Upon a massive bench of polished ersite beneaththe gorgeous blooms of a giant pimalia a woman sat.Her shapely, sandalled foot tapped impatiently upon thejewel-strewn walk that wound beneath the stately sorapustrees across the scarlet sward of the royal gardens ofThuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth, as a dark-haired, red-skinned warrior bent low toward her, whispering heatedwords close to her ear.

"Ah, Thuvia of Ptarth," he cried, "you are coldeven before the fiery blasts of my consuming love!No harder than your heart, nor colder is the hard,cold ersite of this thrice happy bench which supportsyour divine and fadeless form! Tell me, O Thuvia ofPtarth, that I may still hope--that though you do notlove me now, yet some day, some day, my princess, I--"

The girl sprang to her feet with an exclamation ofsurprise and displeasure. Her queenly head was poisedhaughtily upon her smooth red shoulders. Her dark eyeslooked angrily into those of the man.

"You forget yourself, and the customs of Barsoom, Astok,"she said. "I have given you no right thus to addressthe daughter of Thuvan Dihn, nor have you won such a right."

The man reached suddenly forth and grasped her by the arm.

"You shall be my princess!" he cried. "By the breast ofIssus, thou shalt, nor shall any other come between Astok,Prince of Dusar, and his heart's desire. Tell me thatthere is another, and I shall cut out his foul heart andfling it to the wild calots of the dead sea-bottoms!"

At touch of the man's hand upon her flesh the girlwent pallid beneath her coppery skin, for the personsof the royal women of the courts of Mars are held butlittle less than sacred. The act of Astok, Prince of Dusar,was profanation. There was no terror in the eyes ofThuvia of Ptarth--only horror for the thing the manhad done and for its possible consequences.

"Release me." Her voice was level--frigid.

The man muttered incoherently and drew her roughly toward him.

"Release me!" she repeated sharply, "or I call the guard,and the Prince of Dusar knows what that will mean."

Quickly he threw his right arm about her shoulders andstrove to draw her face to his lips. With a little cryshe struck him full in the mouth with the massive braceletsthat circled her free arm.

"Calot!" she exclaimed, and then: "The guard! The guard!Hasten in protection of the Princess of Ptarth!"

In answer to her call a dozen guardsmen came racingacross the scarlet sward, their gleaming long-swordsnaked in the sun, the metal of their accoutrements clankingagainst that of their leathern harness, and in their throatshoarse shouts of rage at the sight which met their eyes.

But before they had passed half across the royal gardento where Astok of Dusar still held the struggling girlin his grasp, another figure sprang from a cluster ofdense foliage that half hid a golden fountain close athand. A tall, straight youth he was, with black hair andkeen grey eyes; broad of shoulder and narrow of hip;a clean-limbed fighting man. His skin was but faintly tingedwith the copper colour that marks the red men of Mars fromthe other races of the dying planet--he was like them,and yet there was a subtle difference greater even thanthat which lay in his lighter skin and his grey eyes.

There was a difference, too, in his movements. He came onin great leaps that carried him so swiftly over the groundthat the speed of the guardsmen was as nothing by comparison.

Astok still clutched Thuvia's wrist as the young warriorconfronted him. The new-comer wasted no time and he spokebut a single word.

"Calot!" he snapped, and then his clenched fistlanded beneath the other's chin, lifting him high into theair and depositing him in a crumpled heap within thecentre of the pimalia bush beside the ersite bench.

Her champion turned toward the girl. "Kaor, Thuvia of Ptarth!"he cried. "It seems that fate timed my visit well."

"Kaor, Carthoris of Helium!" the princess returned theyoung man's greeting, "and what less could one expectof the son of such a sire?"

He bowed his acknowledgment of the compliment tohis father, John Carter, Warlord of Mars. And then theguardsmen, panting from their charge, came up just asthe Prince of Dusar, bleeding at the mouth, and withdrawn sword, crawled from the entanglement of the pimalia.

Astok would have leaped to mortal combat with the sonof Dejah Thoris, but the guardsmen pressed about him,preventing, though it was clearly evident that naughtwould have better pleased Carthoris of Helium.

"But say the word, Thuvia of Ptarth," he begged,"and naught will give me greater pleasure than meting tothis fellow the punishment he has earned."

"It cannot be, Carthoris," she replied. "Even thoughhe has forfeited all claim upon my consideration, yet ishe the guest of the jeddak, my father, and to him alonemay he account for the unpardonable act he has committed."

