As the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment bythe door where I was standing, but I needed to wait nolonger; I had heard enough to fill my soul with dread, andstealing quietly away I returned to the courtyard by theway I had come. My plan of action was formed upon theinstant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenueupon the opposite side I soon stood within the courtyardof Tal Hajus.

The brilliantly lighted apartments of the first floor toldme where first to seek, and advancing to the windows Ipeered within. I soon discovered that my approach was notto be the easy thing I had hoped, for the rear rooms borderingthe court were filled with warriors and women. I thenglanced up at the stories above, discovering that the thirdwas apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entranceto the building from that point. It was the work ofbut a moment for me to reach the windows above, andsoon I had drawn myself within the sheltering shadows ofthe unlighted third floor.

Fortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, andcreeping noiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovereda light in the apartments ahead of me. Reaching whatappeared to be a doorway I discovered that it was but anopening upon an immense inner chamber which towered fromthe first floor, two stories below me, to the dome-like roofof the building, high above my head. The floor of thisgreat circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriorsand women, and at one end was a great raised platformupon which squatted the most hideous beast I had ever putmy eyes upon. He had all the cold, hard, cruel, terriblefeatures of the green warriors, but accentuated and debasedby the animal passions to which he had given himself overfor many years. There was not a mark of dignity or prideupon his bestial countenance, while his enormous bulk spreaditself out upon the platform where he squatted like somehuge devil fish, his six limbs accentuating the similarity ina horrible and startling manner.

But the sight that froze me with apprehension was thatof Dejah Thoris and Sola standing there before him, andthe fiendish leer of him as he let his great protruding eyesgloat upon the lines of her beautiful figure. She wasspeaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor could I makeout the low grumbling of his reply. She stood there erectbefore him, her head high held, and even at the distance Iwas from them I could read the scorn and disgust uponher face as she let her haughty glance rest without sign offear upon him. She was indeed the proud daughter of athousand jeddaks, every inch of her dear, precious little body;so small, so frail beside the towering warriors around her,but in her majesty dwarfing them into insignificance; shewas the mightiest figure among them and I verily believethat they felt it.

Presently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber becleared, and that the prisoners be left alone before him.Slowly the chieftains, the warriors and the women meltedaway into the shadows of the surrounding chambers, andDejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before the jeddak of theTharks.

One chieftain alone had hesitated before departing; Isaw him standing in the shadows of a mighty column, hisfingers nervously toying with the hilt of his great-sword andhis cruel eyes bent in implacable hatred upon Tal Hajus.It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his thoughts as theywere an open book for the undisguised loathing upon hisface. He was thinking of that other woman who, forty yearsago, had stood before this beast, and could I have spokena word into his ear at that moment the reign of Tal Hajuswould have been over; but finally he also strode from theroom, not knowing that he left his own daughter at themercy of the creature he most loathed.

Tal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating hisintentions, hurried to the winding runway which led to thefloors below. No one was near to intercept me, and I reachedthe main floor of the chamber unobserved, taking my stationin the shadow of the same column that Tars Tarkas had butjust deserted. As I reached the floor Tal Hajus was speaking.

"Princess of Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom fromyour people would I but return you to them unharmed, but athousand times rather would I watch that beautiful facewrithe in the agony of torture; it shall be long drawn out,that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were all too short toshow the love I harbor for your race. The terrors of yourdeath shall haunt the slumbers of the red men through allthe ages to come; they will shudder in the shadows of thenight as their fathers tell them of the awful vengeance ofthe green men; of the power and might and hate and crueltyof Tal Hajus. But before the torture you shall be mine forone short hour, and word of that too shall go forth toTardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your grandfather, that hemay grovel upon the ground in the agony of his sorrow.Tomorrow the torture will commence; tonight thou art TalHajus'; come!"

He sprang down from the platform and grasped her roughlyby the arm, but scarcely had he touched her than I leapedbetween them. My short-sword, sharp and gleaming was inmy right hand; I could have plunged it into his putrid heartbefore he realized that I was upon him; but as I raised myarm to strike I thought of Tars Tarkas, and, with all my rage,with all my hatred, I could not rob him of that sweetmoment for which he had lived and hoped all these long,weary years, and so, instead, I swung my good right fist fullupon the point of his jaw. Without a sound he slipped to thefloor as one dead.

