"Zitu," he said in husky fashion, "I doubt not thy power, my son. Naia, my own child, has named it to me and Zud himself confirms it a thing accorded to thee from Zitu's hands--yet to safeguard your child and hers, by causing Helmor to dream. This thing seems passing strange. Think you the man will give heed to such a warning sufficiently long?" "Aye--Tamarizia's messenger reaches him with a demand for parley," Croft declared from the depths of his inmost feeling. "Think you I had taken time to journey thus to Zitra, save that to my mind the step were one wholly needful to the full success of my plans?" Jadgor spoke. "Nay, Jason is right. This step is that of a statesman. Let Zollaria lie unsuspecting, while his devices are in the making. Tonight the matter of the messenger and his message will be arranged." Lakkon sighed deeply. His face was still pallid, but he seemed in a measure reassured. "Now, Zitu be praised," he said, once more addressing Croft, "since in very truth he appears to guide and strengthen your mind." CHAPTER IX THE DEATH PLOT Jadgor's faith in the action of the assembly proved justified, in fact. Croft went before the representatives of the Tamarizian states that very same night. With Koryphu to precede him, telling of the meeting in the mountains north of Cathur, the slaying of the flier by Kalamita's orders--the swift retaliation of his fellow in simple fashion, he waited until the Cathurian had lashed the minds of the men who heard him to a pitch of sullen fury, then rose slowly to his feet. "These demands bid for no consideration," he began and paused, laying his hand on the hilt of his sword. An outburst of swift acclaim greeted the words and was followed by silence as he explained the object of his presence in Zitra--emphasized the need of a messenger being sent north, and asked for their sanctioning word. Now and then he was interrupted by a question, but for the most part he spoke without interruption. And at the end he cried very much as he had cried in the public square to the citizens of Zitra: "Grant me this, O representatives of Tamarizia--give me time to prepare Tamarizia's answer to this coward's threat of a treacherous nation, which, daring not again the shock of arms, seeks yet to win back her lost prestige behind the tender bodies of a woman and her child. Grant me the power to meet craft with craft, nor think that the signet given to Koryphu was stripped from the hand of Naia of Aphur save by force, in the treacherous hope that it might seem to support a spurious plea from her that Tamarizia yield." For a moment no one spoke after he had finished and stood waiting for their answer, and then the man from Bithur rose.