, unless you can get word to her that I still live and that
there is yet hope," replied Gahan.

"I cannot get word to her," said I-Gos. "The quarters of his women
O-Tar guards with jealous hand. Here are his most trusted slaves and
warriors, yet even so, thick among them are countless spies, so that no
man knows which be which. No shadow falls within those chambers that is
not marked by a hundred eyes."

Gahan stood gazing at the lighted windows of the high tower in the
upper chambers of which Tara of Helium was confined. "I will find a
way, I-Gos," he said.

"There is no way," replied the old man.

For some time they stood upon the roof beneath the brilliant stars and
hurtling moons of dying Mars, laying their plans against the time that
Tara of Helium should be brought from the high tower to the throne room
of O-Tar. It was then, and then alone, argued I-Gos, that any hope of
rescuing her might be entertained. Just how far he might trust the
other Gahan did not know, and so he kept to himself the knowledge of
the plan that he had forwarded to Floran and Val Dor by Ghek, but he
assured the ancient taxidermist that if he were sincere in his
oft-repeated declaration that O-Tar should be denounced and superseded
he would have his opportunity on the night that the jeddak sought to
wed the Heliumetic princess.

"Your time shall come then, I-Gos," Gahan assured the other, "and if
you have any party that thinks as you do, prepare them for the
eventuality that will succeed O-Tar's presumptuous attempt to wed the
daughter of The Warlord. Where shall I see you again, and when? I go
now to speak with Tara, Princess of Helium."

"I like your boldness," said I-Gos; "but it will avail you naught. You
will not speak with Tara, Princess of Helium, though doubtless the
blood of many Manatorians will drench the floors of the women's
quarters before you are slain."

Gahan smiled. "I shall not be slain. Where and when shall we meet? But
you may find me in O-Mai's chamber at night. That seems the safest
retreat in all Manator for an enemy of the jeddak in whose palace it
lies. I go!"

"And may the spirits of your ancestors surround you," said I-Gos.

After the old man had left him Gahan made his way across the roof to
the high tower, which appeared to have been constructed of concrete and
afterward elaborately carved, its entire surface being covered with
intricate designs cut deep into the stone-like material of which it was
c