"Fate functioned deviously and altogether wonderfully," he said. "To think that your only chance of rescue hinged upon the contingency of my capture at Opar!"
She smiled. "Fate reaches back further than that," she said. "Suppose you had not been born?"
"Then Abu Batn would have carried you off to the harem of some black sultan, or perhaps another man would have been captured at Opar."
"I am glad that you were born," said Zora.
"Thank you," said Colt.
While listening for signs of pursuit, they conversed in low tones, Colt narrating in detail the events leading up to his capture, though some of the details of his escape he omitted through a sense of loyalty to the nameless girl who had aided him. Neither did he stress Zveri's lack of control over his men, or what Colt considered his inexcusable cowardice in leaving himself and Romero to their fate within the walls of Opar without attempting to succor them, for he believed that the girl was Zveri's sweetheart and he did not wish to offend her.
"What became of Comrade Romero?" she asked.
"I do not know," he said. "The last I saw of him he was standing his ground, fighting off those crooked little demons."
"Alone?" she asked.
"I was pretty well occupied myself," he said.