"For what shall we die?" asked Ghek."Your people prate of the just laws of Manator, and yet you would slay three strangers without telling them of what crime they are accused.""He is right," said a deep voice.It was the voice of U-Thor, the great jed of Manatos.O-Tar looked at him and scowled; but there came voices from other portions of the chamber seconding the demand for justice.
"Then know, though you shall die anyway," cried O-Tar, "that all three are convicted of Corphalism and that as only a jeddak may slay such as you in safety you are about to be honored with the steel of O-Tar.""Fool!" cried Turan."Know you not that in the veins of this woman flows the blood of ten thousand jeddaks--that greater than yours is her power in her own land? She is Tara, Princess of Helium, great-granddaughter of Tardos Mors, daughter of John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom.She cannot be a Corphal.Nor is this creature Ghek, nor am I.And you would know more, I can prove my right to be heard and to be believed if I may have word with the Princess Haja of Gathol, whose son is my fellow prisoner in the pits of O-Tar, his father."At this U-Thor rose to his feet and faced O-Tar."What means this?" he asked."Speaks the man the truth? Is the son of Haja a prisoner in thy pits, O-Tar?""And what is it to the jed of Manatos who be the prisoners in the pits of his jeddak?" demanded O-Tar, angrily.
"It is this to the jed of Manatos," replied U-Thor in a voice so low as to be scarce more than a whisper and yet that was heard the whole length and breadth of the great throne room of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator."You gave me a slave woman, Haja, who had been a princess in Gathol, because you feared her influence among the slaves from Gathol.I have made of her a free woman, and I have married her and made her thus a princess of Manatos.Her son is my son, O-Tar, and though thou be my jeddak, I say to you that for any harm that befalls A-Kor you shall answer to U-Thor of Manatos."O-Tar looked long at U-Thor, but he made no reply.Then he turned again to Turan."If one be a Corphal," he said, "then all of you be Corphals, and we know well from the things that this creature has done," he pointed at Ghek, "that he is a Corphal, for no mortal has such powers as he.And as you are all Corphals you must all die." He took another step downward, when Ghek spoke.
"These two have no such powers as I," he said."They are but ordinary, brainless things such as yourself.I have done all the things that your poor, ignorant warriors have told you; but this only demonstrates that I am of a higher order than yourselves, as is indeed the fact.I am a kaldane, not a Corphal.There is nothing supernatural or mysterious about me, other than that to the ignorant all things which they cannot understand are mysterious.Easily might I have eluded your warriors and escaped your pits; but I remained in the hope that I might help these two foolish creatures who have not the brains to escape without help.
They befriended me and saved my life.I owe them this debt.Do not slay them--they are harmless.Slay me if you will.I offer my life if it will appease your ignorant wrath.I cannot return to Bantoom and so I might as well die, for there is no pleasure in intercourse with the feeble intellects that cumber the face of the world outside the valley of Bantoom.""Hideous egotist," said O-Tar, "prepare to die and assume not to dictate to O-Tar the jeddak.He has passed sentence and all three of you shall feel the jeddak's naked steel.I have spoken!"He took another step downward and then a strange thing happened.
He paused, his eyes fixed upon the eyes of Ghek.His sword slipped from nerveless fingers, and still he stood there swaying forward and back.A jed rose to rush to his side; but Ghek stopped him with a word.
"Wait!" he cried."The life of your jeddak is in my hands.You believe me a Corphal and so you believe, too, that only the sword of a jeddak may slay me, therefore your blades are useless against me.Offer harm to any one of us, or seek to approach your jeddak until I have spoken, and he shall sink lifeless to the marble.Release the two prisoners and let them come to my side--Iwould speak to them, privately.Quick! do as I say; I would as lief as not slay O-Tar.I but let him live that I may gain freedom for my friends--obstruct me and he dies."The guards fell back, releasing Tara and Turan, who came close to Ghek's side.
"Do as I tell you and do it quickly," whispered the kaldane."Icannot hold this fellow long, nor could I kill him thus.There are many minds working against mine and presently mine will tire and O-Tar will be himself again.You must make the best of your opportunity while you may.Behind the arras that you see hanging in the rear of the throne above you is a secret opening.Prom it a corridor leads to the pits of the palace, where there are storerooms containing food and drink.Few people go there.From these pits lead others to all parts of the city.Follow one that runs due west and it will bring you to The Gate of Enemies.The rest will then lie with you.I can do no more; hurry before my waning powers fail me--I am not as Luud, who was a king.He could have held this creature forever.Make haste! Go!"
