Downward along a smooth, broad floor led the strange tunnel,for such Carthoris was now convinced was the nature of theshaft he at first had thought but a cave.

Before him he could hear the occasional low moans of the banth,and presently from behind came a similar uncanny note.Another banth had entered the passageway on HIS trail!

His position was anything but pleasant. His eyes couldnot penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing ofhis hand before his face, while the banths, he knew,could see quite well, though absence of light were utter.

No other sounds came to his ears than the dismal, bloodthirstymoanings of the beast ahead and the beast behind.

The tunnel had led straight, from where he had enteredit beneath the side of the rock furthest from theunscaleable cliffs, toward the mighty barrier that hadbaffled him so long.

Now it was running almost level, and presently henoted a gradual ascent.

The beast behind him was gaining upon him, crowding himperilously close upon the heels of the beast in front.Presently he should have to do battle with one, or both.More firmly he gripped his weapon.

Now he could hear the breathing of the banth at his heels.Not for much longer could he delay the encounter.

Long since he had become assured that the tunnel ledbeneath the cliffs to the opposite side of the barrier,and he had hoped that he might reach the moonlit open beforebeing compelled to grapple with either of the monsters.

The sun had been setting as he entered the tunnel,and the way had been sufficiently long to assure himthat darkness now reigned upon the world without.He glanced behind him. Blazing out of the darkness,seemingly not ten paces behind, glared two flaming pointsof fire. As the savage eyes met his, the beast emitted afrightful roar and then he charged.

To face that savage mountain of onrushing ferocity,to stand unshaken before the hideous fangs that he knewwere bared in slavering blood-thirstiness, though hecould not see them, required nerves of steel; but ofsuch were the nerves of Carthoris of Helium.

He had the brute's eyes to guide his point, and, as trueas the sword hand of his mighty sire, his guided thekeen point to one of those blazing orbs, even as he leapedlightly to one side.

With a hideous scream of pain and rage, the woundedbanth hurtled, clawing, past him. Then it turned to chargeonce more; but this time Carthoris saw but a singlegleaming point of fiery hate directed upon him.

Again the needle point met its flashing target. Againthe horrid cry of the stricken beast reverberated throughthe rocky tunnel, shocking in its torture-laden shrillness,deafening in its terrific volume.

But now, as it turned to charge again,the man had no guide whereby to direct his point.He heard the scraping of the padded feet upon the rocky floor.He knew the thing was charging down upon him once again,but he could see nothing.

Yet, if he could not see his antagonist, neither couldhis antagonist now see him.

Leaping, as he thought, to the exact centre of the tunnel,he held his sword point ready on a line with thebeast's chest. It was all that he could do, hoping thatchance might send the point into the savage heart as hewent down beneath the great body.

So quickly was the thing over that Carthoris couldscarce believe his senses as the mighty body rushedmadly past him. Either he had not placed himself in thecentre of the tunnel, or else the blinded banth haderred in its calculations.

However, the huge body missed him by a foot,and the creature continued on down the tunnel asthough in pursuit of the prey that had eluded him.

Carthoris, too, followed the same direction, nor was itlong before his heart was gladdened by the sight of themoonlit exit from the long, dark passage.

Before him lay a deep hollow, entirely surrounded bygigantic cliffs. The surface of the valley was dotted withenormous trees, a strange sight so far from a Martian waterway.The ground itself was clothed in brilliant scarlet sward,picked out with innumerable patches of gorgeous wild flowers.

Beneath the glorious effulgence of the two moons thescene was one of indescribable loveliness, tinged with theweirdness of strange enchantment.

For only an instant, however, did his gaze rest uponthe natural beauties outspread before him. Almostimmediately they were riveted upon the figure of a greatbanth standing across the carcass of a new-killed thoat.

The huge beast, his tawny mane bristling around hishideous head, kept his eyes fixed upon another banth thatcharged erratically hither and thither, with shrill screamsof pain, and horrid roars of hate and rage.

Carthoris quickly guessed that the second brute wasthe one he had blinded during the fight in the tunnel,but it was the dead thoat that centred his interest morethan either of the savage carnivores.

