"I SHALL not desert you, Ghek," said Tara of Helium, simply.

"Go! Go!" whispered the kaldane. "You can do me no good. Go, orall I have done is for naught."

Tara shook her head. "I cannot," she said.

"They will slay her," said Ghek to Turan, and the panthan, tornbetween loyalty to this strange creature who had offered its lifefor him, and love of the woman, hesitated but a moment, then heswept Tara from her feet and lifting her in his arms leaped upthe steps that led to the throne of Manator. Behind the throne heparted the arras and found the secret opening. Into this he borethe girl and down a long, narrow corridor and winding runwaysthat led to lower levels until they came to the pits of thepalace of O-Tar. Here was a labyrinth of passages and chamberspresenting a thousand hiding-places.

As Turan bore Tara up the steps toward the throne a score ofwarriors rose as though to rush forward to intercept them."Stay!" cried Ghek, "or your jeddak dies," and they halted intheir tracks, waiting the will of this strange, uncanny creature.

Presently Ghek took his eyes from the eyes of O-Tar and thejeddak shook himself as one who would be rid of a bad dream andstraightened up, half dazed still.

"Look," said Ghek, then, "I have given your jeddak his life,

nor have I harmed one of those whom I might easily have slainwhen they were in my power. No harm have I or my friends done inthe city of Manator. Why then should you persecute us? Give usour lives. Give us our liberty."

O-Tar, now in command of his faculties, stooped and regained hissword. In the room was silence as all waited to hear the jeddak'sanswer.

"Just are the laws of Manator," he said at last. "Perhaps, afterall, there is truth in the words of the stranger. Return him thento the pits and pursue the others and capture them. Through themercy of O-Tar they shall be permitted to win their freedom uponthe Field of Jetan, in the coming games."

Still ashen was the face of the jeddak as Ghek was led away andhis appearance was that of a man who had been snatched from thebrink of eternity into which he has gazed, not with the composureof great courage, but with fear. There were those in the throneroom who knew that the execution of the three prisoners had butbeen delayed and the responsibility placed upon the shoulders ofothers, and one of those who knew was U-Thor, the great jed ofManatos. His curling lip betokened his scorn of the jeddak whohad chosen humiliation rather than death. He knew that O-Tar hadlost more of prestige in those few moments than he could regainin a lifetime, for the Martians are jealous of the courage oftheir chiefs--there can be no evasions of stern duty, notemporizing with honor. That there were others in the room whoshared U-Thor's belief was evidenced by the silence and the grimscowls.

O-Tar glanced quickly around. He must have sensed the hostilityand guessed its cause, for he went suddenly angry, and as one whoseeks by the vehemence of his words to establish the courage ofhis heart he roared forth what could be considered as naughtother than a challenge.

"The will of O-Tar, the jeddak, is the law of Manator," he cried,"and the laws of Manator are just--they cannot err. U-Dor,dispatch those who will search the palace, the pits, and thecity, and return the fugitives to their cells.

"And now for you, U-Thor of Manatos! Think you with impunity tothreaten your jeddak--to question his right to punish traitorsand instigators of treason? What am I to think of your ownloyalty, who takes to wife a woman I have banished from my courtbecause of her intrigues against the authority of her jeddak andher master? But O-Tar is just. Make your explanations and yourpeace, then, before it is too late."

"U-Thor has nothing to explain," replied the jed of Manatos; "noris he at war with his jeddak; but he has the right that every jedand every warrior enjoys, of demanding justice at the hands ofthe jeddak for whomsoever he believes to be persecuted. Withincreasing rigor has the jeddak of Manator persecuted the slavesfrom Gathol since he took to himself the unwilling Princess Haja.If the slaves from Gathol have harbored thoughts of vengeance andescape 'tis no more than might be expected from a proud andcourageous people Ever have I counselled greater fairness in ourtreatment of our slaves, many of whom, in their own lands, arepeople of great distinction and power; but always has O-Tar, thejeddak, flouted with arrogance my every suggestion. Though it hasbeen through none of my seeking that the question has arisen nowI am glad that it has, for the time was bound to come when thejeds of Manator would demand from O-Tar the respect andconsideration that is their due from the man who holds his highoffice at their pleasure. Know, then, O-Tar, that you must freeA-Kor, the dwar, forthwith or bring him to fair trial before theassembled jeds of Manator. I have spoken."

