WITH the swiftness of a darting serpent, the dagger of the old jailer flashed straight for Tam's breast. Surprized though he was at the speed and skill with which one apparently so aged and decrepit could use the weapon, Tam's training in the lair of the tigress stood him in good stead. Quickly turning so that the keen blade barely grazed him, he seized the bony wrist and gripped it so tightly that the weapon clattered to the floor.
"Help!" squawked the jailer. "A prisoner has broken his chain! He!—!"
He could not finish, for Tam's fingers had suddenly cut off his wind.
"Another sound from you, old one," he said, "and I'll tear out your throat. Nod your head if you agree to silence. And no tricks."
Weakly, the warder nodded.
Tara released his throat, and said: "Now unlock the collars of these four prisoners."
"But I—" protested the jailer.
"Unlock them," warned Tam, "or I'll slay you, then take your keys and do so myself."
With shaking fingers the warder took the bunch of keys from his belt. After conning them over for what seemed to Tam to be an unnecessarily long time, he selected one, and unlocked the major's collar.
"Boy! It's a relief to get that off!" exclaimed Tam's father, rubbing the chafed creases made in his neck by the metal.
One by one the old man unlocked the collars of the others. When he had opened the last collar—that of Dhava the Aryan—Tam seized the key. Then he thrust the scrawny neck of the jailer into the collar and locked it.
"Have mercy!" groaned the old fellow. "Would you leave me here with these rotting corpses—these whitening bones? I can't stand it. I'll go mad!"
"It seems that you have so left many others during your career as jailer here," said Tam.
"And laughed at them," added the doctor.
"And taunted them," said the major. "I really think we should bind and gag the old dungeon rat," he continued. "He may start squawking as soon as we are gone, and bring the guard."
"I had intended doing that," said Tam, "but first I want to question him." He turned to the cowering warder, and in his hand gleamed the sharp dagger of the old fellow, which he had recovered from the floor. "Where is the Princess Nina?" he asked, presenting the keen point of the weapon to the scrawny chest.
"I do not know," replied the warder. "I swear to you by the seven gods on the mountain that I do not know."
"Liar!" said Tam. "Will you tell, or shall I cut out your heart?" He advanced the dagger threateningly.
"I swear to you by the seven great names—!" whined the frightened jailer, but stopped when the dagger point pricked his skin. "Wait! Don't kill me! I will tell you!"
"Ah! That's better. Speak."
"She is confined in one side of a cage, in a room on the fourth level above this one."
"A cage!"
"Aye. Such a cage as wild beasts are kept in. And in the other side of the cage, separated from her by a door and a few bars, is a male manacvan. Nirgo himself is to come soon, to pull the lever which separates them if she refuses to wed his idiot son, which she probably will do. It will be a most amusing sight. Ho! Ho! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
"Obscene and cackling fool!" grated Tam between clenched teeth. "Tell me quickly how to reach that cage if you would not have your voice stilled forever."
"Climb the winding stairway to the fourth level. Enter the door at the left of the landing as you go up, follow the passageway to the third door on the right, and enter if it be not locked. If locked, Nirgo will be there and you will be too late."
"I'll just take your keys along in case it is locked," said Tam, hooking the bundle in his belt.
"And I'll go with you," said his father.
"I also. Yusuf and Dhava can bind the warder and follow," the doctor said. "We can arm ourselves with the weapons of these dead guards."
The Pathan and the Aryan bent to their task of making the old fellow silent and helpless, while the three men hurried away. Tam, the swiftest of the three, took the lead. Each man carried a tulwar and dagger.
Swiftly and silently, Tam went up the steps. Close behind him were the major and the doctor. The door at the left of the landing was open, but the third door on the right of the passageway was locked. Feverishly Tam tried key after key, as the sound of voices drifted faintly to him from beyond. He recognized the deep, wheezy tones of Nirgo and the soft voice of Nina. Also he heard the eager whining of a manacvan and caught its pungent, disagreeable scent. Suddenly he heard the clank of steel against steel and the fall of a heavy body. It was followed by a clang, as of a metal gate opening, the scream of Nina in deadly terror, and the horrible, mirthless laugh of an idiot.