A Torquasian sword smote a glancing blow across theforehead of Carthoris. He had a fleeting vision of softarms about his neck, and warm lips close to his beforehe lost consciousness.

How long he lay there senseless he could not guess;but when he opened his eyes again he was alone, exceptfor the bodies of the dead green men and Dusarians,and the carcass of a great banth that lay half across his own.

Thuvia was gone, nor was the body of Kar Komak among the dead.

Weak from loss of blood, Carthoris made his wayslowly toward Aaanthor, reaching its outskirts at dark.

He wanted water more than any other thing, and sohe kept on up a broad avenue toward the great centralplaza, where he knew the precious fluid was to be foundin a half-ruined building opposite the great palace of theancient jeddak, who once had ruled this mighty city.

Disheartened and discouraged by the strange sequenceof events that seemed fore-ordained to thwart his everyattempt to serve the Princess of Ptarth, he paid littleor no attention to his surroundings, moving through thedeserted city as though no great white apes lurked in theblack shadows of the mystery-haunted piles that flankedthe broad avenues and the great plaza.

But if Carthoris was careless of his surroundings, notso other eyes that watched his entrance into the plaza,and followed his slow footsteps toward the marble pilethat housed the tiny, half-choked spring whose water onemight gain only by scratching a deep hole in the redsand that covered it.

And as the Heliumite entered the small building a dozen mighty,grotesque figures emerged from the doorway of the palace tospeed noiselessly across the plaza toward him.

For half an hour Carthoris remained in the building,digging for water and gaining the few much-needed dropswhich were the fruits of his labour. Then he rose andslowly left the structure. Scarce had he stepped beyond thethreshold than twelve Torquasian warriors leaped upon him.

No time then to draw long-sword; but swift from hisharness flew his long, slim dagger, and as he went downbeneath them more than a single green heart ceasedbeating at the bite of that keen point.

Then they overpowered him and took his weapons away;but only nine of the twelve warriors who had crossedthe plaza returned with their prize.

They dragged their prisoner roughly to the palace pits,where in utter darkness they chained him with rusty linksto the solid masonry of the wall.

"To-morrow Thar Ban will speak with you," they said."Now he sleeps. But great will be his pleasure when helearns who has wandered amongst us--and great willbe the pleasure of Hortan Gur when Thar Ban dragsbefore him the mad fool who dared prick the greatjeddak with his sword."

Then they left him to the silence and the darkness.

For what seemed hours Carthoris squatted upon thestone floor of his prison, his back against the wall inwhich was sunk the heavy eye-bolt that secured thechain which held him.

Then, from out of the mysterious blackness before him,there came to his ears the sound of naked feet movingstealthily upon stone--approaching nearer and nearer towhere he lay, unarmed and defenceless.

Minutes passed--minutes that seemed hours--during whichtime periods of sepulchral silence would be followedby a repetition of the uncanny scraping of nakedfeet slinking warily upon him.

At last he heard a sudden rush of unshod solesacross the empty blackness, and at a little distance ascuffling sound, heavy breathing, and once what hethought the muttered imprecation of a man battlingagainst great odds. Then the clanging of a chain, and anoise as of the snapping back against stone of a broken link.

Again came silence. But for a moment only.Now he heard once more the soft feet approaching him.He thought that he discerned wicked eyes gleamingfearfully at him through the darkness. He knew that hecould hear the heavy breathing of powerful lungs.

Then came the rush of many feet toward him, andthe THINGS were upon him.

Hands terminating in manlike fingers clutched at histhroat and arms and legs. Hairy bodies strained andstruggled against his own smooth hide as he battled ingrim silence against these horrid foemen in the darknessof the pits of ancient Aaanthor.

Thewed like some giant god was Carthoris of Helium,yet in the clutches of these unseen creatures of the pit'sStygian night he was helpless as a frail woman.

Yet he battled on, striking futile blows against great,hispid breasts he could not see; feeling thick, squatthroats beneath his fingers; the drool of saliva uponhis cheek, and hot, foul breath in his nostrils.

Fangs, too, mighty fangs, he knew were close, andwhy they did not sink into his flesh he could not guess.

At last he became aware of the mighty surging of anumber of his antagonists back and forth upon the greatchain that held him, and presently came the same soundthat he had heard at a little distance from him a shorttime before he had been attacked--his chain had partedand the broken end snapped back against the stone wall.

Now he was seized upon either side and dragged ata rapid pace through the dark corridors--toward whatfate he could not even guess.

