Twice great banths, wandering loose through the galleries, blocked
our progress, but in each instance Thuvia spoke a low word of
command and the snarling beasts slunk sullenly away.

"If you can dissolve all our obstacles as easily as you master
these fierce brutes I can see no difficulties in our way," I said
to the girl, smiling. "How do you do it?"

She laughed, and then shuddered.

"I do not quite know," she said. "When first I came here I angered
Sator Throg, because I repulsed him. He ordered me to be thrown
into one of the great pits in the inner gardens. It was filled
with banths. In my own country I had been accustomed to command.
Something in my voice, I do not know what, cowed the beasts as they
sprang to attack me.

"Instead of tearing me to pieces, as Sator Throg had desired, they
fawned at my feet. So greatly were Sator Throg and his friends
amused by the sight that they kept me to train and handle the
terrible creatures. I know them all by name. There are many of
them wandering through these lower regions. They are the scavengers.
Many prisoners die here in their chains. The banths solve the
problem of sanitation, at least in this respect.

"In the gardens and temples above they are kept in pits. The therns
fear them. It is because of the banths that they seldom venture
below ground except as their duties call them."

An idea occurred to me, suggested by what Thuvia had just said.