the fresh, sweet air which They had provided.

Our Lord the Sun was on the verge of rising for His day, and
all things were plainly shown. Before me were the monstrous walls
of the capital, with the heads of its pyramids and higher buildings
showing above them. And on the walls, the sentries walked calmly
their appointed paces, or took shelter against arrows in the
casemates provided for them.

The din of fighting within the gate rose high into the air,
and the heavy roaring of the cave-tigers told that they too were
taking their share of the melee. But the massive stonework of the
walls hid all the actual engagement from our view, and which party
was getting the upper hand we could not even guess. But the sounds
told how tight a fight was being hammered out in those narrow
boundaries, and my veins tingled to be once more back at the old
trade, and to be doing my share.

But there was no chivalry about the fellows who held me by my
bonds. They thrust me into a small temple near by, which once had
been a fane in much favour with travellers, who wished to show
gratitude for the safe journey to the capital, but which now was
robbed and ruined, and they swung to the stone entrance gate and
barred it, leaving me to commune with myself. Presently, they told
me, I should be put to death by torments. Well, this seemed to be
the new custom of Atlantis, and I should have to endure it as best
I could. The High Gods, it appeared, had no further use for my
services in Atlantis, and I was not in the mood then to bite very
much at their decision. What I had seen of the country since my
return had not enamoured me very much with its new conditions.