For ten days the hordes of Thark and their wild allies werefeasted and entertained, and, then, loaded with costlypresents and escorted by ten thousand soldiers of Heliumcommanded by Mors Kajak, they started on the return journeyto their own lands. The jed of lesser Helium with a smallparty of nobles accompanied them all the way to Thark tocement more closely the new bonds of peace and friendship.

Sola also accompanied Tars Tarkas, her father, who beforeall his chieftains had acknowledged her as his daughter.

Three weeks later, Mors Kajak and his officers, accompaniedby Tars Tarkas and Sola, returned upon a battleship thathad been dispatched to Thark to fetch them in time forthe ceremony which made Dejah Thoris and John Carter one.

For nine years I served in the councils and fought in thearmies of Helium as a prince of the house of Tardos Mors.The people seemed never to tire of heaping honors upon me,and no day passed that did not bring some new proof oftheir love for my princess, the incomparable Dejah Thoris.

In a golden incubator upon the roof of our palace lay asnow-white egg. For nearly five years ten soldiers of thejeddak's Guard had constantly stood over it, and not a daypassed when I was in the city that Dejah Thoris and I didnot stand hand in hand before our little shrine planning forthe future, when the delicate shell should break.

Vivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as wesat there talking in low tones of the strange romance whichhad woven our lives together and of this wonder which wascoming to augment our happiness and fulfill our hopes.

In the distance we saw the bright-white light of anapproaching airship, but we attached no specialsignificance to so common a sight. Like a bolt oflightning it raced toward Helium until its very speedbespoke the unusual.

Flashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearerfor the jeddak, it circled impatiently awaiting the tardypatrol boat which must convoy it to the palace docks.

Ten minutes after it touched at the palace a messagecalled me to the council chamber, which I found filling withthe members of that body.

On the raised platform of the throne was Tardos Mors,pacing back and forth with tense-drawn face. When all werein their seats he turned toward us.

"This morning," he said, "word reached the severalgovernments of Barsoom that the keeper of the atmosphereplant had made no wireless report for two days, nor hadalmost ceaseless calls upon him from a score of capitalselicited a sign of response.

"The ambassadors of the other nations asked us to takethe matter in hand and hasten the assistant keeper to theplant. All day a thousand cruisers have been searching forhim until just now one of them returns bearing his deadbody, which was found in the pits beneath his house horriblymutilated by some assassin.

"I do not need to tell you what this means to Barsoom. Itwould take months to penetrate those mighty walls, in factthe work has already commenced, and there would be littleto fear were the engine of the pumping plant to run as itshould and as they all have for hundreds of years now; but theworst, we fear, has happened. The instruments show a rapidlydecreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom--the engine has stopped."

"My gentlemen," he concluded, "we have at best three days to live."

There was absolute silence for several minutes, and thena young noble arose, and with his drawn sword held highabove his head addressed Tardos Mors.

"The men of Helium have prided themselves that they haveever shown Barsoom how a nation of red men should live,now is our opportunity to show them how they should die.Let us go about our duties as though a thousand useful yearsstill lay before us."

The chamber rang with applause and as there was nothingbetter to do than to allay the fears of the people by ourexample we went our ways with smiles upon our faces andsorrow gnawing at our hearts.

When I returned to my palace I found that the rumor alreadyhad reached Dejah Thoris, so I told her all that I had heard.

"We have been very happy, John Carter," she said, "and I thankwhatever fate overtakes us that it permits us to die together."

The next two days brought no noticeable change in thesupply of air, but on the morning of the third day breathingbecame difficult at the higher altitudes of the rooftops.The avenues and plazas of Helium were filled with people.All business had ceased. For the most part the people lookedbravely into the face of their unalterable doom. Here andthere, however, men and women gave way to quiet grief.

Toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commencedto succumb and within an hour the people of Barsoomwere sinking by thousands into the unconsciousnesswhich precedes death by asphyxiation.

Dejah Thoris and I with the other members of the royalfamily had collected in a sunken garden within an innercourtyard of the palace. We conversed in low tones, whenwe conversed at all, as the awe of the grim shadow of deathcrept over us. Even Woola seemed to feel the weight of theimpending calamity, for he pressed close to Dejah Thorisand to me, whining pitifully.

