The Chessmen of Mars


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"Tara of Helium," he continued, "we all thought you dead. For a long year have  
you been gone from Helium. I mourned you truly and then, less than a moon  
since, I wed with Olvia Marthis." He stopped and looked at her with eyes that  
might have said: "Now, strike me dead!"  
"Oh, foolish man!" cried Tara. "Nothing you could have done could have pleased  
me more. Djor Kantos, I could kiss you!"  
"I do not think that Olvia Marthis would mind," he said, his face now wreathed  
with smiles. As they spoke a body of men had entered the throne room and  
approached the dais. They were tall men trapped in plain harness, absolutely  
without ornamentation. Just as their leader reached the dais Tara had turned to  
Gahan, motioning him to join them.  
"
Djor Kantos," she said, "I bring you Turan the panthan, whose loyalty and  
bravery have won my love."  
John Carter and the leader of the new come warriors, who were standing near,  
looked quickly at the little group. The former smiled an inscrutable smile, the  
latter addressed the Princess of Helium. "'Turan the panthan!'" he cried. "Know  
you not, fair daughter of Helium, that this man you call panthan is Gahan, Jed of  
Gathol?"  
For just a moment Tara of Helium looked her surprise; and then she shrugged  
her beautiful shoulders as she turned her head to cast her eyes over one of them  
at Gahan of Gathol.  
"Jed or panthan," she said; "what difference does it make what one's slave has  
been?" and she laughed roguishly into the smiling face of her lover.  
*
* * * *  
His story finished, John Carter rose from the chair opposite me, stretching his  
giant frame like some great forest-bred lion.  
"
You must go?" I cried, for I hated to see him leave and it seemed that he had  
been with me but a moment.  
"The sky is already red beyond those beautiful hills of yours," he replied, "and it  
will soon be day."  
"
Just one question before you go," I begged.  
Well?" he assented, good-naturedly.  
"
195  


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