"_Stand up!_" he commanded silently to the unseen robot above him. "_Stand up!_" There was a stir of movement. Garth, peering through the slit, saw the three Zarno jerk to a halt. One of them cried, "The gods return! _Kra-enlarnov! The gods!_" * * * * * Garth put his mouth close to the diaphragm. His words, amplified, rolled out through the cavern in the Ancient Tongue. "Yes--the gods return! Summon the Zarno! Let none fail to obey the summons!" Shouts went up. The Zarno whirled and raced away. For the moment, Garth was alone. He concentrated on the transmitter again, commanding the robot to move forward to the edge of the dais, till he could see its back. "Raise your arm. Step back. Forward again. Back." It worked. The robot obeyed his mental commands, awkwardly, but--it obeyed. "Back. Sit on the throne." A jarring crash deafened Garth momentarily. He had forgotten how huge the robot was. No doubt the creature should lever itself down gradually into its seat, instead of dropping a ton of metal solidly on the black block. Footsteps again. The Zarno were beginning to pour into the cavern. Huge as it was, they almost filled it. They flung themselves flat, crawling toward the dais, nodding their misshapen heads in awkward rhythm. Their voices were raised in a deep-throated chant. Garth concentrated. At his mental command, the robot rose and paced slowly forward. "_Kra-enlar!_" Garth put his mouth to the diaphragm. His voice crashed out. "The gods have returned! Hear me, O Zarno!" "_We hear!_" "Let no Zarno fail to come to the temple of the gods. Have the guards left their posts?" "_Nay--nay!_" "Summon them," Garth roared. "When the gods speak, all must hearken. Let every Zarno come to me now, or die!" Some of the creatures raced away and returned with others. The chant continued. "Have any Zarno failed to heed my summons?" "_None--none! We are here--all!_" Garth nearly shouted with relief. There were almost two thousand Zarno in the cavern, he judged, all genuflecting before the dais. And that meant that the city was unguarded--that Doc Willard could lead the others to the antigravity hangar. If he could hold the Zarno here! Garth shook his head, feeling oddly dizzy. He tried to concentrate. At his mental order, the giant robot lifted its arms in symbolic, ritualistic gestures he remembered from the tripod-recorder. But the dizziness persisted. Garth realized that his lungs were hurting. He found it difficult to draw a deep breath. Air--he needed fresh air! The inhuman lungs of the Ancients probably were able to endure lack of oxygen far better than the human organism. In any case--Garth realized that the air was getting stale.