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-CHAPTER XIX BATTLING IN THE ARENA
Slowly I regained my composure and finally essayed again to attempt to remove the keys
from the dead body of my former jailer.
But as I reached out into the darkness to locate it I found to my horror that it was
gone.
Then the truth flashed on me; the owners of those gleaming eyes had dragged my prize
away from me to be devoured in their neighboring lair; as they had been waiting
for days, for weeks, for months, through
all this awful eternity of my imprisonment to drag my dead carcass to their feast.
For two days no food was brought me, but then a new messenger appeared and my
incarceration went on as before, but not again did I allow my reason to be submerged
by the horror of my position.
Shortly after this episode another prisoner was brought in and chained near me.
By the dim torch light I saw that he was a red Martian and I could scarcely await the
departure of his guards to address him.
As their retreating footsteps died away in the distance, I called out softly the
Martian word of greeting, kaor. "Who are you who speaks out of the
darkness?" he answered
"John Carter, a friend of the red men of Helium."
"I am of Helium," he said, "but I do not recall your name."
And then I told him my story as I have written it here, omitting only any
reference to my love for Dejah Thoris.
He was much excited by the news of Helium's princess and seemed quite positive that she
and Sola could easily have reached a point of safety from where they left me.
He said that he knew the place well because the defile through which the Warhoon
warriors had passed when they discovered us was the only one ever used by them when
marching to the south.
"Dejah Thoris and Sola entered the hills not five miles from a great waterway and
are now probably quite safe," he assured me.
My fellow prisoner was Kantos Kan, a padwar (lieutenant) in the navy of Helium.
He had been a member of the ill-fated expedition which had fallen into the hands
of the Tharks at the time of Dejah Thoris' capture, and he briefly related the events
which followed the defeat of the battleships.
Badly injured and only partially manned they had limped slowly toward Helium, but
while passing near the city of Zodanga, the capital of Helium's hereditary enemies
among the red men of Barsoom, they had been
attacked by a great body of war vessels and all but the craft to which Kantos Kan
belonged were either destroyed or captured.
His vessel was chased for days by three of the Zodangan war ships but finally escaped
during the darkness of a moonless night.
Thirty days after the capture of Dejah Thoris, or about the time of our coming to
Thark, his vessel had reached Helium with about ten survivors of the original crew of
seven hundred officers and men.
Immediately seven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been
dispatched to search for Dejah Thoris, and from these vessels two thousand smaller
craft had been kept out continuously in futile search for the missing princess.
Two green Martian communities had been wiped off the face of Barsoom by the
avenging fleets, but no trace of Dejah Thoris had been found.
They had been searching among the northern hordes, and only within the past few days
had they extended their quest to the south.
Kantos Kan had been detailed to one of the small one-man fliers and had had the
misfortune to be discovered by the Warhoons while exploring their city.
The bravery and daring of the man won my greatest respect and admiration.
Alone he had landed at the city's boundary and on foot had penetrated to the buildings
surrounding the plaza.
For two days and nights he had explored their quarters and their dungeons in search
of his beloved princess only to fall into the hands of a party of Warhoons as he was
about to leave, after assuring himself that Dejah Thoris was not a captive there.
During the period of our incarceration Kantos Kan and I became well acquainted,
and formed a warm personal friendship.
A few days only elapsed, however, before we were dragged forth from our dungeon for the
great games.
We were conducted early one morning to an enormous amphitheater, which instead of
having been built upon the surface of the ground was excavated below the surface.
It had partially filled with debris so that how large it had originally been was
difficult to say.
In its present condition it held the entire twenty thousand Warhoons of the assembled
hordes. The arena was immense but extremely uneven
and unkempt.
Around it the Warhoons had piled building stone from some of the ruined edifices of
the ancient city to prevent the animals and the captives from escaping into the
audience, and at each end had been
constructed cages to hold them until their turns came to meet some horrible death upon
the arena. Kantos Kan and I were confined together in
one of the cages.
In the others were wild calots, thoats, mad zitidars, green warriors, and women of
other hordes, and many strange and ferocious wild beasts of Barsoom which I
had never before seen.
