tent.
Issus is omniscient. She hears now the words you speak. She knows the
thoughts you think. It is sacrilege even to dream of breaking her
commands."

"Rot, Xodar," I ejaculated impatiently.

He sprang to his feet in horror.

"The curse of Issus will fall upon you," he cried. "In another instant
you will be smitten down, writhing to your death in horrible agony."

"Do you believe that, Xodar?" I asked.

"Of course; who would dare doubt?"

"I doubt; yes, and further, I deny," I said. "Why, Xodar, you tell me
that she even knows my thoughts. The red men have all had that power
for ages. And another wonderful power. They can shut their minds so
that none may read their thoughts. I learned the first secret years
ago; the other I never had to learn, since upon all Barsoom is none who
can read what passes in the secret chambers of my brain.

"Your goddess cannot read my thoughts; nor can she read yours when you
are out of sight, unless you will it. Had she been able to read mine,
I am afraid that her pride would have suffered a rather severe shock
when I turned at her command to 'gaze upon the holy vision of her
radiant face.'"

"What do you mean?" he whispered in an affrighted voice, so low that I
could scarcely hear him.

"I mean that I thought her the most repulsive and vilely hideous
creature my eyes ever had rested upon."

For a moment he eyed me in horror-stricken amazement, and then with a
cry of "Blasphemer" he sprang upon me.

I did not wish to strike him again, nor was it necessary, since he was
unarmed and therefore quite harmless to me.

As he came I grasped his left wrist with my left hand, and, swinging my
right arm about his left shoulder, caught him beneath the chin with my
elbow and bore him backward across my thigh.

There he hung helpless for a moment, glaring up at me in impotent rage.

"Xodar," I said, "let us be friends. For a year, possibly, we may be
forced to live together in the narrow confines of this tiny room. I am
sorry to have offended you, but I could not dream that one who had
suffered from the cruel injustice of Issus still could believe her
divine.

"I will say a few more words, Xodar, with no intent to wound your
feelings further, but rather that you may give thought to the fact that
while we live we are still more the arbiters of our own fate than is
any god.

"Issus, you see, has not struck me dead, nor is she rescuing her
faithful Xodar from the clutch