"John Carter, John Carter," she sobbed, with her dearhead upon my shoulder; "even now I can scarce believe thewitness of my own eyes. When the girl, Thuvia, told methat you had returned to Barsoom, I listened, but I couldnot understand, for it seemed that such happiness would beimpossible for one who had suffered so in silent loneliness forall these long years. At last, when I realized that it was truth,and then came to know the awful place in which I was held prisoner,I learned to doubt that even you could reach me here.

"As the days passed, and moon after moon went bywithout bringing even the faintest rumour of you, I resignedmyself to my fate. And now that you have come, scarce canI believe it. For an hour I have heard the sounds ofconflict within the palace. I knew not what they meant, butI have hoped against hope that it might be the men ofHelium headed by my Prince.

"And tell me, what of Carthoris, our son?"

"He was with me less than an hour since, Dejah Thoris,"I replied. "It must have been he whose men you have heardbattling within the precincts of the temple.

"Where is Issus?" I asked suddenly.

Dejah Thoris shrugged her shoulders.

"She sent me under guard to this room just before thefighting began within the temple halls. She said that shewould send for me later. She seemed very angry and somewhatfearful. Never have I seen her act in so uncertain and almostterrified a manner. Now I know that it must have been becauseshe had learned that John Carter, Prince of Helium, wasapproaching to demand an accounting of her for theimprisonment of his Princess."

The sounds of conflict, the clash of arms, the shouting andthe hurrying of many feet came to us from various parts ofthe temple. I knew that I was needed there, but I darednot leave Dejah Thoris, nor dared I take her with me intothe turmoil and danger of battle.

At last I bethought me of the pits from which I had justemerged. Why not secrete her there until I could return andfetch her away in safety and for ever from this awful place.I explained my plan to her.

For a moment she clung more closely to me.

"I cannot bear to be parted from you now, even for a moment,John Carter," she said. "I shudder at the thought ofbeing alone again where that terrible creature mightdiscover me. You do not know her. None can imagine herferocious cruelty who has not witnessed her daily acts forover half a year. It has taken me nearly all this time torealize even the things that I have seen with my own eyes."

"I shall not leave you, then, my Princess," I replied.

She was silent for a moment, then she drew my face to hersand kissed me.

"Go, John Carter," she said. "Our son is there, and thesoldiers of Helium, fighting for the Princess of Helium.Where they are you should be. I must not think of myself now,but of them and of my husband's duty. I may not stand inthe way of that. Hide me in the pits, and go."

I led her to the door through which I had entered thechamber from below. There I pressed her dear form to me,and then, though it tore my heart to do it, and filled me onlywith the blackest shadows of terrible foreboding, I guidedher across the threshold, kissed her once again, and closedthe door upon her.

Without hesitating longer, I hurried from the chamber in thedirection of the greatest tumult. Scarce half a dozen chambershad I traversed before I came upon the theatre of a fiercestruggle. The blacks were massed at the entrance to a greatchamber where they were attempting to block the furtherprogress of a body of red men toward the inner sacredprecincts of the temple.

Coming from within as I did, I found myself behind theblacks, and, without waiting to even calculate their numbersor the foolhardiness of my venture, I charged swiftly acrossthe chamber and fell upon them from the rear with mykeen long-sword.

As I struck the first blow I cried aloud, "For Helium!"And then I rained cut after cut upon the surprised warriors,while the reds without took heart at the sound of my voice,and with shouts of "John Carter! John Carter!" redoubledtheir efforts so effectually that before the blacks couldrecover from their temporary demoralization their rankswere broken and the red men had burst into the chamber.

The fight within that room, had it had but a competentchronicler, would go down in the annals of Barsoom as ahistoric memorial to the grim ferocity of her warlike people.Five hundred men fought there that day, the black men againstthe red. No man asked quarter or gave it. As though bycommon assent they fought, as though to determine onceand for all their right to live, in accordance with the law ofthe survival of the fittest.

I think we all knew that upon the outcome of this battlewould hinge for ever the relative positions of these tworaces upon Barsoom. It was a battle between the old and thenew, but not for once did I question the outcome of it.With Carthoris at my side I fought for the red men of Barsoomand for their total emancipation from the throttling bondageof a hideous superstition.

Back and forth across the room we surged, until the floorwas ankle deep in blood, and dead men lay so thickly therethat half the time we stood upon their bodies as we fought.As we swung toward the great windows which overlookedthe gardens of Issus a sight met my gaze which sent a wave ofexultation over me.

