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-CHAPTER XV SOLA TELLS ME HER STORY
When consciousness returned, and, as I soon learned, I was down but a moment, I sprang
quickly to my feet searching for my sword, and there I found it, buried to the hilt in
the green breast of Zad, who lay stone dead
upon the ochre moss of the ancient sea bottom.
As I regained my full senses I found his weapon piercing my left breast, but only
through the flesh and muscles which cover my ribs, entering near the center of my
chest and coming out below the shoulder.
As I had lunged I had turned so that his sword merely passed beneath the muscles,
inflicting a painful but not dangerous wound.
Removing the blade from my body I also regained my own, and turning my back upon
his ugly carcass, I moved, sick, sore, and disgusted, toward the chariots which bore
my retinue and my belongings.
A murmur of Martian applause greeted me, but I cared not for it.
Bleeding and weak I reached my women, who, accustomed to such happenings, dressed my
wounds, applying the wonderful healing and remedial agents which make only the most
instantaneous of death blows fatal.
Give a Martian woman a chance and death must take a back seat.
They soon had me patched up so that, except for weakness from loss of blood and a
little soreness around the wound, I suffered no great distress from this thrust
which, under earthly treatment, undoubtedly would have put me flat on my back for days.
As soon as they were through with me I hastened to the chariot of Dejah Thoris,
where I found my poor Sola with her chest swathed in bandages, but apparently little
the worse for her encounter with Sarkoja,
whose dagger it seemed had struck the edge of one of Sola's metal breast ornaments
and, thus deflected, had inflicted but a slight flesh wound.
As I approached I found Dejah Thoris lying prone upon her silks and furs, her lithe
form wracked with sobs.
She did not notice my presence, nor did she hear me speaking with Sola, who was
standing a short distance from the vehicle. "Is she injured?"
I asked of Sola, indicating Dejah Thoris by an inclination of my head.
"No," she answered, "she thinks that you are dead."
"And that her grandmother's cat may now have no one to polish its teeth?"
I queried, smiling. "I think you wrong her, John Carter," said
Sola.
"I do not understand either her ways or yours, but I am sure the granddaughter of
ten thousand jeddaks would never grieve like this over any who held but the highest
claim upon her affections.
They are a proud race, but they are just, as are all Barsoomians, and you must have
hurt or wronged her grievously that she will not admit your existence living,
though she mourns you dead.
"Tears are a strange sight upon Barsoom," she continued, "and so it is difficult for
me to interpret them.
I have seen but two people weep in all my life, other than Dejah Thoris; one wept
from sorrow, the other from baffled rage.
The first was my mother, years ago before they killed her; the other was Sarkoja,
when they dragged her from me today." "Your mother!"
I exclaimed, "but, Sola, you could not have known your mother, child."
"But I did. And my father also," she added.
"If you would like to hear the strange and un-Barsoomian story come to the chariot
tonight, John Carter, and I will tell you that of which I have never spoken in all my
life before.
And now the signal has been given to resume the march, you must go."
"I will come tonight, Sola," I promised. "Be sure to tell Dejah Thoris I am alive
and well.
I shall not force myself upon her, and be sure that you do not let her know I saw her
tears. If she would speak with me I but await her
command."
Sola mounted the chariot, which was swinging into its place in line, and I
hastened to my waiting thoat and galloped to my station beside Tars Tarkas at the
rear of the column.
We made a most imposing and awe-inspiring spectacle as we strung out across the
yellow landscape; the two hundred and fifty ornate and brightly colored chariots,
preceded by an advance guard of some two
hundred mounted warriors and chieftains riding five abreast and one hundred yards
apart, and followed by a like number in the same formation, with a score or more of
flankers on either side; the fifty extra
mastodons, or heavy draught animals, known as zitidars, and the five or six hundred
extra thoats of the warriors running loose within the hollow square formed by the
surrounding warriors.
The gleaming metal and jewels of the gorgeous ornaments of the men and women,
duplicated in the trappings of the zitidars and thoats, and interspersed with the
flashing colors of magnificent silks and
furs and feathers, lent a barbaric splendor to the caravan which would have turned an
East Indian potentate green with envy.
The enormous broad tires of the chariots and the padded feet of the animals brought
forth no sound from the moss-covered sea bottom; and so we moved in utter silence,
like some huge phantasmagoria, except when
the stillness was broken by the guttural growling of a goaded zitidar, or the
squealing of fighting thoats.
