There was nothing for it now other than to fight; nor did Ihave any advantage as I sprang, sword in hand, into the corridorbefore the two therns, for my untimely sneeze had warned them ofmy presence and they were ready for me.

There were no words, for they would have been a waste of breath.The very presence of the two proclaimed their treachery. Thatthey were following to fall upon me unawares was all too plain,and they, of course, must have known that I understood their plan.

In an instant I was engaged with both, and though I loathe thevery name of thern, I must in all fairness admit that they aremighty swordsmen; and these two were no exception, unless it werethat they were even more skilled and fearless than the averageamong their race.

While it lasted it was indeed as joyous a conflict as I everhad experienced. Twice at least I saved my breast from the mortalthrust of piercing steel only by the wondrous agility with which myearthly muscles endow me under the conditions of lesser gravity andair pressure upon Mars.

Yet even so I came near to tasting death that day in the gloomycorridor beneath Mars's southern pole, for Lakor played atrick upon me that in all my experience of fighting upon twoplanets I never before had witnessed the like of.

The other thern was engaging me at the time, and I was forcinghim back--touching him here and there with my point until he wasbleeding from a dozen wounds, yet not being able to penetrate hismarvelous guard to reach a vulnerable spot for the brief instantthat would have been sufficient to send him to his ancestors.

It was then that Lakor quickly unslung a belt from his harness,and as I stepped back to parry a wicked thrust he lashed one endof it about my left ankle so that it wound there for an instant,while he jerked suddenly upon the other end, throwing meheavily upon my back.

Then, like leaping panthers, they were upon me; but they hadreckoned without Woola, and before ever a blade touched me,a roaring embodiment of a thousand demons hurtled above myprostrate form and my loyal Martian calot was upon them.

Imagine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs armed withmighty talons and an enormous froglike mouth splitting his headfrom ear to ear, exposing three rows of long, white tusks. Thenendow this creature of your imagination with the agility andferocity of a half-starved Bengal tiger and the strength of a spanof bulls, and you will have some faint conception of Woola in action.

Before I could call him off he had crushed Lakor into a jelly witha single blow of one mighty paw, and had literally torn the otherthern to ribbons; yet when I spoke to him sharply he cowed sheepishlyas though he had done a thing to deserve censure and chastisement.

Never had I had the heart to punish Woola during the long years thathad passed since that first day upon Mars when the green jed of theTharks had placed him on guard over me, and I had won his love andloyalty from the cruel and loveless masters of his former life,yet I believe he would have submitted to any cruelty that I mighthave inflicted upon him, so wondrous was his affection for me.

The diadem in the center of the circlet of gold upon the brow ofLakor proclaimed him a Holy Thern, while his companion, not thusadorned, was a lesser thern, though from his harness I gleaned thathe had reached the Ninth Cycle, which is but one below that of theHoly Therns.

As I stood for a moment looking at the gruesome havoc Woolahad wrought, there recurred to me the memory of that other occasionupon which I had masqueraded in the wig, diadem, and harness ofSator Throg, the Holy Thern whom Thuvia of Ptarth had slain, andnow it occurred to me that it might prove of worth to utilizeLakor's trappings for the same purpose.

A moment later I had torn his yellow wig from his bald pateand transferred it and the circlet, as well as all his harness, tomy own person.

Woola did not approve of the metamorphosis. He sniffed at meand growled ominously, but when I spoke to him and patted his hugehead he at length became reconciled to the change, and at mycommand trotted off along the corridor in the direction we hadbeen going when our progress had been interrupted by the therns.

We moved cautiously now, warned by the fragment of conversationI had overheard. I kept abreast of Woola that we might havethe benefit of all our eyes for what might appear suddenlyahead to menace us, and well it was that we were forewarned.

At the bottom of a flight of narrow steps the corridor turnedsharply back upon itself, immediately making another turn in theoriginal direction, so that at that point it formed a perfectletter S, the top leg of which debouched suddenly into a largechamber, illy lighted, and the floor of which was completelycovered by venomous snakes and loathsome reptiles.

To have attempted to cross that floor would have been to courtinstant death, and for a moment I was almost completely discouraged.Then it occurred to me that Thurid and Matai Shang with their partymust have crossed it, and so there was a way.

Had it not been for the fortunate accident by which I overheardeven so small a portion of the therns' conversation we shouldhave blundered at least a step or two into that wrigglingmass of destruction, and a single step would have been all-sufficient to have sealed our doom.

These were the only reptiles I had ever seen upon Barsoom,but I knew from their similarity to the fossilized remains ofsupposedly extinct species I had seen in the museums of Heliumthat they comprised many of the known prehistoric reptilian genera,as well as others undiscovered.

A more hideous aggregation of monsters had never before assailedmy vision. It would be futile to attempt to describe themto Earth men, since substance is the only thing which they possessin common with any creature of the past or present with which youare familiar--even their venom is of an unearthly virulence that,by comparison, would make the cobra de capello seem quite asharmless as an angleworm.

