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"You thought little then of the Jed of Gathol?" he asked.
"Then or now," she replied, and with a little laugh; "how it would pique his vanity
to know, if he might, that a poor panthan had won a higher place in the regard of
Tara of Helium," and she laid her fingers gently upon his knee.
He seized the fingers in his and carried them to his lips. "O, Tara of Helium," he
cried. "Think you that I am a man of stone?" One arm slipped about her
shoulders and drew the yielding body toward him.
"
May my first ancestor forgive me my weakness," she cried, as her arms stole
about his neck and she raised her panting lips to his. For long they clung there in
love's first kiss and then she pushed him away, gently. "I love you, Turan," she
half sobbed; "I love you so! It is my only poor excuse for having done this wrong to
Djor Kantos, whom now I know I never loved, who knew not the meaning of love.
And if you love me as you say, Turan, your love must protect me from greater
dishonor, for I am but as clay in your hands."
Again he crushed her to him and then as suddenly released her, and rising,
strode rapidly to and fro across the chamber as though he endeavored by violent
exercise to master and subdue some evil spirit that had laid hold upon him.
Ringing through his brain and heart and soul like some joyous paean were those
words that had so altered the world for Gahan of Gathol: "I love you, Turan; I love
you so!" And it had come so suddenly. He had thought that she felt for him only
gratitude for his loyalty and then, in an instant, her barriers were all down, she
was no longer a princess; but instead a--his reflections were interrupted by a
sound from beyond the closed door. His sandals of zitidar hide had given forth no
sound upon the marble floor he strode, and as his rapid pacing carried him past
the entrance to the chamber there came faintly from the distance of the long
corridor the sound of metal on metal--the unmistakable herald of the approach of
armed men.
For a moment Gahan listened intently, close to the door, until there could be no
doubt but that a party of warriors was approaching. From what Tasor had told
him he guessed correctly that they would be coming to this portion of the palace
but for a single purpose--to search for Tara and himself--and it behooved him
therefore to seek immediate means for eluding them. The chamber in which they
were had other doorways beside that at which they had entered, and to one of
these he must look for some safer hiding place. Crossing to Tara he acquainted
her with his suspicion, leading her to one of the doors which they found
unsecured. Beyond it lay a dimly-lighted chamber at the threshold of which they
halted in consternation, drawing back quickly into the chamber they had just
quitted, for their first glance revealed four warriors seated around a jetan board.
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