."

Ghek made no reply, nor did his expressionless face denote either
belief or skepticism. The girl looked into the face of the man
questioningly. She did not understand.

"Your flier," he said. "It is moored before the tower."

Her face lighted with pleasure and relief. "You found it!" she
exclaimed. "What fortune!"

"It was fortune indeed," he replied. "Since it not only told that you
were a prisoner here; but it saved me from the banths as I was crossing
the valley from the hills to this tower into which I saw them take you
this afternoon after your brave attempt at escape."

"How did you know it was I?" she asked, her puzzled brows scanning his
face as though she sought to recall from past memories some scene in
which he figured.

"Who is there but knows of the loss of the Princess Tara of Helium?" he
replied. "And when I saw the device upon your flier I knew at once,
though I had not known when I saw you among them in 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 way, Tara of Helium. I shudder to think how
close was the chance at that. But for the momentary shining of the sun
upon the emblazoned device on the prow of your craft, I had passed on
unknowing."

The girl shuddered. "The Gods sent you," she whispered reverently.

"The Gods sent me, Tara of Helium," he replied.

"But I do not recognize you," she said. "I have tried to recall you,
but I have failed. Your name, what may it be?"

"It is not strange that so great a princess should not recall the face
of every roving panthan of Barsoom," he replied with a smile.

"But your name?" insisted the girl.

"Call me Turan," replied the man, for it had come to him that if Tara
of Helium recognized him as the man whose impetuous avowal of love had
angered her that day in the 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 might win a greater
degree of her confidence by his loyalty and faithfulness and a place in
her esteem that seemed to have been closed to the resplendent Jed of
Gathol.

* Soldier of Fortune; free-lance warrior.

They had reached the tower now, and as they entered it from the
subterranean corridor a backward glance revealed the van of their
pursuers--hideous kaldanes mounted up