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"Don't give up," I urged; "you must see them. Persevere, and you shall see
them."
"Now," I said, turning to Gar Nal, "I have some good news. Our ships are safe;
yours still lies in the courtyard. They are afraid to approach it."
"And yours?" he asked.
"It floats in the sky, high above the castle."
"You brought others with you from Barsoom?" he asked.
"No," I replied.
"But there must be somebody aboard the ship, or it could not get up there and
remain under control."
"There is someone aboard it," I replied.
He looked puzzled. "But you just said that you brought no one with you," he
challenged.
"There are two Tarid warriors aboard it."
"But how can they handle it? What can they know about the intricate mechanism
of
Fal Sivas's craft?"
"They know nothing about it and cannot handle it."
"Then how in the name of Issus did it get up there?" he demanded.
"That is something that you need not know, Gar Nal," I told him. "The fact is,
that it is there."
"But what good will it do us, hanging up there in the sky?"
"I think that I can get it, when the time comes," I said, although, as a matter
of fact, I was not positive that I could control the ship through the mechanical
brain at so great a distance. "I am not so much worried about my ship, Gar Nal,
as I am about yours. We should recover it, for after we escape from this castle,
our truce is off; and it would not be well for us to travel on the same ship."
He acquiesced with a nod, but I saw his eyes narrow craftily. I wondered if that
expression reflected some treacherous thought; but I passed the idea off with a
mental shrug, as really it did not make much difference what Gar Nal was
thinking as long as I could keep my eyes on him until I had Dejah Thoris safely
aboard my own craft.
Ur Jan was sitting on a bench, glaring into space; and I knew that he was
concentrating his stupid brain in an effort to cast off the hypnotic spell under
which the Tarids had placed him. Umka lay curled up on a rug, purring
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contentedly. Jat Or stood looking out of one of the windows.
The door opened, and we all turned toward it. I saw Ulah, the Jeddara's slave,
bearing a large earthen jar of food. She set it down upon the floor inside the
door, and stepping back into the corridor, closed and fastened the door after
her.
I walked quickly to the jar and picked it up; and as I turned back toward the
others, I saw Ur Jan standing wide-eyed staring at the door.
"What's the matter, Ur Jan?" I asked. "You look as though you had seen a ghost."
"I saw her!" he exclaimed. "I saw her. Ghost or no ghost, I saw her."
"Good!" ejaculated Jat Or; "now we are all free from that damnable spell."
"Give me a good sword," growled Ur Jan; "and well soon be free of the castle,
too."
"We've got to get out of this room first," Gar Nal reminded him.
"I think we have the means of escape here, in this jar," I told them. "Come, we
might as well eat the food, as long as we have it, and see what we find in the
bottom of the jar."
The others gathered around me, and we started to empty the jar in the most
pleasurable fashion; nor had we gone deep into it before I discovered three
files, and with these we immediately set to work upon the bars of one of our
windows.
"Don't cut them all the way through," I cautioned; "just weaken three of them so
that we can pull them aside when the time arrives."
The metal of which the bars were constructed was either some element unknown
upon Earth or Barsoom. or an equally mysterious alloy. It was very hard. In
fact, it seemed at first that it was almost as hard as our files; but at last
they commenced to bite into it, yet I saw that it was going to be a long, hard
job.
We worked upon those bars all that night and all of the following day.
When slaves brought our food, two of us stood looking out of the window, our
hands grasping the bars so as to cover up the evidence of our labors; and thus
we succeeded in finishing the undertaking without being apprehended.
Night fell. The time was approaching when I might put to trial the one phase of
my plan that was the keystone upon which the success of the entire adventure
must rest. If it failed, all our work upon the bars would be set for naught, our
hopes of escape practically blasted. I had not let the others know what I
purposed attempting, and I did not now acquaint them with the doubts and fears
that assailed me.
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