"I saw that Urre would not honour the agreement. Now, I set in motion a plan to throw him down from power if you did come and if you were captured. You came and you were captured." "What is your plan, Munsen?" requested Boyce. "I have many friends that are, at this very time, arming themselves for our attack tomorrow. If we succeed in destroying Urre's rule, you will be given supplies and be allowed to go freely, and in peace." "What if the overthrow fails?" Lloyd had wondered listening to Munsen speak. "I have other friends that will risk their lives to free you, if the rebellion fails." "Why?" Boyce was confused momentarily and he needed to be given a reason why someone, who they didn't know, would die for their release. "I had seen the doom and destruction of Palatka with your deaths, and so if you had but a hair harmed on your heads. Palatka must have peace with you, Boyce Loebh; yet, I don't exactly understand why?" Munsen's reply fit into the men's understanding. Somehow Munsen knew these prisoner's importance and he knew that their harm would mean the extinction of his civilization. "We engage our uprising tomorrow. When you hear commotion and thunderous booming, keep low to the floor. We have found a way to make a burning substance that is explosive. It can shatter rock and kill." "Please take care and may the true living God bless your victory." "If we believed in Him, I would hope that it would be so!" Munsen said and before he left he told them that he would try to see them once more before the battle, and then he left them. "He has a leader's compassion!" Boyce stated. They wrapped themselves up in the blankets given to them and they drank the broth. They fell sleep and the blankets helped to keep some of the chill from them and they managed to get some sleep, though uncomfortable as it was. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX A beam of dusty light shone into the oubliette of the murky rock vault in which the men were being kept as prisoners for tomorrow's ritual of Life and Energy. Some of the sun's rays moved across Lloyd's face and he turned his head away before he opened his eyes. He gave a deep and hollow sigh that gurgled from the catarrh that settled in his chest, from the night spent on a cold and damp floor. He opened his eyes and watched the sunshine glisten off the frosty rime that painted the walls and ceiling of the cell. He gave Boyce a few pats on the back and he soon woke up in a similar condition. "Do I look as bad as I feel?" he asked Lloyd. "I could ask you the same!" he replied. Lloyd slowly got to his feet, not a single part of his body escaping the rheumatic cracks that such adverse sleeping conditions bring upon one. Soon, Boyce attempted to stand up, too and his condition was not much different that Lloyd's. He let out an exasperated gasp as he stood up, half hunched-over. "Oh!" he moaned. "You would think that Palatkans would want to eat healthy people!"