Chapter XII: Tara

I must revert now to those moments in the tower room when Tarrano dissolved the isolation barrage which Wolfgar had thrown around us. Georg escaped, as I have recounted. Tarrano--there in the tower room--rendered me unconscious. I came to myself on the broad divan and found Elza bending over me.

I sat up, dizzily, with the room reeling.

“Jac! Jac, dear----” She made me lie back, until I could feel the blood returning to my clammy face; and the room steadied, and the clanging of the gongs in my ears died away.

“I--why, I’m--all right,” I gasped. And I lay there, clinging to her hand. Dear little Elza! In that moment of relief that I had come to my senses, she could not hide the love which even now was unspoken between us. Tarrano! I lay there weak and faint; but with the pressure of Elza’s hand, I did not fear that this Tarrano could win her from me.

Wolfgar was standing across the room from us. He came forward.

“You did not die,” he said; and smiled. “I told her you would not die.”

It was now morning. Wolfgar and Elza told me I had been unconscious some hours. We were still imprisoned as before in the tower. Georg had escaped with Maida, they said; or at least, they hoped so. And they described the burning of the other tower. The city had been in a turmoil. It still was; I could hear now the shouts of the crowd outside. And turning as I lay there, through the casement I could see the blackened, still smoking ruins of Maida’s tower; the broken iron terrace; the spider bridge melted away, hanging loose and dangling like an aimless pendulum.

The latest news, Elza and Wolfgar could not give me. The instrument room of our tower had been disconnected by Tarrano when he left some hours before. As they said it, we heard a familiar buzz; then the drone of an announcer’s voice. Tarrano’s guard had doubtless observed my recovery and had had orders to throw current into our instruments. Strange man, this Tarrano! He wished the news spread before us again. Confident of his own dominance over every crisis, he wanted Elza and me to hear it as it came from the discs.

We went to the instrument room. I found myself weak, but quite uninjured. Elza left us there, and went to prepare food which I needed to strengthen me.

The public events of those hours and days following, I have recounted as Georg saw them and took part in them in Washington. We observed them, here in the tower, with alternate hopes and fears. Our life of imprisonment went on much as before. Occasionally, Tarrano visited us, always making us sit like children before him, while at his ease he reclined on our divan.

But he would never give us much real information; the man always was an enigma.

“Your friend Georg has a wonderful plan,” he announced to us ironically early one evening. He smiled his caustic smile. “You have seen the tape?”

“Yes,” I said. It was Georg’s plan to address with Maida, the publics of Earth, Venus and Mars.

Tarrano nodded. “He and the Princess are going to convince everyone that I am an impostor.”

I did not answer that; and abruptly he chuckled. “That would be unfortunate for me--if they could do that. Do you think they’ll be able to?”

“I hope so,” I said.

He laughed openly. “Of course. But they will not. That long note of mine to your government--you read it, naturally. But you didn’t read in it my secret instructions to my agents in Washington, did you? Well, they were there in it--my commands--the letters ending its words made another message.”

He was amused at our discomfiture. “Simple enough? Yet really an intricate code in itself. It made the phrasing of the main note a little difficult to compose, that was all.” He sat up with his accustomed snap of alertness, and his face turned grim. “Georg will never address his audience. Nor the Princess--she will never appear before those sending mirrors. I have seen to that.” Again he was chuckling. “No, no, I could not let them do a thing like that. They might turn people against me.”

Elza began indignantly: “You--you are----”

His gesture checked her. “Your brother is quite safe, Lady Elza. And the Princess Maida also. Indeed, they are on the point of falling in love with each other. Natural! And perfectly right. It is as I would have it.”

His strong brown fingers were rubbing each other with his satisfaction. “Curious, Lady Elza--how fortunate I am in all my plans.”

“I don’t think you are,” I said. “Our government has you a prisoner here. They didn’t withdraw the patrol as you demanded, did they?”

He frowned a trifle. “No. That was too bad. I rather hoped they would. It would have been a stupid thing for them to do--but still, I almost thought they’d do it.”

I shook my head. “What they will do is sweep down here and overwhelm you.”

“You think so?”

“Yes.”

He shifted himself to a more comfortable position. “They are playing for time--so that when I fail to produce the model as I agreed, then the public will realize I am not to be trusted.”

“Exactly,” I said.

“Well, I am playing for time, also.”

He seemed so willing to discuss the thing that I grew bolder.

“What have you to gain by playing for time?” I demanded.

He stared. “You would question me, Jac Hallen? How absurd!” He looked at Elza, as though to share with her his amazement at my temerity.

Wolfgar said suddenly to Tarrano: “You will gain nothing.”

Tarrano’s face went impassive. I understood him better now; that cold, inscrutable look often concealed his strongest emotions. He said evenly:

“I should prefer you not to address me, Wolfgar. A traitor such as you--the sound of your voice offends me.”

It struck me then as very strange--as it had for days before--that Tarrano should have failed to punish Wolfgar. I would have expected death; least of all, that Tarrano would have allowed Wolfgar to live here in the tower, in comparative ease and comfort. Tarrano’s words now answered my unspoken questions. He was not looking at Wolfgar, but at Elza.

“You, Wolfgar--deserve death. You know why I cannot kill you? Why I let you stay here in the tower?” A faint, almost wistful smile parted his thin lips; he did not take his eyes from Elza.