Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-07-13

you were all ready TO become my prisoners
with scarce a blow struck on either side
The fleet must have missed you" he said.
but II will return to Omean, and then that
viii be n very different matter--for John
Carter"
"I do not know that the fleet has missed
me as yet" I said, but Of course he did not
grasp my meaning and only looked puzzled.
Many prisoners travel TO Issus in your
grim craft. Yersted?" I asked.
Very many" he assented.
Might you remember one whom men
called Dejah Thoris?"
well indeed, for her great beauty. and
then, too, for the fact that she was wife to
the first mortal that ever escaped from
Issus through all the countless ages Of her
godhood And they say that fssus remem-
bers her best as tho wife Of one and the
mother Of another who raised their hands
against the goddess of Life Eternal"
I shuddered for fear of the cowardy re-
venge that | knew Issus might have taken
upon the innocent Deiah Thoris for the
sacrlege of her son and her husband
And where is Dejah Thoris now2" I
asked, knowing that he would say the
words I most dreaded, but yet 1 loved her
so that I could not refrain from hearing
even the worst about her fate so that II fell
from the lips of one who had seen her but
recently. 1t was as though 1t brought her
closer to me-
Yesterday the monthly rites of Issus were
held" replied Yersted, "and I saw her then
sitting in her accustomed place at the feet
of Issus."
what" I cried "she Is not dead, them"
why no." replied the black; ut has
been no year since she gazed upon the
divine glory Of the radiant face Of"
mo year !" interrupted
why no." insisted Yersted at cannot
have been upward OF 370 or $50 days"
a great light burst upon me. How stupid
had been I could scare restrain an out
ward exhibition of inv.
Why had l forgotten the great difference
In tho length of Martlan and earthly years? =?
The ten earth years l had spent upon Bar
SOON had encompassed but five years and
ninety-siN days of Marian time, whose
days are Al minutes longer than ours, and
whose years number 6s7 days.
II am In time! l am In time ~
The words surged through my brain
again and again. until at last must have
voiced them audbly, for Yersted shook
his head.
I'm time to save your princess7" no
asked, and then without waiting for my
reply NO John Carter, Issus will not
give up her own. She knows that you are
coming. and ere ever a vandal foot is set
within tho precincts of the Temple of Issus,
IL such calamity should befall, Dejah
Thoris Will be put away forever from the
last faint hope of rescue"
You mean that she will be killed merely
to thwart mo?" / asked.
NOT tnat, Otner tnan as n last resort,
he replied. Hast ever heard of the Tenn
pie of the Sun? 1t is there that tney will
put her 1t lies far within the inner court
of the Temple of Issus-a little temple
| that raises a thin spre far above the spires
and minarets of the great temple that sur
rounds Il.
Beneath It, In the ground, there lies the
main body of the temple consisting of 6S7
| circular chambers. one below another. To
each chamber single corridor leads
| through solid rock from the pits of Issus.
"As the entire Temple of the Sun revolves
| once with each revolution of Barsoom about
| the sun, but once each year does the en-
| trance to each separate chamber come
| opposite the mouth Of the corridor which
| forms its only link to the world without.
Here Issus puts Il ose who displease her
| but whom she does not care to execute
| forthwith. Or to punish a noble of the
| First Born she may cause him to be placed
| within a chamber of tho Temple of the Sun
| for n year
"Ofttimes she mprisons an eXecutioner
| with the condemned, that death may come
| in q certain horrible form upon given day
| or again, but enough food Is deposited In
| the chamber to sustain life but the number
| of days that Issus has allotted for mental
| anguish
"Thus will Dejah Thoris die. and her
| fate will be sealed by the first alien foot
that crosses the threshold of Issus."
So was to be thwarted in the end
| Though 1 had performed the miraculous
| and come within few short moments OF
my princess, yet was as far from her as
| when stood upon the banks OF the Hudson
| 4S,000,0O0 miles away.