The green Martians converse but little, and then usually in monosyllables, low and like
the faint rumbling of distant thunder.
We traversed a trackless waste of moss which, bending to the pressure of broad
tire or padded foot, rose up again behind us, leaving no sign that we had passed.
We might indeed have been the wraiths of the departed dead upon the dead sea of that
dying planet for all the sound or sign we made in passing.
It was the first march of a large body of men and animals I had ever witnessed which
raised no dust and left no spoor; for there is no dust upon Mars except in the
cultivated districts during the winter
months, and even then the absence of high winds renders it almost unnoticeable.
We camped that night at the foot of the hills we had been approaching for two days
and which marked the southern boundary of this particular sea.
Our animals had been two days without drink, nor had they had water for nearly
two months, not since shortly after leaving Thark; but, as Tars Tarkas explained to me,
they require but little and can live almost
indefinitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, and which, he told me, holds in
its tiny stems sufficient moisture to meet the limited demands of the animals.
After partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like food and vegetable milk I
sought out Sola, whom I found working by the light of a torch upon some of Tars
Tarkas' trappings.
She looked up at my approach, her face lighting with pleasure and with welcome.
"I am glad you came," she said; "Dejah Thoris sleeps and I am lonely.
Mine own people do not care for me, John Carter; I am too unlike them.
It is a sad fate, since I must live my life amongst them, and I often wish that I were
a true green Martian woman, without love and without hope; but I have known love and
so I am lost.
"I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of my parents.
From what I have learned of you and the ways of your people I am sure that the tale
will not seem strange to you, but among green Martians it has no parallel within
the memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do our legends hold many similar tales.
"My mother was rather small, in fact too small to be allowed the responsibilities of
maternity, as our chieftains breed principally for size.
She was also less cold and cruel than most green Martian women, and caring little for
their society, she often roamed the deserted avenues of Thark alone, or went
and sat among the wild flowers that deck
the nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wishes which I believe I alone
among Tharkian women today may understand, for am I not the child of my mother?
"And there among the hills she met a young warrior, whose duty it was to guard the
feeding zitidars and thoats and see that they roamed not beyond the hills.
They spoke at first only of such things as interest a community of Tharks, but
gradually, as they came to meet more often, and, as was now quite evident to both, no
longer by chance, they talked about
themselves, their likes, their ambitions and their hopes.
She trusted him and told him of the awful repugnance she felt for the cruelties of
their kind, for the hideous, loveless lives they must ever lead, and then she waited
for the storm of denunciation to break from
his cold, hard lips; but instead he took her in his arms and kissed her.
"They kept their love a secret for six long years.
She, my mother, was of the retinue of the great Tal Hajus, while her lover was a
simple warrior, wearing only his own metal.
Had their defection from the traditions of the Tharks been discovered both would have
paid the penalty in the great arena before Tal Hajus and the assembled hordes.
"The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a great glass vessel upon the
highest and most inaccessible of the partially ruined towers of ancient Thark.
Once each year my mother visited it for the five long years it lay there in the process
of incubation.
She dared not come oftener, for in the mighty guilt of her conscience she feared
that her every move was watched.
During this period my father gained great distinction as a warrior and had taken the
metal from several chieftains.
His love for my mother had never diminished, and his own ambition in life
was to reach a point where he might wrest the metal from Tal Hajus himself, and thus,
as ruler of the Tharks, be free to claim
her as his own, as well as, by the might of his power, protect the child which
otherwise would be quickly dispatched should the truth become known.
"It was a wild dream, that of wresting the metal from Tal Hajus in five short years,
but his advance was rapid, and he soon stood high in the councils of Thark.
But one day the chance was lost forever, in so far as it could come in time to save his
loved ones, for he was ordered away upon a long expedition to the ice-clad south, to
make war upon the natives there and despoil
them of their furs, for such is the manner of the green Barsoomian; he does not labor
for what he can wrest in battle from others.
"He was gone for four years, and when he returned all had been over for three; for
about a year after his departure, and shortly before the time for the return of
an expedition which had gone forth to fetch
the fruits of a community incubator, the egg had hatched.
Thereafter my mother continued to keep me in the old tower, visiting me nightly and
lavishing upon me the love the community life would have robbed us both of.
She hoped, upon the return of the expedition from the incubator, to mix me
with the other young assigned to the quarters of Tal Hajus, and thus escape the
fate which would surely follow discovery of
her sin against the ancient traditions of the green men.
