“But I do not wish to go. You are not Tur. You are Vad Varo. I shall call for help and my guards will come and slay you.”
“There is no one in the palace,” I reminded her. “Did I, Tur, not send them away?”
“I shall not go with you,” she announced firmly. “Rather would I die.”
“You shall go with me, Xaxa,” I replied, and though she fought and struggled we carried her from her apartment and up the spiral runway to the roof where, I prayed, I should find the hangars and the royal fliers; and as we stepped out into the fresh night air of Mars we did see the hangars before us, but we saw something else—a group of Phundahlian warriors of the Jeddara’s Guard whom they had evidently failed to notify of the commands of Tur. At sight of them Xaxa cried aloud in relief.
“To me! To the Jeddara!” she cried. “Strike down these assassins and save me!”
There were three of them and there were three of us, but they were armed and between us we had but Xaxa’s slender dagger. Gor Hajus carried that. Victory seemed turned to defeat as they rushed towards us; but it was Gor Hajus who gave them pause. He seized Xaxa and raised the blade, its point above her heart. “Halt!” he cried, “or I strike.”
The warriors hesitated; Xaxa was silent, stricken with fear. Thus we stood in stalemate when, just beyond the three Phundahlian warriors, I saw a movement at the roof’s edge. What was it? In the dim light I saw something that seemed a human head, and yet unhuman, rise slowly above the edge of the roof, and then, silently, a great form followed, and then I recognized it—Hovan Du, the great white ape.
“Tell them,” I cried to Xaxa in a loud voice that Hovan Du might hear, “that I am Tur, for see, I come again in the semblance of a white ape!” and I pointed to Hovan Du. “I would not destroy these poor warriors. Let them lay down their weapons and go in peace.”
The men turned, and seeing the great ape standing there behind them, materialized, it might have been, out of thin air, were shaken.
“Who is he, Jeddara?” demanded one of the men.