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The first man to follow him was Tanus and when the last reached the deck of the

cruiser there remained upon the palace roof only the twelve warriors of Helium,

who, with naked swords, had taken the posts of the Gatholians at the moorings.

Not a single warrior who had remained aboard the Vanator would leave her now.

"I expected no less," said Gahan, as with the help of those already on the deck he

and the others found secure lashings. The commander of the Vanator shook his

head. He loved his trim craft, the pride of her class in the little navy of Gathol. It

was of her he thought--not of himself. He saw her lying torn and twisted upon the

ochre vegetation of some distant sea-bottom, to be presently overrun and looted

by some savage, green horde. He looked at Gahan.

Are you ready, San Tothis?" asked the jed.

All is ready."

Then cut away!"

Word was passed across the deck and over the side to the Heliumetic warriors

below that at the third gun they were to cut away. Twelve keen swords must

strike simultaneously and with equal power, and each must sever completely and

instantly three strands of heavy cable that no loose end fouling a block bring

immediate disaster upon the Vanator.

Boom! The voice of the signal gun rolled down through the screaming wind to the

twelve warriors upon the roof. Boom! Twelve swords were raised above twelve

brawny shoulders. Boom! Twelve keen edges severed twelve complaining

moorings, clean and as one.

The Vanator, her propellors whirling, shot forward with the storm. The tempest

struck her in the stern as with a mailed fist and stood the great ship upon her

nose, and then it caught her and spun her as a child's top spins; and upon the

palace roof the twelve men looked on in silent helplessness and prayed for the

souls of the brave warriors who were going to their death. And others saw, from

Helium's lofty landing stages and from a thousand hangars upon a thousand

roofs; but only for an instant did the preparations stop that would send other

brave men into the frightful maelstrom of that apparently hopeless search, for

such is the courage of the warriors of Barsoom.

But the Vanator did not fall to the ground, within sight of the city at least, though

as long as the watchers could see her never for an instant did she rest upon an

even keel. Sometimes she lay upon one side or the other, or again she hurtled

along keel up, or rolled over and over, or stood upon her nose or her tail at the

The Chessmen of Mars