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"No!" cried I-Gos "Slay him not and pray that he be not dead if you would save your princess"

"How is that?" asked Gahan

"If word of O-Tar's death reached the quarters of the women the Princess Tara would be lost They know O-Tar's intention of taking her to wife andher Jeddara of Manator, so you may rest assured that they all hate her with the hate of jealous women Only O-Tar's power protects her now from harm Should O-Tar die they would turn her over to the warriors and the e her"

Gahan sheathed his sword "Your point is well taken; but what shall we do with him?"

"Leave him where he lies," counseled I-Gos "He is not dead When he revives he will return to his quarters with a fine tale of his bravery and there will be none to in his boasts-none but I-Gos Come! he may revive at any moment and he must not find us here"

I-Gos crossed to the body of his jeddak, knelt beside it for an instant, and then returned past the couch to Gahan The two quit the chamber of O-Mai and took their way toward the spiral runway Here I-Gos led Gahan to a higher level and out upon the roof of that portion of the palace froh tower quite close by "There," he said, "lies the Princess of Helium, and quite safe she will be until the time of the ceremony"

"Safe, possibly, from other hands, but not from her own," said Gahan "She will never become Jeddara of Manator-first will she destroy herself"

"She would do that?" asked I-Gos

"She will, unless you can get word to her that I still live and that there is yet hope," replied Gahan

"I cannot get word to her," said I-Gos "The quarters of his wouards with jealous hand Here are histhem are countless spies, so that no man knohich be which No shadow falls within those chaazing at the lighted s of the high tower in the upper chambers of which Tara of Helium was confined "I will find a way, I-Gos," he said

"There is no way," replied the old man

For some time they stood upon the roof beneath the brilliant stars and hurtling ainst the tih tower to the throne rooued I-Gos, that any hope of rescuing her ht trust the other Gahan did not know, and so he kept to hie of the plan that he had forwarded to Floran and Val Dor by Ghek, but he assured the ancient taxidermist that if he were sincere in his oft-repeated declaration that O-Tar should be denounced and superseded he would have his opportunity on the night that the jeddak sought to wed the Heliumetic princess