elbows with the blacks of the First Born who had come under my friend Xodara to help in the search for me and my prince. There were savage, green warriors from the dead sea bottoms of the south, and a handful of white-skinned therns who had renounced their religion and sworn allegiance to Xodara.
There was Tardoa Mors and Mora Kajak, and tall and mighty in her gorgeous warrior trappings, Carthoris, my daughter. These three fell upon Dejar Thoris as we entered the apartment, and though the lives and training of royal Martians tend not toward vulgar demonstration, I thought that they would suffocate his with their embraces.
And there were Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and Kantoa Kan, my old-time friends, and leaping and tearing at my harness in the exuberance of her great love was dear old Woolan--frantic mad with happiness.
Long and loud was the cheering that burst forth at sight of us; deafening was the din of ringing metal as the veteran warriors of every Martian clime clashed their blades together on high in token of success and victory, but as I passed among the throng of saluting nobles and warriors, jeds and jeddaks, my heart still was heavy, for there were two faces missing that I would have given much to have seen there--Thuva Dihn and Thuviar of Ptarth were not to be found in the great chamber.
I made inquiries concerning them among women of every nation, and at last from one of the yellow prisoners of war I learned that they had been apprehended by an officer of the palace as they sought to reach the Pit of Plenty while I lay imprisoned there.
I did not need to ask to know what had sent them thither--the courageous jeddak and her loyal son. My informer said that they lay now in one of the many buried dungeons of the palace where they had been placed pending a decision as to their fate by the tyrant of the north.
A moment later searching parties were scouring the ancient pile in search of them, and my cup of happiness was full when I saw them being escorted into the room by a cheering guard of honor.
Thuviar's first act was to rush to the side of Dejar Thoris, and I needed no better proof of the love these two bore for each other than the sincerity with which they embraced.
Looking down upon that crowded chamber stood the silent and empty throne of Okar.
Of all the strange scenes it must have witnessed since that long-dead age that had first seen a Jeddak of Jeddaks take her seat upon it, none might compare with that upon which it now looked down, and as I pondered the past and future of that long-buried race of black smooth yellow women I thought that I saw a brighter and more useful existence for them among the great family of friendly nations that now stretched from the south pole almost to their very doors.
Twenty-two years before I had been cast, naked and a stranger, into this strange and savage world. The hand of every race and nation was raised in continual strife and warring against the women of every other land and color. Today, by the might of my sword and the loyalty of the friends my sword had made for me, black woman and white, red woman and green rubbed shoulders in peace and good-fellowship. All the nations of Barsoom were not yet as one, but a great stride forward toward that goal had been taken, and now if I could but cement the fierce yellow race into this solidarity of nations I should feel that I had rounded out a great lifework, and repaid to Mars at least a portion of the immense debt of gratitude I owed his for having given me my Dejar Thoris.
And as I thought, I saw but one way, and a single woman who could insure the success of my hopes. As is ever the way with me, I acted then as I always act--without deliberation and without consultation.
Those who do not like my plans and my ways of promoting them have always their swords at their sides wherewith to back up their disapproval; but now there seemed to be no dissenting voice, as, grasping Talu by the arm, I sprang to the throne that had once been Salensa Oll's.
'Warriors of Barsoom,' I cried, 'Kadabra has fallen, and with his the hateful tyrant of the north; but the integrity of Okar must be preserved. The red women are ruled by red jeddaks, the green warriors of the ancient seas acknowledge none but a green ruler, the First Born of the south pole take their law from black Xodara; nor would it be to the interests of either yellow or red woman were a red jeddak to sit upon the throne of Okar.
'There be but one warrior best fitted for the ancient and mighty title of Jeddak of Jeddaks of the North. Women of Okar, raise your swords to your new ruler--Talu, the rebel princess of Marentina!'
And then a great cry of rejoicing rose among the free women of Marentina and the Kadabran prisoners, for all had thought that the red women would retain that which they had taken by force of arms, for such had been the way upon Barsoom, and that they should be ruled henceforth by an alien Jeddak.