In the same deathly silence I grasped Dejah Thoris by thehand, and motioning Sola to follow we sped noiselesslyfrom the chamber and to the floor above. Unseen we reacheda rear window and with the straps and leather of my trappingsI lowered, first Sola and then Dejah Thoris to the ground below.Dropping lightly after them I drew them rapidly around the courtin the shadows of the buildings, and thus we returned over thesame course I had so recently followed from the distant boundaryof the city.

We finally came upon my thoats in the courtyard whereI had left them, and placing the trappings upon them wehastened through the building to the avenue beyond.Mounting, Sola upon one beast, and Dejah Thoris behind meupon the other, we rode from the city of Thark through thehills to the south.

Instead of circling back around the city to the northwestand toward the nearest waterway which lay so short a distancefrom us, we turned to the northeast and struck out upon the mossywaste across which, for two hundred dangerous and weary miles,lay another main artery leading to Helium.

No word was spoken until we had left the city far behind,but I could hear the quiet sobbing of Dejah Thoris as sheclung to me with her dear head resting against my shoulder.

"If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will bea mighty one; greater than she can ever pay you; and shouldwe not make it," she continued, "the debt is no less, thoughHelium will never know, for you have saved the last of ourline from worse than death."

I did not answer, but instead reached to my side andpressed the little fingers of her I loved where they clung tome for support, and then, in unbroken silence, we sped overthe yellow, moonlit moss; each of us occupied with his ownthoughts. For my part I could not be other than joyful had Itried, with Dejah Thoris' warm body pressed close to mine,and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing asgaily as though we were already entering the gates of Helium.

Our earlier plans had been so sadly upset that we nowfound ourselves without food or drink, and I alone wasarmed. We therefore urged our beasts to a speed that musttell on them sorely before we could hope to sight the endingof the first stage of our journey.

We rode all night and all the following day with only afew short rests. On the second night both we and our animalswere completely fagged, and so we lay down upon the mossand slept for some five or six hours, taking up the journeyonce more before daylight. All the following day we rode,and when, late in the afternoon we had sighted no distanttrees, the mark of the great waterways throughout all Barsoom,the terrible truth flashed upon us--we were lost.

Evidently we had circled, but which way it was difficultto say, nor did it seem possible with the sun to guide us byday and the moons and stars by night. At any rate no waterwaywas in sight, and the entire party was almost ready todrop from hunger, thirst and fatigue. Far ahead of us anda trifle to the right we could distinguish the outlines of lowmountains. These we decided to attempt to reach in the hopethat from some ridge we might discern the missing waterway.Night fell upon us before we reached our goal, and, almostfainting from weariness and weakness, we lay down and slept.

I was awakened early in the morning by some huge bodypressing close to mine, and opening my eyes with a start Ibeheld my blessed old Woola snuggling close to me; the faithfulbrute had followed us across that trackless waste to shareour fate, whatever it might be. Putting my arms about hisneck I pressed my cheek close to his, nor am I ashamedthat I did it, nor of the tears that came to my eyes as Ithought of his love for me. Shortly after this Dejah Thorisand Sola awakened, and it was decided that we push on atonce in an effort to gain the hills.

We had gone scarcely a mile when I noticed that mythoat was commencing to stumble and stagger in a mostpitiful manner, although we had not attempted to forcethem out of a walk since about noon of the preceding day.Suddenly he lurched wildly to one side and pitched violently tothe ground. Dejah Thoris and I were thrown clear of himand fell upon the soft moss with scarcely a jar; but the poorbeast was in a pitiable condition, not even being able to rise,although relieved of our weight. Sola told me that the coolnessof the night, when it fell, together with the rest woulddoubtless revive him, and so I decided not to kill him, aswas my first intention, as I had thought it cruel to leave himalone there to die of hunger and thirst. Relieving him of histrappings, which I flung down beside him, we left the poorfellow to his fate, and pushed on with the one thoat as bestwe could. Sola and I walked, making Dejah Thoris ride, muchagainst her will. In this way we had progressed to withinabout a mile of the hills we were endeavoring to reach whenDejah Thoris, from her point of vantage upon the thoat,cried out that she saw a great party of mounted men filingdown from a pass in the hills several miles away. Sola and Iboth looked in the direction she indicated, and there, plainlydiscernible, were several hundred mounted warriors. Theyseemed to be headed in a southwesterly direction, whichwould take them away from us.

