So perhaps it was only the sun that made her brows contract just the tiniest bit at the same instant that she discovered Djor Kantos sitting in earnest conversation with Olvia Marthis, daughter of the Jed of Hastor.  It was Djor Kantos’ duty immediately to pay his respects to Dejah Thoris and Tara of Helium; but he did not do so and presently the daughter of The Warlord frowned indeed.  She looked long at Olvia Marthis, and though she had seen her many times before and knew her well, she looked at her today through new eyes that saw, apparently for the first time, that the girl from Hastor was noticeably beautiful even among those other beautiful women of Helium.  Tara of Helium was disturbed.  She attempted to analyze her emotions; but found it difficult.  Olvia Marthis was her friend—­she was very fond of her and she felt no anger toward her.  Was she angry with Djor Kantos?  No, she finally decided that she was not.  It was merely surprise, then, that she felt—­surprise that Djor Kantos could be more interested in another than in herself.  She was about to cross the garden and join them when she heard her father’s voice directly behind her.

“Tara of Helium!” he called, and she turned to see him approaching with a strange warrior whose harness and metal bore devices with which she was unfamiliar.  Even among the gorgeous trappings of the men of Helium and the visitors from distant empires those of the stranger were remarkable for their barbaric splendor.  The leather of his harness was completely hidden beneath ornaments of platinum thickly set with brilliant diamonds, as were the scabbards of his swords and the ornate holster that held his long, Martian pistol.  Moving through the sunlit garden at the side of the great Warlord, the scintillant rays of his countless gems enveloping him as in an aureole of light imparted to his noble figure a suggestion of godliness.

“Tara of Helium, I bring you Gahan, Jed of Gathol,” said John Carter, after the simple Barsoomian custom of presentation.

“Kaor!  Gahan, Jed of Gathol,” returned Tara of Helium.

“My sword is at your feet, Tara of Helium,” said the young chieftain.

The Warlord left them and the two seated themselves upon an ersite bench beneath a spreading sorapus tree.

“Far Gathol,” mused the girl.  “Ever in my mind has it been connected with mystery and romance and the half-forgotten lore of the ancients.  I cannot think of Gathol as existing today, possibly because I have never before seen a Gatholian.”

“And perhaps too because of the great distance that separates Helium and Gathol, as well as the comparative insignificance of my little free city, which might easily be lost in one corner of mighty Helium,” added Gahan.  “But what we lack in power we make up in pride,” he continued, laughing.  “We believe ours the oldest inhabited city upon Barsoom.  It is one of the few that has retained its freedom, and this despite the fact that its ancient diamond mines are the richest known and, unlike practically all the other fields, are today apparently as inexhaustible as ever.”