The harness was still upon the body of the huge Martian mount,and Carthoris could not doubt but that this was the veryanimal upon which the green warrior had borne awayThuvia of Ptarth.

But where were the rider and his prisoner? The Princeof Helium shuddered as he thought upon the probabilityof the fate that had overtaken them.

Human flesh is the food most craved by the fierceBarsoomian lion, whose great carcass and giant thewsrequire enormous quantities of meat to sustain them.

Two human bodies would have but whetted the creature's appetite,and that he had killed and eaten the green man and the red girlseemed only too likely to Carthoris. He had left the carcassof the mighty thoat to be devoured after having consumed themore tooth-some portion of his banquet.

Now the sightless banth, in its savage, aimless chargingand counter-charging, had passed beyond the kill of its fellow,and there the light breeze that was blowing wafted the scentof new blood to its nostrils.

No longer were its movements erratic. With outstretchedtail and foaming jaws it charged straight as an arrow,for the body of the thoat and the mighty creature ofdestruction that stood with forepaws upon the slate-greyside, waiting to defend its meat.

When the charging banth was twenty paces from the deadthoat the killer gave vent to its hideous challenge,and with a mighty spring leaped forward to meet it.

The battle that ensued awed even the warlike Barsoomian. The mad rending, the hideous and deafening roaring,the implacable savagery of the blood-stainedbeasts held him in the paralysis of fascination, and whenit was over and the two creatures, their heads and shoulderstorn to ribbons, lay with their dead jaws still buriedin each other's bodies, Carthoris tore himself from thespell only by an effort of the will.

Hurrying to the side of the dead thoat, he searched fortraces of the girl he feared had shared the thoat's fate,but nowhere could he discover anything to confirm his fears.

With slightly lightened heart he started out to explorethe valley, but scarce a dozen steps had he taken whenthe glistening of a jewelled bauble lying on the swardcaught his eye.

As he picked it up his first glance showed him that itwas a woman's hair ornament, and emblazoned upon itwas the insignia of the royal house of Ptarth.

But, sinister discovery, blood, still wet, splotched themagnificent jewels of the setting.

Carthoris half choked as the dire possibilities whichthe thing suggested presented themselves to his imagination.Yet he could not, would not believe it.

It was impossible that that radiant creature could havemet so hideous an end. It was incredible that the gloriousThuvia should ever cease to be.

Upon his already jewel-encrusted harness, to the strapthat crossed his great chest beneath which beat his loyalheart, Carthoris, Prince of Helium, fastened the gleamingthing that Thuvia of Ptarth had worn, and wearing, had madeholy to the Heliumite.

Then he proceeded upon his way into the heart of theunknown valley.

For the most part the giant trees shut off his viewto any but the most limited distances. Occasionally hecaught glimpses of the towering hills that bounded thevalley upon every side, and though they stood out clearbeneath the light of the two moons, he knew that theywere far off, and that the extent of the valley was immense.

For half the night he continued his search, untilpresently he was brought to a sudden halt by thedistant sound of squealing thoats.

Guided by the noise of these habitually angry beasts, hestole forward through the trees until at last he came upona level, treeless plain, in the centre of which a mighty cityreared its burnished domes and vividly coloured towers.

About the walled city the red man saw a huge encampmentof the green warriors of the dead sea-bottoms, and ashe let his eyes rove carefully over the city he realizedthat here was no deserted metropolis of a dead past.

But what city could it be? His studies had taught himthat in this little-explored portion of Barsoom the fiercetribe of Torquasian green men ruled supreme, and thatas yet no red man had succeeded in piercing to the heartof their domain to return again to the world of civilization.

The men of Torquas had perfected huge guns withwhich their uncanny marksmanship had permitted themto repulse the few determined efforts that near-by rednations had made to explore their country by means ofbattle fleets of airships.

That he was within the boundary of Torquas, Carthoriswas sure, but that there existed there such a wondrouscity he never had dreamed, nor had the chronicles of thepast even hinted at such a possibility, for the Torquasianswere known to live, as did the other green men ofMars, within the deserted cities that dotted the dyingplanet, nor ever had any green horde built so much as asingle edifice, other than the low-walled incubators wheretheir young are hatched by the sun's heat.

