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Rh spoke. The voice and accent of ancestor and descendant were the same.

"Thou art my present vice-regent?"

"I am."

"I see," he said, "for the first time a multitude of my race aroused from sleep. Is, then, our task complete?"

"It is complete."

A smile of majestic triumph passed over the face of the mighty ruler.

"The cars are prepared?"

"They are perfect."

"And the arrows of death?"

"Nothing living can escape, such is their abundance and variety."

Again the king smiled with gratified vengeance.

Then he said, "A few days will suffice to regain the full strength of life in our limbs—already my mind is as vigorous as of old. At