? ? ? ? "Issus will dine well to-night," said a prisoner beside me.
? ? ? ? "What do you mean?" I asked.
? ? ? ? "That was her dinner that old Thabis is taking to the kitchens. Didst not note how carefully he selected the plumpest and tenderest of the lot?"
? ? ? ? I growled out my curses on the monster sitting opposite us on the gorgeous throne.
? ? ? ? "Fume not," admonished my companion; "you will see far worse than that if you live even a month among the First Born."
? ? ? ? I turned again in time to see the gate of a nearby cage thrown open and three monstrous white apes spring into the arena. The girls shrank in a frightened group in the centre of the enclosure.
? ? ? ? One was on her knees with imploring hands outstretched toward Issus; but the hideous deity only leaned further forward in keener anticipation of the entertainment to come. At length the apes spied the huddled knot of terror-stricken maidens and with demoniacal shrieks of bestial frenzy, charged upon them.
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