f my figures are right, it's some thirteen hundred miles from here on. How did you get up there before?"
Loah pointed to the passage where the jana, on that other excursion, had been hidden. "We went through there," she said, "taking the jana with us. We went up many miles through a great crack, but it was not straight; we had to go carefully till another passage opened through to the shaft far above where it was sealed."
"And the mole-men never found it?"
"Oh, yes," said Loah, "they must have known of the crack, but they did not know where it led. Its air was bad—a gas that choked; one could not breathe it and live. But in our little jana we were safe. They could not use theirs; it was too large. Besides, only the priests came down. They had their Lake of Fire, where they did horrible things. They did not know that the shaft began again below."
"O. K.," said Rawson, and closed the door.
"But I wish to get out," Loah protested, "to gather more of the Oro. We may need more, should we return."
"We will never need it," Rawson spoke softly. "From the time we left Gor we had just twenty-four hours to live. We must go on, and go fast."
