Bind him to it as he says the Man whom he worships was bound, and let that dead Man help him if he may." The prince and those about Noma shrank back a little in horror.

They were cruel men rendered more cruel by their superstitious fear of one whom they believed to be uncanny; one to whom they attributed inhuman powers which he was exercising to their destruction, but still this doom seemed dreadful to them.

Noma read their minds and went on passionately:-- "You deem me unmerciful, but you do not know what I have suffered at this wizard's hands.

For his sake and because of him I am haunted.

For his own purposes he opened the gates of Distance, he sent me down among the dwellers in Death, causing me to interpret their words for him.