His eyes were shut tight, but once he opened them and twisted his head around and saw the men looking down. He tried to smile, but it was a grimace. He called, "Devries, remember what you swore! Do it! Get back to Earth if you can, then bring men out here and blast these devils to the hell where they belong! If you promise somehow to do that, I won't mind this so much. Don't watch any more, no telling how long—"
Ketrik stopped on that word, as his head jerked violently away again.
And all the while came the shrillings from the immense, watching throng. The men heard it rise and fall, rise and fall, in regular cadence. They could almost feel the impact of the hate going out, the hate for that Earthman who supposedly had violated their sacred Stone. Those savages didn't wish to tear Ketrik limb from limb; they had been trained in this, and it was a better revenge, more to their enjoyment.
A little apart, carefully guarded, was the huge Brain, grotesque and convoluted under its glass dome. Janus even thought he could see it pulsing rhythmically as the bursts of sound and thought-force swelled out to it. That tangible force was being absorbed, and gradually the Brain was taking on a deeper hue than the pale-pink.
Savagely the men paced the stone room. They examined the electrical barrier across the door, which was too obviously deadly. "How long does that go on?" Janus asked in horror, nodding toward the window.
"To the very end, I'm afraid," Devries replied. Twice more in the following hours he moved to the window, only to look quickly away when he saw the horrible thing was still going on. He couldn't see Ketrik moving any more, but the beasts were still at work.
And then, it must have been hours later, Devries awoke from a fitful sleep. He was conscious that all was silent as a tomb below. He crept to the window and saw that a weird kind of greenish, shadowy nightfall had come over the place. All those savage Proktols had gone away, and the Brain was gone, and the square below was empty. Save for Ketrik. He was still there, and the cage was still over his head, but it was empty.
Thank God, Devries thought, it's all over for him. But who will be next?
When next he awoke it was day again, or what served for day on that shadowy world; and the first thing he saw was Blake over at the window.