CARTHORIS AND THUVIA
Upon a bench of the of a a woman sat. Her shapely, upon the jewel-strewn walk that the trees across the of the gardens of Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth, as a dark-haired, red-skinned low toward her, close to her ear.
“Ah, Thuvia of Ptarth,” he cried, “you are cold the of my love! No than your heart, is the hard, cold of this thrice happy bench which supports your and form! Tell me, O Thuvia of Ptarth, that I may still hope—that though you do not love me now, yet some day, some day, my princess, I—”
The girl to her with an of and displeasure. Her was upon her red shoulders. Her dark looked into those of the man.
“You yourself, and the of Barsoom, Astok,” she said. “I have you no right thus to address the of Thuvan Dihn, have you such a right.”
The man and her by the arm.
“You shall be my princess!” he cried. “By the of Issus, shalt, shall any other come Astok, Prince of Dusar, and his heart’s desire. Tell me that there is another, and I shall cut out his and it to the wild of the sea-bottoms!”
At touch of the man’s hand upon her the girl her skin, for the of the of the of Mars are but little less than sacred. The act of Astok, Prince of Dusar, was profanation. There was no terror in the of Thuvia of Ptarth—only for the thing the man had done and for its possible consequences.
“Release me.” Her voice was level—frigid.
The man and her toward him.
“Release me!” she sharply, “or I call the guard, and the Prince of Dusar what that will mean.”
Quickly he his right arm about her and to her to his lips. With a little she him full in the mouth with the that her free arm.
“Calot!” she exclaimed, and then: “The guard! The guard! Hasten in protection of the Princess of Ptarth!”
In answer to her call a dozen came across the sward, their long-swords in the sun, the metal of their against that of their harness, and in their of at the which met their eyes.
But they had passed across the garden to where Astok of Dusar still the girl in his grasp, another from a of that a close at hand. A tall, he was, with black and eyes; of and narrow of hip; a clean-limbed man. His skin was but with the copper colour that marks the red men of Mars from the other of the planet—he was like them, and yet there was a than that which in his skin and his eyes.
There was a difference, too, in his movements. He came on in great that him so over the ground that the speed of the was as nothing by comparison.
Astok still Thuvia’s as the him. The new-comer no time and he spoke but a single word.
“Calot!” he snapped, and then his the other’s chin, him high into the air and him in a the centre of the the bench.
Her toward the girl. “Kaor, Thuvia of Ptarth!” he cried. “It that my visit well.”
“Kaor, Carthoris of Helium!” the returned the man’s greeting, “and what less one of the son of such a sire?”
He his of the to his father, John Carter, Warlord of Mars. And then the guardsmen, from their charge, came up just as the Prince of Dusar, at the mouth, and with sword, from the of the pimalia.
Astok would have to with the son of Dejah Thoris, but the pressed about him, preventing, though it was that would have pleased Carthoris of Helium.
“But say the word, Thuvia of Ptarth,” he begged, “and will give me than to this the he has earned.”
“It cannot be, Carthoris,” she replied. “Even though he has all upon my consideration, yet is he the guest of the jeddak, my father, and to him alone may he account for the act he has committed.”
“As you say, Thuvia,” the Heliumite. “But he shall account to Carthoris, Prince of Helium, for this to the of my father’s friend.” As he spoke, though, there in his a fire that a nearer, for his of this of Barsoom.
The maid’s the of her skin, and the of Astok, Prince of Dusar, darkened, too, as he read that which passed the two in the gardens of the jeddak.
“And to me,” he at Carthoris, the man’s challenge.
The still Astok. It was a difficult position for the officer who it. His was the son of a jeddak; he was the guest of Thuvan Dihn—until but now an guest upon every had been showered. To him else than war, and yet he had done that which in the of the Ptarth death.
The man hesitated. He looked toward his princess. She, too, all that upon the action of the moment. For many years Dusar and Ptarth had been at peace with each other. Their great merchant ships and the larger of the two nations. Even now, above the gold-shot of the jeddak’s palace, she see the of a taking its way through the thin Barsoomian air toward the west and Dusar.
By a word she might these two nations into a that would them of their blood and their riches, them all against the of their and less powerful neighbors, and at last a to the green of the sea-bottoms.