The little incubator had been brought from the roof ofour palace at request of Dejah Thoris and now she sat gazinglongingly upon the unknown little life that now she wouldnever know.

As it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe TardosMors arose, saying,

"Let us bid each other farewell. The days of the greatnessof Barsoom are over. Tomorrow's sun will look down upon adead world which through all eternity must go swinging throughthe heavens peopled not even by memories. It is the end."

He stooped and kissed the women of his family, and laidhis strong hand upon the shoulders of the men.

As I turned sadly from him my eyes fell upon DejahThoris. Her head was drooping upon her breast, to allappearances she was lifeless. With a cry I sprang to herand raised her in my arms.

Her eyes opened and looked into mine.

"Kiss me, John Carter," she murmured. "I love you!I love you! It is cruel that we must be torn apart whowere just starting upon a life of love and happiness."

As I pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling ofunconquerable power and authority rose in me. The fightingblood of Virginia sprang to life in my veins.

"It shall not be, my princess," I cried. "There is, theremust be some way, and John Carter, who has fought his waythrough a strange world for love of you, will find it."

And with my words there crept above the threshold of myconscious mind a series of nine long forgotten sounds. Like aflash of lightning in the darkness their full purport dawnedupon me--the key to the three great doors of the atmosphere plant!

Turning suddenly toward Tardos Mors as I still clasped mydying love to my breast I cried.

"A flier, Jeddak! Quick! Order your swiftest flier to thepalace top. I can save Barsoom yet."

He did not wait to question, but in an instant a guard was racingto the nearest dock and though the air was thin and almost goneat the rooftop they managed to launch the fastest one-man,air-scout machine that the skill of Barsoom had ever produced.

Kissing Dejah Thoris a dozen times and commanding Woola,who would have followed me, to remain and guard her,I bounded with my old agility and strength to the highramparts of the palace, and in another moment I was headedtoward the goal of the hopes of all Barsoom.

I had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe, but I tooka straight course across an old sea bottom and so had to riseonly a few feet above the ground.

I traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a raceagainst time with death. The face of Dejah Thoris hungalways before me. As I turned for a last look as I leftthe palace garden I had seen her stagger and sink upon theground beside the little incubator. That she had droppedinto the last coma which would end in death, if the airsupply remained unreplenished, I well knew, and so, throwingcaution to the winds, I flung overboard everything but theengine and compass, even to my ornaments, and lying on mybelly along the deck with one hand on the steering wheeland the other pushing the speed lever to its last notch Isplit the thin air of dying Mars with the speed of a meteor.

An hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphereplant loomed suddenly before me, and with a sickening thudI plunged to the ground before the small door which waswithholding the spark of life from the inhabitants of anentire planet.

Beside the door a great crew of men had been laboringto pierce the wall, but they had scarcely scratched the flint-like surface, and now most of them lay in the last sleep fromwhich not even air would awaken them.

Conditions seemed much worse here than at Helium, andit was with difficulty that I breathed at all. There werea few men still conscious, and to one of these I spoke.

"If I can open these doors is there a man who can startthe engines?" I asked.

"I can," he replied, "if you open quickly. I can last but afew moments more. But it is useless, they are both deadand no one else upon Barsoom knew the secret of these awfullocks. For three days men crazed with fear have surgedabout this portal in vain attempts to solve its mystery."

I had no time to talk, I was becoming very weak and itwas with difficulty that I controlled my mind at all.

But, with a final effort, as I sank weakly to my knees Ihurled the nine thought waves at that awful thing before me.The Martian had crawled to my side and with staring eyesfixed on the single panel before us we waited in the silenceof death.

Slowly the mighty door receded before us. I attempted torise and follow it but I was too weak.

"After it," I cried to my companion, "and if you reach thepump room turn loose all the pumps. It is the only chanceBarsoom has to exist tomorrow!"

From where I lay I opened the second door, and then thethird, and as I saw the hope of Barsoom crawling weakly onhands and knees through the last doorway I sank unconsciousupon the ground.