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great, inert hulk. Instantly the latter was transformed to a sentient creature, filled
with pulsing life and alert energy.
"Now," said the kaldane, "we are ready. Let whoso would revert to nothingness
impede me." Even as he spoke he stooped and crawled into the chamber beyond,
while Gahan, taking Tara by the arm, motioned her to follow. The girl looked him
full in the eyes for the first time. "The Gods of my people have been kind," she
said; "you came just in time. To the thanks of Tara of Helium shall be added
those of The Warlord of Barsoom and his people. Thy reward shall surpass thy
greatest desires."
Gahan of Gathol saw that she did not recognize him, and quickly he checked the
warm greeting that had been upon his lips.
"Be thou Tara of Helium or another," he replied, "is immaterial, to serve thus a
red woman of Barsoom is in itself sufficient reward."
As they spoke the girl was making her way through the aperture after Ghek, and
presently all three had quitted the apartments of Luud and were moving rapidly
along the winding corridors toward the tower. Ghek repeatedly urged them to
greater speed, but the red men of Barsoom were never keen for retreat, and so the
two that followed him moved all too slowly for the kaldane.
"
There are none to impede our progress," urged Gahan, "so why tax the strength
of the Princess by needless haste?"
"I fear not so much opposition ahead, for there are none there who know the
thing that has been done in Luud's chambers this night; but the kaldane of one
of the warriors who stood guard before Luud's apartment escaped, and you may
count it a truth that he lost no time in seeking aid. That it did not come before we
left is due solely to the rapidity with which events transpired in the king's* room.
Long before we reach the tower they will be upon us from behind, and that they
will come in numbers far superior to ours and with great and powerful rykors I
well know."
*
I have used the word king in describing the rulers or chiefs of the Bantoomian
swarms, since the word itself is unpronounceable in English, nor does jed or
jeddak of the red Martian tongue have quite the same meaning as the
Bantoomian word, which has practically the same significance as the English
word queen as applied to the leader of a swarm of bees.--J. C.
Nor was Ghek's prophecy long in fulfilment. Presently the sounds of pursuit
became audible in the distant clanking of accouterments and the whistling call to
arms of the kaldanes.
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