"As you say, Thuvia," replied the Heliumite. "Butafterward he shall account to Carthoris, Prince of Helium,for this affront to the daughter of my father's friend." As he spoke, though, there burned in his eyes a firethat proclaimed a nearer, dearer cause for his championshipof this glorious daughter of Barsoom.

The maid's cheek darkened beneath the satin of hertransparent skin, and the eyes of Astok, Prince of Dusar,darkened, too, as he read that which passed unspokenbetween the two in the royal gardens of the jeddak.

"And thou to me," he snapped at Carthoris, answeringthe young man's challenge.

The guard still surrounded Astok. It was a difficultposition for the young officer who commanded it.His prisoner was the son of a mighty jeddak; he wasthe guest of Thuvan Dihn--until but now an honouredguest upon whom every royal dignity had been showered.To arrest him forcibly could mean naught else than war,and yet he had done that which in the eyes of the Ptarthwarrior merited death.

The young man hesitated. He looked toward his princess. She, too, guessed all that hung upon the action ofthe coming moment. For many years Dusar and Ptarthhad been at peace with each other. Their great merchantships plied back and forth between the larger cities ofthe two nations. Even now, far above the gold-shotscarlet dome of the jeddak's palace, she could see thehuge bulk of a giant freighter taking its majestic waythrough the thin Barsoomian air toward the west and Dusar.

By a word she might plunge these two mighty nationsinto a bloody conflict that would drain them of theirbravest blood and their incalculable riches, leaving themall helpless against the inroads of their envious andless powerful neighbors, and at last a prey to the savagegreen hordes of the dead sea-bottoms.

No sense of fear influenced her decision, for fear isseldom known to the children of Mars. It was rather asense of the responsibility that she, the daughter of theirjeddak, felt for the welfare of her father's people.

"I called you, Padwar," she said to the lieutenant ofthe guard, "to protect the person of your princess,and to keep the peace that must not be violated within theroyal gardens of the jeddak. That is all. You will escortme to the palace, and the Prince of Helium will accompany me."

Without another glance in the direction of Astok sheturned, and taking Carthoris' proffered hand, movedslowly toward the massive marble pile that housed theruler of Ptarth and his glittering court. On either sidemarched a file of guardsmen. Thus Thuvia of Ptarth founda way out of a dilemma, escaping the necessity of placingher father's royal guest under forcible restraint,and at the same time separating the two princes,who otherwise would have been at each other's throatthe moment she and the guard had departed.

Beside the pimalia stood Astok, his dark eyes narrowedto mere slits of hate beneath his lowering brows as hewatched the retreating forms of the woman who had arousedthe fiercest passions of his nature and the man whom henow believed to be the one who stood between his loveand its consummation.

As they disappeared within the structure Astokshrugged his shoulders, and with a murmured oathcrossed the gardens toward another wing of thebuilding where he and his retinue were housed.

That night he took formal leave of Thuvan Dihn, andthough no mention was made of the happening withinthe garden, it was plain to see through the cold maskof the jeddak's courtesy that only the customs of royalhospitality restrained him from voicing the contempt hefelt for the Prince of Dusar.

Carthoris was not present at the leave-taking, nor was Thuvia.The ceremony was as stiff and formal as court etiquettecould make it, and when the last of the Dusariansclambered over the rail of the battleship that hadbrought them upon this fateful visit to the court of Ptarth,and the mighty engine of destruction had risen slowlyfrom the ways of the landing-stage, a note of reliefwas apparent in the voice of Thuvan Dihn as he turnedto one of his officers with a word of comment upon asubject foreign to that which had been uppermost in theminds of all for hours.

But, after all, was it so foreign?

"Inform Prince Sovan," he directed, "that it is ourwish that the fleet which departed for Kaol this morningbe recalled to cruise to the west of Ptarth."

As the warship, bearing Astok back to the court of hisfather, turned toward the west, Thuvia of Ptarth, sittingupon the same bench where the Prince of Dusar hadaffronted her, watched the twinkling lights of the craftgrowing smaller in the distance. Beside her, in thebrilliant light of the nearer moon, sat Carthoris.His eyes were not upon the dim bulk of the battleship,but on the profile of the girl's upturned face.

"Thuvia," he whispered.

The girl turned her eyes toward his. His hand stole outto find hers, but she drew her own gently away.

