? ? ? ? "Who speaks?" I asked.
? ? ? ? "'Tis I, your companion, who has had the honour this day of fighting shoulder to shoulder with the greatest warrior that ever wore metal upon Barsoom."
? ? ? ? "I thank God that you are not dead," I said. "I feared for that nasty cut upon your head."
? ? ? ? "It but stunned me," he replied. "A mere scratch."
? ? ? ? "Maybe it were as well had it been final," I said. "We seem to be in a pretty fix here with a splendid chance of dying of starvation and thirst."
? ? ? ? "Where are we?"
? ? ? ? "Beneath the arena," I replied. "We tumbled down the shaft that swallowed Issus as she was almost at our mercy."
? ? ? ? He laughed a low laugh of pleasure and relief, and then reaching out through the inky blackness he sought my shoulder and pulled my ear close to his mouth.
? ? ? ? "Nothing could be better," he whispered. "There are secrets within the secrets of Issus of which Issus herself does not dream."
? ? ? ? "What do you mean?"
? ? ? ? "I laboured with the other slaves a year since in the remodelling of these subterranean galleries, and at that time we found below these an ancient system of corridors and chambers that had been sealed up for ages.
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