ight
hand; Tario, releasing her, staggered back, both hands pressed to
his side. At the same instant the room filled with bowmen, and
then the jeddak of Lothar sank senseless to the marble floor.

At the instant that he lost consciousness the bowmen were about to
release their arrows into Thuvia's heart. Involuntarily she gave
a single cry for help, though she knew that not even Carthoris of
Helium could save her now.

Then she closed her eyes and waited for the end. No slender shafts
pierced her tender side. She raised her lids to see what stayed
the hand of her executioners.

The room was empty save for herself and the still form of the jeddak
of Lothar lying at her feet, a little pool of crimson staining the
white marble of the floor beside him. Tario was unconscious.

Thuvia was amazed. Where were the bowmen? Why had they not loosed
their shafts? What could it all mean?

An instant before the room had been mysteriously filled with
armed men, evidently called to protect their jeddak; yet now, with
the evidence of her deed plain before them, they had vanished as
mysteriously as they had come, leaving her alone with the body of
their ruler, into whose side she had slipped her long, keen blade.

The girl glanced apprehensively about, first for signs of the return
of the bowmen, and then for some means of escape.

The wall behind the dais was pierced by two small doorways, hidden
by heavy hangings. Thuvia was running quickly towards one of
these when she heard the clank of a warrior's metal at the end of
the apartment behind her.

Ah, if she had but an instant more of time she could have reached
that screening arras and, perchance, have found some avenue of
escape behind it; but now it was too late--she had been discovered!

With a feeling that was akin to apathy she turned to meet her fate,
and there, before her, running swiftly across the broad chamber to
her side, was Carthoris, his naked long-sword gleaming in his hand.

For days she had doubted his intentions of the Heliumite. She
had thought him a party to her abduction. Since Fate had thrown
them together she had scarce favoured him with more than the most
perfunctory replies to his remarks, unless at such times as the
weird and uncanny happenings at Lothar had surprised her out of
her reserve.

She knew that Carthoris of Helium would fight for her; but whether
to save her for himself or another, she was in doubt.

He knew that she was p