'I have orders for the commander of the gate, also.'
'I am he,' said the officer.
'Good,' I replied. 'My orders are to take the woman, if she has been recaptured, upon a malagor and fly her directly to Ay-mad, and the captain of the gate is made responsible to see that this is done. I feel sorry for you, if, there is any hitch.'
'There will be no hitch,' he said; 'but I do not see why there should be.'
'There may be, though,' I assured him, 'for some informer has told Ay-mad that the commander of the search party wishes Janai for himself. In all the confusion and insubordination and mutiny that has followed the abandonment of the city, Ay-mad is none too sure of himself or his power; so he is fearful that this officer may take advantage of conditions to defy him and keep the girl for himself when he learns what has happened here during his absence.'
'Well,' said the captain of the gate, 'I'll see to that.'
'It might be well,' I suggested, 'not to let the officer in command of the party know what you have in mind. I will hide inside the city gates so that he will not see me; and you can bring the girl to me and, later, a malagor, while you engage the officer in conversation and distract his attention. Then, when I have flown away, you may tell him.'
'That is a good idea,' he said. 'You are not such a fool as you look.'
'I am sure,' I said, 'that you will find you have made no mistake in your estimate of me.'
'Look!' he said, 'I believe they are coming now.' And sure enough, far away, and high in the sky, a little cluster of dots was visible which grew rapidly larger and larger, resolving themselves finally into eleven malagors with their burdens of warriors and captives.
As the party came closer and prepared to land, I stepped inside the gate where I could not be observed or recognized by any of them. The captain of the gate advanced and greeted the commander of the returning search party. They spoke briefly for a few moments, and then I saw Janai coming toward the gate; and presently a warrior followed her, leading a large malagor. I scrutinized the fellow carefully as he approached; but I did not recognize him, and so I was sure that he would not know me, and then Janai entered and stood face to face with me.
'Tor-dur-bar!' she exclaimed.
'Quiet,' I whispered. 'You are in grave danger from which I think I can save you if you will trust me, as evidently you have not in the past.'
'I have not known whom to trust,' she said, 'but I have trusted you more than any other.'
The warrior had now reached the gate with the malagor. I tossed Janai to its back and leaped astride the great bird behind her; then we were off. I directed the flight of the bird toward the east end of the island, to make them think I was taking Janai to Ay-mad; but when we had crossed some low hills and they were hidden from my view, I turned back around the south side of the island and headed toward Phundahl.
As we started to fly from the island the great bird became almost unmanageable, trying to return again to its fellows. I had to fight it constantly to keep it headed in the direction I wished to travel. These exertions coming upon top of its long flight tired it rapidly so that eventually it gave up and flapped slowly and dismally along the route I had chosen. Then, for the first time, Janai and I were able to converse.
'How did you happen to be at the gate when I arrived?' she asked. 'How is it that you are the messenger whom Ay-mad chose to bring me to him?'
'Ay-mad knows nothing about it,' I replied. 'It is a little fiction of my own which I invented to deceive the captain of the gate and the commander of the party that recaptured you.'
'But how did you know that I had been recaptured and that I would be returned to Morbus today? It is all very confusing and baffling; I cannot understand it.'
'Did you not hear that a malagor was stolen from your camp last night?' I asked.
'Tor-dur-bar!' she exclaimed. 'It was you? What were you doing there?'
'I had set out in search of you and was beside the island when your party landed.'
'I see,' she said. 'How very clever and how very brave.'
'If you had believed in me and trusted me,' I said, 'we might have escaped; but I do not believe that I would have been such a fool as to be recaptured, as was Sytor.'
'I believed in you and trusted you more than any other,' she said.
'Then why did you run away with Sytor?' I demanded.
'I did not run away with Sytor. He tried to persuade me, telling me many stories about you which I did not wish to believe. Finally I told him definitely that I would not go with him, but he and Pandar came in the night and took me by force.'
'I am glad that you did not go away with him willingly,' I said. I can tell you that it made me feel very good to think that she had not done so; and now I loved her more than ever, but little good it would do me as long as I sported this hideous carcass and monstrously inhuman face.
'And what of Vor Daj?' she asked presently.
'We shall have to leave his body where it is until Ras Thavas returns; there is no alternative.'
'But if Ras Thavas never returns?' she asked, her voice trembling.
'Then Vor Daj will lie where he is through all eternity,' I replied.
'How horrible,' she breathed. 'He was so handsome, so wonderful.'
'You thought well of him?' I asked. And I was immediately ashamed of myself for taking this unfair advantage of her.
'I thought well of him,' she said, in a matter-of-fact tone, a reply which was neither very exciting nor very encouraging. She might have spoken in the same way of a thoat or a calot.
Sometime after noon, it became apparent that the malagor had about reached the limit of its endurance. It began to drop closer and closer toward the marshes, and presently it came to the ground upon one of the largest islands that I had seen. It was a very attractive island, with hill and dale and forest land, and a little stream winding down to the lake, a most unusual sight upon Barsoom. The moment that the malagor alighted, it rolled over upon its side throwing us to the ground, and I thought that it was about to die as it lay there struggling and gasping.
'Poor thing!' said Janai. 'It has been carrying double for three days now, and with insufficient food, practically none at all.'
'Well, it has at least brought us away from Morbus,' I said, 'and if it recovers it is going to take us on to Helium.'
'Why to Helium?' she asked.
'Because it is the only country where I am sure you will find safe asylum.'
'And why should I find safety there?' she demanded.
'Because you are a friend of Vor Daj; and John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom, will see that any friend of Vor Daj is well received and well treated.'
'And you?' she asked. I must have shuddered visibly at the thought of entering Helium in this horrible guise, for she said quickly, 'I am sure that you will be received well, too, for you certainly deserve it far more than I.' She thought for a moment in silence, and then she asked, 'Do you know what became of the brain of Vor Daj? Sytor told me that it was destroyed.'
I wanted to tell her the truth; but I could not bring myself to it, and so I said, 'It was not destroyed. Ras Thavas knows where it is; and if I ever find him, it will be restored to Vor Daj.'
'It does not seem possible that we two shall ever find Ras Thavas,' she said, sadly.
It did not seem likely to me either, but I would not give up hope. John Carter must live! Ras Thavas must live! And some day I should find them.
But what of my body lying there beneath the laboratory building of Morbus? What if the mass from Vat Room No. 4 found its way into 3-17? The very thought made me feel faint; and yet it was not impossible. If the building and the corridor filled with the mass, the great pressure that it would exert might conceivably break down even the massive door of 3-17. Then those horrid heads would devour me; or, if the mass spread from the island across the marshes, it would be impossible ever to retrieve my body even though it remained forever untouched.
It was not a very cheerful outlook, and I found it extremely depressing; but my thoughts were suddenly
