As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks,headed by Tars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mightythoats. I led them to the palace walls, which I negotiatedeasily without assistance. Once inside, however, the gategave me considerable trouble, but I finally was rewardedby seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon my fierceescort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.

As we approached the palace I could see through thegreat windows of the first floor into the brilliantlyilluminated audience chamber of Than Kosis. The immense hallwas crowded with nobles and their women, as though someimportant function was in progress. There was not a guardin sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the factthat the city and palace walls were considered impregnable,and so I came close and peered within.

At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thronesencrusted with diamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort,surrounded by officers and dignitaries of state. Before themstretched a broad aisle lined on either side with soldiery,and as I looked there entered this aisle at the far end ofthe hall, the head of a procession which advanced to thefoot of the throne.

First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guardbearing a huge salver on which reposed, upon a cushionof scarlet silk, a great golden chain with a collar andpadlock at each end. Directly behind these officers camefour others carrying a similar salver which supported themagnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of thereigning house of Zodanga.

At the foot of the throne these two parties separatedand halted, facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle.Then came more dignitaries, and the officers of the palaceand of the army, and finally two figures entirely muffled inscarlet silk, so that not a feature of either was discernible.These two stopped at the foot of the throne, facing ThanKosis. When the balance of the procession had entered andassumed their stations Than Kosis addressed the couplestanding before him. I could not hear his words, butpresently two officers advanced and removed the scarlet robefrom one of the figures, and I saw that Kantos Kan hadfailed in his mission, for it was Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga,who stood revealed before me.

Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from oneof the salvers and placed one of the collars of gold abouthis son's neck, springing the padlock fast. After a few morewords addressed to Sab Than he turned to the other figure,from which the officers now removed the enshrouding silks,disclosing to my now comprehending view Dejah Thoris,Princess of Helium.

The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in anothermoment Dejah Thoris would be joined forever to the Princeof Zodanga. It was an impressive and beautiful ceremony,I presume, but to me it seemed the most fiendish sight Ihad ever witnessed, and as the ornaments were adjusted uponher beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung open inthe hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above myhead, and, with the heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of thegreat window and sprang into the midst of the astonishedassemblage. With a bound I was on the steps of the platformbeside Than Kosis, and as he stood riveted with surpriseI brought my long-sword down upon the golden chainthat would have bound Dejah Thoris to another.

In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swordsmenaced me from every quarter, and Sab Than sprang uponme with a jeweled dagger he had drawn from his nuptialornaments. I could have killed him as easily as I might afly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom stayed my hand,and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heartI held him as though in a vise and with my long-swordpointed to the far end of the hall.

"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"

All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, andthere, forging through the portals of the entranceway rodeTars Tarkas and his fifty warriors on their great thoats.

A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage,but no word of fear, and in a moment the soldiers and noblesof Zodanga were hurling themselves upon the advancing Tharks.

Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drewDejah Thoris to my side. Behind the throne was a narrowdoorway and in this Than Kosis now stood facing me, withdrawn long-sword. In an instant we were engaged, and Ifound no mean antagonist.

As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Thanrushing up the steps to aid his father, but, as he raised hishand to strike, Dejah Thoris sprang before him and thenmy sword found the spot that made Sab Than jeddak ofZodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the floor the newjeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp, and againwe faced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet ofofficers, and, with my back against a golden throne, I foughtonce again for Dejah Thoris. I was hard pressed to defendmyself and yet not strike down Sab Than and, with him,my last chance to win the woman I loved. My blade wasswinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parrythe thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I had disarmed,and one was down, when several more rushed to the aid oftheir 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! Killher!"

Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked myway toward the little doorway back of the throne, but theofficers realized my intentions, and three of them sprang inbehind me and blocked my chances for gaining a positionwhere I could have defended Dejah Thoris against any armyof swordsmen.

The Tharks were having their hands full in the center ofthe room, and I began to realize that nothing short of amiracle could save Dejah Thoris and myself, when I sawTars Tarkas surging through the crowd of pygmies thatswarmed about him. With one swing of his mighty longswordhe laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathwaybefore him until in another moment he stood upon the platformbeside me, dealing death and destruction right and left.

The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not oneattempted to escape, and when the fighting ceased it wasbecause only Tharks remained alive in the great hall, otherthan Dejah Thoris and myself.

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

My first thought when the battle was over was for KantosKan, and leaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I tooka dozen warriors and hastened to the dungeons beneath thepalace. The jailers had all left to join the fighters in thethrone room, so we searched the labyrinthine prison withoutopposition.

I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridorand compartment, and finally I was rewarded by hearing afaint response. Guided by the sound, we soon found himhelpless in a dark recess.

He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaningof the fight, faint echoes of which had reached his prisoncell. He told me that the air patrol had captured him beforehe reached the high tower of the palace, so that he had noteven seen Sab Than.

We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cutaway the bars and chains which held him prisoner, so, at hissuggestion I returned to search the bodies on the floor abovefor keys to open the padlocks of his cell and of his chains.

Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer,and soon we had Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.

The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts andcries, came to us from the city's streets, and Tars Tarkashastened away to direct the fighting without. Kantos Kanaccompanied him to act as guide, the green warriors commencinga thorough search of the palace for other Zodangans and for loot,and Dejah Thoris and I were left alone.

She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as Iturned to her she greeted me with a wan smile.

"Was there ever such a man!" she exclaimed. "I know thatBarsoom has never before seen your like. Can it be that allEarth men are as you? Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened,persecuted, you have done in a few short months what inall the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever done: joinedtogether the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought themto fight as allies of a red Martian people."

"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris," I replied smiling. "Itwas not I who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, apower that would work greater miracles than this you have seen."

A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,

"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free."

"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late,"I returned. "I have done many strange things in my life, manythings that wiser men would not have dared, but never in mywildest fancies have I dreamed of winning a Dejah Thorisfor myself--for never had I dreamed that in all the universedwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium. That youare a princess does not abash me, but that you are you isenough to make me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess,to be mine."

"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew theanswer to his plea before the plea were made," she replied,rising and placing her dear hands upon my shoulders, and soI took her in my arms and kissed her.

And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filledwith the alarms of war; with death and destruction reapingtheir terrible harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princessof Helium, true daughter of Mars, the God of War, promiseherself in marriage to John Carter, Gentleman of Virginia.