"Thuvia of Ptarth, I love you!" cried the young warrior. "Tell me that it does not offend."

She shook her head sadly. "The love of Carthoris ofHelium," she said simply, "could be naught but an honourto any woman; but you must not speak, my friend,of bestowing upon me that which I may not reciprocate."

The young man got slowly to his feet. His eyes werewide in astonishment. It never had occurred to the Princeof Helium that Thuvia of Ptarth might love another.

"But at Kadabra!" he exclaimed. "And later here atyour father's court, what did you do, Thuvia of Ptarth,that might have warned me that you could not return my love?"

"And what did I do, Carthoris of Helium," she returned,"that might lead you to believe that I DID return it?"

He paused in thought, and then shook his head."Nothing, Thuvia, that is true; yet I could havesworn you loved me. Indeed, you well knew hownear to worship has been my love for you."

"And how might I know it, Carthoris?" she asked innocently. "Did you ever tell me as much? Ever before have wordsof love for me fallen from your lips?"

"But you MUST have known it!" he exclaimed. "I amlike my father--witless in matters of the heart, and of apoor way with women; yet the jewels that strew theseroyal garden paths--the trees, the flowers, the sward--all must have read the love that has filled my heart sincefirst my eyes were made new by imaging your perfect faceand form; so how could you alone have been blind to it?"

"Do the maids of Helium pay court to their men?" asked Thuvia.

"You are playing with me!" exclaimed Carthoris. "Say thatyou are but playing, and that after all you love me, Thuvia!"

"I cannot tell you that, Carthoris, for I am promised to another."

Her tone was level, but was there not within it thehint of an infinite depth of sadness? Who may say?

"Promised to another?" Carthoris scarcely breathedthe words. His face went almost white, and then his headcame up as befitted him in whose veins flowed the bloodof the overlord of a world.

"Carthoris of Helium wishes you every happiness withthe man of your choice," he said. "With--" and thenhe hesitated, waiting for her to fill in the name.

"Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol," she replied. "My father'sfriend and Ptarth's most puissant ally."

The young man looked at her intently for a momentbefore he spoke again.

"You love him, Thuvia of Ptarth?" he asked.

"I am promised to him," she replied simply.

He did not press her. "He is of Barsoom's noblest bloodand mightiest fighters," mused Carthoris. "My father'sfriend and mine--would that it might have been another!"he muttered almost savagely. What the girl thought washidden by the mask of her expression, which was tingedonly by a little shadow of sadness that might have beenfor Carthoris, herself, or for them both.

Carthoris of Helium did not ask, though he noted it,for his loyalty to Kulan Tith was the loyalty of theblood of John Carter of Virginia for a friend,greater than which could be no loyalty.

He raised a jewel-encrusted bit of the girl's magnificenttrappings to his lips.

"To the honour and happiness of Kulan Tith and thepriceless jewel that has been bestowed upon him,"he said, and though his voice was husky there was the truering of sincerity in it. "I told you that I loved you,Thuvia, before I knew that you were promised to another.I may not tell you it again, but I am glad that you know it,for there is no dishonour in it either to you or to KulanTith or to myself. My love is such that it may embraceas well Kulan Tith--if you love him." There was almosta question in the statement.

"I am promised to him," she replied.

Carthoris backed slowly away. He laid one hand uponhis heart, the other upon the pommel of his long-sword.

"These are yours--always," he said. A moment later he hadentered the palace, and was gone from the girl's sight.

Had he returned at once he would have found her proneupon the ersite bench, her face buried in her arms.Was she weeping? There was none to see.

Carthoris of Helium had come all unannounced to thecourt of his father's friend that day. He had come alonein a small flier, sure of the same welcome that alwaysawaited him at Ptarth. As there had been no formalityin his coming there was no need of formality in his going.

To Thuvan Dihn he explained that he had been buttesting an invention of his own with which his flier wasequipped--a clever improvement of the ordinary Martianair compass, which, when set for a certain destination,will remain constantly fixed thereon, making it onlynecessary to keep a vessel's prow always in the directionof the compass needle to reach any given point upon Barsoomby the shortest route.

Carthoris' improvement upon this consisted of anauxiliary device which steered the craft mechanically inthe direction of the compass, and upon arrival directlyover the point for which the compass was set, broughtthe craft to a standstill and lowered it, also automatically,to the ground.

