? ? ? ? "Ah!" he exclaimed in evident pleasure, "you do not deny it, then? You have returned from the bosom of Iss?"
? ? ? ? "I have come back from a land of false hope, from a valley of torture and death; with my companions I have escaped from the hideous clutches of lying fiends. I have come back to the Barsoom that I saved from a painless death to again save her, but this time from death in its most frightful form."
? ? ? ? "Cease, blasphemer!" cried Zat Arras. "Hope not to save thy cowardly carcass by inventing horrid lies to--" But he got no further. One does not call John Carter "coward" and "liar" thus lightly, and Zat Arras should have known it. Before a hand could be raised to stop me, I was at his side and one hand grasped his throat.
? ? ? ? "Come I from heaven or hell, Zat Arras, you will find me still the same John Carter that I have always been; nor did ever man call me such names and live--without apologizing." And with that I commenced to bend him back across my knee and tighten my grip upon his throat.
? ? ? ? "Seize him!" cried Zat Arras, and a dozen officers sprang forward to assist him.
? ? ? ? Kantos Kan came close and whispered to me.
? ? ? ? "Desist, I beg of you.
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