"She taught me rapidly the language and customs of my kind, and one night she told
me the story I have told to you up to this point, impressing upon me the necessity for
absolute secrecy and the great caution I
must exercise after she had placed me with the other young Tharks to permit no one to
guess that I was further advanced in education than they, nor by any sign to
divulge in the presence of others my
affection for her, or my knowledge of my parentage; and then drawing me close to her
she whispered in my ear the name of my father.
"And then a light flashed out upon the darkness of the tower chamber, and there
stood Sarkoja, her gleaming, baleful eyes fixed in a frenzy of loathing and contempt
upon my mother.
The torrent of hatred and abuse she poured out upon her turned my young heart cold in
terror.
That she had heard the entire story was apparent, and that she had suspected
something wrong from my mother's long nightly absences from her quarters
accounted for her presence there on that fateful night.
"One thing she had not heard, nor did she know, the whispered name of my father.
This was apparent from her repeated demands upon my mother to disclose the name of her
partner in sin, but no amount of abuse or threats could wring this from her, and to
save me from needless torture she lied, for
she told Sarkoja that she alone knew nor would she even tell her child.
"With final imprecations, Sarkoja hastened away to Tal Hajus to report her discovery,
and while she was gone my mother, wrapping me in the silks and furs of her night
coverings, so that I was scarcely
noticeable, descended to the streets and ran wildly away toward the outskirts of the
city, in the direction which led to the far south, out toward the man whose protection
she might not claim, but on whose face she wished to look once more before she died.
"As we neared the city's southern extremity a sound came to us from across the mossy
flat, from the direction of the only pass through the hills which led to the gates,
the pass by which caravans from either
north or south or east or west would enter the city.
The sounds we heard were the squealing of thoats and the grumbling of zitidars, with
the occasional clank of arms which announced the approach of a body of
warriors.
The thought uppermost in her mind was that it was my father returned from his
expedition, but the cunning of the Thark held her from headlong and precipitate
flight to greet him.
"Retreating into the shadows of a doorway she awaited the coming of the cavalcade
which shortly entered the avenue, breaking its formation and thronging the
thoroughfare from wall to wall.
As the head of the procession passed us the lesser moon swung clear of the overhanging
roofs and lit up the scene with all the brilliancy of her wondrous light.
My mother shrank further back into the friendly shadows, and from her hiding place
saw that the expedition was not that of my father, but the returning caravan bearing
the young Tharks.
Instantly her plan was formed, and as a great chariot swung close to our hiding
place she slipped stealthily in upon the trailing tailboard, crouching low in the
shadow of the high side, straining me to her *** in a frenzy of love.
"She knew, what I did not, that never again after that night would she hold me to her
breast, nor was it likely we would ever look upon each other's face again.
In the confusion of the plaza she mixed me with the other children, whose guardians
during the journey were now free to relinquish their responsibility.
We were herded together into a great room, fed by women who had not accompanied the
expedition, and the next day we were parceled out among the retinues of the
chieftains.
"I never saw my mother after that night.
She was imprisoned by Tal Hajus, and every effort, including the most horrible and
shameful torture, was brought to bear upon her to wring from her lips the name of my
father; but she remained steadfast and
loyal, dying at last amidst the laughter of Tal Hajus and his chieftains during some
awful torture she was undergoing.
"I learned afterwards that she told them that she had killed me to save me from a
like fate at their hands, and that she had thrown my body to the white apes.
Sarkoja alone disbelieved her, and I feel to this day that she suspects my true
origin, but does not dare expose me, at the present, at all events, because she also
guesses, I am sure, the identity of my father.
"When he returned from his expedition and learned the story of my mother's fate I was
present as Tal Hajus told him; but never by the quiver of a muscle did he betray the
slightest emotion; only he did not laugh as
Tal Hajus gleefully described her death struggles.
From that moment on he was the cruelest of the cruel, and I am awaiting the day when
he shall win the goal of his ambition, and feel the carcass of Tal Hajus beneath his
foot, for I am as sure that he but waits
the opportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance, and that his great love is as
strong in his breast as when it first transfigured him nearly forty years ago, as
I am that we sit here upon the edge of a
world-old ocean while sensible people sleep, John Carter."
"And your father, Sola, is he with us now?" I asked.
"Yes," she replied, "but he does not know me for what I am, nor does he know who
betrayed my mother to Tal Hajus.
