“And Ghek?  What became of Ghek?” I insisted.

“After leading Val Dor and Floran to Tara’s disabled flier which they repaired, he accompanied them to Gathol from where a message was sent to me in Helium.  He then led a large party including A-Kor and U-Thor from the roof, where our ships landed them, down a spiral runway into the palace and guided them to the throne room.  We took him back to Helium with us, where he still lives, with his single rykor which we found all but starved to death in the pits of Manator.  But come!  No more questions now.”

I accompanied him to the east arcade where the red dawn was glowing beyond the arches.

“Good-bye!” he said.

“I can scarce believe that it is really you,” I exclaimed.  “Tomorrow I will be sure that I have dreamed all this.”

He laughed and drawing his sword scratched a rude cross upon the concrete of one of the arches.

“If you are in doubt tomorrow,” he said, “come and see if you dreamed this.”

A moment later he was gone.

JETAN, OR MARTIAN CHESS

For those who care for such things, and would like to try the game, I give the rules of Jetan as they were given me by John Carter.  By writing the names and moves of the various pieces on bits of paper and pasting them on ordinary checkermen the game may be played quite as well as with the ornate pieces used upon Mars.

The board:  Square board consisting of one hundred alternate black and orange squares.

The pieces:  In order, as they stand upon the board in the first row, from left to right of each player.

Warrior:  2 feathers; 2 spaces straight in any direction or combination.

Padwar:  2 feathers; 2 spaces diagonal in any direction or combination.

Dwar:  3 feathers; 3 spaces straight in any direction or combination.

Flier:  3 bladed propellor; 3 spaces diagonal in any direction or combination; and may jump intervening pieces.

Chief:  Diadem with ten jewels; 3 spaces in any direction; straight or diagonal or combination.

Princess:  Diadem with one jewel; same as Chief, except may jump intervening pieces.

Flier:  See above.

Dwar:  See above.

Padwar:  See above.

Warrior:  See above.

And in the second row from left to right: 

Thoat:  Mounted warrior 2 feathers; 2 spaces, one straight and one diagonal in any direction.

Panthans:  (8 of them):  1 feather; 1 space, forward, side, or diagonal, but not backward.

Thoat:  See above.

The game is played with twenty black pieces by one player and twenty orange by his opponent, and is presumed to have originally represented a battle between the Black race of the south and the Yellow race of the north.  On Mars the board is usually arranged so that the Black pieces are played from the south and the Orange from the north.