'I must be certain,' said the Warlord.
'There is no question about it, John Carter,' I spoke up in English.
His eyes went wide, and when they fell upon me and he noted my lighter skin, from which the dye was wearing away, he stepped forward and held out his hand.
'A countryman?' he asked.
'Yes, an American,' I replied.
'I was almost surprised,' he said. 'Yet why should I be? I have crossed — there is no reason why others should not. And you have accomplished it! You must come to Helium with me and tell me all about it.'
Further conversation was interrupted by the return of the aide, who brought a young woman with him. At sight of her Dar Tarus uttered a cry of joy and sprang forward, and I did not need to be told that this was Kara Vasa.
There is little more to tell that might not bore you in the telling- of how John Carter himself took Valla Dia and me to Duhor after attending the nuptials of Dar Tarus and Kara Vasa; and of the great surprise that awaited me in Duhor, where I learned for the first time that Kor San, Jeddak of Duhor, was the father of Valla Dia; and of the honors and the great riches that he heaped upon me when Valla Dia and I were wed.
John Carter was present at the wedding and we initiated upon Barsoom a good old American custom, for the Warlord acted as best man; and then he insisted that we follow that up with a honeymoon and bore us off to Helium, where I am writing this.
Even now it seems like a dream that I can look out of my window and see the scarlet and the yellow towers of the twin cities of Helium; that I have met, and see daily, Carthoris, Thuvia of Ptarth, Tara of Helium, Mars. Though to me, beautiful as she is, there is another even more beautiful-Valla Dia, Princess of Duhor-Mrs. Ulysses Paxton.