No of her decision, for is to the children of Mars. It was a of the that she, the of their jeddak, for the of her father’s people.
“I called you, Padwar,” she said to the of the guard, “to protect the person of your princess, and to keep the peace that must not be the gardens of the jeddak. That is all. You will me to the palace, and the Prince of Helium will me.”
Without another in the direction of Astok she turned, and taking Carthoris’ hand, moved slowly toward the marble that the ruler of Ptarth and his court. On either a file of guardsmen. Thus Thuvia of Ptarth a way out of a dilemma, the of her father’s guest under restraint, and at the same time the two princes, who otherwise would have been at each other’s the moment she and the had departed.
Beside the Astok, his dark to of his as he the of the woman who had the of his nature and the man he now to be the one who his love and its consummation.
As they the Astok his shoulders, and with a the gardens toward another of the where he and his were housed.
That night he took of Thuvan Dihn, and though no mention was of the the garden, it was plain to see through the cold of the jeddak’s that only the of him from the he for the Prince of Dusar.
Carthoris was not present at the leave-taking, was Thuvia. The was as and as make it, and when the last of the Dusarians over the rail of the that had them upon this visit to the of Ptarth, and the engine of had slowly from the of the landing stage, a note of was in the voice of Thuvan Dihn as he to one of his officers with a word of upon a to that which had been in the minds of all for hours.
But, after all, was it so foreign?
“Inform Prince Sovan,” he directed, “that it is our wish that the which for Kaol this be to to the west of Ptarth.”
As the warship, Astok to the of his father, toward the west, Thuvia of Ptarth, upon the same bench where the Prince of Dusar had her, the lights of the smaller in the distance. Beside her, in the light of the nearer moon, sat Carthoris. His were not upon the of the battleship, but on the profile of the girl’s face.
“Thuvia,” he whispered.
The girl her toward his. His hand out to hers, but she her own away.
“Thuvia of Ptarth, I love you!” the warrior. “Tell me that it not offend.”
She her sadly. “The love of Carthoris of Helium,” she said simply, “could be but an to any woman; but you must not speak, my friend, of upon me that which I may not reciprocate.”
The man got slowly to his feet. His were wide in astonishment. It had to the Prince of Helium that Thuvia of Ptarth might love another.
“But at Kadabra!” he exclaimed. “And later here at your father’s court, what did you do, Thuvia of Ptarth, that might have me that you not return my love?”
“And what did I do, Carthoris of Helium,” she returned, “that might lead you to that I did return it?”
He paused in thought, and then his head. “Nothing, Thuvia, that is true; yet I have you loved me. Indeed, you well how near to has been my love for you.”
“And how might I know it, Carthoris?” she asked innocently. “Did you tell me as much? Ever have of love for me from your lips?”
“But you must have it!” he exclaimed. “I am like my father—witless in of the heart, and of a way with women; yet the that these garden paths—the trees, the flowers, the sward—all must have read the love that has my since my were new by your perfect and form; so how you alone have been to it?”
“Do the of Helium pay to their men?” asked Thuvia.
“You are playing with me!” Carthoris. “Say that you are but playing, and that after all you love me, Thuvia!”
“I cannot tell you that, Carthoris, for I am promised to another.”
Her was level, but was there not it the hint of an of sadness? Who may say?
“Promised to another?” Carthoris the words. His almost white, and then his came up as him in the blood of the of a world.
“Carthoris of Helium you every with the man of your choice,” he said. “With—” and then he hesitated, waiting for her to in the name.
“Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol,” she replied. “My father’s friend and Ptarth’s most ally.”
The man looked at her for a moment he spoke again.
“You love him, Thuvia of Ptarth?” he asked.
“I am promised to him,” she simply.
He did not press her. “He is of Barsoom’s blood and fighters,” Carthoris. “My father’s friend and mine—would that it might have been another!” he almost savagely. What the girl was by the of her expression, which was only by a little of that might have been for Carthoris, herself, or for them both.
Carthoris of Helium did not ask, though he noted it, for his to Kulan Tith was the of the blood of John Carter of Virginia for a friend, than which be no loyalty.
He a jewel-encrusted of the girl’s to his lips.
