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As she rose quickly to her feet she saw for the first time the cause of the

interruption of Luud's plans. A red warrior! Her heart leaped in rejoicing and

thanksgiving. What miracle of fate had sent him to her? She did not recognize

him, though, this travel-worn warrior in the plain harness which showed no

single jewel. How could she have guessed him the same as the scintillant creature

of platinum and diamonds that she had seen for a brief hour under such different

circumstances at the court of her august sire?

Luud saw Ghek following the strange warrior into the chamber. "Strike him down,

Ghek!" commanded the king. "Strike down the stranger and your life shall be

yours."

Gahan glanced at the hideous face of the king.

"Seek not his eyes," screamed Tara in warning; but it was too late. Already the

horrid hypnotic gaze of the king kaldane had seized upon the eyes of Gahan. The

red warrior hesitated in his stride. His sword point drooped slowly toward the

floor. Tara glanced toward Ghek. She saw the creature glaring with his

expressionless eyes upon the broad back of the stranger. She saw the hand of the

creature's rykor creeping stealthily toward the hilt of its dagger.

And then Tara of Helium raised her eyes aloft and poured forth the notes of Mars'

most beautiful melody, The Song of Love.

Ghek drew his dagger from its sheath. His eyes turned toward the singing girl.

Luud's glance wavered from the eyes of the man to the face of Tara, and the

instant that the latter's song distracted his attention from his victim, Gahan of

Gathol shook himself and as with a supreme effort of will forced his eyes to the

wall above Luud's hideous head. Ghek raised his dagger above his right shoulder,

took a single quick step forward, and struck. The girl's song ended in a stifled

scream as she leaped forward with the evident intention of frustrating the

kaldane's purpose; but she was too late, and well it was, for an instant later she

realized the purpose of Ghek's act as she saw the dagger fly from his hand, pass

Gahan's shoulder, and sink full to the guard in the soft face of Luud.

Come!" cried the assassin, "we have no time to lose," and started for the aperture

through which they had entered the chamber; but in his stride he paused as his

glance was arrested by the form of the mighty rykor lying prone upon the floor--a

king's rykor; the most beautiful, the most powerful, that the breeders of Bantoom

could produce. Ghek realized that in his escape he could take with him but a

single rykor, and there was none in Bantoom that could give him better service

than this giant lying here. Quickly he transferred himself to the shoulders of the

The Chessmen of Mars