"You have spoken well and to the point, U-Thor," cried O-Tar,"for you have revealed to your jeddak and your fellow jeds thedepth of the disloyalty that I have long suspected. A-Kor alreadyhas been tried and sentenced by the supreme tribunal ofManator--O-Tar, the jeddak; and you too shall receive justicefrom the same unfailing source. In the meantime you are underarrest. To the pits with him! To the pits with U-Thor the falsejed!" He clapped his hands to summon the surrounding warriors todo his bidding. A score leaped forward to seize U-Thor. They werewarriors of the palace, mostly; but two score leaped to defendU-Thor, and with ringing steel they fought at the foot of thesteps to the throne of Manator where stood O-Tar, the jeddak,with drawn sword ready to take his part in themêlée.

At the clash of steel, palace guards rushed to the scene fromother parts of the great building until those who would havedefended U-Thor were outnumbered two to one, and then the jed ofManatos slowly withdrew with his forces, and fighting his waythrough the corridors and chambers of the palace came at last tothe avenue. Here he was reinforced by the little army that hadmarched with him into Manator. Slowly they retreated toward TheGate of Enemies between the rows of silent people looking downupon them from the balconies and there, within the city walls,they made their stand.

In a dimly-lighted chamber beneath the palace of O-Tar thejeddak, Turan the panthan lowered Tara of Helium from his armsand faced her. "I am sorry, Princess," he said, "that I wasforced to disobey your commands, or to abandon Ghek; but therewas no other way. Could he have saved you I would have stayed inhis place. Tell me that you forgive me."

"How could I do less?" she replied graciously. "But it seemedcowardly to abandon a friend."

"Had we been three fighting men it had been different," he said."We could only have remained and died together, fighting; but youknow, Tara of Helium, that we may not jeopardize a woman's safetyeven though we risk the loss of honor."

"I know that, Turan," she said; "but no one may say that you haverisked honor, who knows the honor and bravery that are yours."

He heard her with surprise for these were the first words thatshe had spoken to him that did not savor of the attitude of aprincess to a panthan--though it was more in her tone than theactual words that he apprehended the difference. How at variancewere they to her recent repudiation of him! He could not fathomher, and so he blurted out the question that had been in his mindsince she had told O-Tar that she did not know him.

"Tara of Helium," he said, "your words are balm to the wound yougave me in the throne room of O-Tar. Tell me, Princess, why youdenied me."

She turned her great, deep eyes up to his and in them was alittle of reproach.

"You did not guess," she asked, "that it was my lips alone andnot my heart that denied you? O-Tar had ordered that I die, morebecause I was a companion of Ghek than because of any evidenceagainst me, and so I knew that if I acknowledged you as one ofus, you would be slain, too."

"It was to save me, then?" he cried, his face suddenly lighting.

"It was to save my brave panthan," she said in a low voice.

"Tara of Helium," said the warrior, dropping to one knee, "yourwords are as food to my hungry heart," and he took her fingers inhis and pressed them to his lips.

Gently she raised him to his feet. "You need not tell me,kneeling," she said, softly.

Her hand was still in his as he rose and they were very close,and the man was still flushed with the contact of her body sincehe had carried her from the throne room of O-Tar. He felt hisheart pounding in his breast and the hot blood surging throughhis veins as he looked at her beautiful face, with its downcasteyes and the half-parted lips that he would have given a kingdomto possess, and then he swept her to him and as he crushed heragainst his breast his lips smothered hers with kisses.

But only for an instant. Like a tigress the girl turned upon

him, striking him, and thrusting him away. She stepped back, herhead high and her eyes flashing fire. "You would dare?" shecried. "You would dare thus defile a princess of Helium?"

His eyes met hers squarely and there was no shame and no remorsein them.

"Yes, I would dare," he said. "I would dare love Tara of Helium;but I would not dare defile her or any woman with kisses thatwere not prompted by love of her alone." He stepped closer to herand laid his hands upon her shoulders. "Look into my eyes,daughter of The Warlord," he said, "and tell me that you do notwish the love of Turan, the panthan."

"I do not wish your love," she cried, pulling away. "I hate you!"and then turning away she bent her head into the hollow of herarm, and wept.

The man took a step toward her as though to comfort her when hewas arrested by the sound of a crackling laugh behind him.Wheeling about, he discovered a strange figure of a man standingin a doorway. It was one of those rarities occasionally to beseen upon Barsoom--an old man with the signs of age upon him.Bent and wrinkled, he had more the appearance of a mummy than aman.

