But solan's last loud cry had not been without effect, for amoment later a dozen guardsmen burst into the chamber, though notbefore I had so bent and demolished the great switch that it couldnot be again used to turn the powerful current into the mightymagnet of destruction it controlled.

The result of the sudden coming of the guardsmen had been to compelme to seek seclusion in the first passageway that I could find,and that to my disappointment proved to be not the one with whichI was familiar, but another upon its left.

They must have either heard or guessed which way I went, for I hadproceeded but a short distance when I heard the sound of pursuit.I had no mind to stop and fight these men here when there wasfighting aplenty elsewhere in the city of Kadabra--fightingthat could be of much more avail to me and mine than uselesslife-taking far below the palace.

But the fellows were pressing me; and as I did not know the wayat all, I soon saw that they would overtake me unless I found aplace to conceal myself until they had passed, which would then giveme an opportunity to return the way I had come and regain the tower,or possibly find a way to reach the city streets.

The passageway had risen rapidly since leaving the apartmentof the switch, and now ran level and well lighted straight into thedistance as far as I could see. The moment that my pursuersreached this straight stretch I would be in plain sight of them,with no chance to escape from the corridor undetected.

Presently I saw a series of doors opening from either side ofthe corridor, and as they all looked alike to me I tried the firstone that I reached. It opened into a small chamber, luxuriouslyfurnished, and was evidently an ante-chamber off some office oraudience chamber of the palace.

On the far side was a heavily curtained doorway beyond whichI heard the hum of voices. Instantly I crossed the small chamber,and, parting the curtains, looked within the larger apartment.

Before me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad noblesof the court, standing before a throne upon which sat Salensus Oll.The Jeddak of Jeddaks was addressing them.

"The allotted hour has come," he was saying as I entered the apartment;"and though the enemies of Okar be within her gates, naught may stay thewill of Salensus Oll. The great ceremony must be omitted that no singleman may be kept from his place in the defenses other than the fifty thatcustom demands shall witness the creation of a new queen in Okar.

"In a moment the thing shall have been done and we may returnto the battle, while she who is now the Princess of Helium looksdown from the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her formercountrymen and witnesses the greatness which is her husband's."

Then, turning to a courtier, he issued some command in a low voice.

The addressed hastened to a small door at the far end of thechamber and, swinging it wide, cried: "Way for Dejah Thoris,future Queen of Okar!"

Immediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bridetoward the altar. Her hands were still manacled behind her,evidently to prevent suicide.

Her disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that, chained thoughshe was, still had she fought against the thing that they would do to her.

At sight of her Salensus Oll rose and drew his sword, and the swordof each of the fifty nobles was raised on high to form an arch,beneath which the poor, beautiful creature was dragged toward her doom.

A grim smile forced itself to my lips as I thought of the rudeawakening that lay in store for the ruler of Okar, and my itchingfingers fondled the hilt of my bloody sword.

As I watched the procession that moved slowly toward the throne--a procession which consisted of but a handful of priests,who followed Dejah Thoris and the two guardsmen--I caught afleeting glimpse of a black face peering from behind thedraperies that covered the wall back of the dais upon whichstood Salensus Oll awaiting his bride.

Now the guardsmen were forcing the Princess of Helium up thefew steps to the side of the tyrant of Okar, and I had no eyesand no thoughts for aught else. A priest opened a book and,raising his hand, commenced to drone out a sing-song ritual.Salensus Oll reached for the hand of his bride.

I had intended waiting until some circumstance should give mea reasonable hope of success; for, even though the entire ceremonyshould be completed, there could be no valid marriage while I lived.What I was most concerned in, of course, was the rescuing ofDejah Thoris--I wished to take her from the palace of Salensus Oll,if such a thing were possible; but whether it were accomplishedbefore or after the mock marriage was a matter of secondary import.

When, however, I saw the vile hand of Salensus Oll reach out forthe hand of my beloved princess I could restrain myself no longer,and before the nobles of Okar knew that aught had happened I hadleaped through their thin line and was upon the dais besideDejah Thoris and Salensus Oll.