The din of their roaring, growling and squealing was deafening and the formidable
appearance of any one of them was enough to make the stoutest heart feel grave
forebodings.
Kantos Kan explained to me that at the end of the day one of these prisoners would
gain freedom and the others would lie dead about the arena.
The winners in the various contests of the day would be pitted against each other
until only two remained alive; the victor in the last encounter being set free,
whether animal or man.
The following morning the cages would be filled with a new consignment of victims,
and so on throughout the ten days of the games.
Shortly after we had been caged the amphitheater began to fill and within an
hour every available part of the seating space was occupied.
Dak Kova, with his jeds and chieftains, sat at the center of one side of the arena upon
a large raised platform.
At a signal from Dak Kova the doors of two cages were thrown open and a dozen green
Martian females were driven to the center of the arena.
Each was given a dagger and then, at the far end, a pack of twelve calots, or wild
dogs were loosed upon them.
As the brutes, growling and foaming, rushed upon the almost defenseless women I turned
my head that I might not see the horrid sight.
The yells and laughter of the green horde bore witness to the excellent quality of
the sport and when I turned back to the arena, as Kantos Kan told me it was over,
I saw three victorious calots, snarling and growling over the bodies of their prey.
The women had given a good account of themselves.
Next a mad zitidar was loosed among the remaining dogs, and so it went throughout
the long, hot, horrible day.
During the day I was pitted against first men and then beasts, but as I was armed
with a long-sword and always outclassed my adversary in agility and generally in
strength as well, it proved but child's play to me.
Time and time again I won the applause of the bloodthirsty multitude, and toward the
end there were cries that I be taken from the arena and be made a member of the
hordes of Warhoon.
Finally there were but three of us left, a great green warrior of some far northern
horde, Kantos Kan, and myself.
The other two were to battle and then I to fight the conqueror for the liberty which
was accorded the final winner.
Kantos Kan had fought several times during the day and like myself had always proven
victorious, but occasionally by the smallest of margins, especially when pitted
against the green warriors.
I had little hope that he could best his giant adversary who had mowed down all
before him during the day.
The fellow towered nearly sixteen feet in height, while Kantos Kan was some inches
under six feet.
As they advanced to meet one another I saw for the first time a trick of Martian
swordsmanship which centered Kantos Kan's every hope of victory and life on one cast
of the dice, for, as he came to within
about twenty feet of the huge fellow he threw his sword arm far behind him over his
shoulder and with a mighty sweep hurled his weapon point foremost at the green warrior.
It flew true as an arrow and piercing the poor devil's heart laid him dead upon the
arena.
Kantos Kan and I were now pitted against each other but as we approached to the
encounter I whispered to him to prolong the battle until nearly dark in the hope that
we might find some means of escape.
The horde evidently guessed that we had no hearts to fight each other and so they
howled in rage as neither of us placed a fatal thrust.
Just as I saw the sudden coming of dark I whispered to Kantos Kan to thrust his sword
between my left arm and my body.
As he did so I staggered back clasping the sword tightly with my arm and thus fell to
the ground with his weapon apparently protruding from my chest.
Kantos Kan perceived my coup and stepping quickly to my side he placed his foot upon
my neck and withdrawing his sword from my body gave me the final death blow through
the neck which is supposed to sever the
jugular vein, but in this instance the cold blade slipped harmlessly into the sand of
the arena.
In the darkness which had now fallen none could tell but that he had really finished
me.
I whispered to him to go and claim his freedom and then look for me in the hills
east of the city, and so he left me.
When the amphitheater had cleared I crept stealthily to the top and as the great
excavation lay far from the plaza and in an untenanted portion of the great dead city I
had little trouble in reaching the hills beyond.
CHAPTER XX IN THE ATMOSPHERE FACTORY
For two days I waited there for Kantos Kan, but as he did not come I started off on
foot in a northwesterly direction toward a point where he had told me lay the nearest
waterway.
My only food consisted of vegetable milk from the plants which gave so bounteously
of this priceless fluid.