“To the and of Kulan Tith and the that has been upon him,” he said, and though his voice was there was the true ring of in it. “I told you that I loved you, Thuvia, I that you were promised to another. I may not tell you it again, but I am that you know it, for there is no in it either to you or to Kulan Tith or to myself. My love is such that it may as well Kulan Tith—if you love him.” There was almost a question in the statement.
“I am promised to him,” she replied.
Carthoris slowly away. He one hand upon his heart, the other upon the of his long-sword.
“These are yours—always,” he said. A moment later he had entered the palace, and was gone from the girl’s sight.
Had he returned at once he would have her upon the bench, her in her arms. Was she weeping? There was none to see.
Carthoris of Helium had come all to the of his father’s friend that day. He had come alone in a small flier, sure of the same welcome that always him at Ptarth. As there had been no in his there was no need of in his going.
To Thuvan Dihn he that he had been but an of his own with which his was equipped—a of the ordinary Martian air compass, which, when set for a destination, will thereon, making it only necessary to keep a vessel’s always in the direction of the to any point upon Barsoom by the route.
Carthoris’ upon this of an device which the in the direction of the compass, and upon directly over the point for which the was set, the to a and it, also automatically, to the ground.
“You the of this invention,” he was saying to Thuvan Dihn, who had him to the landing stage upon the to the and his friend farewell.
A dozen officers of the with were the and his guest, to the conversation—so on the part of one of the that he was twice by a for his in pushing himself ahead of his to view the of the “controlling compass,” as the thing was called.
“For example,” Carthoris, “I have an all-night me, as to-night. I set the here upon the right-hand which the of Barsoom, so that the point rests upon the exact and of Helium. Then I start the engine, roll up in my sleeping and furs, and with lights burning, through the air toward Helium, that at the hour I shall toward the landing stage upon my own palace, I am still asleep or no.”
“Provided,” Thuvan Dihn, “you do not to with some other night in the meanwhile.”
Carthoris smiled. “No of that,” he replied. “See here,” and he a device at the right of the compass. “This is my ‘obstruction evader,’ as I call it. This visible device is the which the on or off. The itself is deck, to the and the levers.
“It is simple, being nothing more than a radio-activity in all to a of a hundred yards or so from the flier. Should this be in any direction a the irregularity, at the same time an to a magnetic device which in turn the mechanism, the of the away from the until the craft’s radio-activity is no longer in with the obstruction, then she once more into her normal course. Should the approach from the rear, as in case of a faster-moving me, the the speed as well as the gear, and the ahead and either up or down, as the is upon a or higher plane than herself.
“In cases, that is when the are many, or of such a nature as to the more than forty-five in any direction, or when the has its and to a hundred yards of the ground, the her to a full stop, at the same time a loud which will the pilot. You see I have almost every contingency.”
Thuvan Dihn his of the device. The pushed almost to the flier’s side. His were to slits.
“All but one,” he said.
The looked at him in astonishment, and one of them the none too by the to push him to his proper place. Carthoris his hand.
“Wait,” he urged. “Let us what the man has to say—no of mind is perfect. Perchance he has a that it will be well to know at once. Come, my good fellow, and what may be the one I have overlooked?”
As he spoke Carthoris the closely for the time. He saw a man of and handsome, as are all those of the of Martian red men; but the fellow’s were thin and cruel, and across one was the faint, white line of a sword-cut from the right temple to the of the mouth.
“Come,” the Prince of Helium. “Speak!”
The man hesitated. It was that he the that had him the centre of observation. But at last, no alternative, he spoke.
“It might be with,” he said, “by an enemy.”
Carthoris a small key from his pocket-pouch.
“Look at this,” he said, it to the man. “If you know of locks, you will know that the which this is the of a of locks. It the of the from tampering. Without it an enemy must the device to its heart, his to the most observer.”
The took the key, at it shrewdly, and then as he to return it to Carthoris it upon the marble flagging. Turning to look for it he planted the of his full upon the object. For an he all his weight upon the that the key, then he and with an as of that he had it, stooped, it, and returned it to the Heliumite. Then he to his station the and was forgotten.
A moment later Carthoris had his to Thuvan Dihn and his nobles, and with lights had into the star-shot of the Martian night.
