"I do not know," replied Nur An, "but from the awe-hushed tones in which they mention it, I imagine that it must be very terrible." "Torture, do you imagine?" I asked. "Perhaps," he replied. "They will find that the men of Helium who know so well how to live, know also how to die," I said. "I shall hope to render a good account of myself also," said Nur An. "I shall not give them the satisfaction of knowing that I suffer. Still, I wish I might know beforehand what it is like that I might better be prepared to meet it." "Let us not depress our thoughts by dwelling upon it," I suggested. "Let us rather take the part of men and consider only plans for thwarting our enemies and effecting our escape." "I am afraid that is hopeless," he said. "I may answer that," I said, "in the famous words of John Carter: 'I still live!'" "The blind philosophy of absolute courage," he said admiringly, "but yet futile." "It served him well many a time," I insisted, "for it gave him the will to attempt the impossible and to succeed. We still live, Nur An; do not forget that--we still live!" "Make the best of it while you can," said a gruff voice from the corridor, "for it will not long be true." The speaker entered our dungeon--a warrior of the guard, and with him was a single companion. I wondered how much of our conversation they had overheard, but I was soon reassured, for the very next words of the warrior that had first spoken revealed the fact that they had heard nothing but my assertion that we still lived. "What did you mean by that," he asked, "'remember, Nur An, we still live'?" I pretended not to hear his question and he did not repeat it, but came directly to me and unlocked my fetters. As he turned to unlock those which held Nur An, he turned his back to me and I could not but note his inexcusable carelessness. His companion lolled at the doorway while the first warrior bent over the padlock that held the fetters of Nur An. My ancestors were kind to me; little had I expected such an opportunity as this, yet I waited--like a great banth ready to spring I waited until he should have released Nur An, and then, as the fetters fell away from my companion, I flung myself upon the back of the warrior. He sprawled forward upon his face on the stone flagging, falling heavily beneath my weight, and as he did so I snatched his dagger from its sheath and plunged it between his shoulder blades. With a single cry he died, but I had no fear that the echo of that cry would carry upward out of the gloomy pits of Tjanath to warn his fellows upon the level above. But the fellow's companion had seen and heard and with a bound he was across the dungeon, his long sword ready in his hand, and now I was to see the mettle of which Nur An was made.