What could it mean? King Kew was dead. They had seen him lying there in
the stadium with the blood pouring out of a gaping hole in his right
breast. And yet now the populace were shouting: “Long live King Kew.”
What could it mean?
III
GREAT NEWS
Just then the cell door opened, and a shackled figure was thrust rudely
in. It was Poblath, the mango. His captor was Trisp, the bar-mango.
It was now Trisp’s turn to gloat. Said he: “Long have I served as your
assistant, O Poblath, and long have I coveted your position. Now it is
mine for the asking. I suspected you of treason when you deprived Cabot
of his antennae. I noted that you preserved his apparatus in a cupboard
in your office. But when you refused to permit the jailers to fire on
the insurgent blockade in the street below, then I knew for sure of your
treason to King Yuri. Now I go to clear the blockade. Thence to the king
to be made mango of Kuana!”
He left. From the window, the three prisoners watched the insurgents
below. In a few moments the jail opened fire on them, and they withdrew
in disorder. Once more the street was clear for the passage of alien
troops.
“But they are still cheering for King Kew,” wrote Hah.
By this time Poblath had begun to recover from the shock of his sudden
incarceration. He called to the professor, and soon the latter had
turned his back to the ex-mango and was rummaging beneath Poblath’s toga
with his shackled hands. After considerable search he found what he was
after, a small pouch containing three keys.
In a moment the prisoners were free of their handcuffs. Another moment
and the cell door swung open. The prisoners emerged and glanced
cautiously around.
The corridor outside was dark and silent. Most of the wardens were on
the roof, firing at the insurgents who had returned to the attack with
great force.
Cabot, Hah Babbuh and Poblath did not stop to release any of their
companions, but hurried to the ground floor. On the way they met but two
of the jail guards. Hah smashed in the skull of one with a handcuff; the
other had the good judgment to join the party.
It scarcely seemed a moment before the big steel doors swung open at
Poblath’s touch, to admit the besiegers. A brief exchange of greetings,
and they swarmed up the stairs to clear the roof, while Myles and his
two friends followed, to release the other prisoners.
Every prisoner, regardless of what he was in for, was given a chance at
freedom if he would join Cabot’s forces, and none refused. They were all
freed by the time the party from the roof returned with sufficient
captured arms to equip nearly all the rest. On the roof every warden lay
dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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