The Chessmen of Mars

f he failed, he would attempt to make his way into the city, for Tara of Helium must have sustenance and have it soon. He saw that the walls were poorly sentineled, but they were s

crops of the inhabitants, and here too water from their irrigating system, but though he traveled far along that seemingly interminable wall he found no fields nor any water. He searched also for some means of ingress to the city, yet here, too, failure was his

in the direction from which he had come. Evidently satisfied, he issued a few words of instruction to those behind him, whereupon half the warriors returned to the interior of the building, while the other half followed the man stealthily through the gateway where they crouched low among the shrubbery in a half circle just north of the gateway which they had left open.

fronts were of all shapes and heights and of many hues. The skyline was broken by spire and dome and minaret and tall, slender towers, while the walls supported many a balcony and in the soft light of Cluros, the farther moon, now low in the west, he

possible beyond the observation of those nocturnal watchers. He knew that the night must be far spent; and so he could not but wonder why people should sit upon their balconies when they should have been asleep among their silks and furs. At first he had thought them the late guests of some convivial host; but the windows behind them were shrouded in darkness and utter quiet prevailed, quite upsetting such a theory. And a

either side of the entrance to a building upon his right. It was impossible for them not to be aware of his presence, yet neither moved, nor gave other evidence that they had seen him. He stood there waiting,

city and closed the gate behind them, and then one had taken to the wall and followed along its summit in the rear of Turan, and an

f night. As they spoke of the stranger they laughed at the ease with which they had tricked him, and were still laughing as they threw themselves upon their sleeping silks and furs to resume their broken slumber. It was evident that they constituted a guard de

he had passed one of them many times and that his every move was watched by silent, clever stalkers. Scarce had he passed a certain one of these rigid guardsmen before the fellow awoke to sudden life, bounded across the avenue, entered a narrow opening in the outer wall where he swiftly followed a corridor bui

enge. Presently from along the avenue before him came the familiar sound of clanking accouterments, the herald of marching warriors, and almost simultaneously he saw upon his right an open doorway dimly lighted from within. It was the only av

t. Before him stretched a long corridor, dimly lighted like the entrance. Waiting there he heard the party approach the building, he heard someone at the entrance to his hiding place, and then he heard the door past which he had come slam to. He laid

al. They had evidently passed on and now he would return to the street and continue upon his way. Somewhere there would be a public fountain where he could obtain water, and the chance of food lay in the strings of dried vegetables and meat which hung before the

on me," he murmured; but beyond the door, Fate, in the form of a painted warrior, stood smiling. Neatly had he tricked the unwary stranger. The lighted doorway, the marching patrol-these had been planne

dvanced. A locked door barred his way at its end, but a door upon his right opened and he stepped into a dimly-lighted chamber, about the walls of which were three other doors, each of which he tried in turn. Two were locked; the other opened upon a runway le

ich swung easily toward him at his touch. Before him was a low-ceiled chamber with a dirt floor. Set in its walls were several other doors and all were closed. As Turan stepped cautiously within, the third warrior descended the spiral runway behind him.

e knew now that the thing had gone beyond the sphere of chance. He threw his weight against the wooden panel; bu

room was dedicated. In the dirt floor near the wall were two or three holes resembling the mouths of burrows-doubtless the habitat of the giant Martian rat. He had observed this much when suddenly the dim light was extinguished, leaving him in darkness utter a

nguarded gate; the lighted doorway-the only one he had seen thus open and lighted along the avenue he had followed; the advance of the warriors at precisely the moment that he c

a simpleton. They tricked me neatly and have taken me witho

he would never come. He knew the ways of the more savage peoples of Barsoom. No, he would never come, now. He had disobeyed her. He smiled

ts she had witnessed in the burrows of the kaldanes and he knew that they ate human flesh. Ghek was starving. Should he eat his rykor he would be helpless; but-there was sustenance there for them both, for the ry

en to fight off the creeping lethargy, but his legs seemed weak, so that he sank again to the bench. Present

feeling of sorrow to her heart-of sorrow and loneliness. She realized now how she had come to depend upon this panthan not only for protection but for companionship as well. She missed him, and in missing him realized sudd

As he was rounding the hills south of the city, his keen eyes were attracted by a slight movement among the shrubbery close to the summit of the near

swept his twenty savage warriors, the padded feet of their mounts soundless upon the soft turf. It was the rattle of sidearms and ha

e beautiful body once again animated and alert. She thought that the creature was preparing for flight. Well, it made little difference

may find there a hiding-place;" but the creature only stepped

w that he intended to defend her. "What can

your panthan saved me from Luud and I but do what

" she replied. "Sheathe your swo

U-Dor the dwar stopped his thoat before them while his twenty warriors formed a rough circle about. For a long min

" he asked presently. "And what d

e are lost and starving. We ask only food and rest an

of Manator," he said; "yet in all the ages that have rolled by since Manator first w

is not at war with yours. You must give me and my companions aid

ity, where you, being beautiful, need have no fear. I, myself, will protect you if O-Tar so decre

ou see," replie

ape Manator; but as I was saying, if your companion fights well he to

dem

m. "Let us go with them. Why pit your puny blade against their mighty ones when there sho

f Helium," he replied

of Helium, and Ghek, the kaldane of Bantoom-and surrounding them rode the savag