"Left a mirror unattended. So?... The wire, Argo." He took the length of wire, gleaming white-hot, as the leering, gloating Argo turned the current into it--Tarrano took it, lashed it upon the poor wretch's naked back and legs. Welts arose, and the stench of burning flesh. A measured score of the passionless strokes made him writhe and scream in agony. It turned Elza sick and faint. Shuddering, she crouched there, hiding her face until the punishment was over and the half-unconscious culprit was carried away. "Very gentle with you, my Elza...." She looked up to find Tarrano smiling at her; looked up and stared, and wondered what might be her fate with such a man as this. CHAPTER VII _Prisoners_ From the garden where Tarrano was talking with Elza, the Mars man Wolfgar led us to the tower in which we were to be imprisoned. Quite evidently it had been placed in readiness for us. A tower of several rooms, comfortably equipped. As we crossed the lower bridge and reached the main doorway, Wolfgar unsealed a black fuse-box which stood there, and pulled the relief-switch. The current, barring passage through every door and window of the tower, was thrown off. We entered. My mind was alert. This man of the Little People could not again turn on that current without going outside. Once it was on, like an invisible wall it would prevent our escape. But now--could not Georg and I with our superior strength overpower this smaller man? I caught Georg's glance as our captor led us into the lower room--an apartment cut into the half-segment of a circle. Georg, at my elbow, whispered: "No use! Where could we go? Could not get out of the city----" The hearing of the Little People is sharp. Wolfgar turned his head and smiled. "You will be quite secure here--do not think of escape." His bronzed fingers toyed with a cone at his belt. "Do not think of it." Soon he left us, with the parting words: "You may use the upper circle of balcony. The current rises only from its rail." He smiled and left us. A pleasant smile; I felt myself liking this jailer of ours. We took a turn of the tower. There were three bedrooms; a cookery, with food and equipment wherein evidently it was intended that Elza could prepare our meals; and two bath-apartments, one of them fairly luxurious, with a pool almost large enough for a little swimming; tubes of scent for the water and the usual temperature rods. "Well," I remarked. "Obviously we are to be comfortable." I was trying to be cheerful, but my heart was heavy with foreboding nevertheless. "How long do you suppose they'll keep us here, Georg? And what----" His impatient gesture stopped me. His mind was on Elza--alone down there in the garden with Tarrano--as was mine, though I had not wanted to speak of her.