At first he had thought his foes might be of the tribeof Torquas, but their hairy bodies belied that belief.Now he was at last quite sure of their identity,though why they had not killed and devoured him atonce he could not imagine.

After half an hour or more of rapid racing throughthe underground passages that are a distinguishingfeature of all Barsoomian cities, modern as wellas ancient, his captors suddenly emerged into themoonlight of a courtyard, far from the central plaza.

Immediately Carthoris saw that he was in thepower of a tribe of the great white apes of Barsoom.All that had caused him doubt before as to the identityof his attackers was the hairiness of their breasts,for the white apes are entirely hairless except fora great shock bristling from their heads.

Now he saw the cause of that which had deceived him--across the chest of each of them were strips of hairy hide,usually of banth, in imitation of the harness of the greenwarriors who so often camped at their deserted city.

Carthoris had read of the existence of tribes of apes thatseemed to be progressing slowly toward higher standardsof intelligence. Into the hands of such, he realized,he had fallen; but--what were their intentions toward him?

As he glanced about the courtyard, he saw fully fiftyof the hideous beasts, squatting on their haunches,and at a little distance from him another human being,closely guarded.

As his eyes met those of his fellow-captive a smilelit the other's face, and: "Kaor, red man!" burst fromhis lips. It was Kar Komak, the bowman.

"Kaor!" cried Carthoris, in response. "How came youhere, and what befell the princess?"

"Red men like yourself descended in mighty ships thatsailed the air, even as the great ships of my distantday sailed the five seas," replied Kar Komak. "Theyfought with the green men of Torquas. They slewKomal, god of Lothar. I thought they were your friends,and I was glad when finally those of them who survivedthe battle carried the red girl to one of the ships andsailed away with her into the safety of the high air.

"Then the green men seized me, and carried me to a great,empty city, where they chained me to a wall in a black pit.Afterward came these and dragged me hither.And what of you, red man?"

Carthoris related all that had befallen him, and asthe two men talked the great apes squatted about themwatching them intently.

"What are we to do now?" asked the bowman.

"Our case looks rather hopeless," replied Carthoris ruefully."These creatures are born man-eaters. Why they have notalready devoured us I cannot imagine--there!"he whispered. "See? The end is coming."

Kar Komak looked in the direction Carthoris indicatedto see a huge ape advancing with a mighty bludgeon.

"It is thus they like best to kill their prey," said Carthoris.

"Must we die without a struggle?" asked Kar Komak.

"Not I," replied Carthoris, "though I know how futileour best defence must be against these mighty brutes!Oh, for a long-sword!"

"Or a good bow," added Kar Komak, "and a utan of bowmen."

At the words Carthoris half sprang to his feet, onlyto be dragged roughly down by his guard.

"Kar Komak!" he cried. "Why cannot you do what Tario andJav did? They had no bowmen other than those of theirown creation. You must know the secret of their power.Call forth your own utan, Kar Komak!"

The Lotharian looked at Carthoris in wide-eyedastonishment as the full purport of thesuggestion bore in upon his understanding.

"Why not?" he murmured.

The savage ape bearing the mighty bludgeon was slinkingtoward Carthoris. The Heliumite's fingers were workingas he kept his eyes upon his executioner. Kar Komakbent his gaze penetratingly upon the apes. The effort ofhis mind was evidenced in the sweat upon his contracted brows.

The creature that was to slay the red man was almostwithin arm's reach of his prey when Carthoris hearda hoarse shout from the opposite side of the courtyard.In common with the squatting apes and the demon withthe club he turned in the direction of the sound,to see a company of sturdy bowmen rushing from thedoorway of a near-by building.

With screams of rage the apes leaped to their feet tomeet the charge. A volley of arrows met them half-way,sending a dozen rolling lifeless to the ground. Then theapes closed with their adversaries. All their attention wasoccupied by the attackers--even the guard had desertedthe prisoners to join in the battle.

"Come!" whispered Kar Komak. "Now may we escapewhile their attention is diverted from us by my bowmen."

"And leave those brave fellows leaderless?" cried Carthoris,whose loyal nature revolted at the merest suggestionof such a thing.

Kar Komak laughed.

"You forget," he said, "that they are but thin air--figments of my brain. They will vanish, unscathed, whenwe have no further need for them. Praised be yourfirst ancestor, redman, that you thought of this chancein time! It would never have occurred to me to imaginethat I might wield the same power that brought me intoexistence."

"You are right," said Carthoris. "Still, I hate toleave them, though there is naught else to do," and sothe two turned from the courtyard, and making their wayinto one of the broad avenues, crept stealthily in theshadows of the building toward the great central plazaupon which were the buildings occupied by the greenwarriors when they visited the deserted city.