I alone know my father's name, and only I and Tal Hajus and Sarkoja know that it was
she who carried the tale that brought death and torture upon her he loved."
We sat silent for a few moments, she wrapped in the gloomy thoughts of her
terrible past, and I in pity for the poor creatures whom the heartless, senseless
customs of their race had doomed to loveless lives of cruelty and of hate.
Presently she spoke. "John Carter, if ever a real man walked the
cold, dead *** of Barsoom you are one.
I know that I can trust you, and because the knowledge may someday help you or him
or Dejah Thoris or myself, I am going to tell you the name of my father, nor place
any restrictions or conditions upon your tongue.
When the time comes, speak the truth if it seems best to you.
I trust you because I know that you are not cursed with the terrible trait of absolute
and unswerving truthfulness, that you could lie like one of your own Virginia gentlemen
if a lie would save others from sorrow or suffering.
My father's name is Tars Tarkas."
CHAPTER XVI WE PLAN ESCAPE
The remainder of our journey to Thark was uneventful.
We were twenty days upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms and passing through or
around a number of ruined cities, mostly smaller than Korad.
Twice we crossed the famous Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our
earthly astronomers.
When we approached these points a warrior would be sent far ahead with a powerful
field glass, and if no great body of red Martian troops was in sight we would
advance as close as possible without chance
of being seen and then camp until dark, when we would slowly approach the
cultivated tract, and, locating one of the numerous, broad highways which cross these
areas at regular intervals, creep silently
and stealthily across to the arid lands upon the other side.
It required five hours to make one of these crossings without a single halt, and the
other consumed the entire night, so that we were just leaving the confines of the high-
walled fields when the sun broke out upon us.
Crossing in the darkness, as we did, I was unable to see but little, except as the
nearer moon, in her wild and ceaseless hurtling through the Barsoomian heavens,
lit up little patches of the landscape from
time to time, disclosing walled fields and low, rambling buildings, presenting much
the appearance of earthly farms.
There were many trees, methodically arranged, and some of them were of enormous
height; there were animals in some of the enclosures, and they announced their
presence by terrified squealings and
snortings as they scented our ***, wild beasts and wilder human beings.
Only once did I perceive a human being, and that was at the intersection of our
crossroad with the wide, white turnpike which cuts each cultivated district
longitudinally at its exact center.
The fellow must have been sleeping beside the road, for, as I came abreast of him, he
raised upon one elbow and after a single glance at the approaching caravan leaped
shrieking to his feet and fled madly down
the road, scaling a nearby wall with the agility of a scared cat.
The Tharks paid him not the slightest attention; they were not out upon the
warpath, and the only sign that I had that they had seen him was a quickening of the
pace of the caravan as we hastened toward
the bordering desert which marked our entrance into the realm of Tal Hajus.
Not once did I have speech with Dejah Thoris, as she sent no word to me that I
would be welcome at her chariot, and my foolish pride kept me from making any
advances.
I verily believe that a man's way with women is in inverse ratio to his prowess
among men.
The weakling and the saphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while
the fighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding in the
shadows like some frightened child.
Just thirty days after my advent upon Barsoom we entered the ancient city of
Thark, from whose long-forgotten people this horde of green men have stolen even
their name.
The hordes of Thark number some thirty thousand souls, and are divided into
twenty-five communities.
Each community has its own jed and lesser chieftains, but all are under the rule of
Tal Hajus, Jeddak of Thark.
Five communities make their headquarters at the city of Thark, and the balance are
scattered among other deserted cities of ancient Mars throughout the district
claimed by Tal Hajus.
We made our entry into the great central plaza early in the afternoon.
There were no enthusiastic friendly greetings for the returned expedition.
Those who chanced to be in sight spoke the names of warriors or women with whom they
came in direct contact, in the formal greeting of their kind, but when it was
discovered that they brought two captives a
greater interest was aroused, and Dejah Thoris and I were the centers of inquiring
groups.
We were soon assigned to new quarters, and the balance of the day was devoted to
settling ourselves to the changed conditions.
My home now was upon an avenue leading into the plaza from the south, the main artery
down which we had marched from the gates of the city.
I was at the far end of the square and had an entire building to myself.
The same grandeur of architecture which was so noticeable a characteristic of Korad was
in evidence here, only, if that were possible, on a larger and richer scale.
