"
"It shall be as you wish, Dator," replied Matai Shang; "nor is that
all--power and riches shall be yours if you restore my daughter,
Phaidor, to me, and place within my power Dejah Thoris, Princess
of Helium.
"Ah," he continued with a malicious snarl, "but the Earth man shall
suffer for the indignities he has put upon the holy of holies, nor
shall any vileness be too vile to inflict upon his princess. Would
that it were in my power to force him to witness the humiliation
and degradation of the red woman."
"You shall have your way with her before another day has passed,
Matai Shang," said Thurid, "if you but say the word."
"I have heard of the Temple of the Sun, Dator," replied Matai Shang,
"but never have I heard that its prisoners could be released before
the allotted year of their incarceration had elapsed. How, then,
may you accomplish the impossible?"
"Access may be had to any cell of the temple at any time," replied
Thurid. "Only Issus knew this; nor was it ever Issus' way to
divulge more of her secrets than were necessary. By chance, after
her death, I came upon an ancient plan of the temple, and there I
found, plainly writ, the most minute directions for reaching the
cells at any time.
"And more I learned--that many men had gone thither for Issus in the
past, always on errands of death and torture to the prisoners; but
those who thus learned the secret way were wont to die mysteriously
immediately they had returned and made their reports to cruel
Issus.
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