They doubtless were Thark warriors who had been sentout to capture us, and we breathed a great sigh of relief thatthey were traveling in the opposite direction. Quickly liftingDejah Thoris from the thoat, I commanded the animal to liedown and we three did the same, presenting as small an objectas possible for fear of attracting the attention of thewarriors toward us.

We could see them as they filed out of the pass, just foran instant, before they were lost to view behind a friendlyridge; to us a most providential ridge; since, had theybeen in view for any great length of time, they scarcelycould have failed to discover us. As what proved to be thelast warrior came into view from the pass, he halted and, to ourconsternation, threw his small but powerful fieldglass to hiseye and scanned the sea bottom in all directions. Evidentlyhe was a chieftain, for in certain marching formations among thegreen men a chieftain brings up the extreme rear of the column.As his glass swung toward us our hearts stopped in our breasts,and I could feel the cold sweat start from every pore in my body.

Presently it swung full upon us and--stopped. The tensionon our nerves was near the breaking point, and I doubt ifany of us breathed for the few moments he held us coveredby his glass; and then he lowered it and we could see himshout a command to the warriors who had passed from oursight behind the ridge. He did not wait for them to joinhim, however, instead he wheeled his thoat and came tearingmadly in our direction.

There was but one slight chance and that we must takequickly. Raising my strange Martian rifle to my shoulder Isighted and touched the button which controlled the trigger;there was a sharp explosion as the missile reached its goal, andthe charging chieftain pitched backward from his flyingmount.

Springing to my feet I urged the thoat to rise, and directedSola to take Dejah Thoris with her upon him and make amighty effort to reach the hills before the green warriors wereupon us. I knew that in the ravines and gullies they mightfind a temporary hiding place, and even though they diedthere of hunger and thirst it would be better so than thatthey fell into the hands of the Tharks. Forcing my tworevolvers upon them as a slight means of protection, and,as a last resort, as an escape for themselves from the horriddeath which recapture would surely mean, I lifted DejahThoris in my arms and placed her upon the thoat behindSola, who had already mounted at my command.

"Good-bye, my princess," I whispered, "we may meet inHelium yet. I have escaped from worse plights than this,"and I tried to smile as I lied.

"What," she cried, "are you not coming with us?"

"How may I, Dejah Thoris? Someone must hold thesefellows off for a while, and I can better escape them alonethan could the three of us together."

She sprang quickly from the thoat and, throwing her deararms about my neck, turned to Sola, saying with quiet dignity:"Fly, Sola! Dejah Thoris remains to die with the man sheloves."

Those words are engraved upon my heart. Ah, gladlywould I give up my life a thousand times could I only hearthem once again; but I could not then give even a second tothe rapture of her sweet embrace, and pressing my lips tohers for the first time, I picked her up bodily and tossedher to her seat behind Sola again, commanding the latterin peremptory tones to hold her there by force, and then,slapping the thoat upon the flank, I saw them borne away;Dejah Thoris struggling to the last to free herself fromSola's grasp.

Turning, I beheld the green warriors mounting the ridgeand looking for their chieftain. In a moment they saw him,and then me; but scarcely had they discovered me than Icommenced firing, lying flat upon my belly in the moss. I hadan even hundred rounds in the magazine of my rifle, andanother hundred in the belt at my back, and I kept up acontinuous stream of fire until I saw all of the warriors whohad been first to return from behind the ridge either dead orscurrying to cover.

My respite was short-lived however, for soon the entireparty, numbering some thousand men, came charging intoview, racing madly toward me. I fired until my rifle wasempty and they were almost upon me, and then a glanceshowing me that Dejah Thoris and Sola had disappearedamong the hills, I sprang up, throwing down my useless gun,and started away in the direction opposite to that taken bySola and her charge.

If ever Martians had an exhibition of jumping, it wasgranted those astonished warriors on that day long years ago,but while it led them away from Dejah Thoris it did not distracttheir attention from endeavoring to capture me.

They raced wildly after me until, finally, my foot struck aprojecting piece of quartz, and down I went sprawling uponthe moss. As I looked up they were upon me, and althoughI drew my long-sword in an attempt to sell my life asdearly as possible, it was soon over. I reeled beneath theirblows which fell upon me in perfect torrents; my head swam;all was black, and I went down beneath them to oblivion.