With the flat of my sword I struck down his polluting hand;and grasping Dejah Thoris round the waist, I swung her behindme as, with my back against the draperies of the dais, I facedthe tyrant of the north and his roomful of noble warriors.

The Jeddak of Jeddaks was a great mountain of a man--a coarse,brutal beast of a man--and as he towered above me there, his fierceblack whiskers and mustache bristling in rage, I can well imaginethat a less seasoned warrior might have trembled before him.

With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whetherSalensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned;for with Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I wasa superman, and no man could have withstood me then.

With a single, low: "For the Princess of Helium!" I ran myblade straight through the rotten heart of Okar's rotten ruler,and before the white, drawn faces of his nobles Salensus Oll rolled,grinning in horrible death, to the foot of the steps below hismarriage throne.

For a moment tense silence reigned in the nuptial-room. Then thefifty nobles rushed upon me. Furiously we fought, but theadvantage was mine, for I stood upon a raised platform above them,and I fought for the most glorious woman of a glorious race,and I fought for a great love and for the mother of my boy.

And from behind my shoulder, in the silvery cadence of thatdear voice, rose the brave battle anthem of Helium which thenation's women sing as their men march out to victory.

That alone was enough to inspire me to victory over evengreater odds, and I verily believe that I should have bested theentire roomful of yellow warriors that day in the nuptial chamberof the palace at Kadabra had not interruption come to my aid.

Fast and furious was the fighting as the nobles of Salensus Oll sprang,time and again, up the steps before the throne only to fall back beforea sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry from itsexperience with the cunning Solan.

Two were pressing me so closely that I could not turn when I hearda movement behind me, and noted that the sound of the battleanthem had ceased. Was Dejah Thoris preparing to take her placebeside me?

Heroic daughter of a heroic world! It would not be unlike herto have seized a sword and fought at my side, for, though the womenof Mars are not trained in the arts of war, the spirit is theirs,and they have been known to do that very thing upon countless occasions.

But she did not come, and glad I was, for it would have doubledmy burden in protecting her before I should have been able toforce her back again out of harm's way. She must be contemplatingsome cunning strategy, I thought, and so I fought on secure in thebelief that my divine princess stood close behind me.

For half an hour at least I must have fought there against thenobles of Okar ere ever a one placed a foot upon the dais whereI stood, and then of a sudden all that remained of them formed belowme for a last, mad, desperate charge; but even as they advanced thedoor at the far end of the chamber swung wide and a wild-eyedmessenger sprang into the room.

"The Jeddak of Jeddaks!" he cried. "Where is the Jeddak of Jeddaks?The city has fallen before the hordes from beyond the barrier, and butnow the great gate of the palace itself has been forced and thewarriors of the south are pouring into its sacred precincts.

"Where is Salensus Oll? He alone may revive the flagging courageof our warriors. He alone may save the day for Okar. Where isSalensus Oll?"

The nobles stepped back from about the dead body of their ruler,and one of them pointed to the grinning corpse.

The messenger staggered back in horror as though from a blow in the face.

"Then fly, nobles of Okar!" he cried, "for naught can save you. Hark!They come!"

As he spoke we heard the deep roar of angry men from thecorridor without, and the clank of metal and the clang of swords.

Without another glance toward me, who had stood a spectator ofthe tragic scene, the nobles wheeled and fled from the apartmentthrough another exit.

Almost immediately a force of yellow warriors appeared in thedoorway through which the messenger had come. They were backingtoward the apartment, stubbornly resisting the advance of a handfulof red men who faced them and forced them slowly but inevitably back.

Above the heads of the contestants I could see from my elevatedstation upon the dais the face of my old friend Kantos Kan.He was leading the little party that had won its way intothe very heart of the palace of Salensus Oll.

In an instant I saw that by attacking the Okarians from therear I could so quickly disorganize them that their furtherresistance would be short-lived, and with this idea in mind Isprang from the dais, casting a word of explanation to Dejah Thorisover my shoulder, though I did not turn to look at her.

