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'Let the light shine with the intensity of three radium units for fifty tals, and for one xat let it shine with the intensity of one radium unit, and then for twenty-five tals with nine units. Those were his very words, and to think that wise old Matai Shang should listen to such foolishness." "Indeed, it is silly," replied Lakor.
Let the light shine with the intensity of three radium units for fifty tals" ah, there was the first line of characters upon the torch's metal case 3 50 T; "and for one xat let it shine with the intensity of one radium unit" there was the second line; "and then for twenty-five tals with nine units." The formula was complete; but what did it mean?
Timing my operations carefully, I held the torch to the small aperture in the door, regulating the intensity of the light by means of the thumb-lever upon the side of the case. For fifty tals I let three units of light shine full in the pinhole, then one unit for one xat, and for twenty-five tals nine units. Those last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-five seconds of my life.
Would the lock click at the end of those seemingly interminable intervals of time? Twenty-three! Twenty-four! Twenty-five! I shut off the light with a snap. For seven tals I waited there had been no appreciable effect upon the lock's mechanism. Could it be that my theory was entirely wrong? Hold! Had the nervous strain resulted in a hallucination, or did the door really move?
In a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomian chronometer a delicate instrument that records the tals and xats and zodes of Martian time, presenting them to view beneath a strong crystal much after the manner of an earthly odometer.
Thankful was O-Tar that he had gone alone to that chamber of fright, for now no one could deny the tale that he should tell. E-Thas rushed forward to greet him, for E-Thas had seen black looks directed toward him as the tals slipped by and his benefactor failed to return. "O brave and glorious jeddak!" cried the major-domo.
This the Martians divide into ten equal parts, commencing the day at about 6 A.M. Earth time. The zodes are divided into fifty shorter periods, each of which in turn is composed of 200 brief periods of time, about equivalent to the earthly second. 200 tals . . . . . . . . . 1 xat 50 xats . . . . . . . . . 1 zode 10 zodes . . . . . . . . 1 revolution of Mars upon its axis.
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