United States or Montserrat ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Turan breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that his disguise was effective, but he was caught in the middle of it by a hail from the warrior who had stopped and turned toward him. The panthan was glad that a sword hung at his side, and glad too that they were buried in the dim recesses of the pits and that there would be but a single antagonist, for time was precious.
There was only one other to whom she might hope to look Turan the panthan; but where was he? She had seen his sword in play and she knew that it had been wielded by a master hand, and who should know swordplay better than Tara of Helium, who had learned it well under the constant tutorage of John Carter himself.
"You mean," he asked, "that the ears of a Princess must not listen to words of love from a panthan?" "It is not that, Turan," she replied; "but rather that I may not in honor listen to words of love from another than him to whom I am betrothed a fellow countryman, Djor Kantos." "You mean, Tara of Helium," he cried, "that were it not for that you would " "Stop!" she commanded.
A-Kor drew back with a half-stifled ejaculation of repulsion. "Do not fear," Turan reassured him. "It is my friend he whom I told you held O-Tar while Tara and I escaped." Ghek climbed to the table top and squatted between the two warriors. "You are safe in assuming," he said addressing A-Kor, "that Turan the panthan has no master in all Manator where the art of sword-play is concerned.
Suddenly Turan leaned forward, pointing ahead. "Look, Tara of Helium!" he cried. "A city! As I am Ga as I am Turan the panthan, a city." Far in the distance the domes and walls and slender towers of a city shone in the rising sun.
Chances were that they were far from the abode of friends and so must the panthan move with the utmost caution; but there was a city and where a city was, was water, even though it were a deserted city, and food if it were inhabited. To the red man food and water, even in the citadel of an enemy, meant food and drink for Tara of Helium.
So he went, that very night at eleven, into Amir Nath's Gully, clad in a boorka, which cloaks a man as well as a woman. Directly the gongs in the City made the hour, the little voice behind the grating took up "The Love Song of Har Dyal" at the verse where the Panthan girl calls upon Har Dyal to return. The song is really pretty in the Vernacular. In English you miss the wail of it.
The panthan was about to reply when Tara of Helium spoke. "I know not this fellow," she said. "Who dares say that he be a friend and companion of the Princess Tara of Helium?" Turan and Ghek looked at her in surprise, but at Turan she did not look, and to Ghek she passed a quick glance of warning, as to say: "Hold thy peace."
It was this district he was seeking, and it was for this reason his search had led him away from the main gate of the city which he knew would not be located in a poor district. He attempted to open the door only to find that it resisted his every effort it was locked upon the outside. Here indeed was a sorry contretemps. Turan the panthan scratched his head.
His position was a delicate one, since he did not wish to engage Gahan personally, while it appeared that there was little likelihood of his being able to escape. There was just one hope and that lay in his Princess' Panthan, so, without more deliberation he ordered the piece onto the square occupied by the Black Chief. The sympathies of the spectators were all with Gahan now.
Word Of The Day