The evening world. Newspaper, February 4, 1916, Page 17

—e. there! The guards!” We were close behind him, and ail saw the figure of a man run quickly across a little piece of sward and disappear in ‘the shrubbery beyond. “He was on the balcony when [ ‘st saw him!” cried Hor Vastus. “Quick, Let us follow him!” Together we ran to the gardens, but even though we scoured the gtounds with the entire guard for hours, no trace could we find of the night marauder. “What do you make of it, Kantos Kan?” asked Tars Tarkas. “A spy sent by Zat Arras,” he re- plied, “It was ever his wa. “He will have something interest- ing to report to his master, then,” laughed Hor Vastus. “[ hope he heard only our refer- ences to @ new Jeddak,” I said. “If fre overheard our plans to rescue De- Jah Thoris it will mean civil war, for he will attempt to thwart us, and in that 1 will not be.thwarted, There would I turn against Tardos Mors bimseif were it necessary. “If it throws -all Helium into @ loody conflict, I shall go on with these plans to save my Princess. Nothing sball stay me now short of death, and should I dic, my friends, will you take oath to prosecute the search for her and bring her back tn safety to her grandfather's court? ‘Upon the hilt of his sword euch of them swore to do asl had asked. It was agreed that the battleships that were to be remodelied should be ordered to Hastor, another Heliumetic city, far to the southwest. Kantos Kan thought that the docks there, in @ddition to their regular work, would ommodate at least six battleships ata time, A: was Commander in Chief of the Na it would be a simple mat- ter for lim to order the vessels there faa they could be handied, and there- after keep the remodelled fleet in re- mote parts of the empire until we should be ready to assemble it for the dash upon Omean, It Jate that night before our conference broke up, but each man there had his particular duties out- lined, and the details of the entire plan ‘had been mapped out. Kantos Kan and Xodar were to at- teud to the remodeling of the ships. Tars Tarkas was to get into commu- nication with Thark and learn the sentiments of his people toward his return from Dor. If favorable, he was to repair im- mediately to Thark and devote his time to the assembling of a great horde of green warriors whom it was our plan to send in transports direct- ly to the Valley Dor and the Temple of Issus, while the fleet entered Omean and destroyed the vessels of the Pirst Born, Upon Hor Vastus devolved the deli- cate mission of organizing a secret force of fighting men sworn to fol- Jow John Carter wherever he might lead. Woe estimated that it would re- agbe over 4 million men to man the theusand great battleships we in- tetafed to use on Omean, and the transports for the green men as weil @s the ships that were to convoy the transports, it Was no trifling job that Hor Vastus had before him After they had left 1 bid Carthoris good night, for | wa: very tired, and going to my own apartments, bathed and lay down upon my sleeping silks and furs for the first good night's sleep L had had an opportunity to look forward to since 1 had returned to Barsoom.. But even now Lt was to be disap- ted. How tong | slept | do not know When T awoke suddenly it was to Bnd a half-dozen powerful men upon nie, & gag already in my mouth and, @ moment jater, my arms and legs securely bound, Bo Gdickly had they ork such gvod purpose, the beyond the power to 1 ‘the time T was fully aw Never a wo ag effectually ing. 1, and to 1 was utterly ist them by As they passed the window through which the farther moon was casting ite brilliant beams, 1 saw that each of the party had his face swathed in layers of silk—-f could not ornize one of them. They led me to © wall at the end of a corridor A second later the wall swung in, and I was pushed within a brilliantly Vighted chamber jn which sat three riehly trapped men. One of them turned toward me with @ somontc smile upon his thin, cruel Mps—it was Zat Arras, CHAPTER XI. Black Despair. 