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Guard, and so his act was inexplicable to Gahan and to Tara. Presently he
sheathed his sword and approached them.
"When a man chooses to hide his identity behind an assumed name," he said,
looking straight into Gahan's eyes, "whatever friend pierces the deception were no
friend if he divulged the other's secret."
He paused as though awaiting a reply.
"
Your integrity has perceived and your lips voiced an unalterable truth," replied
Gahan, whose mind was filled with wonder if the implication could by any
possibility be true--that this Manatorian had guessed his identity.
"
We are thus agreed," continued the other, "and I may tell you that though I am
here known as A-Sor, my real name is Tasor." He paused and watched Gahan's
face intently for any sign of the effect of this knowledge and was rewarded with a
quick, though guarded expression of recognition.
Tasor! Friend of his youth. The son of that great Gatholian noble who had given
his life so gloriously, however futilely, in an attempt to defend Gahan's sire from
the daggers of the assassins. Tasor an under-padwar in the guard of O-Tar,
Jeddak of Manator! It was inconceivable--and yet it was he; there could be no
doubt of it. "Tasor," Gahan repeated aloud. "But it is no Manatorian name." The
statement was half interrogatory, for Gahan's curiosity was aroused. He would
know how his friend and loyal subject had become a Manatorian. Long years had
passed since Tasor had disappeared as mysteriously as the Princess Haja and
many other of Gahan's subjects. The Jed of Gathol had long supposed him dead.
"No," replied Tasor, "nor is it a Manatorian name. Come, while I search for a
hiding place for you in some forgotten chamber in one of the untenanted portions
of the palace, and as we go I will tell you briefly how Tasor the Gatholian became
A-Sor the Manatorian.
"It befell that as I rode with a dozen of my warriors along the western border of
Gathol searching for zitidars that had strayed from my herds, we were set upon
and surrounded by a great company of Manatorians. They overpowered us,
though not before half our number was slain and the balance helpless from
wounds. And so I was brought a prisoner to Manataj, a distant city of Manator,
and there sold into slavery. A woman bought me--a princess of Manataj whose
wealth and position were unequaled in the city of her birth. She loved me and
when her husband discovered her infatuation she beseeched me to slay him, and
when I refused she hired another to do it. Then she married me; but none would
have aught to do with her in Manataj, for they suspected her guilty knowledge of
her husband's murder. And so we set out from Manataj for Manatos accompanied
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