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subterranean waters, and presently came to the bank of a great, underground
river, tumbling onward, no doubt, the length of a world to the buried sea of
Omean. Into this torrential sewer had unthinkable generations of ulsios pushed
their few handsful of dirt in the excavating of their vast labyrinth.
For only a moment did Ghek tarry by the river, for his seemingly aimless
wanderings were in reality prompted by a definite purpose, and this he pursued
with vigor and singleness of design. He followed such runways as appeared to
terminate in the pits or other chambers of the inhabitants of the city, and these
he explored, usually from the safety of a burrow's mouth, until satisfied that what
he sought was not there. He moved swiftly upon his spider legs and covered
remarkable distances in short periods of time.
His search not being rewarded with immediate success, he decided to return to
the pit where his rykor lay chained and look to its wants. As he approached the
end of the burrow that terminated in the pit he slackened his pace, stopping just
within the entrance of the runway that he might scan the interior of the chamber
before entering it. As he did so he saw the figure of a warrior appear suddenly in
an opposite doorway. The rykor sprawled upon the table, his hands groping
blindly for more food. Ghek saw the warrior pause and gaze in sudden
astonishment at the rykor; he saw the fellow's eyes go wide and an ashen hue
replace the copper bronze of his cheek. He stepped back as though someone had
struck him in the face. For an instant only he stood thus as in a paralysis of fear,
then he uttered a smothered shriek and turned and fled. Again was it a
catastrophe that Ghek, the kaldane, could not smile.
Quickly entering the room he crawled to the table top and affixed himself to the
shoulders of his rykor, and there he waited; and who may say that Ghek, though
he could not smile, possessed not a sense of humor? For a half-hour he sat there,
and then there came to him the sound of men approaching along corridors of
stone. He could hear their arms clank against the rocky walls and he knew that
they came at a rapid pace; but just before they reached the entrance to his prison
they paused and advanced more slowly. In the lead was an officer, and just
behind him, wide-eyed and perhaps still a little ashen, the warrior who had so
recently departed in haste. At the doorway they halted and the officer turned
sternly upon the warrior. With upraised finger he pointed at Ghek.
"
There sits the creature! Didst thou dare lie, then, to thy dwar?"
"I swear," cried the warrior, "that I spoke the truth. But a moment since the thing
groveled, headless, upon this very table! And may my first ancestor strike me
dead upon the spot if I speak other than a true word!"
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