She was very beautiful then.

Instantly her white lids veiled her eyes, and I thought I discovered

a delicate flush tingeing her cheek. Evidently she was embarrassed

at having been detected in the act of staring at a lesser creature,

I thought.

"Do you find the study of the lower orders interesting?" I asked,

laughing.

She looked up again with a nervous but relieved little laugh.

"Oh very," she said, "especially when they have such excellent

profiles."

It was my turn to flush, but I did not. I felt that she was poking

fun at me, and I admired a brave heart that could look for humour

on the road to death, and so I laughed with her.

"Do you know where we are going?" she said.

"To solve the mystery of the eternal hereafter, I imagine," I

replied.

"I am going to a worse fate than that," she said, with a little

shudder.

"What do you mean?"

"I can only guess," she replied, "since no thern damsel of all the

millions that have been stolen away by black pirates during the

ages they have raided our domains has ever returned to narrate her

experiences among them. That they never take a man prisoner lends

strength to the belief that the fate of the girls they steal is

worse than death."

"Is it not a just retribution?" I could not help but ask.

"What do you mean?"

"Do not the therns themselves do likewise with the poor creatures

who take the voluntary pilgrimage down the River of Mystery? Was

not Thuvia for fifteen years a plaything and a slave? Is it less

than just that you should suffer as you have caused others to

suffer?"

"You do not understand," she replied. "We therns are a holy race.

It is an honour to a lesser creature to be a slave among us. Did

we not occasionally save a few of the lower orders that stupidly

float down an unknown river to an unknown end all would become the

prey of the plant men and the apes."

"But do you not by every means encourage the superstition among

those of the outside world?" I argued. "That is the wickedest of

your deeds. Can you tell me why you foster the cruel deception?"

"All life on Barsoom," she said, "is created solely for the support

of the race of therns. How else could we live did the outer world

not furnish our labour and our food? Think you that a thern would

demean himself by labour?"

"It is true then that you eat human flesh?" I asked in horror.

She looked at me in pitying commiseration for my ignorance.

"Truly we eat the flesh of the lower orders. Do not you also?"

"The flesh of beasts, yes," I replied, "but not the flesh of man."

"As man may eat of the flesh of beasts, so may gods eat of the

flesh of man. The Holy Therns are the gods of Barsoom."

I was disgusted and I imagine that I showed it.

"You are an unbeliever now," she continued gently, "but should we

be fortunate enough to escape the clutches of the black pirates and

come again to the court of Matai Shang I think that we shall find

an argument to convince you of the error of your ways. And--," she

hesitated, "perhaps we shall find a way to keep you as--as--one of

us."

Again her eyes dropped to the floor, and a faint colour suffused

her cheek. I could not understand her meaning; nor did I for a

long time. Dejah Thoris was wont to say that in some things I was

a veritable simpleton, and I guess that she was right.

"I fear that I would ill requite your father's hospitality," I

answered, "since the first thing that I should do were I a thern

would be to set an armed guard at the mouth of the River Iss to

escort the poor deluded voyagers back to the outer world. Also

should I devote my life to the extermination of the hideous plant

men and their horrible companions, the great white apes."

She looked at me really horror struck.

"No, no," she cried, "you must not say such terribly sacrilegious

things--you must not even think them. Should they ever guess that

you entertained such frightful thoughts, should we chance to regain

the temples of the therns, they would mete out a frightful death

to you. Not even my--my--" Again she flushed, and started over.

"Not even I could save you."

I said no more. Evidently it was useless. She was even more

steeped in superstition than the Martians of the outer world. They

only worshipped a beautiful hope for a life of love and peace and

happiness in the hereafter. The therns worshipped the hideous plant

men and the apes, or at least they reverenced them as the abodes

of the departed spirits of their own dead.

At this point the door of our prison opened to admit Xodar.

He smiled pleasantly at me, and when he smiled his expression was

kindly--anything but cruel or vindictive.

"Since you cannot escape under any circumstances," he said, "I

cannot see the necessity for keeping you confined below. I will

cut your bonds and you may come on deck. You will witness something

very interesting, and as you never shall return to the outer world

it will do no harm to permit you to see it. You will see what

no other than the First Born and their slaves know the existence

of--the subterranean entrance to the Holy Land, to the real heaven

of Barsoom.

"It will be an excellent lesson for this daughter of the therns,"

he added, "for she shall see the Temple of Issus, and Issus,

perchance, shall embrace her."

Phaidor's head went high.

"What blasphemy is this, dog of a pirate?" she cried. "Issus would

wipe out your entire breed an' you ever came within sight of her

temple."

"You have much to learn, thern," replied Xodar, with an ugly smile,

"nor do I envy you the manner in which you will learn it."

As we came on deck I saw to my surprise that the vessel was passing

over a great field of snow and ice. As far as the eye could reach

in any direction naught else was visible.

There could be but one solution to the mystery. We were above the

south polar ice cap. Only at the poles of Mars is there ice or

snow upon the planet. No sign of life appeared below us. Evidently

we were too far south even for the great fur-bearing animals which

the Martians so delight in hunting.

Xodar was at my side as I stood looking out over the ship's rail.

"What course?" I asked him.

"A little west of south," he replied.