Through two long weeks I wandered, stumbling through the nights guided only by
the stars and hiding during the days behind some protruding rock or among the
occasional hills I traversed.
Several times I was attacked by wild beasts; strange, uncouth monstrosities that
leaped upon me in the dark, so that I had ever to grasp my long-sword in my hand that
I might be ready for them.
Usually my strange, newly acquired telepathic power warned me in ample time,
but once I was down with vicious fangs at my jugular and a hairy face pressed close
to mine before I knew that I was even threatened.
What manner of thing was upon me I did not know, but that it was large and heavy and
many-legged I could feel.
My hands were at its throat before the fangs had a chance to bury themselves in my
neck, and slowly I forced the hairy face from me and closed my fingers, vise-like,
upon its windpipe.
Without sound we lay there, the beast exerting every effort to reach me with
those awful fangs, and I straining to maintain my grip and choke the life from it
as I kept it from my throat.
Slowly my arms gave to the unequal struggle, and inch by inch the burning eyes
and gleaming tusks of my antagonist crept toward me, until, as the hairy face touched
mine again, I realized that all was over.
And then a living mass of destruction sprang from the surrounding darkness full
upon the creature that held me pinioned to the ground.
The two rolled growling upon the moss, tearing and rending one another in a
frightful manner, but it was soon over and my preserver stood with lowered head above
the throat of the dead thing which would have killed me.
The nearer moon, hurtling suddenly above the horizon and lighting up the Barsoomian
scene, showed me that my preserver was Woola, but from whence he had come, or how
found me, I was at a loss to know.
That I was glad of his companionship it is needless to say, but my pleasure at seeing
him was tempered by anxiety as to the reason of his leaving Dejah Thoris.
Only her death I felt sure, could account for his absence from her, so faithful I
knew him to be to my commands.
By the light of the now brilliant moons I saw that he was but a shadow of his former
self, and as he turned from my caress and commenced greedily to devour the dead
carcass at my feet I realized that the poor fellow was more than half starved.
I, myself, was in but little better plight but I could not bring myself to eat the
uncooked flesh and I had no means of making a fire.
When Woola had finished his meal I again took up my weary and seemingly endless
wandering in quest of the elusive waterway.
At daybreak of the fifteenth day of my search I was overjoyed to see the high
trees that denoted the object of my search.
About noon I dragged myself wearily to the portals of a huge building which covered
perhaps four square miles and towered two hundred feet in the air.
It showed no aperture in the mighty walls other than the tiny door at which I sank
exhausted, nor was there any sign of life about it.
I could find no bell or other method of making my presence known to the inmates of
the place, unless a small round role in the wall near the door was for that purpose.
It was of about the bigness of a lead pencil and thinking that it might be in the
nature of a speaking tube I put my mouth to it and was about to call into it when a
voice issued from it asking me whom I might
be, where from, and the nature of my errand.
I explained that I had escaped from the Warhoons and was dying of starvation and
exhaustion.
"You wear the metal of a green warrior and are followed by a calot, yet you are of the
figure of a red man. In color you are neither green nor red.
In the name of the ninth day, what manner of creature are you?"
"I am a friend of the red men of Barsoom and I am starving.
In the name of humanity open to us," I replied.
Presently the door commenced to recede before me until it had sunk into the wall
fifty feet, then it stopped and slid easily to the left, exposing a short, narrow
corridor of concrete, at the further end of
which was another door, similar in every respect to the one I had just passed.
No one was in sight, yet immediately we passed the first door it slid gently into
place behind us and receded rapidly to its original position in the front wall of the
building.
As the door had slipped aside I had noted its great thickness, fully twenty feet, and
as it reached its place once more after closing behind us, great cylinders of steel
had dropped from the ceiling behind it and
fitted their lower ends into apertures countersunk in the floor.
A second and third door receded before me and slipped to one side as the first,
before I reached a large inner chamber where I found food and drink set out upon a
great stone table.