"Look!" I cried. "Men of the First Born, look!"

For an instant the fighting ceased, and with one accordevery eye turned in the direction I had indicated, and thesight they saw was one no man of the First Born had everimagined could be.

Across the gardens, from side to side, stood a waveringline of black warriors, while beyond them and forcing themever back was a great horde of green warriors astride theirmighty thoats. And as we watched, one, fiercer and moregrimly terrible than his fellows, rode forward from the rear,and as he came he shouted some fierce command to his terrible legion.

It was Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and as he couched his greatforty-foot metal-shod lance we saw his warriors do likewise.Then it was that we interpreted his command. Twenty yardsnow separated the green men from the black line.Another word from the great Thark, and with a wild andterrifying battle-cry the green warriors charged.For a moment the black line held, but only for a moment--thenthe fearsome beasts that bore equally terrible riders passedcompletely through it.

After them came utan upon utan of red men. The greenhorde broke to surround the temple. The red men chargedfor the interior, and then we turned to continue our interruptedbattle; but our foes had vanished.

My first thought was of Dejah Thoris. Calling to Carthoristhat I had found his mother, I started on a run toward thechamber where I had left her, with my boy close beside me.After us came those of our little force who had survivedthe bloody conflict.

The moment I entered the room I saw that some onehad been there since I had left. A silk lay upon the floor.It had not been there before. There were also a dagger andseveral metal ornaments strewn about as though torn fromtheir wearer in a struggle. But worst of all, the doorleading to the pits where I had hidden my Princess was ajar.

With a bound I was before it, and, thrusting it open,rushed within. Dejah Thoris had vanished. I called her namealoud again and again, but there was no response. I thinkin that instant I hovered upon the verge of insanity. I do notrecall what I said or did, but I know that for an instant Iwas seized with the rage of a maniac.

"Issus!" I cried. "Issus! Where is Issus? Search the templefor her, but let no man harm her but John Carter. Carthoris,where are the apartments of Issus?"

"This way," cried the boy, and, without waiting to knowthat I had heard him, he dashed off at breakneck speed,further into the bowels of the temple. As fast as he went,however, I was still beside him, urging him on to greater speed.

At last we came to a great carved door, and throughthis Carthoris dashed, a foot ahead of me. Within, we cameupon such a scene as I had witnessed within the templeonce before--the throne of Issus, with the reclining slaves,and about it the ranks of soldiery.

We did not even give the men a chance to draw, so quicklywere we upon them. With a single cut I struck down twoin the front rank. And then by the mere weight andmomentum of my body, I rushed completely through the tworemaining ranks and sprang upon the dais beside the carvedsorapus throne.

The repulsive creature, squatting there in terror, attemptedto escape me and leap into a trap behind her. But this timeI was not to be outwitted by any such petty subterfuge. Before she had half arisen I had grasped her by the arm, andthen, as I saw the guard starting to make a concerted rushupon me from all sides, I whipped out my dagger and,holding it close to that vile breast, ordered them to halt.

"Back!" I cried to them. "Back! The first black foot that isplanted upon this platform sends my dagger into Issus' heart."

For an instant they hesitated. Then an officer orderedthem back, while from the outer corridor there swept into thethrone room at the heels of my little party of survivors afull thousand red men under Kantos Kan, Hor Vastus, and Xodar.

"Where is Dejah Thoris?" I cried to the thing within my hands.

For a moment her eyes roved wildly about the scene beneath her.I think that it took a moment for the true condition to makeany impression upon her--she could not at first realize thatthe temple had fallen before the assault of men of the outer world.When she did, there must have come, too, a terrible realizationof what it meant to her--the loss of power--humiliation--theexposure of the fraud and imposture which she had for so longplayed upon her own people.

There was just one thing needed to complete the realityof the picture she was seeing, and that was added by thehighest noble of her realm--the high priest of her religion--the prime minister of her government.

"Issus, Goddess of Death, and of Life Eternal," he cried,"arise in the might of thy righteous wrath and with onesingle wave of thy omnipotent hand strike dead thy blasphemers! Let not one escape. Issus, thy people depend upon thee.Daughter of the Lesser Moon, thou only art all-powerful.Thou only canst save thy people. I am done. We await thy will.Strike!"

