He strode to the window, his face a thundercloud of wrath. Loralie hurried after him. I leaped to my feet, expecting physical violence.
But he did not even look at me. Instead, he walked to where Gadrimel was sitting and, seizing him by the scruff of the neck, jerked him erect.
"You insolent cub!" he roared, shaking the prince until his teeth rattled and his eyes nearly popped from his head. "You mincing, lisping, addle-headed popinjay! So you would abduct my daughter and force her to marry you! Lucky it is for you that I am constrained to remember you are the son of my sister. Were it not for that I should wring your neck and hurl you from the battlements."
"I—ah, ah, you're choking me," gasped the prince.
"Did you think I was fondling you, you wretch?" thundered the Emperor of Tyrhana, and shot the princeling through the window by applying his toe to the youth's center of gravity. Nor did he return, but slunk away through another room.
A look of serenity gradually settled over Ad's clouded brow. "Your Highness, like all men, I sometimes change my mind."
"It is a mark of greatness," I replied, bowing. "Tonight at dinner, my children, I will announce your betrothal."
Before either of us could reply a guard entered and announced that Vorn VangaL Pasuki and Lotar craved immediate audience.
"If Your Highness can spare a moment to the people," said Vangal, "please be so good as to show yourself on the balcony."
"What is up?" I asked.
"A little technicality to be cleared up," he answered. "Taliboz was only wounded and not killed as we thought. He has escaped. Under the law he is still Torrogo of Olba because he has been legally so acclaimed, thus taking precedence over your otherwise perfectly legal succession to the throne. Knowing all the circumstances the people of Olba now wish to acclaim you Emperor, so there will be no complications hereafter."
I walked to the balcony. The palace grounds were thronged with a close-packed, surging populace. The streets were jammed with people, and every window ledge, balcony, housetop and wall in sight was packed.
As soon as I appeared above the battlements a hundred thousand scarbos flashed aloft in the hands of the men, and a hundred thousand white scarves were waved above the mighty sea of humanity by the women and girls. A great cheer rose, swelling in volume until it seemed that it must shake the very palace.
"Hail Zinlo, Torrogo of Olba!"
I bowed in acknowledgment of this tremendous ovation, whereupon every voice was suddenly stilled.
"I thank you, my people," I shouted down to them. "I will ever strive faithfully to fulfill the trust you have placed in
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me.
Once more the scarves and scarbos flashed aloft. Once more a thunderous cheer rolled up. Bowing, I returned to the room and the congratulations of my friends.
With the deepest satisfaction I appointed Vom Vangal prime minister, and gave the command of army and aerial forces to Pasuki and Lotar. My three loyal friends made obeisance and departed, leaving Loralie, Ad and myself alone.
"Sine you have made so free with your favors, Your Majesty," smiled Loralie, "what have you left for me? Am I not also to be honored?"
"Why, yes," I answered, as, unmindful of her father's presence, her arms went around my neck. "As soon as you grant me leave, I'll make you Torroga, Empress of Olba."
"It's the highest honor an empire can bestow," laughed Ad, "for be he in palace or hovel a man is ever subject to the sweet will of his wife."
"Agreed," I replied. "And now, little wife to be, what is your pleasure?"
"If you were not so busy talking nonsense to Father," she pouted, "you would see that I have been waiting for you to kiss me."
Thus ends the tale of Borgen Takkor s adventures on Venus, up to the time that he was securely established as Zinlo, Torrogo of Olba. However, lest the perceptive reader remind me that this security was precarious at the very least—since Borgen Takkor had merely exchanged personalities with Zinlo of Venus, who was meanwhile on Earth in the body of the man known as Harry Thome—let me assure him that I have not forgotten this fact.
Robert Grandon was in exactly the same position, in Reabon, at the close of his story, which is told in "The Planet of Peril." Those who have read that story know that the resolution of Grandon's difficulty in this regard also solved Borgen Takkor's problem. So I will only mention here that neither Grandon nor Takkor had to worry about being taken from their wives and thrones and returned to their Earth bodies; but how this came about you will have to read the novel mentioned above to discover.
The Author.
If you enjoyed this book, then why not take a look at these novels by
OTIS ADELBERT KLINE
"The only author to be compared with Edgar Rice Burroughs, but whose work is as original as Burroughs' own."
—Vernell Coriell,
The Burroughs Bibliophiles
D-561 (35(21) THE SWORDSMAN OF MARS
Harry Thorne, American, exchanges bodies with a prince of the Red Planet, and battles men and monsters for a throne.
D-531 (350) THE OUTLAWS OF MARS
The best weapons of a haughty empire pit themselves against the skill and daring of a courageous Earthman and his Martian princess.
F-211 (400) PLANET OF PERIL
Grandon of Terra shows an Empress of Venus what a he-man can do against a world of dreaded beasts and barbaric armies.
ACE-FOR SCIENCE-FICTION ADVENTURE
Any of these titles may be ordered directly from the publisher by sending the listed amount, plus 50 for handling, to Ace Books, Inc. (Dept. MM), 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York 36, N.Y.
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS books available in Ace editions:
F-156 AT THE EARTH'S CORE
F-157 THE MOON MAID
F-158 PELLUCIDAR
F-159 THE MOON MEN
F-168 THUVIA, MAID OF MARS
F-169 TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
F-170 THE CHESSMEN OF MARS
F-171 TANAR OF PELLUCIDAR
F-179 PIRATES OF VENUS
F-180 TARZAN AT THE EARTH'S CORE
F-181 THE MASTERMIND OF MARS
M82 THE MONSTER MEN
F-189 TARZAN THE INVINCIBLE
F-190 A FIGHTING MAN OF MARS
F-193 THE SON OF TARZAN
F-194 TARZAN TRIUMPHANT
F-203 THE BEASTS OF TARZAN
F-204 TARZAN AND THE JEWELS OF OPAR
F-205 TARZAN AND THE CITY OF GOLD
F-206 JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN
F-212 TARZAN AND THE LION MAN
F-213 THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT
F-220 THE PEOPLE THAT TIME FORGOT
F-221 LOST ON VENUS
F-232 THE LAND OF HIDDEN MEN
F-233 OUT OF TIME'S ABYSS
F-234 THE ETERNAL SAVAGE
F-235 THE LOST CONTINENT
F-245 BACK TO THE STONE AGE
F-247 CARSON OF VENUS
ONLY 400 EACH - PAY NO MORE
Ask your newsdealer for them. If he is sold out, any of the above books can be bought by sending 400, plus 50 for handling costs, for each book to ACE BOOKS, INC. (Dept. M M), 1120 Avenue of the Americas, New York 36, N. Y.
When the man who was Harry Thorne on Earth offered to swap bodies with a native of Venus, it was because he was bored with comfort and security, and craved excitement. And that was what he got — more than he would have bargained for —when he found that he had taken over the assassin-haunted role of a prince of a beleaguered throne in a land of ferocious beasts and inhuman foemen.
Otis Adelbert Kline, whose work is often compared to that of Edgar Rice Burroughs, has created in PRINCE OF PERIL another interplanetary adventure to stand alongside his fast-selling PLANET OF PERIL and THE SWORDSMAN OF MARS.
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