iscounted even far greater physical prowess than
her own, and a method of attack that might have been at once the envy
and despair of the cleverest of warriors. And so it was that her
thoughts turned to Turan the panthan, though not alone because of the
protection he might afford her. She had realized, since he had left her
in search of food, that there had grown between them a certain
comradeship that she now missed. There had been that about him which
seemed to have bridged the gulf between their stations in life. With
him she had failed to consider that he was a panthan or that she was a
princess--they had been comrades. Suddenly she realized that she missed
him for himself more than for his sword. She turned toward O-Tar.

"Where is Turan, my warrior?" she demanded.

"You shall not lack for warriors," replied the jeddak. "One of your
beauty will find plenty ready to fight for her. Possibly it shall not
be necessary to look farther than the jeddak of Manator. You please me,
woman. What say you to such an honor?"

Through narrowed lids the Princess of Helium scrutinized the Jeddak of
Manator, from feathered headdress to sandaled foot and back to
feathered headdress.

"'Honor'!" she mimicked in tones of scorn. "I please thee, do I? Then
know, swine, that thou pleaseth me not--that the daughter of John
Carter is not for such as thou!"

A sudden, tense silence fell upon the assembled chiefs. Slowly the
blood receded from the sinister face of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator,
leaving him a sickly purple in his wrath. His eyes narrowed to two thin
slits, his lips were compressed to a bloodless line of malevolence. For
a long moment there was no sound in the throne room of the palace at
Manator. Then the jeddak turned toward U-Dor.

"Take her away," he said in a level voice that belied his appearance of
rage. "Take her away, and at the next games let the prisoners and the
common warriors play at Jetan for her."

"And this?" asked U-Dor, pointing at Ghek.

"To the pits until the next games," replied O-Tar.

"So this is your vaunted justice!" cried Tara of Helium; "that two
strangers who have not wronged you shall be sentenced without trial?
And one of them is a woman. The swine of Manator are as just as they
are brave."

"Away with her!" shouted O-Tar, and at a sign from U-Dor the guards
formed about the two prisoners and conducted them from the chamber.

Outside the palace, Ghek and Tara of Helium were separated. The g