A voice directed me to satisfy my hunger and to feed my calot, and while I was thus
engaged my invisible host put me through a severe and searching cross-examination.
"Your statements are most remarkable," said the voice, on concluding its questioning,
"but you are evidently speaking the truth, and it is equally evident that you are not
of Barsoom.
I can tell that by the conformation of your brain and the strange location of your
internal organs and the shape and size of your heart."
"Can you see through me?"
I exclaimed. "Yes, I can see all but your thoughts, and
were you a Barsoomian I could read those."
Then a door opened at the far side of the chamber and a strange, dried up, little
mummy of a man came toward me.
He wore but a single article of clothing or adornment, a small collar of gold from
which depended upon his chest a great ornament as large as a dinner plate set
solid with huge diamonds, except for the
exact center which was occupied by a strange stone, an inch in diameter, that
scintillated nine different and distinct rays; the seven colors of our earthly prism
and two beautiful rays which, to me, were new and nameless.
I cannot describe them any more than you could describe red to a blind man.
I only know that they were beautiful in the extreme.
The old man sat and talked with me for hours, and the strangest part of our
intercourse was that I could read his every thought while he could not fathom an iota
from my mind unless I spoke.
[Illustration: The old man sat and talked with me for hours.]
I did not apprise him of my ability to sense his mental operations, and thus I
learned a great deal which proved of immense value to me later and which I would
never have known had he suspected my
strange power, for the Martians have such perfect control of their mental machinery
that they are able to direct their thoughts with absolute precision.
The building in which I found myself contained the machinery which produces that
artificial atmosphere which sustains life on Mars.
The secret of the entire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray, one of the
beautiful scintillations which I had noted emanating from the great stone in my host's
diadem.
This ray is separated from the other rays of the sun by means of finely adjusted
instruments placed upon the roof of the huge building, three-quarters of which is
used for reservoirs in which the ninth ray is stored.
This product is then treated electrically, or rather certain proportions of refined
electric vibrations are incorporated with it, and the result is then pumped to the
five principal air centers of the planet
where, as it is released, contact with the ether of space transforms it into
atmosphere.
There is always sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great building to
maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand years, and the only fear, as my
new friend told me, was that some accident might befall the pumping apparatus.
He led me to an inner chamber where I beheld a battery of twenty radium pumps any
one of which was equal to the task of furnishing all Mars with the atmosphere
compound.
For eight hundred years, he told me, he had watched these pumps which are used
alternately a day each at a stretch, or a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth
hours.
He has one assistant who divides the watch with him.
Half a Martian year, about three hundred and forty-four of our days, each of these
men spend alone in this huge, isolated plant.
Every red Martian is taught during earliest childhood the principles of the manufacture
of atmosphere, but only two at one time ever hold the secret of ingress to the
great building, which, built as it is with
walls a hundred and fifty feet thick, is absolutely unassailable, even the roof
being guarded from assault by air craft by a glass covering five feet thick.
The only fear they entertain of attack is from the green Martians or some demented
red man, as all Barsoomians realize that the very existence of every form of life of
Mars is dependent upon the uninterrupted working of this plant.
One curious fact I discovered as I watched his thoughts was that the outer doors are
manipulated by telepathic means.
The locks are so finely adjusted that the doors are released by the action of a
certain combination of thought waves.
To experiment with my new-found toy I thought to surprise him into revealing this
combination and so I asked him in a casual manner how he had managed to unlock the
massive doors for me from the inner chambers of the building.
As quick as a flash there leaped to his mind nine Martian sounds, but as quickly
faded as he answered that this was a secret he must not divulge.
From then on his manner toward me changed as though he feared that he had been
surprised into divulging his great secret, and I read suspicion and fear in his looks
and thoughts, though his words were still fair.
Before I retired for the night he promised to give me a letter to a nearby
agricultural officer who would help me on my way to Zodanga, which he said, was the
nearest Martian city.
"But be sure that you do not let them know you are bound for Helium as they are at war
with that country.
My assistant and I are of no country, we belong to all Barsoom and this talisman
which we wear protects us in all lands, even among the green men--though we do not
trust ourselves to their hands if we can avoid it," he added.
