“By my first ancestor!” he swore; “but it was simple and I a simpleton.  They tricked me neatly and have taken me without exposing themselves to a scratch; but for what purpose?”

He wished that he might answer that question and then his thoughts turned to the girl waiting there on the hill beyond the city for him—­and he would never come.  He knew the ways of the more savage peoples of Barsoom.  No, he would never come, now.  He had disobeyed her.  He smiled at the sweet recollection of those words of command that had fallen from her dear lips.  He had disobeyed her and now he had lost the reward.

But what of her?  What now would be her fate—­starving before a hostile city with only an inhuman kaldane for company?  Another thought—­a horrid thought—­obtruded itself upon him.  She had told him of the hideous sights she had witnessed in the burrows of the kaldanes and he knew that they ate human flesh.  Ghek was starving.  Should he eat his rykor he would be helpless; but—­there was sustenance there for them both, for the rykor and the kaldane.  Turan cursed himself for a fool.  Why had he left her?  Far better to have remained and died with her, ready always to protect her, than to have left her at the mercy of the hideous Bantoomian.

Now Turan detected a heavy odor in the air.  It oppressed him with a feeling of drowsiness.  He would have risen to fight off the creeping lethargy, but his legs seemed weak, so that he sank again to the bench.  Presently his sword slipped from his fingers and he sprawled forward upon the table his head resting upon his arms.

* * * * *

Tara of Helium, as the night wore on and Turan did not return, became more and more uneasy, and when dawn broke with no sign of him she guessed that he had failed.  Something more than her own unhappy predicament brought a feeling of sorrow to her heart—­of sorrow and loneliness.  She realized now how she had come to depend upon this panthan not only for protection but for companionship as well.  She missed him, and in missing him realized suddenly that he had meant more to her than a mere hired warrior.  It was as though a friend had been taken from her—­an old and valued friend.  She rose from her place of concealment that she might have a better view of the city.

U-Dor, dwar of the 8th Utan of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator, rode back in the early dawn toward Manator from a brief excursion to a neighboring village.  As he was rounding the hills south of the city, his keen eyes were attracted by a slight movement among the shrubbery close to the summit of the nearest hill.  He halted his vicious mount and watched more closely.  He saw a figure rise facing away from him and peer down toward Manator beyond the hill.

“Come!” he signalled to his followers, and with a word to this thoat turned the beast at a rapid gallop up the hillside.  In his wake swept his twenty savage warriors, the padded feet of their mounts soundless upon the soft turf.  It was the rattle of sidearms and harness that brought Tara of Helium suddenly about, facing them.  She saw a score of warriors with couched lances bearing down upon her.