oward me.

"O my Prince! My Prince!" she cried. "She is gone for ever. Even now
she may be a captive upon the lesser moon. The black pirates of
Barsoom have stolen her."

CHAPTER XVIII

SOLA'S STORY

Once within the palace, I drew Sola to the dining hall, and, when she
had greeted her father after the formal manner of the green men, she
told the story of the pilgrimage and capture of Dejah Thoris.

"Seven days ago, after her audience with Zat Arras, Dejah Thoris
attempted to slip from the palace in the dead of night. Although I had
not heard the outcome of her interview with Zat Arras I knew that
something had occurred then to cause her the keenest mental agony, and
when I discovered her creeping from the palace I did not need to be
told her destination.

"Hastily arousing a dozen of her most faithful guards, I explained my
fears to them, and as one they enlisted with me to follow our beloved
Princess in her wanderings, even to the Sacred Iss and the Valley Dor.
We came upon her but a short distance from the palace. With her was
faithful Woola the hound, but none other. When we overtook her she
feigned anger, and ordered us back to the palace, but for once we
disobeyed her, and when she found that we would not let her go upon the
last long pilgrimage alone, she wept and embraced us, and together we
went out into the night toward the south.

"The following day we came upon a herd of small thoats, and thereafter
we were mounted and made good time. We travelled very fast and very
far due south until the morning of the fifth day we sighted a great
fleet of battleships sailing north. They saw us before we could seek
shelter, and soon we were surrounded by a horde of black men. The
Princess's guard fought nobly to the end, but they were soon overcome
and slain. Only Dejah Thoris and I were spared.

"When she realized that she was in the clutches of the black pirates,
she attempted to take her own life, but one of the blacks tore her
dagger from her, and then they bound us both so that we could not use
our hands.

"The fleet continued north after capturing us. There were about twenty
large battleships in all, besides a number of small swift cruisers.
That evening one of the smaller cruisers that had been far in advance
of the fleet returned with a prisoner--a young red woman whom they had
picked up in a range of hills under the very noses, they said, of a
fleet of three red Martian battleships.