The encircling camp of green warriors lay about fivehundred yards from the city's walls. Between it and thecity was no semblance of breastwork or other protectionagainst rifle or cannon fire; yet distinctly now in the lightof the rising sun Carthoris could see many figures movingalong the summit of the high wall, and upon the roof tops beyond.

That they were beings like himself he was sure, thoughthey were at too great distance from him for him to bepositive that they were red men.

Almost immediately after sunrise the green warriorscommenced firing upon the little figures upon the wall.To Carthoris' surprise the fire was not returned,but presently the last of the city's inhabitants had soughtshelter from the weird marksmanship of the green men,and no further sign of life was visible beyond the wall.

Then Carthoris, keeping within the shelter of thetrees that fringed the plain, began circling the rear of thebesiegers' line, hoping against hope that somewhere hewould obtain sight of Thuvia of Ptarth, for even now hecould not believe that she was dead.

That he was not discovered was a miracle, for mounted warriors were constantly riding back and forth from the camp into the forest;but the long day wore on and still he continued his seeminglyfruitless quest, until, near sunset, he came opposite a mighty gatein the city's western wall.

Here seemed to be the principal force of the attacking horde.Here a great platform had been erected whereon Carthoris couldsee squatting a huge green warrior, surrounded by others of his kind.

This, then, must be the notorious Hortan Gur, Jeddak of Torquas,the fierce old ogre of the south-western hemisphere, as only fora jeddak are platforms raised in temporary camps or upon themarch by the green hordes of Barsoom.

As the Heliumite watched he saw another green warriorpush his way forward toward the rostrum. Beside himhe dragged a captive, and as the surrounding warriorsparted to let the two pass, Carthoris caught a fleetingglimpse of the prisoner.

His heart leaped in rejoicing. Thuvia of Ptarth still lived!

It was with difficulty that Carthoris restrained theimpulse to rush forward to the side of the Ptarthianprincess; but in the end his better judgment prevailed,for in the face of such odds he knew that he should havebeen but throwing away, uselessly, any future opportunityhe might have to succour her.

He saw her dragged to the foot of the rostrum.He saw Hortan Gur address her. He could not hearthe creature's words, nor Thuvia's reply; but it musthave angered the green monster, for Carthoris saw himleap toward the prisoner, striking her a cruel blowacross the face with his metal-banded arm.

Then the son of John Carter, Jeddak of Jeddaks,Warlord of Barsoom, went mad. The old, blood-red hazethrough which his sire had glared at countless foes,floated before his eyes.

His half-Earthly muscles, responding quickly to his will,sent him in enormous leaps and bounds toward the greenmonster that had struck the woman he loved.

The Torquasians were not looking in the direction ofthe forest. All eyes had been upon the figures of thegirl and their jeddak, and loud was the hideous laughterthat rang out in appreciation of the wit of the greenemperor's reply to his prisoner's appeal for liberty.

Carthoris had covered about half the distance betweenthe forest and the green warriors, when a new factorsucceeded in still further directing the attention ofthe latter from him.

Upon a high tower within the beleaguered city a man appeared.From his upturned mouth there issued a series of frightful shrieks;uncanny shrieks that swept, shrill and terrifying, across thecity's walls, over the heads of the besiegers, and out acrossthe forest to the uttermost confines of the valley.

Once, twice, thrice the fearsome sound smote upon theears of the listening green men and then far, far offacross the broad woods came sharp and clear from thedistance an answering shriek.

It was but the first. From every point rose similarsavage cries, until the world seemed to tremble to theirreverberations.

The green warriors looked nervously this way and that.They knew not fear, as Earth men may know it; but inthe face of the unusual their wonted self-assurancedeserted them.

And then the great gate in the city wall opposite theplatform of Hortan Gur swung suddenly wide. From itissued as strange a sight as Carthoris ever had witnessed,though at the moment he had time to cast but a singlefleeting glance at the tall bowmen emerging through theportal behind their long, oval shields; to note theirflowing auburn hair; and to realize that the growlingthings at their side were fierce Barsoomian lions.

Then he was in the midst of the astonished Torquasians.With drawn long-sword he was among them, and toThuvia of Ptarth, whose startled eyes were the first tofall upon him, it seemed that she was looking upon JohnCarter himself, so strangely similar to the fighting of thefather was that of the son.

