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long suspected. A-Kor already has been tried and sentenced by the supreme

tribunal of Manator--O-Tar, the jeddak; and you too shall receive justice from the

same unfailing source. In the meantime you are under arrest. To the pits with

him! To the pits with U-Thor the false jed!" He clapped his hands to summon the

surrounding warriors to do his bidding. A score leaped forward to seize U-Thor.

They were warriors of the palace, mostly; but two score leaped to defend U-Thor,

and with ringing steel they fought at the foot of the steps to the throne of Manator

where stood O-Tar, the jeddak, with drawn sword ready to take his part in the

melee.

At the clash of steel, palace guards rushed to the scene from other parts of the

great building until those who would have defended U-Thor were outnumbered

two to one, and then the jed of Manatos slowly withdrew with his forces, and

fighting his way through the corridors and chambers of the palace came at last to

the avenue. Here he was reinforced by the little army that had marched with him

into Manator. Slowly they retreated toward The Gate of Enemies between the

rows of silent people looking down upon them from the balconies and there,

within the city walls, they made their stand.

In a dimly-lighted chamber beneath the palace of O-Tar the jeddak, Turan the

panthan lowered Tara of Helium from his arms and faced her. "I am sorry,

Princess," he said, "that I was forced to disobey your commands, or to abandon

Ghek; but there was no other way. Could he have saved you I would have stayed

in his place. Tell me that you forgive me."

"How could I do less?" she replied graciously. "But it seemed cowardly to abandon

a friend."

Had we been three fighting men it had been different," he said. "We could only

have remained and died together, fighting; but you know, Tara of Helium, that we

may not jeopardize a woman's safety even though we risk the loss of honor."

"I know that, Turan," she said; "but no one may say that you have risked honor,

who knows the honor and bravery that are yours."

He heard her with surprise for these were the first words that she had spoken to

him that did not savor of the attitude of a princess to a panthan--though it was

more in her tone than the actual words that he apprehended the difference. How

at variance were they to her recent repudiation of him! He could not fathom her,

and so he blurted out the question that had been in his mind since she had told

O-Tar that she did not know him.

Tara of Helium," he said, "your words are balm to the wound you gave me in the

throne room of O-Tar. Tell me, Princess, why you denied me."

The Chessmen of Mars