Fortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping
noiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovered a light in the
apartments ahead of me. Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I
discovered that it was but an opening upon an immense inner chamber
which towered from the first floor, two stories below me, to the
dome-like roof of the building, high above my head. The floor of
this great circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors
and women, and at one end was a great raised platform upon which
squatted the most hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had
all the cold, hard, cruel, terrible features of the green warriors,
but accentuated and debased by the animal passions to which he had
given himself over for many years. There was not a mark of dignity
or pride upon his bestial countenance, while his enormous bulk
spread itself out upon the platform where he squatted like some huge
devil fish, his six limbs accentuating the similarity in a horrible
and startling manner.
But the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah
Thoris and Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of
him as he let his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her
beautiful figure.
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