And let me feel your lips before you go, Larry--darlin'!" She covered his eyes caressingly with her soft little palms; pushed him away.
"Now go," said Lakla, "and rest!" Unashamed I lay back against the horny chest of Gulk; and with a smile noticed that Larry, even if he had rebelled at being carried, did not disdain the support of Kra's shining, black-scaled arm which, slipping around his waist, half-lifted him along.
They parted a hanging and dropped us softly down beside a little pool, sparkling with the clear water that had heretofore been brought us in the wide basins.

Then they began to undress us.

And at this point the O'Keefe gave up.
"Whatever they're going to do we can't stop 'em, Doc!" he moaned.
"Anyway, I feel as though I've been pulled through a knot-hole, and I don't care--I don't care--as the song says." When we were stripped we were lowered gently into the water.

But not long did the _Akka_ let us splash about the shallow basin.

They lifted us out, and from jars began deftly to anoint and rub us with aromatic unguents.
I think that in all the medley of grotesque, of tragic, of baffling, strange and perilous experiences in that underground world none was more bizarre than this--valeting.