"Love in the pits of O-Tar!" he cried, and again his thinlaughter jarred upon the silence of the subterranean vaults. "Astrange place to woo! A strange place to woo, indeed! When I wasa young man we roamed in the gardens beneath giant pimalias andstole our kisses in the brief shadows of hurtling Thuria. We camenot to the gloomy pits to speak of love; but times have changedand ways have changed, though I had never thought to live to seethe time when the way of a man with a maid, or a maid with a manwould change. Ah, but we kissed them then! And what if theyobjected, eh? What if they objected? Why, we kissed them more.Ey, ey, those were the days!" and he cackled again. "Ey, well doI recall the first of them I ever kissed, and I've kissed an armyof them since; she was a fine girl, but she tried to slip adagger into me while I was kissing her. Ey, ey, those were thedays! But I kissed her. She's been dead over a thousand yearsnow, but she was never kissed again like that while she lived,I'll swear, not since she's been dead, either. And then there wasthat other --" but Turan, seeing a thousand or more years ofosculatory memoirs portending, interrupted.

"Tell me, ancient one," he said, "not of thy loves but ofthyself. Who are you? What do you here in the pits of O-Tar?"

"I might ask you the same, young man," replied the other. "Fewthere are who visit the pits other than the dead, except mypupils--ey! That is it--you are new pupils! Good! But neverbefore have they sent a woman to learn the great art from thegreatest artist. But times have changed. Now, in my day the womendid no work--they were just for kissing and loving. Ey, thosewere the women. I mind the one we captured in the south--ey! shewas a devil, but how she could love. She had breasts of marbleand a heart of fire. Why, she --"

"Yes, yes," interrupted Turan; "we are pupils, and we are anxiousto get to work. Lead on and we will follow."

"Ey, yes! Ey, yes! Come! All is rush and hurry as though therewere not another countless myriad of ages ahead. Ey, yes! as manyas lie behind. Two thousand years have passed since I broke myshell and always rush, rush, rush, yet I cannot see that aughthas been accomplished. Manator is the same today as it wasthen--except the girls. We had the girls then. There was one thatI gained upon The Fields of Jetan. Ey, but you should have seen--"

"Lead on!" cried Turan. "After we are at work you shall tell usof her."

"Ey, yes," said the old fellow and shuffled off down a dimly

lighted passage. "Follow me!"

"You are going with him?" asked Tara.

"Why not?" replied Turan. "We know not where we are, or the wayfrom these pits; for I know not east from west; but he doubtlessknows and if we are shrewd we may learn from him that which wewould know. At least we cannot afford to arouse his suspicions";and so they followed him--followed along winding corridors andthrough many chambers, until they came at last to a room in whichthere were several marble slabs raised upon pedestals some threefeet above the floor and upon each slab lay a human corpse.

"Here we are," exclaimed the old man. "These are fresh and weshall have to get to work upon them soon. I am working now on onefor The Gate of Enemies. He slew many of our warriors. Truly ishe entitled to a place in The Gate. Come, you shall see him."

He led them to an adjoining apartment. Upon the floor were manyfresh, human bones and upon a marble slab a mass of shapelessflesh.

"You will learn this later," announced the old man; "but it willnot harm you to watch me now, for there are not many thusprepared, and it may be long before you will have the opportunityto see another prepared for The Gate of Enemies. First, you see,I remove all the bones, carefully that the skin may be damaged aslittle as possible. The skull is the most difficult, but it canbe removed by a skilful artist. You see, I have made but a singleopening. This I now sew up, and that done, the body is hung so,"and he fastened a piece of rope to the hair of the corpse andswung the horrid thing to a ring in the ceiling. Directly belowit was a circular manhole in the floor from which he removed thecover revealing a well partially filled with a reddish liquid."Now we lower it into this, the formula for which you shall learnin due time. We fasten it thus to the bottom of the cover, whichwe now replace. In a year it will be ready; but it must beexamined often in the meantime and the liquid kept above thelevel of its crown. It will be a very beautiful piece, this one,when it is ready.

"And you are fortunate again, for there is one to come outtoday." He crossed to the opposite side of the room and raisedanother cover, reached in and dragged a grotesque looking figurefrom the hole. It was a human body, shrunk by the action of thechemical in which it had been immersed, to a little figure scarcea foot high.

"Ey! is it not fine?" cried the little old man. "Tomorrow it willtake its place in The Gate of Enemies." He dried it off withcloths and packed it away carefully in a basket. "Perhaps youwould like to see some of my life work," he suggested, andwithout waiting for their assent led them to another apartment, alarge chamber in which were forty or fifty people. All weresitting or standing quietly about the walls, with the exceptionof one huge warrior who bestrode a great thoat in the very centerof the room, and all were motionless. Instantly there sprang tothe minds of Tara and Turan the rows of silent people upon thebalconies that lined the avenues of the city, and the noble arrayof mounted warriors in The Hall of Chiefs, and the sameexplanation came to both but neither dared voice the questionthat was in his mind, for fear of revealing by his ignorance thefact that they were strangers in Manator and therefore impostorsin the guise of pupils.