As they spied me there was a concerted rush by those nearestthe entrance where we stood, but a line of radium bulbs inset alongthe threshold of their chamber brought them to a sudden halt--evidently they dared not cross that line of light.

I had been quite sure that they would not venture beyond theroom in which I had discovered them, though I had not guessed atwhat deterred them. The simple fact that we had found no reptilesin the corridor through which we had just come was sufficientassurance that they did not venture there.

I drew Woola out of harm's way, and then began a careful surveyof as much of the Chamber of Reptiles as I could see from whereI stood. As my eyes became accustomed to the dim light of itsinterior I gradually made out a low gallery at the far end ofthe apartment from which opened several exits.

Coming as close to the threshold as I dared, I followed thisgallery with my eyes, discovering that it circled the room as faras I could see. Then I glanced above me along the upper edge ofthe entrance to which we had come, and there, to my delight, I sawan end of the gallery not a foot above my head. In an instant Ihad leaped to it and called Woola after me.

Here there were no reptiles--the way was clear to the oppositeside of the hideous chamber--and a moment later Woola and I droppeddown to safety in the corridor beyond.

Not ten minutes later we came into a vast circular apartmentof white marble, the walls of which were inlaid with gold in thestrange hieroglyphics of the First Born.

From the high dome of this mighty apartment a huge circular columnextended to the floor, and as I watched I saw that it slowly revolved.

I had reached the base of the Temple of the Sun!

Somewhere above me lay Dejah Thoris, and with her were Phaidor,daughter of Matai Shang, and Thuvia of Ptarth. But how toreach them, now that I had found the only vulnerable spotin their mighty prison, was still a baffling riddle.

Slowly I circled the great shaft, looking for a means of ingress.Part way around I found a tiny radium flash torch, and asI examined it in mild curiosity as to its presence there in thisalmost inaccessible and unknown spot, I came suddenly upon theinsignia of the house of Thurid jewel-inset in its metal case.

I am upon the right trail, I thought, as I slipped the baubleinto the pocket-pouch which hung from my harness. Then I continuedmy search for the entrance, which I knew must be somewhere about;nor had I long to search, for almost immediately thereafter I cameupon a small door so cunningly inlaid in the shaft's base that itmight have passed unnoticed by a less keen or careful observer.

There was the door that would lead me within the prison, butwhere was the means to open it? No button or lock were visible.Again and again I went carefully over every square inch of itssurface, but the most that I could find was a tiny pinhole a littleabove and to the right of the door's center--a pinhole that seemedonly an accident of manufacture or an imperfection of material.

Into this minute aperture I attempted to peer, but whether itwas but a fraction of an inch deep or passed completely throughthe door I could not tell--at least no light showed beyond it.I put my ear to it next and listened, but again my effortsbrought negligible results.

During these experiments Woola had been standing at my sidegazing intently at the door, and as my glance fell upon him itoccurred to me to test the correctness of my hypothesis, that thisportal had been the means of ingress to the temple used by Thurid,the black dator, and Matai Shang, Father of Therns.

Turning away abruptly, I called to him to follow me. For amoment he hesitated, and then leaped after me, whining and tuggingat my harness to draw me back. I walked on, however, some distancefrom the door before I let him have his way, that I might seeprecisely what he would do. Then I permitted him to lead mewherever he would.

Straight back to that baffling portal he dragged me, againtaking up his position facing the blank stone, gazing straight atits shining surface. For an hour I worked to solve the mystery ofthe combination that would open the way before me.

Carefully I recalled every circumstance of my pursuit of Thurid,and my conclusion was identical with my original belief--thatThurid had come this way without other assistance than his ownknowledge and passed through the door that barred my progress,unaided from within. But how had he accomplished it?

I recalled the incident of the Chamber of Mystery in theGolden Cliffs that time I had freed Thuvia of Ptarth from thedungeon of the therns, and she had taken a slender, needle-likekey from the keyring of her dead jailer to open the door leadingback into the Chamber of Mystery where Tars Tarkas fought for hislife with the great banths. Such a tiny keyhole as now defied mehad opened the way to the intricate lock in that other door.

Hastily I dumped the contents of my pocket-pouch upon the groundbefore me. Could I but find a slender bit of steel I might yetfashion a key that would give me ingress to the temple prison.

As I examined the heterogeneous collection of odds and ends thatis always to be found in the pocket-pouch of a Martian warrior myhand fell upon the emblazoned radium flash torch of the black dator.

As I was about to lay the thing aside as of no value in mypresent predicament my eyes chanced upon a few strange charactersroughly and freshly scratched upon the soft gold of the case.

Casual curiosity prompted me to decipher them, but what I readcarried no immediate meaning to my mind. There were three sets ofcharacters, one below another:

The formula was complete; but--what did it mean?

