As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the
steps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah
Thoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made Sab
Than jeddak of Zodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the floor the
new jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp, and again we
faced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and,
with my back against a golden throne, I fought once again for Dejah
Thoris. I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down
Sab Than and, with him, my last chance to win the woman I loved. My
blade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parry
the thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I had disarmed, and one was
down, when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler, and to
avenge the death of the old.

As they advanced there were cries of "The woman! The woman! Strike
her down; it is her plot. Kill her! Kill her!"

Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the
little doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my
intentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my
chances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris
against any army of swordsmen.

The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, and
I began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save Dejah
Thoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd of
pygmies that swarmed about him. With one swing of his mighty longsword
he laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathway before
him until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside me,
dealing death and destruction right and left.

The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted to
escape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks
remained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.

Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower of
Zodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles.

My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, and
leaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriors
and hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace. The jailers had all
left to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched the
labyrinthine prison without opposition.

I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new