And then it was that she went mad. A screaming, gibberingmaniac writhed in my grasp. It bit and clawed and scratchedin impotent fury. And then it laughed a weird andterrible laughter that froze the blood. The slave girls uponthe dais shrieked and cowered away. And the thing jumpedat them and gnashed its teeth and then spat upon them fromfrothing lips. God, but it was a horrid sight.

Finally, I shook the thing, hoping to recall it for a momentto rationality.

"Where is Dejah Thoris?" I cried again.

The awful creature in my grasp mumbled inarticulatelyfor a moment, then a sudden gleam of cunning shot intothose hideous, close-set eyes.

"Dejah Thoris? Dejah Thoris?" and then that shrill, unearthlylaugh pierced our ears once more.

"Yes, Dejah Thoris--I know. And Thuvia, and Phaidor,daughter of Matai Shang. They each love John Carter. Ha-ah!but it is droll. Together for a year they will meditate withinthe Temple of the Sun, but ere the year is quite gone there willbe no more food for them. Ho-oh! what divine entertainment,"and she licked the froth from her cruel lips. "Therewill be no more food--except each other. Ha-ah! Ha-ah!"

The horror of the suggestion nearly paralysed me. To thisawful fate the creature within my power had condemnedmy Princess. I trembled in the ferocity of my rage. As aterrier shakes a rat I shook Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal.

"Countermand your orders!" I cried. "Recall the condemned. Haste, or you die!"

"It is too late. Ha-ah! Ha-ah!" and then she commencedher gibbering and shrieking again.

Almost of its own volition, my dagger flew up above thatputrid heart. But something stayed my hand, and I am nowglad that it did. It were a terrible thing to have struck downa woman with one's own hand. But a fitter fate occurred tome for this false deity.

"First Born," I cried, turning to those who stood withinthe chamber, "you have seen to-day the impotency of Issus--the gods are impotent. Issus is no god. She is a crueland wicked old woman, who has deceived and played uponyou for ages. Take her. John Carter, Prince of Helium, wouldnot contaminate his hand with her blood," and with that Ipushed the raving beast, whom a short half-hour before awhole world had worshipped as divine, from the platform ofher throne into the waiting clutches of her betrayed andvengeful people.

Spying Xodar among the officers of the red men, I calledhim to lead me quickly to the Temple of the Sun, and,without waiting to learn what fate the First Born wouldwreak upon their goddess, I rushed from the chamber withXodar, Carthoris, Hor Vastus, Kantos Kan, and a score ofother red nobles.

The black led us rapidly through the inner chambers ofthe temple, until we stood within the central court--a greatcircular space paved with a transparent marble of exquisitewhiteness. Before us rose a golden temple wrought in themost wondrous and fanciful designs, inlaid with diamond,ruby, sapphire, turquoise, emerald, and the thousand namelessgems of Mars, which far transcend in loveliness and purityof ray the most priceless stones of Earth.

"This way," cried Xodar, leading us toward the entrance toa tunnel which opened in the courtyard beside the temple. Just as we were on the point of descending we heard adeep-toned roar burst from the Temple of Issus, which wehad but just quitted, and then a red man, Djor Kantos,padwar of the fifth utan, broke from a nearby gate,crying to us to return.

"The blacks have fired the temple," he cried. "In a thousandplaces it is burning now. Haste to the outer gardens, or you are lost."

As he spoke we saw smoke pouring from a dozen windowslooking out upon the courtyard of the Temple of the Sun,and far above the highest minaret of Issus hung anever-growing pall of smoke.

"Go back! Go back!" I cried to those who had accompanied me."The way! Xodar; point the way and leave me.I shall reach my Princess yet."

"Follow me, John Carter," replied Xodar, and withoutwaiting for my reply he dashed down into the tunnel at ourfeet. At his heels I ran down through a half-dozen tiers ofgalleries, until at last he led me along a level floor at theend of which I discerned a lighted chamber.

Massive bars blocked our further progress, but beyond Isaw her--my incomparable Princess, and with her wereThuvia and Phaidor. When she saw me she rushed toward thebars that separated us. Already the chamber had turnedupon its slow way so far that but a portion of the openingin the temple wall was opposite the barred end of the corridor. Slowly the interval was closing. In a short time therewould be but a tiny crack, and then even that would beclosed, and for a long Barsoomian year the chamber wouldslowly revolve until once more for a brief day the aperturein its wall would pass the corridor's end.

