As consciousness spread slowly throughout his body he realized that he was in pain and that his arms felt heavy and numb. He tried to move them, only to discover that he could not--they were securely bound behind his back. He moved his feet--they were not secured. At last, after considerable effort, for he found that he was very weak, he raised himself to a sitting posture and looked about him. The room was filled with warriors who looked precisely like the little Veltopismakusians, but they were as large as normal men, and the room itself was immense. There were a number of benches and tables standing about the floor and most of the men either were seated upon the benches or lay stretched upon the hard earth. A few men moved about among them and seemed to be working over them. Then it was that Tarzan saw that nearly all within the chamber were suffering from wounds, many of them severe ones. The men who moved about among them were evidently attending to the wounded, and those, who might have been the nurses, were garbed in white tunics like the high caste slaves of Trohanadalmakus. In addition to the wounded and the nurses there were a half a dozen armed warriors who were uninjured. One of these was the first to espy Tarzan after he had raised himself to a sitting posture. "Ho!" shouted he. "The giant has come into his senses," and crossing the room he approached the ape-man. Standing before him, his feet wide spread, he eyed Tarzan with a broad grin upon his face. "Your great bulk availed you little," he taunted, "and now we are as large as you. We, too, are giants, eh?" and he turned to his fellows with a laugh in which they joined him. Seeing that he was a prisoner, surrounded by enemies, the ape-man fell back upon that life-long characteristic of the wild beast--sullen silence. He made no reply, but only sat there regarding them with the savage, level gaze of the brute at bay. "He is dumb like the great beast-women of the caves," said the warrior to his fellows. "Perhaps he is one of them," suggested another. "Yes," seconded a third, "perhaps he is one of the Zertalacolols." "But their men are all cowards," urged the first speaker; "and this one fought like a warrior born." "Yes, with his bare hands he fought till he went down." "You should have seen how he threw diadets and warriors as one might pick up tiny pebbles and hurl them afar." "He would not give a step, or run; and always he smiled." "He does not look like the men of the Zertalacolols; ask him if he is." He who had first addressed him put the question to Tarzan, but the ape-man only continued to glare at them. "He does not understand me," said the warrior. "I do not think that he is a Zertalacolol, though. What he is, however, I do not know." He approached and examined Tarzan's wounds. "These will soon be healed. In seven days, or less, he will be fit for the quarries."