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And now the avenue widened into an immense square, at the far end of which
rose a stately edifice gleaming white in virgin marble among the gaily painted
buildings surrounding it and its scarlet sward and gaily-flowering, green-foliaged
shrubbery. Toward this U-Dor led his prisoners and their guard to the great
arched entrance before which a line of fifty mounted warriors barred the way.
When the commander of the guard recognized U-Dor the guardsmen fell back to
either side leaving a broad avenue through which the party passed. Directly
inside the entrance were inclined runways leading upward on either side. U-Dor
turned to the left and led them upward to the second floor and down a long
corridor. Here they passed other mounted men and in chambers upon either side
they saw more. Occasionally there was another runway leading either up or
down. A warrior, his steed at full gallop, dashed into sight from one of these and
raced swiftly past them upon some errand.
Nowhere as yet had Tara of Helium seen a man afoot in this great building; but
when at a turn, U-Dor led them to the third floor she caught glimpses of
chambers in which many riderless thoats were penned and others adjoining
where dismounted warriors lolled at ease or played games of skill or chance and
many there were who played at jetan, and then the party passed into a long, wide
hall of state, as magnificent an apartment as even a princess of mighty Helium
ever had seen. The length of the room ran an arched ceiling ablaze with countless
radium bulbs. The mighty spans extended from wall to wall leaving the vast floor
unbroken by a single column. The arches were of white marble, apparently
quarried in single, huge blocks from which each arch was cut complete. Between
the arches, the ceiling was set solid about the radium bulbs with precious stones
whose scintillant fire and color and beauty filled the whole apartment. The stones
were carried down the walls in an irregular fringe for a few feet, where they
appeared to hang like a beautiful and gorgeous drapery against the white marble
of the wall. The marble ended some six or seven feet from the floor, the walls from
that point down being wainscoted in solid gold. The floor itself was of marble
richly inlaid with gold. In that single room was a vast treasure equal to the wealth
of many a large city.
But what riveted the girl's attention even more than the fabulous treasure of
decorations were the files of gorgeously harnessed warriors who sat their thoats
in grim silence and immobility on either side of the central aisle, rank after rank
of them to the farther walls, and as the party passed between them she could not
note so much as the flicker of an eyelid, or the twitching of a thoat's ear.
"The Hall of Chiefs," whispered one of her guard, evidently noting her interest.
There was a note of pride in the fellow's voice and something of hushed awe. Then
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