Thuvia, Maid of Mars

d impatiently upon the jewel-strewn walk that wound beneath the stately sorapus trees across the scarlet sward of the royal gardens o

eart, nor colder is the hard, cold ersite of this thrice happy bench which supports your divine and fadeless form! Tell

ispleasure. Her queenly head was poised haughtily upon her smooth

she said. "I have given you no right thus to address the

denly forth and gra

r come between Astok, Prince of Dusar, and his heart's desire. Tell me that there is another,

en of the courts of Mars are held but little less than sacred. The act of Astok, Prince of Dusar, was profanation. There

Her voice wa

oherently and drew h

"or I call the guard, and the Prince

draw her face to his lips. With a little cry she struck him full

The guard! The guard! Hasten in pro

ong-swords naked in the sun, the metal of their accoutrements clanking against that of their l

untain close at hand. A tall, straight youth he was, with black hair and keen grey eyes; broad of shoulder and narrow of hip; a clean-limbed fighting man. His skin was but faintly tinged with the copper c

n great leaps that carried him so swiftly over the ground t

oung warrior confronted him. The new-comer w

er's chin, lifting him high into the air and depositing him in a crump

Kaor, Thuvia of Ptarth!" he cried. "It

urned the young man's greeting, "and what les

. And then the guardsmen, panting from their charge, came up just as the Prince of Dusar,

, but the guardsmen pressed about him, preventing, though it was clea

"and naught will give me greater pleasure than me

claim upon my consideration, yet is he the guest of the jeddak, my father,

um, for this affront to the daughter of my father's friend." As he spoke, though, there burned in his eye

d the eyes of Astok, Prince of Dusar, darkened, too, as he read that wh

ed at Carthoris, answering

mighty jeddak; he was the guest of Thuvan Dihn-until but now an honoured guest upon whom every royal dignity had been showered. To

een at peace with each other. Their great merchant ships plied back and forth between the larger cities of the two nations. Even now, far above the gold-shot scarl

r bravest blood and their incalculable riches, leaving them all helpless against the inroads of their en

children of Mars. It was rather a sense of the responsibility that she,

princess, and to keep the peace that must not be violated within the royal gardens of the jedd

and his glittering court. On either side marched a file of guardsmen. Thus Thuvia of Ptarth found a way out of a dilemma, escaping the necessity of placing her father's royal

rows as he watched the retreating forms of the woman who had aroused the fiercest passions of his n

ulders, and with a murmured oath crossed the gardens toward ano

hin the garden, it was plain to see through the cold mask of the jeddak's courtesy that only the cu

l of the battleship that had brought them upon this fateful visit to the court of Ptarth, and the mighty engine of destruction had risen slowly from the ways of the landing-stage, a note of r

all, was it

wish that the fleet which departed for Kaol this m

e Prince of Dusar had affronted her, watched the twinkling lights of the craft growing smaller in the distance. Beside her, in the brilliant

," he w

s. His hand stole out to find hers

" cried the young warrior. "Te

imply, "could be naught but an honour to any woman; but you must not sp

ide in astonishment. It never had occurred to the Pri

father's court, what did you do, Thuvia of Ptarth, that

ium," she returned, "that might lead

ia, that is true; yet I could have sworn you loved me. Indeed

nocently. "Did you ever tell me as much? Ever befo

yet the jewels that strew these royal garden paths-the trees, the flowers, the sward-all must have read the love that has filled

ium pay court to the

rthoris. "Say that you are but playing,

t, Carthoris, for I am

not within it the hint of an infin

is face went almost white, and then his head came up as befitte

h the man of your choice," he said. "With-" and the

e replied. "My father's friend a

her intently for a momen

Thuvia of Pta

to him," she

ne-would that it might have been another!" he muttered almost savagely. What the girl thought was hidden by the mask of her

alty to Kulan Tith was the loyalty of the blood of John Carter o

d bit of the girl's magnif

y in it. "I told you that I loved you, Thuvia, before I knew that you were promised to another. I may not tell you it again, but I am glad that you know it, for there is no dis

ed to him,"

id one hand upon his heart, the oth

moment later he had entered the palac

prone upon the ersite bench, her face buried in

e had come alone in a small flier, sure of the same welcome that always awaited him at Ptart

of the ordinary Martian air compass, which, when set for a certain destination, will remain constantly fixed thereon, making it only nec

cally in the direction of the compass, and upon arrival directly over the point for which the com

to Thuvan Dihn, who had accompanied him to the landing-stage upon th

versation-so eager on the part of one of the servants that he was twice rebuked by a noble for his forwardness in pushing himself

of Barsoom, so that the point rests upon the exact latitude and longitude of Helium. Then I start the engine, roll up in my sleeping silks and furs, and with lights burning

u do not chance to collide with some o

tion compass. "This is my 'obstruction evader,' as I call it. This visible device is the switch which throws the mec

the same time imparting an impulse to a magnetic device which in turn actuates the steering mechanism, diverting the bow of the flier away from the obstacle until the craft's radio-activity sphere is no longer in contact with the obstruction, then she falls once more into her normal cours

direction, or when the craft has reached its destination and dropped to within a hundred yards of the ground, the mechanism brings her to a

lous device. The forward servant pushed almost to

t one,"

grasped the fellow none too gently by the shoulder to pu

is perfect. Perchance he has detected a weakness that it will be well to know at o

andsome, as are all those of the race of Martian red men; but the fellow's lips were thin and cruel, and a

the Prince of

temerity that had made him the centre of interested ob

ered with," he sa

all key from his le

unlooses is beyond the cunning of a picker of locks. It guards the vitals of the instrument from crafty tampering. Withou

e sole of his sandal full upon the glittering object. For an instant he bore all his weight upon the foot that covered the key, then he stepped back and with an exclamat

an Dihn and his nobles, and with lights twinkling ha