epping
to Hor Vastus, I buckled the weapon upon him with my own hands.

"Hor Vastus," I said, placing my hand upon his shoulder, "you know best
the promptings of your own heart. That I shall need your sword I have
little doubt, but accept from John Carter upon his sacred honour the
assurance that he will never call upon you to draw this sword other
than in the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness."

"That I knew, my Prince," he replied, "ere ever I threw my beloved
blade at thy feet."

As we spoke other fliers came and went between the ground and the
battleship, and presently a larger boat was launched from above, one
capable of carrying a dozen persons, perhaps, and dropped lightly near
us. As she touched, an officer sprang from her deck to the ground,
and, advancing to Hor Vastus, saluted.

"Kantos Kan desires that this party whom we have rescued be brought
immediately to the deck of the Xavarian," he said.

As we approached the little craft I looked about for the members of my
party and for the first time noticed that Thuvia was not among them.
Questioning elicited the fact that none had seen her since Carthoris
had sent her thoat galloping madly toward the hills, in the hope of
carrying her out of harm's way.

Immediately Hor Vastus dispatched a dozen air scouts in as many
directions to search for her. It could not be possible that she had
gone far since we had last seen her. We others stepped to the deck of
the craft that had been sent to fetch us, and a moment later were upon
the Xavarian.

The first man to greet me was Kantos Kan himself. My old friend had
won to the highest place in the navy of Helium, but he was still to me
the same brave comrade who had shared with me the privations of a
Warhoon dungeon, the terrible atrocities of the Great Games, and later
the dangers of our search for Dejah Thoris within the hostile city of
Zodanga.

Then I had been an unknown wanderer upon a strange planet, and he a
simple padwar in the navy of Helium. To-day he commanded all Helium's
great terrors of the skies, and I was a Prince of the House of Tardos
Mors, Jeddak of Helium.

He did not ask me where I had been. Like Hor Vastus, he too dreaded
the truth and would not be the one to wrest a statement from me. That
it must come some time he well knew, but until it came he seemed
satisfied to but know that I was with him once more. He greeted
Carthoris and Tars Tarkas with the keenest delight, but he