TARA of Helium did not return to her father's guests, but awaitedin her own apartments the word from Djor Kantos which she knewmust come, begging her to return to the gardens. She would thenrefuse, haughtily. But no appeal came from Djor Kantos. At firstTara of Helium was angry, then she was hurt, and always she waspuzzled. She could not understand. Occasionally she thought ofthe Jed of Gathol and then she would stamp her foot, for she wasvery angry indeed with Gahan. The presumption of the man! He hadinsinuated that he read love for him in her eyes. Never had shebeen so insulted and humiliated. Never had she so thoroughlyhated a man. Suddenly she turned toward Uthia.

"My flying leather!" she commanded.

"But the guests!" exclaimed the slave girl. "Your father, TheWarlord, will expect you to return."

"He will be disappointed," snapped Tara of Helium.

The slave hesitated. "He does not approve of your flying alone,"she reminded her mistress.

The young princess sprang to her feet and seized the unhappyslave by the shoulders, shaking her. "You are becomingunbearable, Uthia," she cried. "Soon there will be no alternativethan to send you to the public slave-market. Then possibly youwill find a master to your liking."

Tears came to the soft eyes of the slave girl. "It is because Ilove you, my princess," she said softly. Tara of Helium melted.She took the slave in her arms and kissed her.

"I have the disposition of a thoat, Uthia," she said. "Forgiveme! I love you and there is nothing that I would not do for youand nothing would I do to harm you. Again, as I have so often inthe past, I offer you your freedom."

"I do not wish my freedom if it will separate me from you, Taraof Helium," replied Uthia. "I am happy here with you--I thinkthat I should die without you."

Again the girls kissed. "And you will not fly alone, then?"questioned the slave.

Tara of Helium laughed and pinched her companion. "You persistentlittle pest," she cried. "Of course I shall fly--does not Tara ofHelium always do that which pleases her?"

Uthia shook her head sorrowfully. "Alas! she does," she admitted."Iron is the Warlord of Barsoom to the influences of all but two.In the hands of Dejah Thoris and Tara of Helium he is as potters'clay."

"Then run and fetch my flying leather like the sweet slave youare," directed the mistress.

Far out across the ochre sea-bottoms beyond the twin cities ofHelium raced the swift flier of Tara of Helium. Thrilling to thespeed and the buoyancy and the obedience of the little craft thegirl drove toward the northwest. Why she should choose thatdirection she did not pause to consider. Perhaps because in thatdirection lay the least known areas of Barsoom, and, ergo,Romance, Mystery, and Adventure. In that direction also lay farGathol; but to that fact she gave no conscious thought.

She did, however, think occasionally of the jed of that distantkingdom, but the reaction to these thoughts was scarcelypleasurable. They still brought a flush of shame to her cheeksand a surge of angry blood to her heart. She was very angry withthe Jed of Gathol, and though she should never see him again shewas quite sure that hate of him would remain fresh in her memoryforever. Mostly her thoughts revolved about another--Djor Kantos.And when she thought of him she thought also of Olvia Marthis ofHastor. Tara of Helium thought that she was jealous of the fairOlvia and it made her very angry to think that. She was angrywith Djor Kantos and herself, but she was not angry at all withOlvia Marthis, whom she loved, and so of course she was notjealous really. The trouble was, that Tara of Helium had failedfor once to have her own way. Djor Kantos had not come runninglike a willing slave when she had expected him, and, ah, here wasthe nub of the whole thing! Gahan, Jed of Gathol, a stranger, hadbeen a witness to her humiliation. He had seen her unclaimed atthe beginning of a great function and he had had to come to herrescue to save her, as he doubtless thought, from the ingloriousfate of a wall-flower. At the recurring thought, Tara of Heliumcould feel her whole body burning with scarlet shame and then shewent suddenly white and cold with rage; whereupon she turned herflier about so abruptly that she was all but torn from herlashings upon the flat, narrow deck. She reached home just beforedark. The guests had departed. Quiet had descended upon thepalace. An hour later she joined her father and mother at theevening meal.

"You deserted us, Tara of Helium," said John Carter. "It is notwhat the guests of John Carter should expect."

"They did not come to see me," replied Tara of Helium. "I did notask them."

"They were no less your guests," replied her father.

The girl rose, and came and stood beside him and put her armsabout his neck.

"My proper old Virginian," she cried, rumpling his shock of blackhair.