46 H," said Zat Arras, “to what kindly eireum- stance am 1 indebted for the pleasure of this unexpected visit from the Prince of Helium While ‘he was speaking one of my guards had removed the gag from my mouth, but 1 made no reply to Zat Arras; simply standing there in si- Jence with level guze fixed upon the Jed of Zodangn, “John Carter,” be said, “by the edict of custom, by the law of our r ligion and by the verdict of an int- purtiad court, you are condemned to @. The people cannot save yout apay accomplish that, r Rice B “TARZAN OF THE APES,” Etc. ( OROATANIAIAIETS NOAA NING KARUN SSO he i Thoris, i he Said, “that your opinions will be urroughs “You may go free within two min- utes upon one condition. Tardo: Mors will never return to Helium. Neither will Mors Kajak of Dejah Helium must select a new Jeddak within the yeur, } “Zat Arras would be Jeddak of Helium, Say that vou will espouse my cause. This is the price of your freedom, I am done,” “There can be no alliance,” I said, “between a traitor to Helium and a prince of the House of Tardos Mors. I do not believe, Zat Arras, that the great j is dead.” “at Arras shr d his shoulders. ‘It will not be long, John Carter,” of interest even to yourself, so make the best of them while you can.” - Zat Arras clapped his hands as ho ty warer ae, Pet Pel returned, le wav in direction. pe he ead. ‘Tha 8 all Four men accom- panied me from the chamber, and, with a radium hand-tight to illumine fae py intoreenane me through seem- nterminable ¢tunaels, down, ever oh ean the City of Helium. t len, they bal! wi - sized chamber. ‘Tiere wore. rags set in the rocky walls. To them chain: were fastened, and at the ends of many of the chains man sisloton h were hu: 6 of these they kicked aside, and unlocked the huge padlock that had ‘held @ chain about what had once been a human ankle, they snapped . Ri? rien about my own leg, n they left me, ns dea. me, taking the light For months L'sought to devise meth. bed ie inform Carthoris of my where- abouts, For monthg I scraped and scraped upon a singte link of. the massive chain which held me, hoping event- ually to wear it through, that Imight follow the youth back through the winding tunnels to a point where I could make @ break for liberty, A youth named Parti bring me my food. Pbedae t last, with promise of a short sw: and’ harness, to take a letter fo my son, Then Parthak vanished, He came no more, his place. I planned to knock this’ new jailer senseless with my chai i as I heard him draw near, to be asleep. As he reac! ay I sprang up and struck, ,So brief was the interval the opening of my eyes ana ona’se? of the chain that T could not check it Yet in that second I recognized the face so close to my son—Carthorigi, Une a# that of At the shock J fai regained my senses. real caning over me was C; great bruise upon his forehead Geert the chain had struck him, but alive thank heaven! alive. There was no one with him. Reaching out my arms I etwnt boy within them, came o ike. you here at’ all?” 1 “It was by your wit in appri me of your existence and imprison ment through the youth Parthak, Un- til he came for his harness and his sword we had thought you dead, When I had read your note [ did as you had bid, giving Parthak his cholce of the harness in the guard- room, and later bringing the jewelled shortaword to him, The minute that 1 had fulfilled the promise you evi- dently had made him my obligation ceased. Then I commenced to ques. tion him, but he would give me no information gs to your whereabout: He was intensely loyal to Zat Arras. “Mnally L gave him a fair ghotce between freedom and the pits beneath the palace—the price of freedom to be full information as to where you were imprisoned and directions which would lead us to you—but still he main- tained his stubborn partizanship. De- spairing, I had him removed to the pits, where he still is, There, a spy got the truth from him, “And hege Lam, just in timo to be neatly killed by you,” he ended, laughing, As he talked Carthoris had been working at the lock which held my fetters, and now with an exclama- tion of pleasure he, dropped the end of the chain to the floor, and I stood up once more freed from the galling trons in which 1 had chafed for al- most a yeur, He had brought a long-sword « a dagger for me, and, thus armed, w set out upon the return journey to my palace, Some half-hour later we came to the pity beneath our own palace, and soon, thereafter emerged into the audience chamber itself, where w found Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Hor Vastus and Xodar awaiting us most impatiently, No time was lost in fruitless re- counting of my imprisonment, What I desired to knew was, how well the pling we had Intd nearly a year ago n carried out? 8 taken much longer than we expected,” replied Kantos Kan, fact that we were cmpelled to maintain utter seerecy has handi- ed us terribly, Zat Arras’ spies Yet, to the best of no word of our real pling has reached the villain's ear, “To-night there lies bout the Breat docks at Hastor fleet of a thousand of the mightiest battl ships that ever safled above Bar- soom, und each equipped to