"But the great feast and the marriage is but three days off," pleaded O-Tar. "It shall be a great gala occasion. The warriors and the chiefs all know that--it is the custom. Upon that day gifts and honors shall be bestowed. Tell me, who are most bitter against me? I will send you among them and let it be known that I am planning rewards for their past services to the throne. We will make jeds of chiefs and chiefs of warriors, and grant them palaces and slaves. Eh, E-Thas?" The other shook his head. "It will not do, O-Tar. They will have nothing of your gifts or honors. I have heard them say as much." "What do they want?" demanded O-Tar. "They want a jeddak as brave as the bravest," replied E-Thas, though his knees shook as he said it. "They think I am a coward?" cried the jeddak. "They say you are afraid to go to the apartments of O-mai the Cruel." For a long time O-Tar sat, his head sunk upon his breast, staring blankly at the floor. "Tell them," he said at last in a hollow voice that sounded not at all like the voice of a great jeddak; "tell them that I will go to the chambers of O-Mai and search for Turan the slave." CHAPTER XXI A RISK FOR LOVE "Ey, ey, he is a craven and he called me 'doddering fool'!" The speaker was I-Gos and he addressed a knot of chieftains in one of the chambers of the palace of O-Tar, Jeddak of Manator: "If A-Kor was alive there were a jeddak for us!" "Who says that A-Kor is dead?" demanded one of the chiefs. "Where is he then?" asked I-Gos. "Have not others disappeared whom O-Tar thought too well beloved for men so near the throne as they?" The chief shook his head. "And I thought that, or knew it, rather; I'd join U-Thor at The Gate of Enemies." "S-s-st," cautioned one; "here comes the licker of feet," and all eyes were turned upon the approaching E-Thas. "Kaor, friends!" he exclaimed as he stopped among them, but his friendly greeting elicited naught but a few surly nods. "Have you heard the news?" he continued, unabashed by treatment to which he was becoming accustomed. "What--has O-Tar seen an ulsio and fainted?" demanded I-Gos with broad sarcasm. "Men have died for less than that, ancient one," E-Thas reminded him. "I am safe," retorted I-Gos, "for I am not a brave and popular son of the jeddak of Manator."