"In Virginia you would be turned over your father's knee andspanked," said the man, smiling.

She crept into his lap and kissed him. "You do not love me anymore," she announced. "No one loves me," but she could notcompose her features into a pout because bubbling laughterinsisted upon breaking through.

"The trouble is there are too many who love you," he said. "Andnow there is another."

"Indeed!" she cried. "What do you mean?"

"Gahan of Gathol has asked permission to woo you."

The girl sat up very straight and tilted her chin in the air. "Iwould not wed with a walking diamond-mine," she said. "I will nothave him."

"I told him as much," replied her father, "and that you were asgood as betrothed to another. He was very courteous about it; butat the same time he gave me to understand that he was accustomedto getting what he wanted and that he wanted you very much. Isuppose it will mean another war. Your mother's beauty keptHelium at war for many years, and--well, Tara of Helium, if Iwere a young man I should doubtless be willing to set all Barsoomafire to win you, as I still would to keep your divine mother,"and he smiled across the sorapus table and its golden service atthe undimmed beauty of Mars' most beautiful woman.

"Our little girl should not yet be troubled with such matters,"said Dejah Thoris. "Remember, John Carter, that you are notdealing with an Earth child, whose span of life would be morethan half completed before a daughter of Barsoom reached actualmaturity."

"But do not the daughters of Barsoom sometimes marry as early astwenty?" he insisted.

"Yes, but they will still be desirable in the eyes of men afterforty generations of Earth folk have returned to dust--there isno hurry, at least, upon Barsoom. We do not fade and decay hereas you tell me those of your planet do, though you, yourself,belie your own words. When the time seems proper Tara of Heliumshall wed with Djor Kantos, and until then let us give the matterno further thought."

"No," said the girl, "the subject irks me, and I shall not marryDjor Kantos, or another--I do not intend to wed."

Her father and mother looked at her and smiled. "When Gahan ofGathol returns he may carry you off," said the former.

"He has gone?" asked the girl.

"His flier departs for Gathol in the morning," John Carterreplied.

"I have seen the last of him then," remarked Tara of Helium witha sigh of relief.

"He says not," returned John Carter.

The girl dismissed the subject with a shrug and the conversationpassed to other topics. A letter had arrived from Thuvia ofPtarth, who was visiting at her father's court while Carthoris,her mate, hunted in Okar. Word had been received that the Tharksand Warhoons were again at war, or rather that there had been anengagement, for war was their habitual state. In the memory ofman there had been no peace between these two savage greenhordes--only a single temporary truce. Two new battleships hadbeen launched at Hastor. A little band of holy therns wasattempting to revive the ancient and discredited religion ofIssus, who they claimed still lived in spirit and hadcommunicated with them. There were rumors of war from Dusar. Ascientist claimed to have discovered human life on the furthermoon. A madman had attempted to destroy the atmosphere plant.Seven people had been assassinated in Greater Helium during thelast ten zodes, (the equivalent of an Earth day.)

Following the meal Dejah Thoris and The Warlord played at jetan,the Barsoomian game of chess, which is played upon a board of ahundred alternate black and orange squares. One player has twentyblack pieces, the other, twenty orange pieces. A briefdescription of the game may interest those Earth readers who carefor chess, and will not be lost upon those who pursue thisnarrative to its conclusion, since before they are done they willfind that a knowledge of jetan will add to the interest and thethrills that are in store for them.

The men are placed upon the board as in chess upon the first tworows next the players. In order from left to right on the line ofsquares nearest the players, the jetan pieces are Warrior,Padwar, Dwar, Flier, Chief, Princess, Flier, Dwar, Padwar,Warrior. In the next line all are Panthans except the end pieces,which are called Thoats, and represent mounted warriors.

The Panthans, which are represented as warriors with one feather,may move one space in any direction except backward; the Thoats,mounted warriors with three feathers, may move one straight andone diagonal, and may jump intervening pieces; Warriors, footsoldiers with two feathers, straight in any direction, ordiagonally, two spaces; Padwars, lieutenants wearing twofeathers, two diagonal in any direction, or combination; Dwars,captains wearing three feathers, three spaces straight in anydirection, or combination; Fliers, represented by a propellorwith three blades, three spaces in any direction, or combination,diagonally, and may jump intervening pieces; the Chief, indicatedby a diadem with ten jewels, three spaces in any direction,straight, or diagonal; Princess, diadem with a single jewel, sameas Chief, and can jump intervening pieces.

