Accordingly, I had to steel myself against an endless doom, which

now stared me in the face!

CHAPTER V

SURPRISES

But at last the allotted moment arrived--the moment for which I

had been trying to prepare myself, for how long I could not even

guess. A great Sagoth came and spoke some words of command to

those who watched over me. I was jerked roughly to my feet and

with little consideration hustled upward toward the higher levels.

Out into the broad avenue they conducted me, where, amid huge

throngs of Mahars, Sagoths, and heavily guarded slaves, I was led,

or, rather, pushed and shoved roughly, along in the same direction

that the mob moved. I had seen such a concourse of people once

be-fore in the buried city of Phutra; I guessed, and rightly, that

we were bound for the great arena where slaves who are condemned

to death meet their end.

Into the vast amphitheater they took me, stationing me at the

extreme end of the arena. The queen came, with her slimy, sickening

retinue. The seats were filled. The show was about to commence.

Then, from a little doorway in the opposite end of the structure,

a girl was led into the arena. She was at a considerable distance

from me. I could not see her features.

I wondered what fate awaited this other poor victim and myself,

and why they had chosen to have us die together. My own fate, or

rather, my thought of it, was submerged in the natural pity I felt

for this lone girl, doomed to die horribly beneath the cold, cruel

eyes of her awful captors. Of what crime could she be guilty that

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