water fell upon my head. Now a low, muffled sound like the
shadow of a roar seemed to fill the subterranean corridor like a vague,
oppressive menace.
On and on I groped my way. I could not advance rapidly, for I was
compelled to feel every forward footstep before taking it; I could not
know what lay beyond the last.
Thus I continued on for a long distance until finally my extended foot
felt an obstruction. Investigating, I found that it was the lowest step
of a flight of stairs.
Cautiously I ascended, and at the top I came against a blank wall.
But experience had taught me where to search for a latch, for I was
confident that what barred my progress was a door.
Presently my fingers found what they sought; a door gave to the
pressure of my hand.
I pushed it slowly and cautiously until a narrow crack permitted me to
look beyond it.
I saw a portion of a room dimly illuminated by the night light of
Amtor. I opened the door a little farther; there was no one in the
room. I stepped into it, but before I permitted the door to close I
located the opening through which the latch could be tripped from that
side.
* * * * *
The room in which I found myself was filthy and littered with débris.
It was filled with a revolting, musty odor that suggested death and
decay.
In the wall opposite me were three openings, a doorway and two windows;
but there was no window sash and no door. Beyond the door, to which I
now crossed, was a yard inclosed by one side of the building and a high
wall.
There were three rooms on the ground floor of the building, and these
I searched rapidly; they contained only broken furniture, old rags,
and dirt. I went upstairs. Here were three more rooms; they revealed
nothing more of interest than those downstairs.
Than these six rooms there was nothing more to the house, and so I was
soon aware that I must search farther for Nalte. Neither she nor any
one else was in this house.
From an upper window I looked out over the yard. Beyond the wall I saw
a street. It was a dingy, gloomy street. The houses that fronted it
were drab and dilapidated, but I did not have to look out upon this
scene to know where I was. Long before this I had guessed that I was in
Kormor, the city of the cruel jong of Morov. The tunnel through which I
had passed from Havatoo had carried me beneath the great river that is
called Gerlat kum Rov, River of Death. Now I knew that Nalte had been
abducted by the agents of Skor.
From the window I saw an occasional pedestrian on the street that
passed the house. They moved with slow, shuffling steps. Somewhere in
this city of the dead was Nalte in danger so great that I turned cold
at the mere thought of it. I must find her! But how?
Descending to the yard, I passed through a gateway in the wall and out
into the street. Only the natural, nocturnal light of Amtor illuminated
the scene. I did not know which way to go, yet I knew that I must keep
moving if I were not to attract attention to myself.
My judgment and my knowledge of Skor suggested that where Skor was
there I would find Nalte, and so I knew that I must find the jong's
palace. If I might only stop one of the pedestrians and ask him; but
that I did not dare do, for to reveal my ignorance of the location of
the jong's palace would be to brand me a stranger and therefore an
enemy.
I was approaching two men who were walking in the opposite direction
to that which I had chosen. As I passed them I noted their somber garb,
and I saw them half stop as we came abreast and eye me intently. But
they did not accost me, and it was with relief that I realized that
they had gone on their way.
Now I understood that with my handsome trappings and my brisk, alert
step and carriage I would be a marked man in Kormor. It became
absolutely imperative, therefore, that I disguise myself; but that
was going to be more easily thought of than accomplished. However, it
must be done. I could never hope to find and rescue Nalte if I were
constantly subject to detection and arrest.
Turning, I retraced my steps to the mean hovel I had just quitted, for
there I remembered having seen odds and ends of rags and discarded
clothing from among which I hoped that I might select sufficient to
cover my nakedness and replace the fine apparel I had purchased in
Havatoo.
* * * * *
Nor was I disappointed, and a few moments later I emerged again upon
the streets clothed in the cleanest of the foul garments I had had
to select from. And now, to carry out my disguise to the fullest, I
shuffled slowly along like some carrion from a forgotten grave.
Again I met pedestrians; but this time they gave me no second look, and
I knew that my disguise was ample. To all outward appearances, in this
unlighted city of the dead, I was just another corpse.
In a few houses dim lights burned; but I heard no noises--no singing,
no laughter. Somewhere in this city of horror was Nalte. That so sweet
and lovely a creature was breathing this fetid air was sufficiently
appalling, but of far greater import was the fact that her life hung in
the balance.
If Skor was in the city he might kill her quickly in a fit of mad
revenge because she had escaped him once. My sustaining hope was that
Skor was at his castle and that his minions would hold Nalte unharmed
until he returned to Kormor. But how to learn these things!
I knew that it would be dangerous to question any of the inhabitants;
but finally I realized that in no other way might I quickly find the
house of Skor, and haste was essential if I were to find Nalte before
it was too late.
As I wandered without plan I saw nothing to indicate that I was
approaching a better section such as I felt might contain the palace of
a jong. The houses were all low and grimy and unlovely in design.
I saw a man standing at the intersection of two streets, and as I came
close to him I stopped. He looked at me with his glassy eyes.
"I am lost," I said.
"We are all lost," he replied, his dead tongue thick in his dead mouth.
"I cannot find the house where I live."
"Go into any house; what difference does it make?"
"I want to find my own house," I insisted.
"Go and find it then. How should I know where it is if you do not?"
"It is near the house of the jong," I told him.
"Then go to the house of the jong," he suggested surlily.
"Where is it?" I demanded in the same thick tones.
He pointed down the street that I had been following; and then he
turned and shuffled away in the opposite direction, while I continued
on in the direction he had indicated. I wished to reach my destination
quickly; but I dared not accelerate my speed for fear of attracting
attention, and so I shuffled along in the lifeless manner of the other
wayfarers.
Somewhere ahead of me lay the palace of Skor, jong of Morov; there I
was certain I would find Nalte. But after I found her--what?