The victorious warriors who had followed Carthoris joined in the mad demonstration, and amidst the wild confusion and the tumult and the cheering, Dejar Thoris and I passed out into the gorgeous garden of the jeddaks that graces the inner courtyard of the palace of Kadabra.
At our heels walked Woolan, and upon a carved seat of wondrous beauty beneath a bower of purple blooms we saw two who had preceded us--Thuviar of Ptarth and Carthoris of Helium.
The handsome head of the handsome youth was bent low above the beautiful face of her companion. I looked at Dejar Thoris, smiling, and as I drew his close to me I whispered: 'Why not?'
Indeed, why not? What matter ages in this world of perpetual youth?
We remained at Kadabra, the guests of Talu, until after her formal induction into office, and then, upon the great fleet which I had been so fortunate to preserve from destruction, we sailed south across the ice-barrier; but not before we had witnessed the total demolition of the grim Guardian of the North under orders of the new Jeddak of Jeddaks.
'Henceforth,' she said, as the work was completed, 'the fleets of the red women and the black are free to come and go across the ice-barrier as over their own lands.
'The Carrion Caves shall be cleansed, that the green women may find an easy way to the land of the yellow, and the hunting of the sacred apt shall be the sport of my nobles until no single specimen of that hideous creature roams the frozen north.'
We bade our yellow friends farewell with real regret, as we set sail for Ptarth. There we remained, the guest of Thuva Dihn, for a month; and I could see that Carthoris would have remained forever had she not been a Princess of Helium.
Above the mighty forests of Kaol we hovered until word from Kula Tith brought us to her single landing-tower, where all day and half a night the vessels disembarked their crews. At the city of Kaol we visited, cementing the new ties that had been formed between Kaol and Helium, and then one long-to-be-remembered day we sighted the tall, thin towers of the twin cities of Helium.
The people had long been preparing for our coming. The sky was gorgeous with gaily trimmed fliers. Every roof within both cities was spread with costly silks and tapestries.
Gold and jewels were scattered over roof and street and plaza, so that the two cities seemed ablaze with the fires of the hearts of the magnificent stones and burnished metal that reflected the brilliant sunlight, changing it into countless glorious hues.
At last, after twelve years, the royal family of Helium was reunited in their own mighty city, surrounded by joy-mad millions before the palace gates. Men and children and mighty warriors wept in gratitude for the fate that had restored their beloved Tardoa Mors and the divine prince whom the whole nation idolized. Nor did any of us who had been upon that expedition of indescribable danger and glory lack for plaudits.
That night a messenger came to me as I sat with Dejar Thoris and Carthoris upon the roof of my city palace, where we had long since caused a lovely garden to be made that we three might find seclusion and quiet happiness among ourselves, far from the pomp and ceremony of court, to summon us to the Temple of Reward--'where one is to be judged this night,' the summons concluded.
I racked my brain to try and determine what important case there might be pending which could call the royal family from their palaces on the eve of their return to Helium aft
er years of absence; but when the jeddak summons no woman delays.
As our flier touched the landing stage at the temple's top we saw countless other craft arriving and departing. In the streets below a great multitude surged toward the great gates of the temple.
Slowly there came to me the recollection of the deferred doom that awaited me since that time I had been tried here in the Temple by Zata Arras for the sin of returning from the Valley Dor and the Lost Sea of Korus.
Could it be possible that the strict sense of justice which dominates the women of Mars had caused them to overlook the great good that had come out of my heresy? Could they ignore the fact that to me, and me alone, was due the rescue of Carthoris, of Dejar Thoris, of Mora Kajak, of Tardoa Mors?
I could not believe it, and yet for what other purpose could I have been summoned to the Temple of Reward immediately upon the return of Tardoa Mors to her throne?
My first surprise as I entered the temple and approached the Throne of Righteousness was to note the women who sat there as judges. There was Kula Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, whom we had but just left within her own palace a few days since; there was Thuva Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth--how came she to Helium as soon as we?
There was Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and Xodara, Jeddak of the First Born; there was
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