navigate r to Omean, and the wa sof an itself’, Upon each — battle- hip there are five ten-man cruisers, and ten five-r scouts, and a hun- dred one-man seouts; in all, one T bribed him at Another jailer took retended d my side Slowly 1 hundred and sixteen thousand craft water pro- titted with both aly and Thark le warrior ‘a dred large troop-ships, with them their convoys, Seven days @go all wae in readiness, but we waited in the hope that by so doing Your rescue might be encompassed in time for you to command the expedi- tion, 1 is wel! we waited, my princ "All they ask is the loot they taki and transportation to their own terri- torles when the fighting and the loot- ing are over. Lat do “And thou, Hor Vastus, what has been thy success?” nine hu T asked, "Am veteran fighting men from Helium's thin waterways man the battleships, the transports, and the convoys,” he replied. . "Bach is sworn to loyalty and secrecy, nor were enough recruited from @ single district to cause suspicion, "Good!" I cried “Hach has done woe owe The Evening | — + Leads ~ 4 World Dail CURTAINS OPEN = CLOSED his duty, and new, Kantos Kan, may we not repair at once to Hastor and way before tomorrow's A fusillade of shots from the palace gardens just without cut short his further words, ‘Together we rushed to the balcony in time to see a dozen members of my palace guard disappear in the shadows of some distant shrubbery as in pursuit of one who fled. Directly beneath us upon the scariet sward a handful of guardsmen were stooping above a still and prostrate form, While we watched they lifted the figure in their arms, and at my com- mand bore it into the audience cham- ber where we had been in council. When they stretched the body at our feet we saw that it was that of a red man in the prime of life—his metal was plain, such as common soldiers wear, or those who have a motive to conceal their identity, “Another of Zat Arras's spies," said Hor Vastus. “So it would seem,” I replied, and then to the guard: “You may re- move the body.” “Walt!” said Xodar. “If you will, prince, ask that @ cloth and a little thoat oil be brought.” I nodded to one of the soldiers, who left the chamber, returning presently with the things that Xodar had r:- quested. The black knelt beside the body, and, dipping a corner of the cloth in the thoat oil, rubbed for a moment on the dead face before hint Then he turned to me with a smile, pointing: to his work. L looked and saw that where Xodar had applica the thoat-oll the face was whit white as mine—and then Xodar setaed the black hair of the corpse and with # sudden Wrench tore it all away, re- vealing a hai ‘8 pate beneath, Guards:nen and nobles pressed close about the silent witness upon the marble floor, Many were the ex- clamations of astonishment and ques- tioning wonder 4% Xodar’s acts con- firmed the suspicion he had held ail the time, A th " whispered Tars Tarkas, "Worse than that, 1 fear,” replied Xodar, “But let us se With that he drew his da cut open a locked pouch which had dangled from the thern's harness, and from it he brought forth a circlet of gold set with a large gem—Iit was the mate to that which | had taken from Bator Throg ‘He was a Fortuna did not eseu The ofticer of the guard entered the rand oly thern,” said Xodar, vd, it is for us that he chamber at this juncture “My he said, “I have to report that this fellow’s companion escaped us, the connivance men at the them all under Xodar handed } cloth, “With this you im, spy ainong you,” he said, I at once ordered a secret search within the elty, for every Martian noble muintuins a secret service of his own A half hour later the officer of the guard came to the chamber again to report, ‘Dhia time It was to confirm our Worst fears—nhulf the guards at the gate that night had been therns disguised as red me "Come!" 1 evied vust lose no On to Hasto: ce! Should the therns attempt to check us at the southern verge of the ice cap it may I think that it was with of one or more of the nave ordered neat oj] and discover the otal destruction of the ex- pedition. Ten minutes later we were speed- ing through the night toward Hastor, prepared to strike the first blow for the preservation of Dejah Thoris, CHAPTER XII. The Air Battle. WO hours after leaving my palace in Helium, or about midnight, Kantos Kan, Xo- dar and | arrived at Hastor. Carthoris, Tars Tarkas and Hor Vastus had gone directly to Thark upon another cruiser, The transports were to get under way immediately and move slow south, Me fleet of battleships would vertake them on the morning of the wecond day, At