"You readily discern the advantages of this invention,"he was saying to Thuvan Dihn, who had accompaniedhim to the landing-stage upon the palace roof to inspectthe compass and bid his young friend farewell.

A dozen officers of the court with several body servantswere grouped behind the jeddak and his guest,eager listeners to the conversation--so eager on thepart of one of the servants that he was twice rebukedby a noble for his forwardness in pushing himselfahead of his betters to view the intricate mechanism ofthe wonderful "controlling destination compass," as thething was called.

"For example," continued Carthoris, "I have an all-night trip before me, as to-night. I set the pointer hereupon the right-hand dial which represents the easternhemisphere of Barsoom, so that the point rests uponthe exact latitude and longitude of Helium. Then Istart the engine, roll up in my sleeping silks and furs,and with lights burning, race through the air towardHelium, confident that at the appointed hour I shall dropgently toward the landing-stage upon my own palace,whether I am still asleep or no."

"Provided," suggested Thuvan Dihn, "you do not chanceto collide with some other night wanderer in the meanwhile."

Carthoris smiled. "No danger of that," he replied."See here," and he indicated a device at the right of thedestination compass. "This is my `obstruction evader,'as I call it. This visible device is the switch which throwsthe mechanism on or off. The instrument itself is below deck,geared both to the steering apparatus and the control levers.

"It is quite simple, being nothing more than a radiumgenerator diffusing radio-activity in all directions to adistance of a hundred yards or so from the flier. Shouldthis enveloping force be interrupted in any direction adelicate instrument immediately apprehends the irregularity,at the same time imparting an impulse to a magnetic devicewhich in turn actuates the steering mechanism, divertingthe bow of the flier away from the obstacle until thecraft's radio-activity sphere is no longer in contactwith the obstruction, then she falls once more into hernormal course. Should the disturbance approach fromthe rear, as in case of a faster-moving craft overhauling me,the mechanism actuates the speed control as well as thesteering gear, and the flier shoots ahead and eitherup or down, as the oncoming vessel is upon a lower orhigher plane than herself.

"In aggravated cases, that is when the obstructions are many,or of such a nature as to deflect the bow more thanforty-five degrees in any direction, or when the crafthas reached its destination and dropped to withina hundred yards of the ground, the mechanism brings herto a full stop, at the same time sounding a loud alarmwhich will instantly awaken the pilot. You see I haveanticipated almost every contingency."

Thuvan Dihn smiled his appreciation of the marvellous device.The forward servant pushed almost to the flier's side.His eyes were narrowed to slits.

"All but one," he said.

The nobles looked at him in astonishment, and oneof them grasped the fellow none too gently by theshoulder to push him back to his proper place.Carthoris raised his hand.

"Wait," he urged. "Let us hear what the man has tosay--no creation of mortal mind is perfect. Perchance hehas detected a weakness that it will be well to know atonce. Come, my good fellow, and what may be the onecontingency I have overlooked?"

As he spoke Carthoris observed the servant closely forthe first time. He saw a man of giant stature and handsome,as are all those of the race of Martian red men; but thefellow's lips were thin and cruel, and across one cheekwas the faint, white line of a sword-cut from theright temple to the corner of the mouth.

"Come," urged the Prince of Helium. "Speak!"

The man hesitated. It was evident that he regrettedthe temerity that had made him the centre of interestedobservation. But at last, seeing no alternative, he spoke.

"It might be tampered with," he said, "by an enemy."

Carthoris drew a small key from his leathern pocket-pouch.

"Look at this," he said, handing it to the man. "If youknow aught of locks, you will know that the mechanism whichthis unlooses is beyond the cunning of a picker of locks.It guards the vitals of the instrument from crafty tampering.Without it an enemy must half wreck the device to reach its heart,leaving his handiwork apparent to the most casual observer."

The servant took the key, glanced at it shrewdly, andthen as he made to return it to Carthoris dropped it uponthe marble flagging. Turning to look for it he planted thesole of his sandal full upon the glittering object. For aninstant he bore all his weight upon the foot that coveredthe key, then he stepped back and with an exclamationas of pleasure that he had found it, stooped, recoveredit, and returned it to the Heliumite. Then he droppedback to his station behind the nobles and was forgotten.

A moment later Carthoris had made his adieux toThuvan Dihn and his nobles, and with lights twinklinghad risen into the star-shot void of the Martian night.