"And so good-night, my friend," he continued, "may you have a long and restful
sleep--yes, a long sleep."
And though he smiled pleasantly I saw in his thoughts the wish that he had never
admitted me, and then a picture of him standing over me in the night, and the
swift thrust of a long dagger and the half
formed words, "I am sorry, but it is for the best good of Barsoom."
As he closed the door of my chamber behind him his thoughts were cut off from me as
was the sight of him, which seemed strange to me in my little knowledge of thought
transference.
What was I to do? How could I escape through these mighty
walls?
Easily could I kill him now that I was warned, but once he was dead I could no
more escape, and with the stopping of the machinery of the great plant I should die
with all the other inhabitants of the
planet--all, even Dejah Thoris were she not already dead.
For the others I did not give the snap of my finger, but the thought of Dejah Thoris
drove from my mind all desire to kill my mistaken host.
Cautiously I opened the door of my apartment and, followed by Woola, sought
the inner of the great doors.
A wild scheme had come to me; I would attempt to force the great locks by the
nine thought waves I had read in my host's mind.
Creeping stealthily through corridor after corridor and down winding runways which
turned hither and thither I finally reached the great hall in which I had broken my
long fast that morning.
Nowhere had I seen my host, nor did I know where he kept himself by night.
I was on the point of stepping boldly out into the room when a slight noise behind me
warned me back into the shadows of a recess in the corridor.
Dragging Woola after me I crouched low in the darkness.
Presently the old man passed close by me, and as he entered the dimly lighted chamber
which I had been about to pass through I saw that he held a long thin dagger in his
hand and that he was sharpening it upon a stone.
In his mind was the decision to inspect the radium pumps, which would take about thirty
minutes, and then return to my bed chamber and finish me.
As he passed through the great hall and disappeared down the runway which led to
the pump-room, I stole stealthily from my hiding place and crossed to the great door,
the inner of the three which stood between me and liberty.
Concentrating my mind upon the massive lock I hurled the nine thought waves against it.
In breathless expectancy I waited, when finally the great door moved softly toward
me and slid quietly to one side.
One after the other the remaining mighty portals opened at my command and Woola and
I stepped forth into the darkness, free, but little better off than we had been
before, other than that we had full stomachs.
Hastening away from the shadows of the formidable pile I made for the first
crossroad, intending to strike the central turnpike as quickly as possible.
This I reached about morning and entering the first enclosure I came to I searched
for some evidences of a habitation.
There were low rambling buildings of concrete barred with heavy impassable
doors, and no amount of hammering and hallooing brought any response.
Weary and exhausted from sleeplessness I threw myself upon the ground commanding
Woola to stand guard.
Some time later I was awakened by his frightful growlings and opened my eyes to
see three red Martians standing a short distance from us and covering me with their
rifles.
"I am unarmed and no enemy," I hastened to explain.
"I have been a prisoner among the green men and am on my way to Zodanga.
All I ask is food and rest for myself and my calot and the proper directions for
reaching my destination."
They lowered their rifles and advanced pleasantly toward me placing their right
hands upon my left shoulder, after the manner of their custom of salute, and
asking me many questions about myself and my wanderings.
They then took me to the house of one of them which was only a short distance away.
The buildings I had been hammering at in the early morning were occupied only by
stock and farm produce, the house proper standing among a grove of enormous trees,
and, like all red-Martian homes, had been
raised at night some forty or fifty feet from the ground on a large round metal
shaft which slid up or down within a sleeve sunk in the ground, and was operated by a
tiny radium engine in the entrance hall of the building.
Instead of bothering with bolts and bars for their dwellings, the red Martians
simply run them up out of harm's way during the night.
They also have private means for lowering or raising them from the ground without if
they wish to go away and leave them.
These brothers, with their wives and children, occupied three similar houses on
this farm. They did no work themselves, being
government officers in charge.
The labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of war, delinquent debtors and
confirmed bachelors who were too poor to pay the high celibate tax which all red-
Martian governments impose.
