"Very well," he said. "It looks to me as though your time to learn the art of shooting has come at last. Come, I think we had better be getting back downstairs." Kirby took three guns himself, and with the others lugging the rest, they started back. The parchment rolls, he decided, must be left for examination later on. They were all elated when they rejoined the girls in the prayer chamber, and high spirits were still further increased by the report, promptly given, that all had remained quiet in the amphitheatre. Save only for the presence of Elana, radiant and calm in death, the give and take of questions would have been accompanied by actual gaiety. But the time of peace did not last much longer. While Naida was in the midst of answering incessant questions about the wonders of the jewel chamber, Kirby heard a sound from below, and suddenly went over to the downward-winding steps. "Listen," he called sharply back to the others. He had not been mistaken. Many footsteps echoed from the amphitheatre, and he made out that the caciques were coming toward the bolted gate at the foot of the steps. While he listened, and Naida came eagerly to his side, silence fell. But then clear words came up to them. "Let the upper-world man come to the foot of the steps," called the Duca. "I have an offer to make him!" CHAPTER VII To himself Kirby chuckled. Such real entreaty filled the Duca's voice that there seemed no danger of further treachery from him at the moment. With a grin, Kirby took Naida's hand and led her down the steps, unbolting each bronze gate but the last. "What do you want?" he asked in a cool voice a moment later, when he stopped on the final step and faced the Duca from behind the protection of the final gate. Clearly the parley was going to be a blunt one. "I want you to leave our world," the Duca rumbled promptly. He was drawn up in a posture intended to display dignity. But his left cheek, where Kirby had hammered him, was pulpy and discolored, and somehow he seemed to Kirby more than ever merely human. "Under what conditions am I to leave?" "If you will vacate my tower at once," the Duca said with a flush of eagerness which he could not conceal, "I will permit Naida and one of my caciques to escort you back to the Valley of the Geyser. I will also give you directions by which you may travel in safety from there to the outer world." Kirby, wanting more details, made himself seem thoughtful. "And what will happen to me, and to the girls, if I decline?" Encouraged, the Duca made an impressive gesture. "You will be left in the tower to die of starvation. Mine is not a complicated offer. It should require no complicated decision. What is your answer?" Kirby dropped his carefully assumed mask of thought. "My answer is this," he lashed out. "I will not leave! The tower is ours, and we will hold it until you have accepted Naida's peace terms on your priestly oath!"