When they had come to the plaza's edge Carthoris halted.

"Wait here," he whispered. "I go to fetch thoats,since on foot we may never hope to escape the clutchesof these green fiends."

To reach the courtyard where the thoats were keptit was necessary for Carthoris to pass through one ofthe buildings which surrounded the square. Which wereoccupied and which not he could not even guess, so hewas compelled to take considerable chances to gain theenclosure in which he could hear the restless beastssquealing and quarrelling among themselves.

Chance carried him through a dark doorway into alarge chamber in which lay a score or more green warriorswrapped in their sleeping silks and furs. Scarce hadCarthoris passed through the short hallway that connectedthe door of the building and the great room beyond itthan he became aware of the presence of something or someone in the hallway through which he had but just passed.

He heard a man yawn, and then, behind him, he sawthe figure of a sentry rise from where the fellow hadbeen dozing, and stretching himself resume his wakefulwatchfulness.

Carthoris realized that he must have passed withina foot of the warrior, doubtless rousing him from hisslumber. To retreat now would be impossible. Yet tocross through that roomful of sleeping warriors seemedalmost equally beyond the pale of possibility.

Carthoris shrugged his broad shoulders and chose thelesser evil. Warily he entered the room. At his right,against the wall, leaned several swords and rifles andspears--extra weapons which the warriors had stackedhere ready to their hands should there be a night alarmcalling them suddenly from slumber. Beside each sleeperlay his weapon--these were never far from their ownersfrom childhood to death.

The sight of the swords made the young man's palm itch.He stepped quickly to them, selecting two short-swords--one for Kar Komak, the other for himself; also sometrappings for his naked comrade.

Then he started directly across the centre of theapartment among the sleeping Torquasians.

Not a man of them moved until Carthoris had completedmore than half of the short though dangerous journey.Then a fellow directly in his path turned restlesslyupon his sleeping silks and furs.

The Heliumite paused above him, one of the short-swordsin readiness should the warrior awaken. For whatseemed an eternity to the young prince the green mancontinued to move uneasily upon his couch, then, asthough actuated by springs, he leaped to his feet andfaced the red man.

Instantly Carthoris struck, but not before a savagegrunt escaped the other's lips. In an instant the roomwas in turmoil. Warriors leaped to their feet, graspingtheir weapons as they rose, and shouting to one anotherfor an explanation of the disturbance.

To Carthoris all within the room was plainly visiblein the dim light reflected from without, for the furthermoon stood directly at zenith; but to the eyes of thenewly-awakened green men objects as yet had not takenon familiar forms--they but saw vaguely the figures ofwarriors moving about their apartment.

Now one stumbled against the corpse of him whomCarthoris had slain. The fellow stooped and his handcame in contact with the cleft skull. He saw about himthe giant figures of other green men, and so he jumpedto the only conclusion that was open to him.

"The Thurds!" he cried. "The Thurds are upon us!Rise, warriors of Torquas, and drive home your swordswithin the hearts of Torquas' ancient enemies!"

Instantly the green men began to fall upon one anotherwith naked swords. Their savage lust of battle wasaroused. To fight, to kill, to die with cold steelburied in their vitals! Ah, that to them was Nirvana.

Carthoris was quick to guess their error and takeadvantage of it. He knew that in the pleasure of killingthey might fight on long after they had discovered theirmistake, unless their attention was distracted by sightof the real cause of the altercation, and so he lost notime in continuing across the room to the doorway uponthe opposite side, which opened into the inner court,where the savage thoats were squealing and fightingamong themselves.

Once here he had no easy task before him. To catchand mount one of these habitually rageful and intractablebeasts was no child's play under the best of conditions;but now, when silence and time were such importantconsiderations, it might well have seemed quite hopelessto a less resourceful and optimistic man than the sonof the great warlord.

From his father he had learned much concerning thetraits of these mighty beasts, and from Tars Tarkas,also, when he had visited that great green jeddak amonghis horde at Thark. So now he centred upon the workin hand all that he had ever learned about them fromothers and from his own experience, for he, too,had ridden and handled them many times.

The temper of the thoats of Torquas appeared evenshorter than their vicious cousins among the Tharks andWarhoons, and for a time it seemed unlikely that heshould escape a savage charge on the part of a coupleof old bulls that circled, squealing, about him; but atlast he managed to get close enough to one of themto touch the beast. With the feel of his hand uponthe sleek hide the creature quieted, and in answer tothe telepathic command of the red man sank to its knees.