Hastor we found all in readi- ness, and so perfectly had Kantos Kan planned every detail of the cam- paign that within ten minutes of our arrival the first of the fleet had soared aloft from its dock; and thereafter, at the rate of one a second, tho great ships floated gracefully out into the night to form @ long, thin line whieh stretched for miles toward the south. It was not until after we had en- tered the cabin of Kantos Kan that L thought to ask the date, for up to now [ was not positive how long I had Jain in the pits of Zat Arras. When Kantos Kan told me, | real- ized with @ pang of divmay that I had misreckoned the time while I day in the utter darkness of my cell. Three hundred and sixty-five days had ssed—it was too late to save Dejah horis, ‘The expedition was no longer one of rescue, but of revenge. I did not re- mind Kantos Kan of the terrible fact that ere we could hope to enter t Temple of Issus the Princess of He- lium would be no more. In so far as f knew, she might be already dead, for T did not know the exact date on which she tirst viewed Issus What now the value of burdening iy friends with my added personal sorrows? They lad shared quite enough of them with me in the past Hereafter 1 would keep my grief to myself, and so 1 suid nothing to any other of the fact that we were too ate, The expedition could if it could but teach the people of Barsoom the facts of the cruel de jon that had been worked upon do much n for countless ages, and thus ave thousands each year from the horrid fate that ted them at the conclusion of the age, If it could open to the red men the falr Valley Dor, tt would have ac- complished much, and in the Land of Lost Souls, between the Mountains of Ota and the ice barrier, were many broad acres that needed no irrigation to bear rich harve Here at the bottom of a dying world was the only naturally produe- tive area upon its surface. Here alone the dews and rains—nere alone was an open sea~-here was water in plenty; and all this was but the stamping ground of fierce brutes, and from its beauteous and fertile expanse the wicked remnants of two onee mighty races red all the other millions of Barsoom. voluntary pilgrim. result in the wrecking of all our plana Gawd 4 but muccssd ia ence basal SHADES . UP — DOWN PEACOCK FEATHERS LOWERED = RAISED \ WHY NoT WEAI HAIR DRESS WITH Low CUT DECOLLETE ing down the barrier of religious su- peratition which had be no peace for us while our fleet re- kept the red mains near Dor, and our chances of ling boarders from one of the thern y" Magazine, Friday®’February 4, 1916 and when he isn't sure whether That ie one of the several queer HEA By Eleanor duel of hearts, in next Monday's Evening World ly handed to my companion. the thing and handed tt to me Kantor Kan Surrender in the name of Jeddak of Helium, for you cannc escape LAN ARRAS. The therny must have caught @ translated the message alinost os soon as did we, for they immediately renewed hostilities when they real- ined that we were soon to be set upon by other enemies. Before Zat Arras had approached near enough to fire a shot we were ayain hotly engaged with the tern fleet, and a# soon as he drew near he too commenced to pour a terrific fu- sillade of heavy shot into us, Ship after ship reeled and staggered into uselessness beneath the pitiless fire that we were undergoing. The thing could not last much longer, [ ordered the transports to descend again into the gardens of the therns. He read the eo green be none k your vengeance te as my message to t by night there will left to avenge your wrongs.” Presentiy I saw the ten battleships that had to hold the shaft of Omean, They were return- ing at full speed, firing their stern batteries almost continuously. There could be but one explanation, They were being puraned by another hosfile f Weil, the situation could be no wors was doomed. No man that had embarked upon tt would return ross that dreary, ice cap, How I wished that L might face Zat Arras with my long-sword, for Past an instant before L died! Tt was ne who had caused our failure, ‘As T watched the oncoming ten I saw their pursuers race swiftly into sight 1c was another great fleet: for a mo- ment T could not belleve my ‘put finally [ was forced to that the most fatal calamity bad overtaken the expedition, for thi fleet | saw was none other than the fleot of the First Born that should have been so safely bottled up in Omean. What a series of misfortunes and disasters! What awful fate hovered over me tt L should have been so terribly thwarted at every angte of my h for my lost love! Could