The game is won when a player places any of his pieces on thesame square with his opponent's Princess, or when a Chief takes aChief. It is drawn when a Chief is taken by any opposing pieceother than the opposing Chief; or when both sides have beenreduced to three pieces, or less, of equal value, and the game isnot terminated in the following ten moves, five apiece. This isbut a general outline of the game, briefly stated.

It was this game that Dejah Thoris and John Carter were playingwhen Tara of Helium bid them good night, retiring to her ownquarters and her sleeping silks and furs. "Until morning, mybeloved," she called back to them as she passed from theapartment, nor little did she guess, nor her parents, that thismight indeed be the last time that they would ever set eyes uponher.

The morning broke dull and gray. Ominous clouds billowedrestlessly and low. Beneath them torn fragments scudded towardthe northwest. From her window Tara of Helium looked out uponthis unusual scene. Dense clouds seldom overcast the Barsoomiansky. At this hour of the day it was her custom to ride one ofthose small thoats that are the saddle animals of the redMartians, but the sight of the billowing clouds lured her to anew adventure. Uthia still slept and the girl did not disturbher. Instead, she dressed quietly and went to the hangar upon theroof of the palace directly above her quarters where her ownswift flier was housed. She had never driven through the clouds.It was an adventure that always she had longed to experience. Thewind was strong and it was with difficulty that she maneuveredthe craft from the hangar without accident, but once away itraced swiftly out above the twin cities. The buffeting windscaught and tossed it, and the girl laughed aloud in sheer joy ofthe resultant thrills. She handled the little ship like aveteran, though few veterans would have faced the menace of sucha storm in so light a craft. Swiftly she rose toward the clouds,racing with the scudding streamers of the storm-swept fragments,and a moment later she was swallowed by the dense massesbillowing above. Here was a new world, a world of chaos unpeopledexcept for herself; but it was a cold, damp, lonely world and shefound it depressing after the novelty of it had been dissipated,by an overpowering sense of the magnitude of the forces surgingabout her. Suddenly she felt very lonely and very cold and verylittle. Hurriedly, therefore, she rose until presently her craftbroke through into the glorious sunlight that transformed theupper surface of the somber element into rolling masses ofburnished silver. Here it was still cold, but without thedampness of the clouds, and in the eye of the brilliant sun herspirits rose with the mounting needle of her altimeter. Gazing atthe clouds, now far beneath, the girl experienced the sensationof hanging stationary in mid-heaven; but the whirring of herpropellor, the wind beating upon her, the high figures that roseand fell beneath the glass of her speedometer, these told herthat her speed was terrific. It was then that she determined toturn back.

The first attempt she made above the clouds, but it wasunsuccessful. To her surprise she discovered that she could noteven turn against the high wind, which rocked and buffeted thefrail craft. Then she dropped swiftly to the dark and wind-sweptzone between the hurtling clouds and the gloomy surface of theshadowed ground. Here she tried again to force the nose of theflier back toward Helium, but the tempest seized the frail thingand hurled it remorselessly about, rolling it over and over andtossing it as it were a cork in a cataract. At last the girlsucceeded in righting the flier, perilously close to the ground.Never before had she been so close to death, yet she was notterrified. Her coolness had saved her, that and the strength ofthe deck lashings that held her. Traveling with the storm she wassafe, but where was it bearing her? She pictured the apprehensionof her father and mother when she failed to appear at the morningmeal. They would find her flier missing and they would guess thatsomewhere in the path of the storm it lay a wrecked and tangledmass upon her dead body, and then brave men would go out insearch of her, risking their lives; and that lives would be lostin the search, she knew, for she realized now that never in herlife-time had such a tempest raged upon Barsoom.

She must turn back! She must reach Helium before her mad lust forthrills had cost the sacrifice of a single courageous life! Shedetermined that greater safety and likelihood of success layabove the clouds, and once again she rose through the chilling,wind-tossed vapor. Her speed again was terrific, for the windseemed to have increased rather than to have lessened. She soughtgradually to check the swift flight of her craft, but though shefinally succeeded in reversing her motor the wind but carried heron as it would. Then it was that Tara of Helium lost her temper.Had her world not always bowed in acquiescence to her every wish?What were these elements that they dared to thwart her? She woulddemonstrate to them that the daughter of The Warlord was not tobe denied! They would learn that Tara of Helium might not beruled even by the forces of nature!

