The Chessmen of Mars

awakened within him the existence of which he had never before even dreamed. Had the influence of the strange captive woman aug

iving. It would be deaf, and dumb, and blind. A thousand beautiful strangers might sing and dance about it, but it could derive no pleasure from the singing or the dancing since it would possess no perceptive faculties. Already had the kaldanes shut themselves off from most of the gratif

own kind, equally as merciless and ferocious. Among them there was no such thing as love, or loyalty, or friendship-they were just brains. He might kill Luud; but what would that profit him? Another king would

Luud with perfect equanimity, since it was but the logical result of reason; but now it seemed different. The stranger woman had bewitched him. Life appeared

ior with naked sword. He was a male counterpart of the prisoner whose

point of his longsword playing menacingly before the eyes of the kaldane. "I seek the woma

arned. He thought quickly. After all, a great brain is not with

d?" he asked. "You

es

ecause of this I am to die. If I help you t

ody, the grotesque head, the expressionless face. Among such as these ha

nharmed," he said, "I

d unharmed," replied Ghek. "I cannot say wha

me to him." Gahan spoke quickly

and down a stairway toward the underground burrows of the

!" urge

ss others of my kind I may say to them that you are a ne

ing the kaldane that his hand was

eachery," said Ghek. "My onl

him, "I can promise you as sure a death

truly was he in the hands of this strange monster. If the fellow should prove false it would profit Gahan nothin

k's simple statement that he was taking a new prisoner to Luud appeared to al

f ever," whispered Ghek. "Enter there!"

Gahan, still fear

l accompany you and fight at your side. As well die

o warriors. Beyond this opening he could see two figures struggling upon the floor, and the fleeting glimpse he had of one of the faces sudden

ood for a moment in dumb amazement, and in that moment Gahan of Gath

ly within the aperture leading to the chamber where he had seen Tara of Helium in the clutches of a headless body. Then the

aped for the aperture, while

of Luud," warned the kal

spider-like Luud. Instantly the king realized the menace to himself and sought to fasten his eyes upon the eyes of Gahan, and in doing so he was forced to relax h

t miracle of fate had sent him to her? She did not recognize him, though, this travel-worn warrior in the plain harness which showed no single jewel. How could she have gue

hamber. "Strike him down, Ghek!" commanded the king. "

t the hideous f

an. The red warrior hesitated in his stride. His sword point drooped slowly toward the floor. Tara glanced toward Ghek. She saw the creature glaring wit

aloft and poured forth the notes of Mars

s with a supreme effort of will forced his eyes to the wall above Luud's hideous head. Ghek raised his dagger above his right shoulder, took a single quick step forward, and struck. The girl's song ended in a stifled scream as she leaped forward with the evident

on the floor-a king's rykor; the most beautiful, the most powerful, that the breeders of Bantoom could produce. Ghek realized that in his escape he could take with him but a single rykor, and there was none in Bantoom that could

han, taking Tara by the arm, motioned her to follow. The girl looked him full in the eyes for the first time. "The Gods of my people have been kind," she said; "yo

ognize him, and quickly he checked the w

ied, "is immaterial, to serve thus a red wom

of Luud and were moving rapidly along the winding corridors toward the tower. Ghek repeatedly urged them to greater speed, b

," urged Gahan, "so why tax the streng

ore Luud's apartment escaped, and you may count it a truth that he lost no time in seeking aid. That it did not come before we left is due solely to the rapidity with which events transpired

unceable in English, nor does jed or jeddak of the red Martian tongue have quite the same meaning as the Bantoomian word,

ounds of pursuit became audible in the distant clanking of

k. "Make haste while yet you may, and if we can ba

er," replied Gahan, moving more rapidly as he realized from the

r tonight," insisted Ghek. "Beyond the t

ut reach the enclosure a little ahead of our pursuers we have n

ote either belief or skepticism. The girl looked into t

aid. "It is moored

e and relief. "You found it!"

re; but it saved me from the banths as I was crossing the valley from the hills to this

brows scanning his face as though she sought to reca

the fields a short time earlier. Too great was the distance for me to make certain whether the captive was man or woman. Had chance not divulged the hiding place of your flier I had gone my wa

he Gods sent you," she

me, Tara of Hel

. "I have tried to recall you, but I h

should not recall the face of every roving p

ame?" insis

he gardens of The Warlord, her situation might be rendered infinitely less bearable than were she to believe him a total stranger. Then, too, as a simple panthan* he

Fortune; free

as might be the three ascended the stairways leading to the ground level, but after them, even more rapidly, came the minions of Luud. Ghek led the way, grasping one of Tara's hands the more easily to guide

o your side," said Tara

if I come far enough ahead of these to reach the dangling cable you can rise at my word and I can clamber to the deck at my leisure; but if one of them emerges first into the encl

head. "We will not desert

her royal pride she was no fool, and she knew the man was right, that he was risking his life to save hers, so she hastened on with Ghek as she was bid, and after the first flush of anger she smiled, for the realization came to her that this fellow was but a rough untutored warrior, skilled not in the finer usages of cultured courts. His heart was right, though; a brave and loyal heart, and gladly she forgave him the offense of his tone and manner. But what a tone! Recollection of it gave her sudden pause. Panthans wer

y that ensued. Daughter of a world's greatest swordsman, she knew well the finest points of the art. She saw the clumsy attack of the kaldane and the quick, sure return of the panthan. As she looked down from above upon his almost naked body, trapped only in the simplest of unadorned harness, and saw the play

ly down the steps to engage the next behind, and then Ghek had drawn Tara upward and a turn in the stairway shut the battling panthan from her view; but still she heard the ring of steel on steel, the clank of accouterments and the shr