It had been converted into a stronghold, a fortress, a citadel at once impregnable and breathtakingly opulent. A layer of some gleaming metal—silver, perhaps—overlay its erstwhile granite frame. Buttressed walls had been stretched about it; from the occasional watchtowers of these, Daan warriors looked down over their territory. At a call, the gates were flung open. The captives marched into the Daans' capital. Across terraced flags to that which had once been the hotel's lobby ... thence upward in an elevator....
"But, hey!" muttered Chuck. "How come this elevator? I thought these people didn't know nothing about—"
Steve grunted tightly.
"Humans don't. They have forgotten everything of our mechanistic civilization. Look at Beth and Jain. Scared to death. This probably seems like magic to them. But there's nothing wrong with the Daans' science. They know what these things are—and how to use 'em. Any race which can discover spaceflight—"
"Silence!" rasped the Daan group-leader. "Out, now! This is your prison. You will wait here until sent for."
The moving cage quivered to a stop, the door opened, and the octet of captives were thrust from it. Those who had brought them thus far accompanied them no farther. Stepping from the elevator, they moved into custody of other Venusians not only armed with the now-familiar crystalline hand-weapons but also equipped with short, thick-handled, barb-tipped cat-o'-nine-tails.
These, without curiosity or comment, loosed them of their bonds and rudely shouldered them through heavy bronze doorway. The door clanged! shut and they were alone.
Chuck said, "Well, I'll be damned!"
"Well, I'll be damned!" repeated Chuck Lafferty. "Of all the hoosegows I've ever been in, this one takes the cake! Steve—are we supposed to be prisoners?"