, to the platform in the centre of the hall.
Before and behind us marched armed guards, while three solid ranks of
Zodangan soldiery lined either side of the aisle from the entrance to
the rostrum.

As we reached the raised enclosure I saw our judges. As is the custom
upon Barsoom there were thirty-one, supposedly selected by lot from men
of the noble class, for nobles were on trial. But to my amazement I
saw no single friendly face among them. Practically all were
Zodangans, and it was I to whom Zodanga owed her defeat at the hands of
the green hordes and her subsequent vassalage to Helium. There could
be little justice here for John Carter, or his son, or for the great
Thark who had commanded the savage tribesmen who overran Zodanga's
broad avenues, looting, burning, and murdering.

About us the vast circular coliseum was packed to its full capacity.
All classes were represented--all ages, and both sexes. As we entered
the hall the hum of subdued conversation ceased until as we halted upon
the platform, or Throne of Righteousness, the silence of death
enveloped the ten thousand spectators.

The judges were seated in a great circle about the periphery of the
circular platform. We were assigned seats with our backs toward a
small platform in the exact centre of the larger one. This placed us
facing the judges and the audience. Upon the smaller platform each
would take his place while his case was being heard.

Zat Arrras himself sat in the golden chair of the presiding magistrate.
As we were seated and our guards retired to the foot of the stairway
leading to the platform, he arose and called my name.

"John Carter," he cried, "take your place upon the Pedestal of Truth to
be judged impartially according to your acts and here to know the
reward you have earned thereby." Then turning to and fro toward the
audience he narrated the acts upon the value of which my reward was to
be determined.

"Know you, O judges and people of Helium," he said, "that John Carter,
one time Prince of Helium, has returned by his own statement from the
Valley Dor and even from the Temple of Issus itself. That, in the
presence of many men of Helium he has blasphemed against the Sacred
Iss, and against the Valley Dor, and the Lost Sea of Korus, and the
Holy Therns themselves, and even against Issus, Goddess of Death, and
of Life Eternal. And know you further by witness of thine own eyes
that see him here now upon the Pedestal of