It be possible that the curse of Lavus was upon met That there was in- deed some malign divinity in that hideous carcass! I would not believe It, and throw- ing back my shoplders T ran to the leck below to join my men in repel~ The expagition al ready races from thiv El Dorado, {t would ever returning to the outer world will craft that ‘had grappled us broad- be a fitting memorial tg the immor- tal virtues of my princess—I should have again served Dejah Thoris's martyrdom would not aides. be greatly minimized.” Kantos Kan saluted and turned to hand combat my old hopefutness re- Barsoom, and deliver my Instructions to his waitin: In an incredibly have been in vain, of time the formation of the battle- alm aide. In the wild lust of hand-to- tur And as thern after thern went down beneath my blade I could t feel that we should win suc- On the morning of the second day Siips changed in accordance with my ces4 in the end even from apparent we raised the great fleet of transports commands, the ten that were to guard failure, aud their conyorts at the first flood the way to exchange signals, 1 may mention aerograms are seldom if ever used in war time, or for the transmission of ret despatches at any time; for as often as one nation discovers a new cipher, or invents a new instrument for wireless purposes, its neighbors the lane. air like os emy W to intercept and translate the mes- Teach sages, For vo long a time has this gone on that practically every possiblity of wireless communication had been exhausted, and no nation dares transmit despatches of importance in thia way. ay was ac nar SKY ndidly ‘Yars Tarkas reportéd all well with their way entirely thern battle ed through to take an advanced opened up, and a broad lane appeared combined fleets through which the rd the ich could now be sunlight Iby the time the the transports. Tha battleships of position, and the moved slowly over the loe-cap, hug- tow ging the surface closely to prevent w detection by the therns whose land th we were approaching. Far in advance of at! a thin line of surprise, and on either side they flunked us, while a smaller number brought up: the rear some twenty others | miles behind the transports tr In this) formation we had pro- cann gressed toward the Omean for several hours of our seouts returned from th through front of the entrance was in sight. Atval- Ty din of most the same Instant another scout yurdens of from the left flank came racing to- two lines ward the Mag-ship. Reine His very speed bespoke the import- 1706 UN ance of his information, Kantos Kan {he enemy nd Lawalted him upon the little for- U8 Snes ck which corresponds with the warfare of earthly battleships, Scarce his tiny flyer come to rest upon ad landin ck of the tay hip ore he was bounding up the stair way to the deck where we stood ‘A great fleet of battleships south southeast, my prince!" he cried. ‘There must be several tl nds of *° uw ncdside them, and they are bearing down dix jivered as en rectly Upon Us. with the ‘The thern spies were not in the jatter att palace of John ter for nothing,” Wy the form ud Kantos Kan to me, “Your or- ping & bus From my the cntrance to Omean, with orders to let ho hostile vessel enter or leave the shatt, ‘That will bottle up the great fleet of the First Born Porm the balance of the battleships > great V, With the apex po in direct south-southeast Order the transp surrounded by their convoys, to follow closely in the wake | of the battleships until the int of ¢ the V has entered the enemy's i then the V must open outward at the pad) pex, the battlesnips of each leg en- age the enemy ftlerce him back to form a line into which tt their convoys, ship of oeuy ‘actica and drive to jet us ust race at top speed ly had we that they may gain a position above more in the the temples and gardens of the therna& to Omean “Here let them land, and teach the north, a & holy therns su on in ferocious horizon 1 warfare @ y will not forget for than a fle countless 1 It had not been my — Whose intention to listratted from the not even conjec main issue of the campaign, but we cone close en must settle (his, atta > Omean were speeding to- pf dawn, BO vere ward theif destination, and the troop- of dawnaand soon were near ¢nOUgh Dee ond convoys were closing up upon the fuckless whites with such here that radio. iM preparation for the spurt through ferocity that within 4 few moments The order full speed given, the fleet sprang thr rsing greyhounds, another moment the ships of the en- the long leap fre formed vessel in token of surrender and de~ rould feat tn full view