With myself ever between her enemies and herself, and withKantos Kan and his warriors winning to the apartment, there couldbe no danger to Dejah Thoris standing there alone beside the throne.

I wanted the men of Helium to see me and to know that theirbeloved princess was here, too, for I knew that this knowledgewould inspire them to even greater deeds of valor than they hadperformed in the past, though great indeed must have been thosewhich won for them a way into the almost impregnable palace ofthe tyrant of the north.

As I crossed the chamber to attack the Kadabrans from the reara small doorway at my left opened, and, to my surprise, revealedthe figures of Matai Shang, Father of Therns and Phaidor,his daughter, peering into the room.

A quick glance about they took. Their eyes rested for a moment,wide in horror, upon the dead body of Salensus Oll, upon the bloodthat crimsoned the floor, upon the corpses of the nobles who hadfallen thick before the throne, upon me, and upon the battlingwarriors at the other door.

They did not essay to enter the apartment, but scanned itsevery corner from where they stood, and then, when their eyes hadsought its entire area, a look of fierce rage overspread thefeatures of Matai Shang, and a cold and cunning smile touched thelips of Phaidor.

Then they were gone, but not before a taunting laugh was throwndirectly in my face by the woman.

I did not understand then the meaning of Matai Shang's rage orPhaidor's pleasure, but I knew that neither boded good for me.

A moment later I was upon the backs of the yellow men,and as the red men of Helium saw me above the shoulders oftheir antagonists a great shout rang through the corridor,and for a moment drowned the noise of battle.

"For the Prince of Helium!" they cried. "For the Prince of Helium!"and, like hungry lions upon their prey, they fell once more uponthe weakening warriors of the north.

The yellow men, cornered between two enemies, fought with thedesperation that utter hopelessness often induces. Fought as Ishould have fought had I been in their stead, with the determinationto take as many of my enemies with me when I died as lay within thepower of my sword arm.

It was a glorious battle, but the end seemed inevitable,when presently from down the corridor behind the red mencame a great body of reenforcing yellow warriors.

Now were the tables turned, and it was the men of Helium whoseemed doomed to be ground between two millstones. All werecompelled to turn to meet this new assault by a greatlysuperior force, so that to me was left the remnants ofthe yellow men within the throneroom.

They kept me busy, too; so busy that I began to wonder ifindeed I should ever be done with them. Slowly they pressed meback into the room, and when they had all passed in after me,one of them closed and bolted the door, effectually barring theway against the men of Kantos Kan.

It was a clever move, for it put me at the mercy of a dozenmen within a chamber from which assistance was locked out, and itgave the red men in the corridor beyond no avenue of escape shouldtheir new antagonists press them too closely.

But I have faced heavier odds myself than were pitted againstme that day, and I knew that Kantos Kan had battled his way froma hundred more dangerous traps than that in which he now was.So it was with no feelings of despair that I turned my attentionto the business of the moment.

Constantly my thoughts reverted to Dejah Thoris, and I longed forthe moment when, the fighting done, I could fold her in my arms,and hear once more the words of love which had been denied me forso many years.

During the fighting in the chamber I had not even a singlechance to so much as steal a glance at her where she stood behindme beside the throne of the dead ruler. I wondered why she nolonger urged me on with the strains of the martial hymn of Helium;but I did not need more than the knowledge that I was battling forher to bring out the best that is in me.

It would be wearisome to narrate the details of that bloody struggle;of how we fought from the doorway, the full length of the room to thevery foot of the throne before the last of my antagonists fell withmy blade piercing his heart.

And then, with a glad cry, I turned with outstretched arms to seizemy princess, and as my lips smothered hers to reap the reward thatwould be thrice ample payment for the bloody encounters through whichI had passed for her dear sake from the south pole to the north.

The glad cry died, frozen upon my lips; my arms dropped limpand lifeless to my sides; as one who reels beneath the burden of amortal wound I staggered up the steps before the throne.

Dejah Thoris was gone.