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  The incident gave me considerable food for speculation, since if I were right in the conclusion induced by the cursory glimpse I had had of the spy, then Matain Shang and Thurid must suspect my identity, and if that were true not even the service I had rendered Kula Tith could save me from her religious fanaticism.

  But never did vague conjecture or fruitless fears for the future lie with sufficient weight upon my mind to keep me from my rest, and so tonight I threw myself upon my sleeping silks and furs and passed at once into dreamless slumber.

  Calots are not permitted within the walls of the palace proper, and so I had had to relegate poor Woolan to quarters in the stables where the royal thoats are kept. She had comfortable, even luxurious apartments, but I would have given much to have had her with me; and if she had been, the thing which happened that night would not have come to pass.

  I could not have slept over a quarter of an hour when I was suddenly awakened by the passing of some cold and clammy thing across my forehead. Instantly I sprang to my feet, clutching in the direction I thought the presence lay. For an instant my hand touched against human flesh, and then, as I lunged headforemost through the darkness to seize my nocturnal visitor, my foot became entangled in my sleeping silks and I fell sprawling to the floor.

  By the time I had resumed my feet and found the button which controlled the light my caller had disappeared. Careful search of the room revealed nothing to explain either the identity or business of the person who had thus secretly sought me in the dead of night.

  That the purpose might be theft I could not believe, since thieves are practically unknown upon Barsoom. Assassination, however, is rampant, but even this could not have been the motive of my stealthy friend, for she might easily have killed me had she desired.

  I had about given up fruitless conjecture and was on the point of returning to sleep when a dozen Kaolian guardswomen entered my apartment. The officer in charge was one of my genial hosts of the morning, but now upon her face was no sign of friendship.

  'Kula Tith commands your presence before her,' she said. 'Come!'

  NEW ALLIES

  Surrounded by guardswomen I marched back along the corridors of the palace of Kula Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, to the great audience chamber in the center of the massive structure.

  As I entered the brilliantly lighted apartment, filled with the nobles of Kaol and the officers of the visiting jeddak, all eyes were turned upon me. Upon the great dais at the end of the chamber stood three thrones, upon which sat Kula Tith and her two guests, Matain Shang, and the visiting jeddak.

  Up the broad center aisle we marched beneath deadly silence, and at the foot of the thrones we halted.

  'Prefer thy charge,' said Kula Tith, turning to one who stood among the nobles at her right; and then Thurid, the black dator of the First Born, stepped forward and faced me.

  'Most noble Jeddak,' she said, addressing Kula Tith, 'from the first I suspected this stranger within thy palace. Your description of her fiendish prowess tallied with that of the arch-enemy of truth upon Barsoom.

  'But that there might be no mistake I despatched a priestess of your own holy cult to make the test that should pierce her disguise and reveal the truth. Behold the result!' and Thurid pointed a rigid finger at my forehead.

  All eyes followed the direction of that accusing digit--I alone seemed at a loss to guess what fatal sign rested upon my brow.

  The officer beside me guessed my perplexity; and as the brows of Kula Tith darkened in a menacing scowl as her eyes rested upon me, the noble drew a small mirror from her pocket-pouch and held it before my face.

  One glance at the reflection it gave back to me was sufficient.

  From my forehead the hand of the sneaking thern had reached out through the concealing darkness of my bed-chamber and wiped away a patch of the disguising red pigment as broad as my palm. Baneath showed the tanned texture of my own white skin.

  For a moment Thurid ceased speaking, to enhance, I suspect, the dramatic effect of her disclosure. Then she resumed.

  'Here, O Kula Tith,' she cried, 'is she who has desecrated the temples of the Gods of Mars, who has violated the persons of the Holy Therns themselves and turned a world against its age-old religion. Before you, in your power, Jeddak of Kaol, Defender of the Holies, stands Joan Carter, Princess of Helium!'

  Kula Tith looked toward Matain Shang as though for corroboration of these charges. The Holy Thern nodded her head.

  'It is indeed the arch-blasphemer,' she said. 'Even now she has followed me to the very heart of thy palace, Kula Tith, for the sole purpose of assassinating me. He--'

  'She lies!' I cried. 'Kula Tith, listen that you may know the truth. Listen while I tell you why Joan Carter has followed Matain Shang to the heart of thy palace. Listen to me as well as to them, and then judge if my acts be not more in accord with true Barsoomian chivalry and honor than those of these revengeful devotees of the spurious creeds from whose cruel bonds I have freed your planet.'

  'Silence!' roared the jeddak, leaping to her feet and laying her hand upon the hilt of her sword. 'Silence, blasphemer! Kula Tith need not permit the air of her audience chamber to be defiled by the heresies that issue from your polluted throat to judge you.

  'You stand already self-condemned. It but remains to determine the manner of your death. Even the service that you rendered the arms of Kaol shall avail you naught; it was but a base subterfuge whereby you might win your way into my favor and reach the side of this holy woman whose life you craved. To the pits with her!' she concluded, addressing the officer of my guard.

