As Tara’s eyes ran quickly over the interior her attention was drawn to a section of paneling that seemed to be separated at one edge from the piece next adjoining it.  Quickly she crossed to it, discovering that one vertical edge of an entire panel projected a half-inch beyond the others.  There was a possible explanation which piqued her curiosity, and acting upon its suggestion she seized upon the projecting edge and pulled outward.  Slowly the panel swung toward her, revealing a dark aperture in the wall behind.

“Look, Lan-O!” she cried.  “See what I have found—­a hole in which we may hide the thing upon the floor.”

Lan-O joined her and together the two investigated the dark aperture, finding a small platform from which a narrow runway led downward into Stygian darkness.  Thick dust covered the floor within the doorway, indicating that a great period of time had elapsed since human foot had trod it—­a secret way, doubtless, unknown to living Manatorians.  Here they dragged the corpse of E-Med, leaving it upon the platform, and as they left the dark and forbidden closet Lan-O would have slammed to the panel had not Tara prevented.

“Wait!” she said, and fell to examining the door frame and the stile.

“Hurry!” whispered the slave girl.  “If they come we are lost.”

“It may serve us well to know how to open this place again,” replied Tara of Helium, and then suddenly she pressed a foot against a section of the carved base at the right of the open panel.  “Ah!” she breathed, a note of satisfaction in her tone, and closed the panel until it fitted snugly in its place.  “Come!” she said and turned toward the outer doorway of the chamber.

They reached their own cell without detection, and closing the door Tara locked it from the inside and placed the key in a secret pocket in her harness.

“Let them come,” she said.  “Let them question us!  What could two poor prisoners know of the whereabouts of their noble jailer?  I ask you, Lan-O, what could they?”

“Nothing,” admitted Lan-O, smiling with her companion.

“Tell me of these men of Manator,” said Tara presently.  “Are they all like E-Med, or are some of them like A-Kor, who seemed a brave and chivalrous character?”

“They are not unlike the peoples of other countries,” replied Lan-O.  “There be among them both good and bad.  They are brave warriors and mighty.  Among themselves they are not without chivalry and honor, but in their dealings with strangers they know but one law—­the law of might.  The weak and unfortunate of other lands fill them with contempt and arouse all that is worst in their natures, which doubtless accounts for their treatment of us, their slaves.”

“But why should they feel contempt for those who have suffered the misfortune of falling into their hands?” queried Tara.

“I do not know,” said Lan-O; “A-Kor says that he believes that it is because their country has never been invaded by a victorious foe.  In their stealthy raids never have they been defeated, because they have never waited to face a powerful force; and so they have come to believe themselves invincible, and the other peoples are held in contempt as inferior in valor and the practice of arms.”