shortness of the game.  Nor had it continued long before many there were who would have prophesied that they were witnessing a duel that was to become historic in the annals of jetan at Manator.  Every trick, every subterfuge, known to the art of fence these men employed.  Time and again each scored a point and brought blood to his opponent’s copper hide until both were red with gore; but neither seemed able to administer the coup de grace.

From her position upon the opposite side of the field Tara of Helium watched the long-drawn battle.  Always it seemed to her that the Black Chief fought upon the defensive, or when he assumed to push his opponent, he neglected a thousand openings that her practiced eye beheld.  Never did he seem in real danger, nor never did he appear to exert himself to quite the pitch needful for victory.  The duel already had been long contested and the day was drawing to a close.  Presently the sudden transition from daylight to darkness which, owing to the tenuity of the air upon Barsoom, occurs almost without the warning twilight of Earth, would occur.  Would the fight never end?  Would the game be called a draw after all?  What ailed the Black Chief?

Tara wished that she might answer at least the last of these questions for she was sure that Turan the panthan, as she knew him, while fighting brilliantly, was not giving of himself all that he might.  She could not believe that fear was restraining his hand, but that there was something beside inability to push U-Dor more fiercely she was confident.  What it was, however, she could not guess.

Once she saw Gahan glance quickly up toward the sinking sun.  In thirty minutes it would be dark.  And then she saw and all those others saw a strange transition steal over the swordplay of the Black Chief.  It was as though he had been playing with the great dwar, U-Dor, all these hours, and now he still played with him but there was a difference.  He played with him terribly as a carnivore plays with its victim in the instant before the kill.  The Orange Chief was helpless now in the hands of a swordsman so superior that there could be no comparison, and the people sat in open-mouthed wonder and awe as Gahan of Gathol cut his foe to ribbons and then struck him down with a blow that cleft him to the chin.

In twenty minutes the sun would set.  But what of that?

CHAPTER XVIII

A TASK FOR LOYALTY

Long and loud was the applause that rose above the Field of Jetan at Manator, as The Keeper of the Towers summoned the two Princesses and the victorious Chief to the center of the field and presented to the latter the fruits of his prowess, and then, as custom demanded, the victorious players, headed by Gahan and the two Princesses, formed in procession behind The Keeper of the Towers and were conducted to the place of victory before the royal enclosure that they might receive