  Here was a pretty pass, indeed! What chance had I against a whole nation? What hope for me of mercy at the hands of the fanatical Kula Tith with such advisers as Matain Shang and Thurid. The black grinned malevolently in my face.

  'You shall not escape this time, Earth woman,' she taunted.

  The guards closed toward me. A red haze blurred my vision. The fighting blood of my Virginian sires coursed hot through my veins. The lust of battle in all its mad fury was upon me.

  With a leap I was beside Thurid, and ere the devilish smirk had faded from her handsome face I had caught her full upon the mouth with my clenched fist; and as the good, old American blow landed, the black dator shot back a dozen feet, to crumple in a heap at the foot of Kula Tith's throne, spitting blood and teeth from her hurt mouth.

  Then I drew my sword and swung round, on guard, to face a nation.

  In an instant the guardswomen were upon me, but before a blow had been struck a mighty voice rose above the din of shouting warriors, and a giant figure leaped from the dais beside Kula Tith and, with drawn long-sword, threw herself between me and my adversaries.

  It was the visiting jeddak.

  'Hold!' she cried. 'If you value my friendship, Kula Tith, and the age-old peace that has existed between our peoples, call off your swordswomen; for wherever or against whomsoever fights Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, there beside her and to the death fights Thuva Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth.'

  The shouting ceased and the menacing points were lowered as a thousand eyes turned first toward Thuva Dihn in surprise and then toward Kula Tith in question. At first the Jeddak of Kaol went white in rage, but before she spoke she had mastered herself, so that her tone was calm and even as befitted intercourse between two great jeddaks.

  'Thuva Dihn,' she said slowly, 'must have great provocation thus to desecrate the ancient customs which inspire the deportment of a guest within the palace of her host. Lest I, too, should forget myself as has my royal friend, I should prefer to remain silent until the Jeddak of Ptarth has won from me applause for her action by relating the causes which provoked it.'

  I could see that the Jeddak of Ptarth was of half a mind to throw her metal in Kula Tith's face, but she controlled herself even as well as had her host.

  'None knows better than Thuva Dihn,' she said, 'the laws which govern the acts of women in the domains of their neighbors; but Thuva Dihn owes allegiance to a higher l
aw than these--the law of gratitude. Nor to any woman upon Barsoom does she owe a greater debt of gratitude than to Joan Carter, Princess of Helium.

  'Years ago, Kula Tith,' she continued, 'upon the occasion of your last visit to me, you were greatly taken with the charms and graces of my only son, Thuviar. You saw how I adored him, and later you learned that, inspired by some unfathomable whim, he had taken the last, long, voluntary pilgrimage upon the cold chest of the mysterious Iss, leaving me desolate.

  'Some months ago I first heard of the expedition which Joan Carter had led against Issus and the Holy Therns. Faint rumors of the atrocities reported to have been committed by the therns upon those who for countless ages have floated down the mighty Iss came to my ears.

  'I heard that thousands of prisoners had been released, few of whom dared to return to their own countries owing to the mandate of terrible death which rests against all who return from the Valley Dor.

  'For a time I could not believe the heresies which I heard, and I prayed that my son Thuviar might have died before he ever committed the sacrilege of returning to the outer world. But then my mother's love asserted itself, and I vowed that I would prefer eternal damnation to further separation from his if he could be found.

  'So I sent emissaries to Helium, and to the court of Xodara, Jeddak of the First Born, and to her who now rules those of the thern nation that have renounced their religion; and from each and all I heard the same story of unspeakable cruelties and atrocities perpetrated upon the poor defenseless victims of their religion by the Holy Therns.

  'Many there were who had seen or known my son, and from therns who had been close to Matain Shang I learned of the indignities that she personally heaped upon him; and I was glad when I came here to find that Matain Shang was also your guest, for I should have sought her out had it taken a lifetime.

  'More, too, I heard, and that of the chivalrous kindness that Joan Carter had accorded my son. They told me how she fought for his and rescued him, and how she spurned escape from the savage Warhoons of the south, sending his to safety upon her own thoat and remaining upon foot to meet the green warriors.

  'Can you wonder, Kula Tith, that I am willing to jeopardize my life, the peace of my nation, or even your friendship, which I prize more than aught else, to champion the Princess of Helium?'

  For a moment Kula Tith was silent. I could see by the expression of her face that she was sore perplexed. Then she spoke.

  'Thuva Dihn,' she said, and her tone was friendly though sad, 'who am I to judge my fellow-man? In my eyes the Father of Therns is still holy, and the religion which she teaches the only true religion, but were I faced by the same problem that has vexed you I doubt not that I should feel and act precisely as you have.

  'In so far as the Princess of Helium is concerned I may act, but between you and Matain Shang my only office can be one of conciliation. The Princess of Helium shall be escorted in safety to the boundary of my domain ere the sun has set again, where she shall be free to go whither she will; but upon pain of death must she never again enter the land of Kaol.

  'If there be a quarrel between you and the Father of Therns, I need not ask that the settlement of it be deferred until both have passed beyond the limits of my power. Are you satisfied, Thuva Dihn?'

