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"Unfortunate. He was a good man in many ways I shall be sorry to lose his services." He saw me with my arm around Elza, and he frowned. "So?" Instinctively, involuntarily and I hated myself for it I dropped my arm. Georg exclaimed: "Wolfgar he " Tarrano turned from me. "He is not dead but he will die. There is nothing we can do. I'm very sorry very sorry indeed." A sincere regret was in his tone.
Georg read it from the tape to Maida: "To the Earth Council from Tarrano, its loyal subject " A grimly ironical note, yet so worded that the ignorant masses would not see its irony. It stated that Tarrano could not comply with the demand that he deliver himself and the Brende model to Washington because he did not have the model. It was on its way to Venus. He now proposed to recall it.
While thus occupied with my thoughts, we were steadily descending into the ground under Venia dropping out of sight while above us, perhaps by now, the eager warcraft of Earth were overwhelming the city. Tarrano had not spoken; but when at last our little car bumped gently at the bottom, he said smilingly: "We are here, Lady Elza." We left the car, and passed into a dim-lighted cavern.
Ten feet at its greatest width, and fifty or sixty feet long. There was nothing startling in this evidence of underground and sub-sea transportation. But that it should be here in primitive Venia surprised me. Then I realized that Tarrano had been here perhaps many months. Quietly, secretly he had constructed this underground road. For his escape, I could not doubt it.
"And he will kill you, of course, to destroy that knowledge and keep the secret for himself " I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake; but I thought it, and I realized that Georg was thinking it also. Dr. Brende's secret of longevity was the crux of all this turmoil the lever by which Tarrano was raising himself. Scores of facts amid the tumultuous news of these hours showed us that.
"Even your Earth Council, secure in its power, cannot do that." "Exactly," Georg rejoined. He was indignant, as well he might have been. "Tarrano is trying to avoid being attacked. Time any delay is what he wants." The note went on. Tarrano seeking only the welfare of the people could not stand by and see the Earth Council wreck its public. Tarrano had reconsidered his former note.
This delay while Tarrano was held virtually a prisoner in Venia was decided upon at the instigation of Georg himself. He Georg would address the publics of the three worlds. With Maida beside him to influence her own public in Venus, they would convince everyone that Georg had the secret and that he alone would use it for the public good. Youthful plans! Youthful enthusiasm!
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.
When Tarrano's forces threatened revolution from the Cold Country she had been seized by spies, brought to Earth, to Tarrano in Venia, and imprisoned in the tower from which Georg had so lately rescued her. Wolfgar for years had been her friend and loyal retainer, though he had pretended service to Tarrano. In the Central State, Maida, too young to rule, had been represented by a Council.
In a few days it would be in Washington. Tarrano himself would not come to Washington. His doing that could not help the public welfare, and he was but human. The Earth Council had made itself his enemy; he could not be expected to trust his life in enemy hands. The note closed with the suggestion that the Council withdraw its patrol from Venia. This talk of war was childish.
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