end ev by are able # Fagged line as far ax the eye bend every effort until they are abl rane three ships deep. So sudden was our they had no time to 8 Unexpected 4s lightning from nd about nslaught that place on the spare {01 It seemed to have given him an r| ently the worked tin) broke from every point of the Nae flagship ery phase through the transports ‘leaped therns, Ur e n glistening in ns had rallied (he “feets from the attack a hundred thousand \sraygia was strung aloft upon the one-man air-scouts protected us from green warriors Were alveady pouring fiagehip. gardens, thousand low-swinging ports to direct their almost un= *°) marksmanship upon the thern ramparts their while a hundred and fifty entrance to soldiery that when one or attempted to ¢ Now the two gr at fleets closed in Zodan to report that the conelike summit 4 titanic struggle t ‘ gorgeous 4 the ¢ ir ircling within the line of od AAaVal the three enormous fleets. It wi Barsoomian Kan- formed this ume high speed, so presented a dificult target lor the enemy broadside they Line | Hi ships of The broadside after bre mpted to rush in and break wer jon, but it was like stop. waw’ with the ba position on the « n ten battleships to guard wide Kantos after the enemy awful, sickening dive total destruction our sPric t ovder » embark ) a position . circle } dn the mean fire ing, cu y had had eis glad nough of us, and Ww way in peace through nis Bat our es transports, With compassed With trance the at Whether with the ql Kantos Kan's operator yecelved @ my deiuand or facing me with drawn fesag voce and for all, or there will yadlo-sprogram which he !mmediate- sword, My presence among the men so greatly inspirited them that they fell we had turned the tables upon them, was and @ second later, as we swarmed ugh the thelr own decks, I had the satiefac- nd in tion of seeing their commander take the bows of his Then I Joined Kantos Kan, He had been watehing what had taken deck below, and it thought, tmimediately he passed an order to one of his officers, and pres- olocs of the Prince of Hel- ° A great cheer arose from the men of our own ship, a cheer that was taken up by every other veawel of edition as they in turn broke my colors f their upper works Foren Kantoy Kan sprang his coup. ‘A aignal legible to every sailor of all engaged in that fipr “Men of Helium for the Prince of Helium against all his enemies,” it read sently my colors broke from one at Arras’s ships, Then from an- other and another, On some we could fierce battles waging between the y xoldiery and the Hellumetic but eventually the colors Prince of Helium flo above ry ship that had followed “at upon our trail-only his flag crew L Arras Com ghip few them not t Ar had brought five thou sand shipss ky was black with 3 » fleld now, and the fight had settled to countless individ- ual due could be litte or no manoeuvring of fleets in that waded, tlre-split sky Zat Arras's flag-ship was close to my/own, T could see the thin fea tufes of the man from where I stood Jangan craw pouring us Helium against t returning wi qual ferocity. Grapplers and boar ers lined the contiguous rails of eac We were preparing for the death gle with our hated enemy as but a yard between the its two mighty ships as the first grap- pling irons were hurled, [ rushed to we the deck to be with my men ay they as th t ght a hrough the Ii spring to the ras's ship. After me poured a yell of Heliu hing coul ver of battle lust vessels came tt which @ them. Town went 4 before that surging und as my rn ured the lower decks [ sprang to the forward deck, where rnd Zat Arras You are my prisoner, Zat Arras | cried. “Yield and you shall have fa Guarter c n ment T could not tell ontemplated acceding to For an mstant he stood heal- asia tantric When Two Women Love the Same Man What Is He to Do? A MAN’S Week's Complete Novel in The Evening W ld This is an up to date New York story and tells of « strange | Don't forget to look for the first instalment he loves either or both of them, problems confromting the hero of RTH M. Ingram A MAN'S HEARTH” i they throwing down bit ned and rushed to the op posite side of the deek. Before | could overtake him be had sprung to the rail and hurled himself headfore- most into the awful deptha below. Thus went Zat Arras, jed of Zo- danga, to his end. On and on went that strange batile. The therns and blacks had not ¢om- bined against us. Wherever thern ship met ship of the First Borw was a“ Wattle royal, and in this T thought 1 tr our salvation, Wherever me: sales could be passed between us that could not be intercepted