Even to the famous fighting smile of the Virginianwas the resemblance true. And the sword arm!Ah, the subtleness of it, and the speed!

All about was turmoil and confusion. Green warriors wereleaping to the backs of their restive, squealing thoats.Calots were growling out their savage gutturals,whining to be at the throats of the oncoming foemen.

Thar Ban and another by the side of the rostrum hadbeen the first to note the coming of Carthoris, and itwas with them he battled for possession of the red girl,while the others hastened to meet the host advancingfrom the beleaguered city.

Carthoris sought both to defend Thuvia of Ptarth andreach the side of the hideous Hortan Gur that he mightavenge the blow the creature had struck the girl.

He succeeded in reaching the rostrum, over the deadbodies of two warriors who had turned to join Thar Banand his companion in repulsing this adventurous red man,just as Hortan Gur was about to leap from it to theback of his thoat.

The attention of the green warriors turned principallyupon the bowmen advancing upon them from the city,and upon the savage banths that paced beside them--cruel beasts of war, infinitely more terrible than theirown savage calots.

As Carthoris leaped to the rostrum he drew Thuviaup beside him, and then he turned upon the departingjeddak with an angry challenge and a sword thrust.

As the Heliumite's point pricked his green hide, HortanGur turned upon his adversary with a snarl, but at thesame instant two of his chieftains called to him to hasten,for the charge of the fair-skinned inhabitants of the citywas developing into a more serious matter than theTorquasians had anticipated.

Instead of remaining to battle with the red man,Hortan Gur promised him his attention after he haddisposed of the presumptuous citizens of the walled city,and, leaping astride his thoat, galloped off to meet therapidly advancing bowmen.

The other warriors quickly followed their jeddak,leaving Thuvia and Carthoris alone upon the platform.

Between them and the city raged a terrific battle. Thefair-skinned warriors, armed only with their long bowsand a kind of short-handled war-axe, were almost helplessbeneath the savage mounted green men at close quarters;but at a distance their sharp arrows did fully as muchexecution as the radium projectiles of the green men.

But if the warriors themselves were outclassed, not sotheir savage companions, the fierce banths. Scarce had thetwo lines come together when hundreds of these appallingcreatures had leaped among the Torquasians, dragging warriorsfrom their thoats--dragging down the huge thoats themselves,and bringing consternation to all before them.

The numbers of the citizenry, too, was to their advantage,for it seemed that scarce a warrior fell but hisplace was taken by a score more, in such a constantstream did they pour from the city's great gate.

And so it came, what with the ferocity of the banthsand the numbers of the bowmen, that at last theTorquasians fell back, until presently the platform uponwhich stood Carthoris and Thuvia lay directly in thecentre of the fight.

That neither was struck by a bullet or an arrow seemeda miracle to both; but at last the tide had rolledcompletely past them, so that they were alone between thefighters and the city, except for the dying and the dead,and a score or so of growling banths, less well trainedthan their fellows, who prowled among the corpsesseeking meat.

To Carthoris the strangest part of the battle hadbeen the terrific toll taken by the bowmen with theirrelatively puny weapons. Nowhere that he could seewas there a single wounded green man, but the corpsesof their dead lay thick upon the field of battle.

Death seemed to follow instantly the slightest pinprickof a bowman's arrow, nor apparently did one ever missits goal. There could be but one explanation: the missileswere poison-tipped.

Presently the sounds of conflict died in the distant forest.Quiet reigned, broken only by the growling of the devouring banths.Carthoris turned toward Thuvia of Ptarth. As yet neither had spoken.

"Where are we, Thuvia?" he asked.

The girl looked at him questioningly. His very presencehad seemed to proclaim a guilty knowledge of her abduction.How else might he have known the destination of the flierthat brought her!

"Who should know better than the Prince of Helium?"she asked in return. "Did he not come hither of his ownfree will?"

"From Aaanthor I came voluntarily upon the trail ofthe green man who had stolen you, Thuvia," he replied;"but from the time I left Helium until I awoke aboveAaanthor I thought myself bound for Ptarth.

