“Enough, sir! We owe everything to you. Ask anything you will, and it is yours.”
Robert was seized with considerable embarrassment. The cynosure of countless worshiping eyes, including a pair of very blue and very trustful ones beside the governor, he wished devoutly that he could escape. His was not a bombastic nature. Naturally of a somewhat retiring disposition, this sudden lionizing temporarily robbed him of coherent speech.
He thought of poor Taggert, who had given his life. There was but one thing that he wanted—and she was denied him. He had definitely determined not to sacrifice her future happiness for his own. Her eyes tempted him sorely. They seemed to reproach him. He realized that she really loved him and hoped that he would ask for her hand. He also felt assured that Hakon would readily consent to his marrying her, if he were to remain upon Mars. But his first duty was to the professor and Taggert. He had been entrusted with a mission by the loyal-hearted reporter as the latter was dying. That mission he would fulfil to the limit of his power.
“If you will persist in a reward, sire, then let it be in tynir, the yellow metal which we call gold, and which is so plentiful here but so rare on our planet—or in rahmobis, gems of great value among our people, who know them as diamonds.”
“It shall be as you desire,” answered Hakon. “You shall have as much of both as can be carried in the Sphere.”
Even as Robert spoke he saw the happiness fade from Zola’s countenance. A look of gentle, pathetic reproach came into her eyes. She looked away as if to hide it from him.
It flashed to Robert’s mind that perhaps, after all, they might not be able to return to the Earth. Would they find the Sphere intact? He thrilled guiltily, realizing that the answer to this question might yet make the princess his.
Slowly the procession threaded its way back through the cheering populace toward the palace. Robert, astride Hakon’s mount, rode beside Professor Palmer, while Zola and her father followed in one of the luxurious motor carriages.
Her strange quiet disturbed her father.
“My daughter is not contented?” he ventured anxiously.