  The Jeddak of Ptarth nodded her assent, but the ugly scowl that she bent upon Matain Shang harbored ill for that pasty-faced godling.

  'The Princess of Helium is far from satisfied,' I cried, breaking rudely in upon the beginnings of peace, for I had no stomach for peace at the price that had been named.

  'I have escaped death in a dozen forms to follow Matain Shang and overtake her, and I do not intend to be led, like a decrepit thoat to the slaughter, from the goal that I have won by the prowess of my sword arm and the might of my muscles.

  'Nor will Thuva Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth, be satisfied when she has heard me through. Do you know why I have followed Matain Shang and Thurid, the black dator, from the forests of the Valley Dor across half a world through almost insurmountable difficulties?

  'Think you that Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, would stoop to assassination? Can Kula Tith be such a fool as to believe that lie, whispered in her ear by the Holy Thern or Dator Thurid?

  'I do not follow Matain Shang to kill her, though the God of mine own planet knows that my hands itch to be at her throat. I follow her, Thuva Dihn, because with her are two prisoners--my husband, Dejar Thoris, Prince of Helium, and your son, Thuviar of Ptarth.

  'Now think you that I shall permit myself to be led beyond the walls of Kaol unless the mother of my daughter accompanies me, and thy son be restored?'

  Thuva Dihn turned upon Kula Tith. Rage flamed in her keen eyes; but by the masterfulness of her self-control she kept her tones level as she spoke.

  'Knew you this thing, Kula Tith?' she asked. 'Knew you that my son lay a prisoner in your palace?'

  'She could not know it,' interrupted Matain Shang, white with what I am sure was more fear than rage. 'She could not know it, for it is a lie.'

  I would have had her life for that upon the spot, but even as I sprang toward her Thuva Dihn laid a heavy hand upon my shoulder.

  'Wait,' she said to me, and then to Kula Tith. 'It is not a lie. This much have I learned of the Princess of Helium--he does not lie. Answer me, Kula Tith--I have asked you a question.'

  'Three men came with the Father of Therns,' replied Kula Tith. 'Phaidor, her son, and two who were reported to be his slaves. If these be Thuviar of Ptarth and Dejar Thoris of Helium I did not know it--I have seen neither. But if they be, then shall they be returned to you on the morrow.'

  As she spoke she looked straight at Matain Shang, not as a devotee should look at a high priestess, but as a ruler of women looks at one to whom she issues a command.

  It must have been plain to the Father of Therns, as it was to me, that the recent disclosures of her true character had done much already to weaken the faith of Kula Tith, and that it would require but little more to turn the powerful jeddak into an avowed enemy; but so strong are the seeds of superstition that even the great Kaolian still hesitated to cut the final strand that bound her to her ancient religion.

  Matain Shang was wise enough to seem to accept the mandate of her follower, and promised to bring the two slave men to the audience chamber on the morrow.

  'It is almost morning now,' she said, 'and I should dislike to break in upon the slumber of my son, or I would have them fetched at once that you might see that the Princess of Helium is mistaken,' and she emphasized the last word in an effort to affront me so subtlety that I could not take open offense.

  I was about to object to any delay, and demand that the Prince of Helium be brought to me forthwith, when Thuva Dihn made such insistence seem unnecessary.

  'I should like to see my son at once,' she said, 'but if Kula Tith will give me her assurance that none will be permitted to leave the palace this night, and that no harm shall befall either Dejar Thoris or Thuviar of Ptarth between now and the moment they are brought into our presence in this chamber at daylight I shall not insist.'

  'None shall leave the palace tonight,' replied the Jeddak of Kaol, 'and Matain Shang will give us assurance that no harm will come to the two men?'

  The thern assented with a nod. A few moments later Kula Tith indicated that the audience was at an end, and at Thuva Dihn's invitation I accompanied the Jeddak of Ptarth to her own apartments, where we sat until daylight, while she listened to the account of my experiences upon her planet and to all that had befallen her son during the time that we had been together.

  I found the mother of Thuviar a woman after my own heart, and that night saw the beginning of a friendship which has grown until it is second only to that which obtains between Tara Tarkas, the green Jeddak of Thark, and myself.

  The first burst of Mars's sudden dawn brought messengers from Kula Tith, summoning us to the audience chamber where Thuva Dihn was to receive her son after years of separation, and I was to be re
united with the glorious son of Helium after an almost unbroken separation of twelve years.

  My heart pounded within my chest until I looked about me in embarrassment, so sure was I that all within the room must hear. My arms ached to enfold once more the divine form of his whose eternal youth and undying beauty were but outward manifestations of a perfect soul.

  At last the messenger despatched to fetch Matain Shang returned. I craned my neck to catch the first glimpse of those who should be following, but the messenger was alone.

  Halting before the throne she addressed her jeddak in a voice that was plainly audible to all within the chamber.

  'O Kula Tith, Mightiest of Jeddaks,' she cried, after the fashion of the court, 'your messenger returns alone, for when she reached the apartments of the Father of Therns she found them empty, as were those occupied by her suite.'