Part 2 (1/2)

The other turned about quickly to gaze heavenward Scarce was his back turned toward the giant than the short-sword of the latter was plunged beneath his left shoulder blade, straight through his heart

Voiceless, the soldier sank in his tracks--stone dead Quickly the ed the corpse into the black shadoithin the hangar Then he returned to the flier

Drawing a cunningly wrought key froht-hand dial of the controlling destination compass For a moment he studied the construction of the mechanism beneath Then he returned the dial to its place, set the pointer, and ree in the position of the parts affected by the act

A smile crossed his lips With a pair of cutters he snipped off the projection which extended through the dial froht bethe mechanism below In other words, the eastern hemisphere dial was useless

Now he turned his attention to the western dial This he set upon a certain point Afterward he removed the cover of this dial also, and with keen tool cut the steel finger from the under side of the pointer

As quickly as possible he replaced the second dial cover, and resuuard To all intents and purposes the compass was as efficient as before; but, as aof the pointers upon the dials resulted now in no corresponding shi+ft of the mechanism beneath--and the device was set, i

Presently caentlele slave who stood guard The fellow's thin, cruel lips, and the sword-cut that ran froestion of an unpleasant memory within him He wondered where Saran Tal had found the hts, and in anotherwith his coh below the surface his heart was cold with dread, for what contingencies confronted Thuvia of Ptarth he could not even guess

First to his ht that Astok of Dusar had stolen the fair Ptarthian; but almost simultaneously with the report of the abduction had coreat fetes at Dusar in honour of the return of the jeddak's son to the court of his father

It could not have been he, thought Carthoris, for on the very night that Thuvia was taken Astok had been in Dusar, and yet-- He entered the flier, exchanging casual remarks with his companions as he unlocked the mechanism of the compass and set the pointer upon the capital city of Ptarth

With a word of farewell he touched the button which controlled the repulsive rays, and as the flier rose lightly into the air, the engine purred in answer to the touch of his finger upon a second button, the propellers whirred as his hand drew back the speed lever, and Carthoris, Prince of Heliuht beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars

Scarce had the flier found its speed ere thesilks and furs about hith upon the narrow deck to sleep

But sleep did not cohts ran riot in his brain, driving sleep away He recalled the words of Thuvia of Ptarth, words that had half assured him that she loved him; for when he had asked her if she loved Kulan tith, she had answered only that she was promised to him

Now he saw that her reply was open to ht, of course, mean that she did not love Kulan tith; and so, by inference, be taken to mean that she loved another

But what assurance was there that the other was Carthoris of Heliuht upon it the more positive he became that not only was there no assurance in her words that she loved him, but none either in any act of hers No, the fact was, she did not love him She loved another She had not been abducted--she had fled willingly with her lover

With such pleasant thoughts filling hie, Carthoris at last dropped into the sleep of utterof the sudden dawn found hi swiftly above a barren, ochre plain--the world-old botto-dead Martian sea

In the distance rose low hills Toward these the craft was headed As it approached theht have been seen frohty ocean, and circling back once otten city, which still stretched back fro pile of wondrous architecture of a long-dead past

The countless dishtless, fro on the semblance of scattered mounds of deadthe appearance of eyeless sockets, the portals, grinning jaws

Closer ca--yet this was not Ptarth

Above the central plaza it stopped, slowly settling Marsward Within a hundred yards of the ground it caht air, and at the same instant an alar to his feet Below hi metropolis of Ptarth Beside hiazed about in bewildered astonishreat city, but it was not Ptarth No ns of life broke the dead eous silks, no priceless furs lent life and colour to the coldersite

No patrol boat lay ready with its fareat city--e air

What had happened?

Carthoris examined the dial of his compass The pointer was set upon Ptarth Could the creature of his genius have thus betrayed him? He would not believe it

Quickly he unlocked the cover, turning it back upon its hinge A single glance showed him the truth, or at least a part of it--the steel projection that communicated the movement of the pointer upon the dial to the heart of the mechanism beneath had been severed

Who could have done the thing--and why?

Carthoris could not hazard even a faint guess But the thing noas to learn in what portion of the world he was, and then take up his interrupted journey once more

If it had been the purpose of soht Carthoris, as he unlocked the cover of the second dial the first having shown that its pointer had not been set at all

Beneath the second dial he found the steel pin severed as in the other, but the controlling mechanism had first been set for a point upon the western hehly at some place south-west of Helium, and at a considerable distance from the twin cities, when he was startled by a wo over the side of the flier, he sahat appeared to be a red woreen warrior--one of those fierce, cruel denizens of the dead sea-botto Mars

Carthoris waited to see noplu his captive toward a huge thoat that browsed upon the ochre vegetation of the once scarlet-gorgeous plaza At the same instant a dozen red warriors leaped fro the abductor with naked swords and shouts of rageful warning

Once the wo flier, and in the single swift glance Carthoris saw that it was Thuvia of Ptarth!

CHAPTER IV

A GREEN MAN'S CAPTIVE

When the light of day broke upon the little craft to whose deck the Princess of Ptarth had been snatched froht a change in her abductors

No longer did their trappings gleam with the metal of Dusar, but instead there was enia of the Prince of Heliuirl felt renewed hope, for she could not believe that in the heart of Carthoris could lie intent to har before the control board

”Last night you wore the trappings of a Dusarian,” she said ”Now your metal is that of Heliurin

”The Prince of Heliued fro with the prisoner, nor would he himself reply to any of her inquiries

No har the journey, and so they cairl no wiser as to her abductors or their purpose than at first

Here the flier settled slowly into the plaza of one of those otten past--the deserted cities that fringe the sad ochre sea-bottohty floods upon whose bosoone for ever

Thuvia of Ptarth was no stranger to such places During her wanderings in search of the River Iss, that ties, had been the last, long pilgrie of Martians, toward the Valley Dor, where lies the Lost Sea of Korus, she had encountered several of these sad relory of ancient Barsooht from the temples of the Holy Therns with Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, she had seen thereat white apes of Barsoom