ted, willing to be
rendered unconscious, just so it would be near the valuable princess.

A few moments later the captain of the guard surveyed the mass of
paralysed bodies and the sword-slashed corpses, all intermingled.

"What's this all about?" he demanded of a scarred, evil-looking fellow
who was the first to rise to his elbow.

"The Princess Sira! I claim the reward. In there! She stood right
there!"

"Get out, you galoon!" the captain growled, knocking the fellow
unconscious with the heavy barrel of his neuro. "Sort 'em out there.
Moggins, Schkamitch. On the double. You will share, according to
rank."

But eagerly as they searched, they did not find Sira. Creeping between
the legs of the maddened reward seekers, she had fought clear, had
gained the shelter of a tall, red conical tree whose closely laced
branches pressed her to the ground, clinging to the greasy trunk.

* * * * *

She realized that her sanctuary was none too secure. There would
surely be a methodical search after the first excitement, and she
would be discovered. She had lost her sun-helmet, but nevertheless she
must risk making a break. A large proportion of the people were
wearing such helmets. Perhaps she could snatch one.

But before such an opportunity came, she saw a chance to dash to a
nearby clump of shrubbery. On the other side was a long hedge, leading
to an alley back of a group of warehouses. If she could gain this
alley, she felt sure she would be safe for the time being.

All over the park, which was thirty or forty acres in extent, there
were minor riots, as some unfortunate was mistaken for the princess
and blindly struggled for.

Sira lost no time. She scuttered along the hedge like a frightened
kangrat. But as she crossed a small open space, a stentorian voice
shouted:

"There she is! That's her! The princess!"

Out of the corner of her eye she saw him, running toward her
lumberingly, his great arms outspread. Tuman had been wrong in saying
that on all of Mars there was no man as big as Tolto. This one was,
and he looked more formidable. Instead of Tolto's normally
good-natured face, this one looked like an enraged terrestrial
gorilla, although at the moment it was really expressing joy and
eagerness.

Several other men joined the chase, and then scores. They were fleeter
of foot than the ape-man, but as they passed him in the narrow alley
he smashed them to the pavement with casual