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As we reached the open the two female guards who hadbeen detailed to watch over Dejah Thoris hurried up andmade as though to assume custody of her once more. Thepoor child shrank against me and I felt her two little handsfold tightly over my arm. Waving the women away, I informedthem that Sola would attend the captive hereafter, and Ifurther warned Sarkoja that any more of her cruel attentionsbestowed upon Dejah Thoris would result in Sarkoja's suddenand painful demise.

My threat was unfortunate and resulted in more harmthan good to Dejah Thoris, for, as I learned later, men donot kill women upon Mars, nor women, men. So Sarkojamerely gave us an ugly look and departed to hatch updeviltries against us.

I soon found Sola and explained to her that I wished herto guard Dejah Thoris as she had guarded me; that I wishedher to find other quarters where they would not be molestedby Sarkoja, and I finally informed her that I myself wouldtake up my quarters among the men.

Sola glanced at the accouterments which were carried inmy hand and slung across my shoulder.

"You are a great chieftain now, John Carter," she said,"and I must do your bidding, though indeed I am glad to doit under any circumstances. The man whose metal you carrywas young, but he was a great warrior, and had by hispromotions and kills won his way close to the rank of TarsTarkas, who, as you know, is second to Lorquas Ptomel only.You are eleventh, there are but ten chieftains in thiscommunity who rank you in prowess."

"And if I should kill Lorquas Ptomel?" I asked.

"You would be first, John Carter; but you may only winthat honor by the will of the entire council that LorquasPtomel meet you in combat, or should he attack you, youmay kill him in self-defense, and thus win first place."

I laughed, and changed the subject. I had no particulardesire to kill Lorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed amongthe Tharks.

I accompanied Sola and Dejah Thoris in a search for newquarters, which we found in a building nearer the audiencechamber and of far more pretentious architecture than ourformer habitation. We also found in this building realsleeping apartments with ancient beds of highly wroughtmetal swinging from enormous gold chains depending from themarble ceilings. The decoration of the walls was most elaborate,and, unlike the frescoes in the other buildings I had examined,portrayed many human figures in the compositions.These were of people like myself, and of a much lightercolor than Dejah Thoris. They were clad in graceful,flowing robes, highly ornamented with metal and jewels, andtheir luxuriant hair was of a beautiful golden and reddishbronze. The men were beardless and only a few wore arms.The scenes depicted for the most part, a fair-skinned,fair-haired people at play.

Dejah Thoris clasped her hands with an exclamation ofrapture as she gazed upon these magnificent works of art,wrought by a people long extinct; while Sola, on the otherhand, apparently did not see them.

We decided to use this room, on the second floor andoverlooking the plaza, for Dejah Thoris and Sola, andanother room adjoining and in the rear for the cooking andsupplies. I then dispatched Sola to bring the bedding andsuch food and utensils as she might need, telling her thatI would guard Dejah Thoris until her return.

As Sola departed Dejah Thoris turned to me with a faint smile.

"And whereto, then, would your prisoner escape shouldyou leave her, unless it was to follow you and crave yourprotection, and ask your pardon for the cruel thoughts shehas harbored against you these past few days?"

"You are right," I answered, "there is no escape for eitherof us unless we go together."

"I heard your challenge to the creature you call Tars Tarkas,and I think I understand your position among these people,but what I cannot fathom is your statement that you arenot of Barsoom."

"In the name of my first ancestor, then," she continued,"where may you be from? You are like unto my people,and yet so unlike. You speak my language, and yet I heardyou tell Tars Tarkas that you had but learned it recently.All Barsoomians speak the same tongue from the ice-cladsouth to the ice-clad north, though their written languagesdiffer. Only in the valley Dor, where the river Iss emptiesinto the lost sea of Korus, is there supposed tobe a different language spoken, and, except in the legends ofour ancestors, there is no record of a Barsoomian returningup the river Iss, from the shores of Korus in the valley ofDor. Do not tell me that you have thus returned! Theywould kill you horribly anywhere upon the surface of Barsoomif that were true; tell me it is not!"

Her eyes were filled with a strange, weird light; her voicewas pleading, and her little hands, reached up upon mybreast, were pressed against me as though to wring a denialfrom my very heart.

"I do not know your customs, Dejah Thoris, but in myown Virginia a gentleman does not lie to save himself; I amnot of Dor; I have never seen the mysterious Iss; the lostsea of Korus is still lost, so far as I am concerned. Do youbelieve me?"

And then it struck me suddenly that I was very anxious thatshe should believe me. It was not that I feared the resultswhich would follow a general belief that I had returnedfrom the Barsoomian heaven or hell, or whatever it was.Why was it, then! Why should I care what she thought?I looked down at her; her beautiful face upturned, and herwonderful eyes opening up the very depth of her soul; andas my eyes met hers I knew why, and--I shuddered.

A similar wave of feeling seemed to stir her; she drewaway from me with a sigh, and with her earnest, beautifulface turned up to mine, she whispered: "I believe you, JohnCarter; I do not know what a 'gentleman' is, nor have I everhe does not wish to speak the truth he is silent. Where isthis Virginia, your country, John Carter?" she asked, and itseemed that this fair name of my fair land had never soundedmore beautiful than as it fell from those perfect lips on thatfar-gone day.

"I am of another world," I answered, "the great planetEarth, which revolves about our common sun and next withinthe orbit of your Barsoom, which we know as Mars. How Icame here I cannot tell you, for I do not know; but here Iam, and since my presence has permitted me to serve DejahThoris I am glad that I am here."