In a moment Carthoris was upon its back, guidingit toward the great gate that leads from the courtyardthrough a large building at one end into an avenue beyond.

The other bull, still squealing and enraged, followedafter his fellow. There was no bridle upon either, forthese strange creatures are controlled entirely bysuggestion--when they are controlled at all.

Even in the hands of the giant green men bridle reinswould be hopelessly futile against the mad savagery andmastodonic strength of the thoat, and so they are guidedby that strange telepathic power with which the menof Mars have learned to communicate in a crude waywith the lower orders of their planet.

With difficulty Carthoris urged the two beasts to thegate, where, leaning down, he raised the latch. Then thethoat that he was riding placed his great shoulder to theskeel-wood planking, pushed through, and a moment laterthe man and the two beasts were swinging silently downthe avenue to the edge of the plaza, where Kar Komak hid.

Here Carthoris found considerable difficulty in subduingthe second thoat, and as Kar Komak had never beforeridden one of the beasts, it seemed a most hopeless job;but at last the bowman managed to scramble to thesleek back, and again the two beasts fled softlydown the moss-grown avenues toward the open sea-bottom beyond the city.

All that night and the following day and the secondnight they rode toward the north-east. No indication ofpursuit developed, and at dawn of the second day Carthorissaw in the distance the waving ribbon of great treesthat marked one of the long Barsoomian water-ways.

Immediately they abandoned their thoats and approachedthe cultivated district on foot. Carthoris alsodiscarded the metal from his harness, or such of it asmight serve to identify him as a Heliumite, or of royalblood, for he did not know to what nation belonged thiswaterway, and upon Mars it is always well to assumeevery man and nation your enemy until you havelearned the contrary.

It was mid-forenoon when the two at last entered oneof the roads that cut through the cultivated districtsat regular intervals, joining the arid wastes on eitherside with the great, white, central highway that followsthrough the centre from end to end of the far-reaching,threadlike farm lands.

The high wall surrounding the fields served as a protectionagainst surprise by raiding green hordes, as wellas keeping the savage banths and other carnivora fromthe domestic animals and the human beings upon the farms.

Carthoris stopped before the first gate he came to,pounding for admission. The young man who answeredhis summons greeted the two hospitably, though helooked with considerable wonder upon the white skinand auburn hair of the bowman.

After he had listened for a moment to a partial narrationof their escape from the Torquasians, he invited them within,took them to his house and bade the servants there preparefood for them.

As they waited in the low-ceiled, pleasant livingroomof the farmhouse until the meal should be ready,Carthoris drew his host into conversation thathe might learn his nationality, and thus the nationunder whose dominion lay the waterway where circumstancehad placed him.

"I am Hal Vas," said the young man, "son of Vas Kor, ofDusar, a noble in the retinue of Astok, Prince of Dusar. At present I am Dwar of the Road for this district."

Carthoris was very glad that he had not disclosed hisidentity, for though he had no idea of anything thathad transpired since he had left Helium, or that Astokwas at the bottom of all his misfortunes, he well knewthat the Dusarian had no love for him, and that he couldhope for no assistance within the dominions of Dusar.

"And who are you?" asked Hal Vas. "By your appearanceI take you for a fighting man, but I see no insigniaupon your harness. Can it be that you are a panthan?"

Now, these wandering soldiers of fortune are commonupon Barsoom, where most men love to fight. They selltheir services wherever war exists, and in the occasionalbrief intervals when there is no organized warfare betweenthe red nations, they join one of the numerous expeditionsthat are constantly being dispatched against the green menin protection of the waterways that traverse the wilderportions of the globe.

When their service is over they discard the metal ofthe nation they have been serving until they shall havefound a new master. In the intervals they wear noinsignia, their war-worn harness and grim weapons beingsufficient to attest their calling.

The suggestion was a happy one, and Carthoris embraced thechance it afforded to account satisfactorily for himself.There was, however, a single drawback. In times of warsuch panthans as happened to be within the domain of abelligerent nation were compelled to don the insigniaof that nation and fight with her warriors.

As far as Carthoris knew Dusar was not at war withany other nation, but there was never any telling whenone red nation would be flying at the throat of a neighbour,even though the great and powerful alliance at the headof which was his father, John Carter, had managed tomaintain a long peace upon the greater portion of Barsoom.

A pleasant smile lighted Hal Vas' face as Carthorisadmitted his vocation.

"It is well," exclaimed the young man, "that youchanced to come hither, for here you will find the meansof obtaining service in short order. My father, Vas Kor,is even now with me, having come hither to recruita force for the new war against Helium."