Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

"You think we are in friendly hands?" "These quarters do not look much like prison cells, Tommy, but I must admit that we are locked in. Anyhow, I'm not worrying, and we will soon learn our fate and have to be ready to meet it. The people who own this place must have everything they want, and they sure have some scientific knowledge that is not known to us on the surface." "Wonder if they are humans?" "Certainly they are. You never heard of wild beasts sleeping in beds like these, did you?" Tommy laughed at he examined the exquisite hand-wrought figures on the silver bedstead. "No, I didn't," he admitted; "but where on earth did they come from, and what are they doing here?" "You ask too many questions," replied Frank, shrugging his broad shoulders. "We must simply wait for the answers to reveal themselves." There was a soft rap at the door of Frank's room, where the two men were talking. "Come in," called Frank, chuckling at the idea of such consideration from their captors. A key rattled in the lock and the door swung open to admit the handsomest man they had ever set eyes on. He was taller than Frank by several inches, standing no less than six feet five in his thin-soled sandals, and he carried himself with the air for an emperor. His marble-white body was uncovered with the exception of a loin cloth of silver hue, and lithe muscles rippled beneath his smooth skin as he advanced to meet the prisoners. His head, surmounted by curly hair of ebon darkness, was large, and his forehead high. The features were classic and perfectly regular. The corners of his mouth drew upward in a benign smile.