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by a great caravan bearing all her worldly goods and jewels and precious metals,
and on the way she caused the rumor to be spread that she and I had died. Then
we came to Manator instead, she taking a new name and I the name A-Sor, that
we might not be traced through our names. With her great wealth she bought me
a post in The Jeddak's Guard and none knows that I am not a Manatorian, for
she is dead. She was beautiful, but she was a devil."
"And you never sought to return to your native city?" asked Gahan.
"Never has the hope been absent from my heart, or my mind empty of a plan,"
replied Tasor. "I dream of it by day and by night, but always must I return to the
same conclusion--that there can be but a single means for escape. I must wait
until Fortune favors me with a place in a raiding party to Gathol. Then, once
within the boundaries of my own country, they shall see me no more."
"Perhaps your opportunity lies already within your grasp," said Gahan, "has not
your fealty to your own Jed been undermined by years of association with the
men of Manator." The statement was half challenge.
"
And my Jed stood before me now," cried Tasor, "and my avowal could be made
without violating his confidence, I should cast my sword at his feet and beg the
high privilege of dying for him as my sire died for his sire."
There could be no doubt of his sincerity nor any that he was cognizant of Gahan's
identity. The Jed of Gathol smiled. "And if your Jed were here there is little doubt
but that he would command you to devote your talents and your prowess to the
rescue of the Princess Tara of Helium," he said, meaningly. "And he possessed the
knowledge I have gained during my captivity he would say to you, 'Go, Tasor, to
the pit where A-kor, son of Haja of Gathol, is confined and set him free and with
him arouse the slaves from Gathol and march to The Gate of Enemies and offer
your services to U-Thor of Manataj, who is wed to Haja of Gathol, and ask of him
in return that he attack the palace of O-Tar and rescue Tara of Helium and when
that thing is accomplished that he free the slaves of Gathol and furnish them
with the arms and the means to return to their own country.' That, Tasor of
Gathol, is what Gahan your Jed would demand of you."
"And that, Turan the slave, is what I shall bend my every effort to accomplish
after I have found a safe refuge for Tara of Helium and her panthan," replied
Tasor.
Gahan's glance carried to Tasor an intimation of his Jed's gratification and filled
him with a chivalrous determination to do the thing required of him, or die, for he
considered that he had received from the lips of his beloved ruler a commission
that placed upon his shoulders a responsibility that encompassed not alone the
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