A hand closing hard on his shoulder from the rear sent a thrill throughout his body, and a bellowing voice shouted:
“Got your message, old kid. Knew you could do it.”
That was all, but that was enough. No matter what praise others might bestow, Frank cared naught.
High over Athensi he circled, seeking his bearing for the mountain pass, before darting away, true as a bird. And from their lofty altitude, the others looked down. Now that it was all over, the experience seemed like a dream. In the minds of both Amrath and Roy Stone, still lingered thankfulness for their amazing escape from disaster and wonder at it, too, yet exultation over the success of the daring attempt rapidly replaced all other thoughts.
As for Bob, it would be hard to describe the chaos of his thoughts. He had never quite despaired of being saved by his friends, yet when once his captors had reached and entered their mountain country he had realized that nothing less than a miracle could save him. Practising at arms day after day with trainers, cooped at other times in the gladiators’ quarters deep beneath the great stone pile of the Coliseum, he had seen no possible way of escaping. Heart and brain had turned sick at the thought of giving up his life to make holiday for semi-savages.
One of his trainers he had bribed with the gift of his gold watch to bring him the coils of wire and the collapsible standards for setting up the antenna. This same trainer had erected the antenna amid the tiers of empty seats, which would not be occupied until the Sacrificial Games and so, finally, Bob had managed to get his little radio set to working.
Only very faintly had he heard the messages sent out by the boys from Korakum, and numbers of the words could not be heard, try as he might to tune up. The trainer, receiving his bribe, had shown no further interest in the radio, the use of which was altogether unknown to him. As for the other prisoners, Negroes of various tribes, they were either sunk in apathy and paid Bob no attention, or else out of some vague notion of respect for the white man kept their distance.
Thus Bob was not spied upon nor reported. And, faint though the words he did hear, yet he understood enough to realize an effort to rescue him by airplane was to be made that afternoon.
How he had seized the opportunity is known.