"Jac, what will he do?" Her gaze was to the far-off City of Ice. "It seems so—so sinister, Jac, this silence from him. This inactivity. It is not like him to be inactive."
"He's there," I said. "Rolltar the Mars man—boastful fellow, blow-hard—he was telling some of us that in his opinion Tarrano had already run away."
"Never!" she exclaimed. "This is his last stand. He'll make it here—defeat us here—"
"Elza!"
She glanced momentarily at me, smiled a queer smile, and then gazed once more over the distant plain. "I do not mean I think he'll defeat us, Jac. I mean, that is his reasoning—make his last stand here—"
"He hasn't run away," I repeated. "I told Rolltar so. We got an outlaw connection into the Ice Palace today. For a moment only, and then it was discovered and broken off. But we had the image for a moment—it chanced to show Tarrano himself. But he's isolated now. Bretan said his isolation power—around the Ice Palace and the wall anyway—is greater than any image-ray we can send against it."
My heart leaped suddenly, for I saw Elza's eyes widen, fear spring to her face; heard the sharp intake of her breath, and felt her hand grip my arm.
"Jac! There's something wrong! See there? And you hear it?"
From the instrument room I heard a vague drumming. A hiss, and then a drumming growing louder. It was not a new sound, for now I remembered I had been conscious of it for several moments past. Our encampment was awake to it! A confusion down there; people running about; a figure dashing wildly into the instrument room. And the aerials on the power house began to snap viciously.
"Jac! What is it?"