My quarters would have been suitable for housing the greatest of earthly emperors,
but to these *** creatures nothing about a building appealed to them but its size
and the enormity of its chambers; the
larger the building, the more desirable; and so Tal Hajus occupied what must have
been an enormous public building, the largest in the city, but entirely unfitted
for residence purposes; the next largest
was reserved for Lorquas Ptomel, the next for the jed of a lesser rank, and so on to
the bottom of the list of five jeds.
The warriors occupied the buildings with the chieftains to whose retinues they
belonged; or, if they preferred, sought shelter among any of the thousands of
untenanted buildings in their own quarter
of town; each community being assigned a certain section of the city.
The selection of building had to be made in accordance with these divisions, except in
so far as the jeds were concerned, they all occupying edifices which fronted upon the
plaza.
When I had finally put my house in order, or rather seen that it had been done, it
was nearing sunset, and I hastened out with the intention of locating Sola and her
charges, as I had determined upon having
speech with Dejah Thoris and trying to impress on her the necessity of our at
least patching up a truce until I could find some way of aiding her to escape.
I searched in vain until the upper rim of the great red sun was just disappearing
behind the horizon and then I spied the ugly head of Woola peering from a second-
story window on the opposite side of the
very street where I was quartered, but nearer the plaza.
Without waiting for a further invitation I bolted up the winding runway which led to
the second floor, and entering a great chamber at the front of the building was
greeted by the frenzied Woola, who threw
his great carcass upon me, nearly hurling me to the floor; the poor old fellow was so
glad to see me that I thought he would devour me, his head split from ear to ear,
showing his three rows of tusks in his hobgoblin smile.
Quieting him with a word of command and a caress, I looked hurriedly through the
approaching gloom for a sign of Dejah Thoris, and then, not seeing her, I called
her name.
There was an answering murmur from the far corner of the apartment, and with a couple
of quick strides I was standing beside her where she crouched among the furs and silks
upon an ancient carved wooden seat.
As I waited she rose to her full height and looking me straight in the eye said:
"What would Dotar Sojat, Thark, of Dejah Thoris his captive?"
"Dejah Thoris, I do not know how I have angered you.
It was furtherest from my desire to hurt or offend you, whom I had hoped to protect and
comfort.
Have none of me if it is your will, but that you must aid me in effecting your
escape, if such a thing be possible, is not my request, but my command.
When you are safe once more at your father's court you may do with me as you
please, but from now on until that day I am your master, and you must obey and aid me."
She looked at me long and earnestly and I thought that she was softening toward me.
"I understand your words, Dotar Sojat," she replied, "but you I do not understand.
You are a *** mixture of child and man, of brute and noble.
I only wish that I might read your heart."
"Look down at your feet, Dejah Thoris; it lies there now where it has lain since that
other night at Korad, and where it will ever lie beating alone for you until death
stills it forever."
She took a little step toward me, her beautiful hands outstretched in a strange,
groping gesture. "What do you mean, John Carter?" she
whispered.
"What are you saying to me?"
"I am saying what I had promised myself that I would not say to you, at least until
you were no longer a captive among the green men; what from your attitude toward
me for the past twenty days I had thought
never to say to you; I am saying, Dejah Thoris, that I am yours, body and soul, to
serve you, to fight for you, and to die for you.
Only one thing I ask of you in return, and that is that you make no sign, either of
condemnation or of approbation of my words until you are safe among your own people,
and that whatever sentiments you harbor
toward me they be not influenced or colored by gratitude; whatever I may do to serve
you will be prompted solely from selfish motives, since it gives me more pleasure to
serve you than not."
"I will respect your wishes, John Carter, because I understand the motives which
prompt them, and I accept your service no more willingly than I bow to your
authority; your word shall be my law.
I have twice wronged you in my thoughts and again I ask your forgiveness."
Further conversation of a personal nature was prevented by the entrance of Sola, who
was much agitated and wholly unlike her usual calm and possessed self.
"That horrible Sarkoja has been before Tal Hajus," she cried, "and from what I heard
upon the plaza there is little hope for either of you."
"What do they say?" inquired Dejah Thoris.
"That you will be thrown to the wild calots [dogs] in the great arena as soon as the
hordes have assembled for the yearly games."
"Sola," I said, "you are a Thark, but you hate and loathe the customs of your people
as much as we do. Will you not accompany us in one supreme
effort to escape?
I am sure that Dejah Thoris can offer you a home and protection among her people, and
your fate can be no worse among them than it must ever be here."