by our ene- mies | passed the word oy all our veuselas were to withdraw Trom the fight as rapidly as possible, taking « Position to the west and south of the combatants. | also sent an atr-seout to the fighting green men in the gar. dens below to re-embark, and to the transports to jolt us, My commanders were further in- structed when engaged with an enemy to draw him as rapidly as pos sible toward a ship of his hereditary foemen, and by careful manoeuvring to force the two to engage, thus leav~ ing himself free to withdraw, Thia stratagem worked to perfec- tion, and just before the sun went down I had the satisfaction of seeing all that was left of my once mighty fleet gathered nearly twenty miles southwest of the still terrific battle between the blacks and whites. . | now transferred Xodar to another battleship and sent him with all the transports and five thousand battle- ships directly overhead to the Templo of Tssus, Carthoris and I, with Kantos Kan, took the remaining ships and headed for the entrance to Omean Our plan now was to attempt to make a combined assault upon Ts at dawn of the following day. Tars Tark: with his green war- riors, and Hor Vastus, with the red men, guided by Xodar, were to land within the gardens of Issus or the surrounding plains; while Carthorls, Kantos Kan and I were to lead our smaller force from the sea of Omean through the pits beneath the temple, which Carthoris knew so well. L now learned for the first time the cause of my ten ships’ retreat the mouth of the shaft. [kt seemed that when they bad come upon the shaft the navy of the First Born wore already issuing from its mouth. Fully twenty vessels had emerged, and though they gave battle immedi. ately tn an effort to stem the tide that rolled from the black pit, the odds against them were too great and they were forced to flee. With great caution we approached the shaft under cover of darkness. At a distance of several miles I caused the fleet to be halted and from there Carthoris went ahead alone upon & one-man flyer to reconnoitré. In perbaps half an hour he returned to report that there was no sign of # patrol boat or of the enemy in any form, and 80 we moved swiftly and nolselessly forward once more bet i Omean, At the mouth of the shaft we stopped again for a moment for all the vessels to reach their previously appointed stations, then with the flag- ship | dropped quickly into the black apths, while one by one the other sels followed me in quick ast! cession. For the safety of our entrance upon Omean we depended largely upon the very boldness of it, bellev- ing that it would be some little time before the First Born on guard there would realize that It was an enemy and not their own returning fleet that was entering the vault of the buried ‘And such proved to be the cage, fact, four hundred of my fleet ot fit hundred rested safely upon bosom of Omean before a shot was red. ‘ ‘The battle was short and hot, but there could have been but one out- co for the First Born in the care- lessness of fancied security had left but a handful of ancient and obsolete hulks to guard their mighty harbor, ‘One of the first steps | took was to hasten personally with a good-sized force to the island of the submarines which I took without resistance ou th fthe small guard there, 1 found the submarine in its pool. ind at once placed a strong guard and, where I re coming of Car- Upon it and. the mained to wait tt thoris and the Among the prisoners was Yersted, submarine He commander of the recognized me from the three trips that 1 had taken with him during my captivity among the First Born es it seer,” € asked him, the ta s turned To be your erstwhile eap- led a very grim smile, preg> nant with hidden meaning It will not be for lon hn Cal lied, "We hav and We are p uld appea 2 pared 1 answered, he z- ing y >it w ter pec “tor you were all y to become my prisoners W a blow struck on either side. “The fh ust have missed you” he said, “but it will return to Omean, n that will be a Very different for J Carter not know that the fleet has me as yet,” | said, but of nurse d not grasp my meaning, and only ed puazled “Many prisoners 1 to Issus in your grim craft, Yersted?’ IT asked Very many,” he assented. Might you remember one whom men calied Dejah ‘Thoris? w ideed, for her ereat beauty, and for the fact that she wa first mortal that ever esca mi Issus through all the coun ages 0 godhood, And they that [ssus remembers her best ne wife of one and the mother of another who raised their hands against the goddess of Life Eternal (Te Be Continued.) onal | |