And so she drove her motor forward again and then with her firm,white teeth set in grim determination she drove the steeringlever far down to port with the intention of forcing the nose ofher craft straight into the teeth of the wind, and the windseized the frail thing and toppled it over upon its back, andtwisted and turned it and hurled it over and over; the propellorraced for an instant in an air pocket and then the tempest seizedit again and twisted it from its shaft, leaving the girl helplessupon an unmanageable atom that rose and fell, and rolled andtumbled--the sport of the elements she had defied. Tara ofHelium's first sensation was one of surprise--that she had failedto have her own way. Then she commenced to feel concern--not forher own safety but for the anxiety of her parents and the dangersthat the inevitable searchers must face. She reproached herselffor the thoughtless selfishness that had jeopardized the peaceand safety of others. She realized her own grave danger, too; butshe was still unterrified, as befitted the daughter of DejahThoris and John Carter. She knew that her buoyancy tanks mightkeep her afloat indefinitely, but she had neither food nor water,and she was being borne toward the least-known area of Barsoom.Perhaps it would be better to land immediately and await thecoming of the searchers, rather than to allow herself to becarried still further from Helium, thus greatly reducing thechances of early discovery; but when she dropped toward theground she discovered that the violence of the wind rendered anattempt to land tantamount to destruction and she rose again,rapidly.

Carried along a few hundred feet above the ground she was betterable to appreciate the Titanic proportions of the storm than whenshe had flown in the comparative serenity of the zone above theclouds, for now she could distinctly see the effect of the windupon the surface of Barsoom. The air was filled with dust andflying bits of vegetation and when the storm carried her acrossan irrigated area of farm land she saw great trees and stonewalls and buildings lifted high in air and scattered broadcastover the devastated country; and then she was carried swiftly onto other sights that forced in upon her consciousness a rapidlygrowing conviction that after all Tara of Helium was a very smalland insignificant and helpless person. It was quite a shock toher self-pride while it lasted, and toward evening she was readyto believe that it was going to last forever. There had been noabatement in the ferocity of the tempest, nor was thereindication of any. She could only guess at the distance she hadbeen carried for she could not believe in the correctness of thehigh figures that had been piled upon the record of her odometer.They seemed unbelievable and yet, had she known it, they werequite true--in twelve hours she had flown and been carried by thestorm full seven thousand haads. Just before dark she was carriedover one of the deserted cities of ancient Mars. It was Torquas,but she did not know it. Had she, she might readily have beenforgiven for abandoning the last vestige of hope, for to thepeople of Helium Torquas seems as remote as do the South SeaIslands to us. And still the tempest, its fury unabated, bore heron.

All that night she hurtled through the dark beneath the clouds,or rose to race through the moonlit void beneath the glory ofBarsoom's two satellites. She was cold and hungry and altogethermiserable, but her brave little spirit refused to admit that herplight was hopeless even though reason proclaimed the truth. Herreply to reason, sometime spoken aloud in sudden defiance,recalled the Spartan stubbornness of her sire in the face ofcertain annihilation: "I still live!"

That morning there had been an early visitor at the palace of TheWarlord. It was Gahan, Jed of Gathol. He had arrived shortlyafter the absence of Tara of Helium had been noted, and in theexcitement he had remained unannounced until John Carter hadhappened upon him in the great reception corridor of the palaceas The Warlord was hurrying out to arrange for the dispatch ofships in search of his daughter.

Gahan read the concern upon the face of The Warlord. "Forgive meif I intrude, John Carter," he said. "I but came to ask theindulgence of another day since it would be fool-hardy to attemptto navigate a ship in such a storm."

"Remain, Gahan, a welcome guest until you choose to leave us,"replied The Warlord; "but you must forgive any seeminginattention upon the part of Helium until my daughter is restoredto us."

"You daughter! Restored! What do you mean?" exclaimed theGatholian. "I do not understand."

"She is gone, together with her light flier. That is all we know.We can only assume that she decided to fly before the morningmeal and was caught in the clutches of the tempest. You willpardon me, Gahan, if I leave you abruptly--I am arranging to sendships in search of her;" but Gahan, Jed of Gathol, was alreadyspeeding in the direction of the palace gate. There he leapedupon a waiting thoat and followed by two warriors in the metal ofGathol, he dashed through the avenues of Helium toward the palacethat had been set aside for his entertainment.