"Yes," cried Dejah Thoris, "come with us, Sola, you will be better off among the red
men of Helium than you are here, and I can promise you not only a home with us, but
the love and affection your nature craves
and which must always be denied you by the customs of your own race.
Come with us, Sola; we might go without you, but your fate would be terrible if
they thought you had connived to aid us.
I know that even that fear would not tempt you to interfere in our escape, but we want
you with us, we want you to come to a land of sunshine and happiness, amongst a people
who know the meaning of love, of sympathy, and of gratitude.
Say that you will, Sola; tell me that you will."
"The great waterway which leads to Helium is but fifty miles to the south," murmured
Sola, half to herself; "a swift thoat might make it in three hours; and then to Helium
it is five hundred miles, most of the way through thinly settled districts.
They would know and they would follow us.
We might hide among the great trees for a time, but the chances are small indeed for
escape.
They would follow us to the very gates of Helium, and they would take toll of life at
every step; you do not know them." "Is there no other way we might reach
Helium?"
I asked. "Can you not draw me a rough map of the
country we must traverse, Dejah Thoris?"
"Yes," she replied, and taking a great diamond from her hair she drew upon the
marble floor the first map of Barsoomian territory I had ever seen.
It was crisscrossed in every direction with long straight lines, sometimes running
parallel and sometimes converging toward some great circle.
The lines, she said, were waterways; the circles, cities; and one far to the
northwest of us she pointed out as Helium.
There were other cities closer, but she said she feared to enter many of them, as
they were not all friendly toward Helium.
[Illustration: She drew upon the marble floor the first map of the Barsoomian
territory I had ever seen.]
Finally, after studying the map carefully in the moonlight which now flooded the
room, I pointed out a waterway far to the north of us which also seemed to lead to
Helium.
"Does not this pierce your grandfather's territory?"
I asked.
"Yes," she answered, "but it is two hundred miles north of us; it is one of the
waterways we crossed on the trip to Thark."
"They would never suspect that we would try for that distant waterway," I answered,
"and that is why I think that it is the best route for our escape."
Sola agreed with me, and it was decided that we should leave Thark this same night;
just as quickly, in fact, as I could find and saddle my thoats.
Sola was to ride one and Dejah Thoris and I the other; each of us carrying sufficient
food and drink to last us for two days, since the animals could not be urged too
rapidly for so long a distance.
I directed Sola to proceed with Dejah Thoris along one of the less frequented
avenues to the southern boundary of the city, where I would overtake them with the
thoats as quickly as possible; then,
leaving them to gather what food, silks, and furs we were to need, I slipped quietly
to the rear of the first floor, and entered the courtyard, where our animals were
moving restlessly about, as was their habit, before settling down for the night.
In the shadows of the buildings and out beneath the radiance of the Martian moons
moved the great herd of thoats and zitidars, the latter grunting their low
gutturals and the former occasionally
emitting the sharp squeal which denotes the almost habitual state of rage in which
these creatures passed their existence.
They were quieter now, owing to the absence of man, but as they scented me they became
more restless and their hideous noise increased.
It was risky business, this entering a paddock of thoats alone and at night;
first, because their increasing noisiness might warn the nearby warriors that
something was amiss, and also because for
the slightest cause, or for no cause at all some great bull thoat might take it upon
himself to lead a charge upon me.
Having no desire to awaken their nasty tempers upon such a night as this, where so
much depended upon secrecy and dispatch, I hugged the shadows of the buildings, ready
at an instant's warning to leap into the safety of a nearby door or window.
Thus I moved silently to the great gates which opened upon the street at the back of
the court, and as I neared the exit I called softly to my two animals.
How I thanked the kind providence which had given me the foresight to win the love and
confidence of these wild dumb brutes, for presently from the far side of the court I
saw two huge bulks forcing their way toward me through the surging mountains of flesh.
They came quite close to me, rubbing their muzzles against my body and nosing for the
bits of food it was always my practice to reward them with.
Opening the gates I ordered the two great beasts to pass out, and then slipping
quietly after them I closed the portals behind me.
I did not saddle or mount the animals there, but instead walked quietly in the
shadows of the buildings toward an unfrequented avenue which led toward the
point I had arranged to meet Dejah Thoris and Sola.
With the noiselessness of disembodied spirits we moved stealthily along the
deserted streets, but not until we were within sight of the plain beyond the city
did I commence to breathe freely.