"It is very wonderful," said Turan. "It must require great skilland patience and time."

"That it does," replied the old man, "though having done it solong I am quicker than most; but mine are the most natural. Why,I would defy the wife of that warrior to say that insofar asappearances are concerned he does not live," and he pointed atthe man upon the thoat. "Many of them, of course, are broughthere wasted or badly wounded and these I have to repair. That iswhere great skill is required, for everyone wants his dead tolook as they did at their best in life; but you shall learn--tomount them and paint them and repair them and sometimes to makean ugly one look beautiful. And it will be a great comfort to beable to mount your own. Why, for fifteen hundred years no one hasmounted my own dead but myself.

"I have many, my balconies are crowded with them; but I keep agreat room for my wives. I have them all, as far back as thefirst one, and many is the evening I spend with them--quietevenings and very pleasant. And then the pleasure of preparingthem and making them even more beautiful than in life partiallyrecompenses one for their loss. I take my time with them, lookingfor a new one while I am working on the old. When I am not sureabout a new one I bring her to the chamber where my wives are,and compare her charms with theirs, and there is always a greatsatisfaction at such times in knowing that they will not object.I love harmony."

"Did you prepare all the warriors in The Hall of Chiefs?" askedTuran.

"Yes, I prepare them and repair them," replied the old man."O-Tar will trust no other. Even now I have two in another roomwho were damaged in some way and brought down to me. O-Tar doesnot like to have them gone long, since it leaves two riderlessthoats in the Hall; but I shall have them ready presently. Hewants them all there in the event any momentous question arisesupon which the living jeds cannot agree, or do not agree withO-Tar. Such questions he carries to the jeds in The Hall ofChiefs. There he shuts himself up alone with the great chiefs whohave attained wisdom through death. It is an excellent plan andthere is never any friction or misunderstandings. O-Tar has saidthat it is the finest deliberative body upon Barsoom--much moreintelligent than that composed of the living jeds. But come, wemust get to work; come into the next chamber and I will beginyour instruction."

He led the way into the chamber in which lay the several corpsesupon their marble slabs, and going to a cabinet he donned a pairof huge spectacles and commenced to select various tools fromlittle compartments. This done he turned again toward his twopupils.

"Now let me have a look at you," he said. "My eyes are not whatthey once were, and I need these powerful lenses for my work, orto see distinctly the features of those around me."

He turned his eyes upon the two before him. Turan held his breathfor he knew that now the man must discover that they wore not theharness or insignia of Manator. He had wondered before why theold fellow had not noticed it, for he had not known that he washalf blind. The other examined their faces, his eyes lingeringlong upon the beauty of Tara of Helium, and then they drifted tothe harness of the two. Turan thought that he noted anappreciable start of surprise on the part of the taxidermist, butif the old man noticed anything his next words did not reveal it.

"Come with I-Gos," he said to Turan, "I have materials in thenext room that I would have you fetch hither. Remain here, woman,we shall be gone but a moment."

He led the way to one of the numerous doors opening into thechamber and entered ahead of Turan. Just inside the door hestopped, and pointing to a bundle of silks and furs upon theopposite side of the room directed Turan to fetch them. Thelatter had crossed the room and was stooping to raise the bundlewhen he heard the click of a lock behind him. Wheeling instantlyhe saw that he was alone in the room and that the single door wasclosed. Running rapidly to it he strove to open it, only to findthat he was a prisoner.

I-Gos, stepping out and locking the door behind him, turnedtoward Tara.

"Your leather betrayed you," he said, laughing his cacklinglaugh. "You sought to deceive old I-Gos, but you found thatthough his eyes are weak his brain is not. But it shall not goill with you. You are beautiful and I-Gos loves beautiful women.I might not have you elsewhere in Manator, but here there is noneto deny old I-Gos. Few come to the pits of the dead--only thosewho bang the dead and they hasten away as fast as they can. Noone will know that I-Gos has a beautiful woman locked with hisdead. I shall ask you no questions and then I will not have togive you up, for I will not know to whom you belong, eh? And whenyou die I shall mount you beautifully and place you in thechamber with my other women. Will not that be fine, eh?" He hadapproached until he stood close beside the horrified girl."Come!" he cried, seizing her by the wrist. "Come to I-Gos!"