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The Panthans, which are represented as warriors with one feather, may move one
space in any direction except backward; the Thoats, mounted warriors with three
feathers, may move one straight and one diagonal, and may jump intervening
pieces; Warriors, foot soldiers with two feathers, straight in any direction, or
diagonally, two spaces; Padwars, lieutenants wearing two feathers, two diagonal
in any direction, or combination; Dwars, captains wearing three feathers, three
spaces straight in any direction, or combination; Fliers, represented by a
propellor with three blades, three spaces in any direction, or combination,
diagonally, and may jump intervening pieces; the Chief, indicated by a diadem
with ten jewels, three spaces in any direction, straight, or diagonal; Princess,
diadem with a single jewel, same as Chief, and can jump intervening pieces.
The game is won when a player places any of his pieces on the same square with
his opponent's Princess, or when a Chief takes a Chief. It is drawn when a Chief
is taken by any opposing piece other than the opposing Chief; or when both sides
have been reduced to three pieces, or less, of equal value, and the game is not
terminated in the following ten moves, five apiece. This is but a general outline of
the game, briefly stated.
It was this game that Dejah Thoris and John Carter were playing when Tara of
Helium bid them good night, retiring to her own quarters and her sleeping silks
and furs. "Until morning, my beloved," she called back to them as she passed
from the apartment, nor little did she guess, nor her parents, that this might
indeed be the last time that they would ever set eyes upon her.
The morning broke dull and gray. Ominous clouds billowed restlessly and low.
Beneath them torn fragments scudded toward the northwest. From her window
Tara of Helium looked out upon this unusual scene. Dense clouds seldom
overcast the Barsoomian sky. At this hour of the day it was her custom to ride
one of those small thoats that are the saddle animals of the red Martians, but the
sight of the billowing clouds lured her to a new adventure. Uthia still slept and
the girl did not disturb her. Instead, she dressed quietly and went to the hangar
upon the roof of the palace directly above her quarters where her own swift flier
was housed. She had never driven through the clouds. It was an adventure that
always she had longed to experience. The wind was strong and it was with
difficulty that she maneuvered the craft from the hangar without accident, but
once away it raced swiftly out above the twin cities. The buffeting winds caught
and tossed it, and the girl laughed aloud in sheer joy of the resultant thrills. She
handled the little ship like a veteran, though few veterans would have faced the
menace of such a storm in so light a craft. Swiftly she rose toward the clouds,
racing with the scudding streamers of the storm-swept fragments, and a moment
later she was swallowed by the dense masses billowing above. Here was a new
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