I thought I knew, and, seizing a powerful magnifying glassfrom the litter of my pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a carefulexamination of the marble immediately about the pinhole in the door.I could have cried aloud in exultation when my scrutinydisclosed the almost invisible incrustation of particles ofcarbonized electrons which are thrown off by these Martian torches.

It was evident that for countless ages radium torches had beenapplied to this pinhole, and for what purpose there could be but asingle answer--the mechanism of the lock was actuated by lightrays; and I, John Carter, Prince of Helium, held the combination inmy hand--scratched by the hand of my enemy upon his own torch case.

In a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomianchronometer--a delicate instrument that records the tals and xatsand zodes of Martian time, presenting them to view beneatha strong crystal much after the manner of an earthly odometer.

Timing my operations carefully, I held the torch to the smallaperture in the door, regulating the intensity of the light bymeans of the thumb-lever upon the side of the case.

For fifty tals I let three units of light shine full in thepinhole, then one unit for one xat, and for twenty-five tals nineunits. Those last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-fiveseconds of my life. Would the lock click at the end of thoseseemingly interminable intervals of time?

Twenty-three! Twenty-four! Twenty-five!

I shut off the light with a snap. For seven tals I waited--there had been no appreciable effect upon the lock's mechanism.Could it be that my theory was entirely wrong?

Hold! Had the nervous strain resulted in a hallucination, ordid the door really move? Slowly the solid stone sank noiselesslyback into the wall--there was no hallucination here.

Back and back it slid for ten feet until it had disclosed at itsright a narrow doorway leading into a dark and narrow corridorthat paralleled the outer wall. Scarcely was the entranceuncovered than Woola and I had leaped through--then the doorslipped quietly back into place.

Down the corridor at some distance I saw the faint reflectionof a light, and toward this we made our way. At the point wherethe light shone was a sharp turn, and a little distance beyond thisa brilliantly lighted chamber.

Here we discovered a spiral stairway leading up from thecenter of the circular room.

Immediately I knew that we had reached the center of the baseof the Temple of the Sun--the spiral runway led upward past theinner walls of the prison cells. Somewhere above me was DejahThoris, unless Thurid and Matai Shang had already succeeded instealing her.

We had scarcely started up the runway when Woola suddenlydisplayed the wildest excitement. He leaped back and forth,snapping at my legs and harness, until I thought that he was mad,and finally when I pushed him from me and started once more toascend he grasped my sword arm between his jaws and dragged me back.

No amount of scolding or cuffing would suffice to make himrelease me, and I was entirely at the mercy of his brute strengthunless I cared to use my dagger upon him with my left hand; but,mad or no, I had not the heart to run the sharp blade into thatfaithful body.

Down into the chamber he dragged me, and across it to the sideopposite that at which we had entered. Here was another doorwayleading into a corridor which ran directly down a steep incline.Without a moment's hesitation Woola jerked me along this rocky passage.

Presently he stopped and released me, standing between me andthe way we had come, looking up into my face as though to ask if Iwould now follow him voluntarily or if he must still resort to force.

Looking ruefully at the marks of his great teeth upon my bare armI decided to do as he seemed to wish me to do. After all, his strangeinstinct might be more dependable than my faulty human judgment.

And well it was that I had been forced to follow him. But ashort distance from the circular chamber we came suddenly into abrilliantly lighted labyrinth of crystal glass partitioned passages.

At first I thought it was one vast, unbroken chamber, so clearand transparent were the walls of the winding corridors, but afterI had nearly brained myself a couple of times by attempting to passthrough solid vitreous walls I went more carefully.

We had proceeded but a few yards along the corridor that hadgiven us entrance to this strange maze when Woola gave mouth toa most frightful roar, at the same time dashing against the clearpartition at our left.

The resounding echoes of that fearsome cry were stillreverberating through the subterranean chambers when I saw thething that had startled it from the faithful beast.

Far in the distance, dimly through the many thicknesses ofintervening crystal, as in a haze that made them seem unreal andghostly, I discerned the figures of eight people--three females andfive men.

At the same instant, evidently startled by Woola's fierce cry,they halted and looked about. Then, of a sudden, one of them, awoman, held her arms out toward me, and even at that great distanceI could see that her lips moved--it was Dejah Thoris, my everbeautiful and ever youthful Princess of Helium.

With her were Thuvia of Ptarth, Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang,and Thurid, and the Father of Therns, and the three lesser thernsthat had accompanied them.

Thurid shook his fist at me, and then two of the therns graspedDejah Thoris and Thuvia roughly by their arms and hurried them on.A moment later they had disappeared into a stone corridor beyondthe labyrinth of glass.

They say that love is blind; but so great a love as that of Dejah Thoristhat knew me even beneath the thern disguise I wore and across themisty vista of that crystal maze must indeed be far from blind.