Without effort at concealment I hastened to the vicinity ofour quarters, where I felt sure I should find Kantos Kan. AsI neared the building I became more careful, as I judged,and rightly, that the place would be guarded. Several men incivilian metal loitered near the front entrance and in therear were others. My only means of reaching, unseen, theupper story where our apartments were situated was throughan adjoining building, and after considerable maneuvering Imanaged to attain the roof of a shop several doors away.

Leaping from roof to roof, I soon reached an open windowin the building where I hoped to find the Heliumite, and inanother moment I stood in the room before him. He wasalone and showed no surprise at my coming, saying he hadexpected me much earlier, as my tour of duty must haveended some time since.

I saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day atthe palace, and when I had enlightened him he was allexcitement. The news that Dejah Thoris had promised herhand to Sab Than filled him with dismay.

"It cannot be," he exclaimed. "It is impossible! Why noman in all Helium but would prefer death to the selling ofour loved princess to the ruling house of Zodanga. She musthave lost her mind to have assented to such an atrociousbargain. You, who do not know how we of Helium lovethe members of our ruling house, cannot appreciate thehorror with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance."

"What can be done, John Carter?" he continued. "You area resourceful man. Can you not think of some way to saveHelium from this disgrace?"

"If I can come within sword's reach of Sab Than," I answered,"I can solve the difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned,but for personal reasons I would prefer that another struckthe blow that frees Dejah Thoris."

Kantos Kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke.

"You love her!" he said. "Does she know it?"

"She knows it, Kantos Kan, and repulses me only becauseshe is promised to Sab Than."

The splendid fellow sprang to his feet, and grasping meby the shoulder raised his sword on high, exclaiming:

"And had the choice been left to me I could not havechosen a more fitting mate for the first princess of Barsoom.Here is my hand upon your shoulder, John Carter, and myword that Sab Than shall go out at the point of my swordfor the sake of my love for Helium, for Dejah Thoris, and foryou. This very night I shall try to reach his quarters in thepalace."

"How?" I asked. "You are strongly guarded and a quadrupleforce patrols the sky."

He bent his head in thought a moment, then raised itwith an air of confidence.

"I only need to pass these guards and I can do it," he saidat last. "I know a secret entrance to the palace throughthe pinnacle of the highest tower. I fell upon it by chanceone day as I was passing above the palace on patrol duty.In this work it is required that we investigate any unusualoccurrence we may witness, and a face peering from the pinnacleof the high tower of the palace was, to me, most unusual.I therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor ofthe peering face was none other than Sab Than. He was slightlyput out at being detected and commanded me to keep thematter to myself, explaining that the passage from the towerled directly to his apartments, and was known only to him.If I can reach the roof of the barracks and get my machineI can be in Sab Than's quarters in five minutes; but how amI to escape from this building, guarded as you say it is?"

"How well are the machine sheds at the barracks guarded?" I asked.

"There is usually but one man on duty there at night uponthe roof."

"Go to the roof of this building, Kantos Kan, and waitme there."

Without stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way tothe street and hastened to the barracks. I did not dare to enterthe building, filled as it was with members of the air-scoutsquadron, who, in common with all Zodanga, were on thelookout for me.

The building was an enormous one, rearing its lofty headfully a thousand feet into the air. But few buildings inZodanga were higher than these barracks, though several toppedit by a few hundred feet; the docks of the great battleshipsof the line standing some fifteen hundred feet from theground, while the freight and passenger stations of themerchant squadrons rose nearly as high.

It was a long climb up the face of the building, and onefraught with much danger, but there was no other way, andso I essayed the task. The fact that Barsoomian architectureis extremely ornate made the feat much simpler than I hadanticipated, since I found ornamental ledges and projectionswhich fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the way to theeaves of the building. Here I met my first real obstacle. Theeaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which Iclung, and though I encircled the great building I could findno opening through them.

The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engagedin the pastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reachthe roof through the building.

There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decidedI must take--it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has livedwho would not risk a thousand deaths for such as she.

Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosenedone of the long leather straps of my trappings at the endof which dangled a great hook by which air sailors are hungto the sides and bottoms of their craft for various purposesof repair, and by means of which landing parties are loweredto the ground from the battleships.

I swung this hook cautiously to the roof several timesbefore it finally found lodgment; gently I pulled on it tostrengthen its hold, but whether it would bear the weight ofmy body I did not know. It might be barely caught upon thevery outer verge of the roof, so that as my body swung outat the end of the strap it would slip off and launch me tothe pavement a thousand feet below.

An instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp uponthe supporting ornament, I swung out into space at the endof the strap. Far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets,the hard pavements, and death. There was a little jerk atthe top of the supporting eaves, and a nasty slipping, gratingsound which turned me cold with apprehension; then thehook caught and I was safe.

Clambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eavesand drew myself to the surface of the roof above. As I gainedmy feet I was confronted by the sentry on duty, into themuzzle of whose revolver I found myself looking.

"Who are you and whence came you?" he cried.

"I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one,for just by the merest chance I escaped falling to the avenuebelow," I replied.

"But how came you upon the roof, man? No one haslanded or come up from the building for the past hour.Quick, explain yourself, or I call the guard."

"Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came andhow close a shave I had to not coming at all," I answered,turning toward the edge of the roof, where, twenty feetbelow, at the end of my strap, hung all my weapons.

The fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to myside and to his undoing, for as he leaned to peer over theeaves I grasped him by his throat and his pistol arm andthrew him heavily to the roof. The weapon dropped fromhis grasp, and my fingers choked off his attempted cry forassistance. I gagged and bound him and then hung himover the edge of the roof as I myself had hung a fewmoments before. I knew it would be morning before he wouldbe discovered, and I needed all the time that I could gain.

Donning my trappings and weapons I hastened to thesheds, and soon had out both my machine and Kantos Kan's.Making his fast behind mine I started my engine, and skimmingover the edge of the roof I dove down into the streets ofthe city far below the plane usually occupied by the airpatrol. In less than a minute I was settling safely uponthe roof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantos Kan.

I lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediatelyinto a discussion of our plans for the immediate future.It was decided that I was to try to make Helium while KantosKan was to enter the palace and dispatch Sab Than. If successfulhe was then to follow me. He set my compass for me, a cleverlittle device which will remain steadfastly fixed upon any givenpoint on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each other farewellwe rose together and sped in the direction of the palace whichlay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.

As we neared the high tower a patrol shot down fromabove, throwing its piercing searchlight full upon my craft,and a voice roared out a command to halt, following with ashot as I paid no attention to his hail. Kantos Kan droppedquickly into the darkness, while I rose steadily and at terrificspeed raced through the Martian sky followed by a dozen ofthe air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, and laterby a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery ofrapid-fire guns. By twisting and turning my little machine,now rising and now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most of the time, but I was also losing ground by thesetactics, and so I decided to hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave the result to fate and the speed of mymachine.

Kantos Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is knownonly to the navy of Helium, that greatly increased the speedof our machines, so that I felt sure I could distancemy pursuers if I could dodge their projectiles for a few moments.

As I sped through the air the screeching of the bulletsaround me convinced me that only by a miracle could I escape,but the die was cast, and throwing on full speed I raceda straight course toward Helium. Gradually I left mypursuers further and further behind, and I was justcongratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directedshot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft.The concussion nearly capsized her, and with a sickeningplunge she hurtled downward through the dark night.

How far I fell before I regained control of the plane I donot know, but I must have been very close to the groundwhen I started to rise again, as I plainly heard the squealingof animals below me. Rising again I scanned the heavens formy pursuers, and finally making out their lights far behind me,saw that they were landing, evidently in search of me.

Not until their lights were no longer discernible did Iventure to flash my little lamp upon my compass, and thenI found to my consternation that a fragment of theprojectile had utterly destroyed my only guide, as well as myspeedometer. It was true I could follow the stars in thegeneral direction of Helium, but without knowing the exactlocation of the city or the speed at which I was travelingmy chances for finding it were slim.

Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, andwith my compass intact I should have made the trip, barringaccidents, in between four and five hours. As it turnedout, however, morning found me speeding over a vast expanseof dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of continuousflight at high speed. Presently a great city showedbelow me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of allBarsoomian metropolises consists in two immense circularwalled cities about seventy-five miles apart and wouldhave been easily distinguishable from the altitude atwhich I was flying.

Believing that I had come too far to the north and west,I turned back in a southeasterly direction, passing duringthe forenoon several other large cities, but none resemblingthe description which Kantos Kan had given me of Helium.In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium, anotherdistinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one ofvivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from thecenter of one of the cities, while the other, of bright yellowand of the same height, marks her sister.