She gazed at me with troubled eyes, long and questioningly.That it was difficult to believe my statement I well knew,nor could I hope that she would do so however much I cravedher confidence and respect. I would much rather not havetold her anything of my antecedents, but no man could lookinto the depth of those eyes and refuse her slightest behest.

Finally she smiled, and, rising, said: "I shall have tobelieve even though I cannot understand. I can readilyperceive that you are not of the Barsoom of today; you arelike us, yet different--but why should I trouble my poor headwith such a problem, when my heart tells me that I believebecause I wish to believe!"

It was good logic, good, earthly, feminine logic, and if itsatisfied her I certainly could pick no flaws in it. As amatter of fact it was about the only kind of logic that couldbe brought to bear upon my problem. We fell into a generalconversation then, asking and answering many questions on eachside. She was curious to learn of the customs of my peopleand displayed a remarkable knowledge of events on Earth.When I questioned her closely on this seeming familiaritywith earthly things she laughed, and cried out:

"Why, every school boy on Barsoom knows the geography,and much concerning the fauna and flora, as well as thehistory of your planet fully as well as of his own. Can wenot see everything which takes place upon Earth, as you callit; is it not hanging there in the heavens in plain sight?"

This baffled me, I must confess, fully as much as my statementshad confounded her; and I told her so. She then explainedin general the instruments her people had used and beenperfecting for ages, which permit them to throw upona screen a perfect image of what is transpiring upon anyplanet and upon many of the stars. These pictures are soperfect in detail that, when photographed and enlarged,objects no greater than a blade of grass may be distinctlyrecognized. I afterward, in Helium, saw many of thesepictures, as well as the instruments which produced them.

"If, then, you are so familiar with earthly things," I asked,"why is it that you do not recognize me as identical with theinhabitants of that planet?"

She smiled again as one might in bored indulgence of aquestioning child.

"Because, John Carter," she replied, "nearly every planetand star having atmospheric conditions at all approachingthose of Barsoom, shows forms of animal life almostidentical with you and me; and, further, Earth men, almostwithout exception, cover their bodies with strange, unsightlypieces of cloth, and their heads with hideous contraptionsthe purpose of which we have been unable to conceive; whileyou, when found by the Tharkian warriors, were entirelyundisfigured and unadorned.

"The fact that you wore no ornaments is a strong proof ofyour un-Barsoomian origin, while the absence of grotesquecoverings might cause a doubt as to your earthliness."

I then narrated the details of my departure from the Earth,explaining that my body there lay fully clothed in all the, toher, strange garments of mundane dwellers. At this pointSola returned with our meager belongings and her youngMartian protege, who, of course, would have to share thequarters with them.

Sola asked us if we had had a visitor during her absence,and seemed much surprised when we answered in the negative.It seemed that as she had mounted the approach to theupper floors where our quarters were located, she had metSarkoja descending. We decided that she must have beeneavesdropping, but as we could recall nothing of importancethat had passed between us we dismissed the matter as oflittle consequence, merely promising ourselves to be warnedto the utmost caution in the future.

Dejah Thoris and I then fell to examining the architecture anddecorations of the beautiful chambers of the building we wereoccupying. She told me that these people had presumablyflourished over a hundred thousand years before.They were the early progenitors of her race, but had mixedwith the other great race of early Martians, who were verydark, almost black, and also with the reddish yellow racewhich had flourished at the same time.

These three great divisions of the higher Martians hadbeen forced into a mighty alliance as the drying up of theMartian seas had compelled them to seek the comparatively fewand always diminishing fertile areas, and to defend themselves,under new conditions of life, against the wild hordes of green men.

Ages of close relationship and intermarrying had resultedin the race of red men, of which Dejah Thoris was a fairand beautiful daughter. During the ages of hardships andincessant warring between their own various races, as wellas with the green men, and before they had fitted themselvesto the changed conditions, much of the high civilizationand many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians hadbecome lost; but the red race of today has reached a pointwhere it feels that it has made up in new discoveries and ina more practical civilization for all that lies irretrievablyburied with the ancient Barsoomians, beneath the countlessintervening ages.

These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated andliterary race, but during the vicissitudes of those tryingcenturies of readjustment to new conditions, not only did theiradvancement and production cease entirely, but practicallyall their archives, records, and literature were lost.

Dejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legendsconcerning this lost race of noble and kindly people. Shesaid that the city in which we were camping was supposedto have been a center of commerce and culture known asKorad. It had been built upon a beautiful, natural harbor,landlocked by magnificent hills. The little valley on the westfront of the city, she explained, was all that remained of theharbor, while the pass through the hills to the old sea bottomhad been the channel through which the shipping passed upto the city's gates.

The shores of the ancient seas were dotted with just suchcities, and lesser ones, in diminishing numbers, were to befound converging toward the center of the oceans, as thepeople had found it necessary to follow the receding watersuntil necessity had forced upon them their ultimate salvation,the so-called Martian canals.

We had been so engrossed in exploration of the buildingand in our conversation that it was late in the afternoonbefore we realized it. We were brought back to a realizationof our present conditions by a messenger bearing a summonsfrom Lorquas Ptomel directing me to appear before himforthwith. Bidding Dejah Thoris and Sola farewell, andcommanding Woola to remain on guard, I hastened to theaudience chamber, where I found Lorquas Ptomel and TarsTarkas seated upon the rostrum.