«Think not to taunt me with my mother's state,» said A-Kor. «'Tis the blood of the slave woman that fills my veins with pride, and my only shame is that I am also the son of thy jeddak.»

«And O-Tar heard this?» queried U-Dor.

«O-Tar has already heard it from my own lips,» replied A-Kor; «this, and more.»

He turned upon his heel, a supporting arm still around the waist of Tara of Helium and thus he half led, half carried her into The Towers of Jetan, while U-Dor wheeled his thoat and galloped back in the direction of the palace.

Within the main entrance to The Tower of Jetan lolled a half-dozen warriors. To one of these spoke A-Kor, keeper of the towers. «Fetch Lan-O, the slave girl, and bid her bring food and drink to the upper level of the Thurian tower,» then he lifted the half-fainting girl in his arms and bore her along the spiral, inclined runway that led upward within the tower.

Somewhere in the long ascent Tara lost consciousness. When it returned she found herself in a large, circular chamber, the stone walls of which were pierced by windows at regular intervals about the entire circumference of the room. She was lying upon a pile of sleeping silks and furs while there knelt above her a young woman who was forcing drops of some cooling beverage between her parched lips. Tara of Helium half rose upon an elbow and looked about. In the first moments of returning consciousness there were swept from the screen of recollection the happenings of many weeks. She thought that she awoke in the palace of The Warlord at Helium. Her brows knit as she scrutinized the strange face bending over her.

«Who are you?» she asked, and, «Where is Uthia?»

«I am Lan-O the slave girl,» replied the other. «I know none by the name of Uthia.»

Tara of Helium sat erect and looked about her. This rough stone was not the marble of her father's halls. «Where am I?» she asked.

«In The Thurian Tower,» replied the girl, and then seeing that the other still did not understand she guessed the truth. «You are a prisoner in The Towers of Jetan in the city of Manator,» she explained. «You were brought to this chamber, weak and fainting, by A-Kor, Dwar of The Towers of Jetan, who sent me to you with food and drink, for kind is the heart of A-Kor.»

«I remember, now,» said Tara, slowly. «I remember; but where is Turan, my warrior? Did they speak of him?»

«I heard naught of another,» replied Lan-O; «you alone were brought to the towers. In that you are fortunate, for there be no nobler man in Manator than A-Kor. It is his mother's blood that makes him so. She was a slave girl from Gathol.»

«Gathol!» exclaimed Tara of Helium. «Lies Gathol close by Manator?»

«Not close, yet still the nearest country,» replied Lan-O. «About twenty-two degrees[2] east, it lies.»

«Gathol!» murmured Tara, «Far Gathol!»

«But you are not from Gathol,» said the slave girl; «your harness is not of Gathol.»

«I am from Helium,» said Tara

«It is far from Helium to Gathol;«said the slave girl, «but in our studies we learned much of the greatness of Helium, we of Gathol, so it seems not so far away.»

«You, too, are from Gathol?» asked Tara.

«Many of us are from Gathol who are slaves in Manator,» replied the girl. «It is to Gathol, nearest country, that the Manatorians look for slaves most often. They go in great numbers at intervals of three or seven years and haunt the roads that lead to Gathol, and thus they capture whole caravans leaving none to bear warning to Gathol of their fate. Nor do any ever escape from Manator to carry word of us back to Gahan our jed.»

Tara of Helium ate slowly and in silence. The girl's words aroused memories of the last hours she had spent in her father's palace and the great midday function at which she had met Gahan of Gathol. Even now she flushed as she recalled his daring words.

Upon her reveries the door opened and a burly warrior appeared in the opening-a hulking fellow, with thick lips and an evil, leering face. The slave girl sprang to her feet, facing him.

«What does this mean, E-Med?» she cried, «was it not the will of A-Kor that this woman be not disturbed?»

«The will of A-Kor, indeed!» and the man sneered. «The will of A-Kor is without power in The Towers of Jetan, or elsewhere, for A-Kor lies now in the pits of O-Tar, and E-Med is dwar of the Towers.»

Tara of Helium saw the face of the slave girl pale and the terror in her eyes.

XII Ghek Plays Pranks

While Tara of Helium was being led to The Towers of Jetan, Ghek was escorted to the pits beneath the palace where he was imprisoned in a dimly-lighted chamber. Here he found a bench and a table standing upon the dirt floor near the wall, and set in the wall several rings from which depended short lengths of chain. At the base of the walls were several holes in the dirt floor. These, alone, of the several things he saw, interested him. Ghek sat down upon the bench and waited in silence, listening. Presently the lights were extinguished. If Ghek could have smiled he would have then, for Ghek could see as well in the dark as in the light-better, perhaps. He watched the dark openings of the holes in the floor and waited. Presently he detected a change in the air about him-it grew heavy with a strange odor, and once again might Ghek have smiled, could he have smiled.

Let them replace all the air in the chamber with their most deadly fumes; it would be all the same to Ghek, the kaldane, who, having no lungs, required no air. With the rykor it might be different. Deprived of air it would die; but if only a sufficient amount of the gas was introduced to stupefy an ordinary creature it would have no effect upon the rykor, who had no objective mind to overcome. So long as the excess of carbon dioxide in the blood was not sufficient to prevent heart action, the rykor would suffer only a diminution of vitality; but would still respond to the exciting agency of the kaldane's brain.

Ghek caused the rykor to assume a sitting position with its back against the wall where it might remain without direction from his brain. Then he released his contact with its spinal cord; but remained in position upon its shoulders, waiting and watching, for the kaldane's curiosity was aroused. He had not long to wait before the lights were flashed on and one of the locked doors opened to admit a half-dozen warriors. They approached him rapidly and worked quickly. First they removed all his weapons and then, snapping a fetter about one of the rykor's ankles, secured him to the end of one of the chains hanging from the walls. Next they dragged the long table to a new position and there bolted it to the floor so that an end, instead of the middle, was directly before the prisoner. On the table before him they set food and water and upon the opposite end of the table they laid the key to the fetter. Then they unlocked and opened all the doors and departed.

* * * * *

When Turan the panthan regained consciousness it was to the realization of a sharp pain in one of his forearms. The effects of the gas departed as rapidly as they had overcome him so that as he opened his eyes he was in full possession of all his faculties. The lights were on again and in their glow there was revealed to the man the figure of a giant Martian rat crouching upon the table and gnawing upon his arm. Snatching his arm away he reached for his short-sword, while the rat, growling, sought to seize his arm again. It was then that Turan discovered that his weapons had been removed-short-sword, long-sword, dagger, and pistol. The rat charged him then and striking the creature away with his hand the man rose and backed off, searching for something with which to strike a harder blow. Again the rat charged and as Turan stepped quickly back to avoid the menacing jaws, something seemed to jerk suddenly upon his right ankle, and as he drew his left foot back to regain his equilibrium his heel caught upon a taut chain and he fell heavily backward to the floor just as the rat leaped upon his breast and sought his throat.