I was sure that Sola and Dejah Thoris would find no difficulty in reaching our
rendezvous undetected, but with my great thoats I was not so sure for myself, as it
was quite unusual for warriors to leave the
city after dark; in fact there was no place for them to go within any but a long ride.
I reached the appointed meeting place safely, but as Dejah Thoris and Sola were
not there I led my animals into the entrance hall of one of the large
buildings.
Presuming that one of the other women of the same household may have come in to
speak to Sola, and so delayed their departure, I did not feel any undue
apprehension until nearly an hour had
passed without a sign of them, and by the time another half hour had crawled away I
was becoming filled with grave anxiety.
Then there broke upon the stillness of the night the sound of an approaching party,
which, from the noise, I knew could be no fugitives creeping stealthily toward
liberty.
Soon the party was near me, and from the black shadows of my entranceway I perceived
a score of mounted warriors, who, in passing, dropped a dozen words that fetched
my heart clean into the top of my head.
"He would likely have arranged to meet them just without the city, and so--" I heard
no more, they had passed on; but it was enough.
Our plan had been discovered, and the chances for escape from now on to the
fearful end would be small indeed.
My one hope now was to return undetected to the quarters of Dejah Thoris and learn what
fate had overtaken her, but how to do it with these great monstrous thoats upon my
hands, now that the city probably was
aroused by the knowledge of my escape was a problem of no mean proportions.
Suddenly an idea occurred to me, and acting on my knowledge of the construction of the
buildings of these ancient Martian cities with a hollow court within the center of
each square, I groped my way blindly
through the dark chambers, calling the great thoats after me.
They had difficulty in negotiating some of the doorways, but as the buildings fronting
the city's principal exposures were all designed upon a magnificent scale, they
were able to wriggle through without
sticking fast; and thus we finally made the inner court where I found, as I had
expected, the usual carpet of moss-like vegetation which would prove their food and
drink until I could return them to their own enclosure.
That they would be as quiet and contented here as elsewhere I was confident, nor was
there but the remotest possibility that they would be discovered, as the green men
had no great desire to enter these outlying
buildings, which were frequented by the only thing, I believe, which caused them
the sensation of fear--the great white apes of Barsoom.
Removing the saddle trappings, I hid them just within the rear doorway of the
building through which we had entered the court, and, turning the beasts loose,
quickly made my way across the court to the
rear of the buildings upon the further side, and thence to the avenue beyond.
Waiting in the doorway of the building until I was assured that no one was
approaching, I hurried across to the opposite side and through the first doorway
to the court beyond; thus, crossing through
court after court with only the slight chance of detection which the necessary
crossing of the avenues entailed, I made my way in safety to the courtyard in the rear
of Dejah Thoris' quarters.
Here, of course, I found the beasts of the warriors who quartered in the adjacent
buildings, and the warriors themselves I might expect to meet within if I entered;
but, fortunately for me, I had another and
safer method of reaching the upper story where Dejah Thoris should be found, and,
after first determining as nearly as possible which of the buildings she
occupied, for I had never observed them
before from the court side, I took advantage of my relatively great strength
and agility and sprang upward until I grasped the sill of a second-story window
which I thought to be in the rear of her apartment.
Drawing myself inside the room I moved stealthily toward the front of the
building, and not until I had quite reached the doorway of her room was I made aware by
voices that it was occupied.
I did not rush headlong in, but listened without to assure myself that it was Dejah
Thoris and that it was safe to venture within.
It was well indeed that I took this precaution, for the conversation I heard
was in the low gutturals of men, and the words which finally came to me proved a
most timely warning.
The speaker was a chieftain and he was giving orders to four of his warriors.
"And when he returns to this chamber," he was saying, "as he surely will when he
finds she does not meet him at the city's edge, you four are to spring upon him and
disarm him.
It will require the combined strength of all of you to do it if the reports they
bring back from Korad are correct.
When you have him fast bound bear him to the vaults beneath the jeddak's quarters
and chain him securely where he may be found when Tal Hajus wishes him.
Allow him to speak with none, nor permit any other to enter this apartment before he
comes.
There will be no danger of the girl returning, for by this time she is safe in
the arms of Tal Hajus, and may all her ancestors have pity upon her, for Tal Hajus
will have none; the great Sarkoja has done a noble night's work.
I go, and if you fail to capture him when he comes, I commend your carcasses to the
cold *** of Iss."