"It had been intimated that I had guilty knowledge ofyour abduction," he explained simply, "and I was hasteningto the jeddak, your father, to convince him of the falsityof the charge, and to give my service to your recovery.Before I left Helium some one tampered with my compass,so that it bore me to Aaanthor instead of to Ptarth.That is all. You believe me?"

"But the warriors who stole me from the garden!" sheexclaimed. "After we arrived at Aaanthor they wore themetal of the Prince of Helium. When they took me theywere trapped in Dusarian harness. There seemed but asingle explanation. Whoever dared the outrage wishedto put the onus upon another, should he be detected inthe act; but once safely away from Ptarth he felt safe inhaving his minions return to their own harness."

"You believe that I did this thing, Thuvia?" he asked.

"Ah, Carthoris," she replied sadly, "I did not wish tobelieve it; but when everything pointed to you--eventhen I would not believe it."

"I did not do it, Thuvia," he said. "But let me beentirely honest with you. As much as I love your father,as much as I respect Kulan Tith, to whom you are betrothed,as well as I know the frightful consequences that musthave followed such an act of mine, hurling into war, as itwould, three of the greatest nations of Barsoom--yet,notwithstanding all this, I should not have hesitated totake you thus, Thuvia of Ptarth, had you even hintedthat it would not have displeased YOU.

"But you did nothing of the kind, and so I am here,not in my own service, but in yours, and in the serviceof the man to whom you are promised, to save you for him,if it lies within the power of man to do so," he concluded,almost bitterly.

Thuvia of Ptarth looked into his face for several moments. Her breast was rising and falling as though to someresistless emotion. She half took a step toward him.Her lips parted as though to speak--swiftly and impetuously.

And then she conquered whatever had moved her.

"The future acts of the Prince of Helium," she said coldly,"must constitute the proof of his past honesty of purpose."

Carthoris was hurt by the girl's tone, as much as bythe doubt as to his integrity which her words implied.

He had half hoped that she might hint that his lovewould be acceptable--certainly there was due him at leasta little gratitude for his recent acts in her behalf;but the best he received was cold scepticism.

The Prince of Helium shrugged his broad shoulders.The girl noted it, and the little smile that touchedhis lips, so that it became her turn to be hurt.

Of course she had not meant to hurt him. He mighthave known that after what he had said she could not doanything to encourage him! But he need not have madehis indifference quite so palpable. The men of Heliumwere noted for their gallantry--not for boorishness.Possibly it was the Earth blood that flowed in his veins.

How could she know that the shrug was but Carthoris'way of attempting, by physical effort, to cast blightingsorrow from his heart, or that the smile upon his lipswas the fighting smile of his father with which the songave outward evidence of the determination he hadreached to submerge his own great love in his efforts tosave Thuvia of Ptarth for another, because he believedthat she loved this other!

He reverted to his original question.

"Where are we?" he asked. "I do not know."

"Nor I," replied the girl. "Those who stole me fromPtarth spoke among themselves of Aaanthor, so that Ithought it possible that the ancient city to which theytook me was that famous ruin; but where we may be nowI have no idea."

"When the bowmen return we shall doubtless learn allthat there is to know," said Carthoris. "Let us hope thatthey prove friendly. What race may they be? Only in themost ancient of our legends and in the mural paintings ofthe deserted cities of the dead sea-bottoms are depictedsuch a race of auburn-haired, fair-skinned people. Can itbe that we have stumbled upon a surviving city of thepast which all Barsoom believes buried beneath the ages?"

Thuvia was looking toward the forest into which thegreen men and the pursuing bowmen had disappeared.From a great distance came the hideous cries of banths,and an occasional shot.

"It is strange that they do not return," said the girl.

"One would expect to see the wounded limping or being carriedback to the city," replied Carthoris, with a puzzled frown."But how about the wounded nearer the city?Have they carried them within?"

Both turned their eyes toward the field between them andthe walled city, where the fighting had been most furious.

There were the banths, still growling about their hideous feast.

Carthoris looked at Thuvia in astonishment. Then he pointedtoward the field.

"Where are they?" he whispered. "WHAT HAS BECOMEOF THEIR DEAD AND WOUNDED?"