But in the meantime what horrible things would go onwithin that chamber!

"Xodar!" I cried. "Can no power stop this awful revolving thing?Is there none who holds the secret of these terrible bars?"

"None, I fear, whom we could fetch in time, though Ishall go and make the attempt. Wait for me here."

After he had left I stood and talked with Dejah Thoris,and she stretched her dear hand through those cruel barsthat I might hold it until the last moment.

Thuvia and Phaidor came close also, but when Thuvia sawthat we would be alone she withdrew to the further side ofthe chamber. Not so the daughter of Matai Shang.

"John Carter," she said, "this be the last time that you shallsee any of us. Tell me that you love me, that I may die happy."

"I love only the Princess of Helium," I replied quietly. "I amsorry, Phaidor, but it is as I have told you from the beginning."

She bit her lip and turned away, but not before I sawthe black and ugly scowl she turned upon Dejah Thoris.Thereafter she stood a little way apart, but not so far as Ishould have desired, for I had many little confidences toimpart to my long-lost love.

For a few minutes we stood thus talking in low tones.Ever smaller and smaller grew the opening. In a short timenow it would be too small even to permit the slender formof my Princess to pass. Oh, why did not Xodar haste. Abovewe could hear the faint echoes of a great tumult. It was themultitude of black and red and green men fighting their waythrough the fire from the burning Temple of Issus.

A draught from above brought the fumes of smoke toour nostrils. As we stood waiting for Xodar the smokebecame thicker and thicker. Presently we heard shouting atthe far end of the corridor, and hurrying feet.

"Come back, John Carter, come back!" cried a voice, "eventhe pits are burning."

In a moment a dozen men broke through the now blindingsmoke to my side. There was Carthoris, and Kantos Kan,and Hor Vastus, and Xodar, with a few more who hadfollowed me to the temple court.

"There is no hope, John Carter," cried Xodar. "The keeperof the keys is dead and his keys are not upon his carcass.Our only hope is to quench this conflagration and trust tofate that a year will find your Princess alive and well. Ihave brought sufficient food to last them. When this crackcloses no smoke can reach them, and if we hasten to extinguishthe flames I believe they will be safe."

"Go, then, yourself and take these others with you," I replied. "I shall remain here beside my Princess until a mercifuldeath releases me from my anguish. I care not to live."

As I spoke Xodar had been tossing a great number oftiny cans within the prison cell. The remaining crack wasnot over an inch in width a moment later. Dejah Thorisstood as close to it as she could, whispering words of hopeand courage to me, and urging me to save myself.

Suddenly beyond her I saw the beautiful face of Phaidorcontorted into an expression of malign hatred. As my eyesmet hers she spoke.

"Think not, John Carter, that you may so lightly cast asidethe love of Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang. Nor ever hopeto hold thy Dejah Thoris in thy arms again. Wait you thelong, long year; but know that when the waiting is over itshall be Phaidor's arms which shall welcome you--not thoseof the Princess of Helium. Behold, she dies!"

And as she finished speaking I saw her raise a dagger on high,and then I saw another figure. It was Thuvia's. As thedagger fell toward the unprotected breast of my love, Thuviawas almost between them. A blinding gust of smokeblotted out the tragedy within that fearsome cell--a shriekrang out, a single shriek, as the dagger fell.

The smoke cleared away, but we stood gazing upon ablank wall. The last crevice had closed, and for a longyear that hideous chamber would retain its secret from theeyes of men.

They urged me to leave.

"In a moment it will be too late," cried Xodar. "There is,in fact, but a bare chance that we can come through to theouter garden alive even now. I have ordered the pumpsstarted, and in five minutes the pits will be flooded. If wewould not drown like rats in a trap we must hasten aboveand make a dash for safety through the burning temple."

"Go," I urged them. "Let me die here beside myPrincess--there is no hope or happiness elsewhere for me.When they carry her dear body from that terrible place ayear hence let them find the body of her lord awaiting her."

Of what happened after that I have only a confusedrecollection. It seems as though I struggled with many men,and then that I was picked bodily from the ground andborne away. I do not know. I have never asked, nor hasany other who was there that day intruded on my sorrowor recalled to my mind the occurrences which they knowcould but at best reopen the terrible wound within my heart.

Ah! If I could but know one thing, what a burden ofsuspense would be lifted from my shoulders! But whether theassassin's dagger reached one fair bosom or another, onlytime will divulge.