? ? ? ? I caught a fleeting grin passing across the features of the black as he heard her words. I did not then understand why he smiled. Later I was to learn, and she, too, in a most horrible manner.
? ? ? ? "If the other thing you have just learned," she continued, "has led to as erroneous deductions as the first you are little richer in knowledge than you were before."
? ? ? ? "The other," I replied, "is that our dusky friend here does not hail from the nearer moon--he was like to have died at a few thousand feet above Barsoom. Had we continued the five thousand miles that lie between Thuria and the planet he would have been but the frozen memory of a man."
? ? ? ? Phaidor looked at the black in evident astonishment.
? ? ? ? "If you are not of Thuria, then where?" she asked.
? ? ? ? He shrugged his shoulders and turned his eyes elsewhere, but did not reply.
? ? ? ? The girl stamped her little foot in a peremptory manner.
? ? ? ? "The daughter of Matai Shang is not accustomed to having her queries remain unanswered," she said. "One of the lesser breed should feel honoured that a member of the holy race that was born to inherit life eternal should deign even to notice him.
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