Then his voice dropped once more into mutterings that I could not translate, but I had heard enough to cause me to guess a great deal more, and I thanked the kind Providence that had led me to this chamber at a time so filled with importance to Dejah Thoris and myself as this. But how to pass the old man now! The cord, almost invisible upon the floor, stretched straight across the apartment to a door upon the far side. There was no other way of which I knew, nor could I afford to ignore the advice to "follow the rope." I must cross this room, but however I should accomplish it undetected with that old man in the very centre of it baffled me. Of course I might have sprung in upon him and with my bare hands silenced him forever, but I had heard enough to convince me that with him alive th