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|--| 50 T 1
|--| 1 X 9 |--| 25 T
    For only an
instant my curiosity was piqued, and then I replaced the torch in
my pocket-pouch, but my fingers had not unclasped from it when
there rushed to my memory the recollection of the conversation
between Lakora and her companion when the lesser thern had quoted
the words of Thurid and scoffed at them: 'And what think you of the
ridiculous matter of the light? 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?
    I thought I knew,
and, seizing a powerful magnifying glass from the litter of my
pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a careful examination of the
marble immediately about the pinhole in the door. I could have
cried aloud in exultation when my scrutiny disclosed the almost
invisible incrustation of particles of carbonized electrons which
are thrown off by these Martian torches.
    It was evident
that for countless ages radium torches had been applied to this
pinhole, and for what purpose there could be but a single
answer--the mechanism of the lock was actuated by light rays; and
I, Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, held the combination in my
hand--scratched by the hand of my enemy upon her own torch
case.
    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.
    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? Slowly the solid stone sank noiselessly back into the
wall--there was no hallucination here.
    Back and back it
slid for ten feet until it had disclosed at its right a narrow
doorway leading into a dark and narrow corridor that paralleled the
outer wall. Scarcely was the entrance uncovered than Woolan and I
had leaped through--then the door slipped quietly back into
place.
    Down the corridor
at some distance I saw the faint reflection of a light, and toward
this we made our way. At the point where the light shone was a
sharp turn, and a little distance beyond this a brilliantly lighted
chamber.
    Here we
discovered a spiral stairway leading up from the center of the
circular room.
    Immediately I
knew that we had reached the center of the base of the Temple of
the Sun--the spiral runway led upward past the inner walls of the
prison cells. Somewhere above me was Dejar Thoris, unless Thurid
and Matain Shang had already succeeded in stealing him.
    We had scarcely
started up the runway when Woolan suddenly displayed the wildest
excitement. She leaped back and forth, snapping at my legs and
harness, until I thought that she was mad, and finally when I
pushed her from me and started once more to ascend she grasped my
sword arm between her jaws and dragged me back.
    No amount of
scolding or cuffing would suffice to make her release me, and I was
entirely at the mercy of her brute strength unless I cared to use
my dagger upon her with my left hand; but, mad or no, I had not the
heart to