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ordered that she be confined in the tower and to the tower she was taken. She
had hoped against hope that this very thing might result from her conversation
with Ghek. Even to see the sun again was something, but now there sprang to
her breast a hope that she had not dared to nurse before, while she lay in the
terrible labyrinth from which she knew she could never have found her way to the
outer world; but now there was some slight reason to hope. At least she could see
the hills and if she could see them might there not come also the opportunity to
reach them? If she could have but ten minutes--just ten little minutes! The flier
was still there--she knew that it must be. Just ten minutes and she would be
free--free forever from this frightful place; but the days wore on and she was
never alone, not even for half of ten minutes. Many times she planned her escape.
Had it not been for the banths it had been easy of accomplishment by night.
Ghek always detached his body then and sank into what seemed a semi-
comatose condition. It could not be said that he slept, or at least it did not appear
like sleep, since his lidless eyes were unchanged; but he lay quietly in a corner.
Tara of Helium enacted a thousand times in her mind the scene of her escape.
She would rush to the side of the rykor and seize the sword that hung in its
harness. Before Ghek knew what she purposed, she would have this and then
before he could give an alarm she would drive the blade through his hideous
head. It would take but a moment to reach the enclosure. The rykors could not
stop her, for they had no brains to tell them that she was escaping. She had
watched from her window the opening and closing of the gate that led from the
enclosure out into the fields and she knew how the great latch operated. She
would pass through and make a quick dash for the hill. It was so near that they
could not overtake her. It was so easy! Or it would have been but for the banths!
The banths at night and the workers in the fields by day.
Confined to the tower and without proper exercise or food, the girl failed to show
the improvement that her captors desired. Ghek questioned her in an effort to
learn why it was that she did not grow round and plump; that she did not even
look as well as when they had captured her. His concern was prompted by
repeated inquiries on the part of Luud and finally resulted in suggesting to Tara
of Helium a plan whereby she might find a new opportunity of escape.
"I am accustomed to walking in the fresh air and the sunlight," she told Ghek. "I
cannot become as I was before if I am to be always shut away in this one
chamber, breathing poor air and getting no proper exercise. Permit me to go out
in the fields every day and walk about while the sun is shining. Then, I am sure, I
shall become nice and fat."
"You would run away," he said.
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