We braked to a halt in the palace courtyard and the two ugly Jovians prodded us toward a massive, solid-steel door. The damp, moss-covered tunnel through which we passed ran deep under the palace and row after row of tiny, unlighted cells lined each side. Many of them were occupied, and I didn't care to look twice at the wild-eyed, disease-wracked bodies of Nan's victims. There was a hopeless look on those hollow-cheeked faces; a blank, "why go on fighting?" stare in the eyes of the more sane--the ones who hadn't been there very long yet. The cells were wet and filth-littered and the suffocating stench of the place was so dense you could almost see it. We were more fortunate in the matter of living conditions. The cell in which we were placed was large, tolerably dry and was supplied with a couple of candles for illumination. Still, the unrelenting smell and the tortured moans of the prisoners was enough to drive a man mad. "Pordo wands do keep you alive awhile," one of the guards explained, referring to the clean cell. "If dis formula doesn'd show resulds, id's going do be doo bad for you fellows! Pordo don'd like do be dampered wid, so, if all dis is jusd a drick--look oud!" The Jovian slammed the door to and the pair went off down the tunnel, echoes of their laughter rolling back to bounce gleefully through the cells, plucking one more anguished groan from the lips of the half-dead men within. The old-fashioned wax candles were relics of a long-gone day and age, manufactured solely for ornamentation. But some scientist had whiled away a few idle hours by adding a couple of new features. * * * * * Augie removed the cap from the wick of one and it burst into a brilliant, unflickering flame. Even it was far superior to the crude electric lighting of the ancients. "What now?" Augie asked. "We wait," I said. "This cell isn't too uncomfortable and we can bide our time here; play the game Pordo's way and lull him into a sense of invulnerability. Things may come to a head sooner than you think, and you can bet we'll be in there fighting at the end." Augie's eyes flamed and his face screwed into a mask of hate. "I despise that tyrant Pordo!" he breathed soulfully. "D-damn him, if I may use such a vulgar term." I glanced about the cell and located a musty, well-worn cot. It was the only one the room contained, so it was the floor for one of us. Night must be spreading its black cloak across the world outside and we were both dead-tired. "We'll flip a coin for the bed," I said. "Then we'll alternate in its use for as many nights as we're here." Augie chose heads and flipped the coin. It came up tails. "D-damn," he reiterated. "Seems my luck has flown the coop for good!" He crossed the room and snapped the cap down over the candlewick. Darkness rushed in, probing inky fingers under the cot and in crevices, eager to strangle any loitering mote of its fleeing enemy.