They were the personification of cordiality and hospitality and I spent several days
with them, resting and recuperating from my long and arduous experiences.
When they had heard my story--I omitted all reference to Dejah Thoris and the old man
of the atmosphere plant--they advised me to color my body to more nearly resemble their
own race and then attempt to find
employment in Zodanga, either in the army or the navy.
"The chances are small that your tale will be believed until after you have proven
your trustworthiness and won friends among the higher nobles of the court.
This you can most easily do through military service, as we are a warlike
people on Barsoom," explained one of them, "and save our richest favors for the
fighting man."
When I was ready to depart they furnished me with a small domestic bull thoat, such
as is used for saddle purposes by all red Martians.
The animal is about the size of a horse and quite gentle, but in color and shape an
exact replica of his huge and fierce cousin of the wilds.
The brothers had supplied me with a reddish oil with which I anointed my entire body
and one of them cut my hair, which had grown quite long, in the prevailing fashion
of the time, square at the back and banged
in front, so that I could have passed anywhere upon Barsoom as a full-fledged red
Martian.
My metal and ornaments were also renewed in the style of a Zodangan gentleman, attached
to the house of Ptor, which was the family name of my benefactors.
They filled a little sack at my side with Zodangan money.
The medium of exchange upon Mars is not dissimilar from our own except that the
coins are oval.
Paper money is issued by individuals as they require it and redeemed twice yearly.
If a man issues more than he can redeem, the government pays his creditors in full
and the debtor works out the amount upon the farms or in mines, which are all owned
by the government.
This suits everybody except the debtor as it has been a difficult thing to obtain
sufficient voluntary labor to work the great isolated farm lands of Mars,
stretching as they do like narrow ribbons
from pole to pole, through wild stretches peopled by wild animals and wilder men.
When I mentioned my inability to repay them for their kindness to me they assured me
that I would have ample opportunity if I lived long upon Barsoom, and bidding me
farewell they watched me until I was out of sight upon the broad white turnpike.
>
-CHAPTER XXI AN AIR SCOUT FOR ZODANGA
As I proceeded on my journey toward Zodanga many strange and interesting sights
arrested my attention, and at the several farm houses where I stopped I learned a
number of new and instructive things
concerning the methods and manners of Barsoom.
The water which supplies the farms of Mars is collected in immense underground
reservoirs at either pole from the melting ice caps, and pumped through long conduits
to the various populated centers.
Along either side of these conduits, and extending their entire length, lie the
cultivated districts.
These are divided into tracts of about the same size, each tract being under the
supervision of one or more government officers.
Instead of flooding the surface of the fields, and thus wasting immense quantities
of water by evaporation, the precious liquid is carried underground through a
vast network of small pipes directly to the roots of the vegetation.
The crops upon Mars are always uniform, for there are no droughts, no rains, no high
winds, and no insects, or destroying birds.
On this trip I tasted the first meat I had eaten since leaving Earth--large, juicy
steaks and chops from the well-fed domestic animals of the farms.
Also I enjoyed luscious fruits and vegetables, but not a single article of
food which was exactly similar to anything on Earth.
Every plant and flower and vegetable and animal has been so refined by ages of
careful, scientific cultivation and breeding that the like of them on Earth
dwindled into pale, gray, characterless nothingness by comparison.
At a second stop I met some highly cultivated people of the noble class and
while in conversation we chanced to speak of Helium.
One of the older men had been there on a diplomatic mission several years before and
spoke with regret of the conditions which seemed destined ever to keep these two
countries at war.
"Helium," he said, "rightly boasts the most beautiful women of Barsoom, and of all her
treasures the wondrous daughter of Mors Kajak, Dejah Thoris, is the most exquisite
flower.
"Why," he added, "the people really worship the ground she walks upon and since her
loss on that ill-starred expedition all Helium has been draped in mourning.
"That our ruler should have attacked the disabled fleet as it was returning to
Helium was but another of his awful blunders which I fear will sooner or later
compel Zodanga to elevate a wiser man to his place."
"Even now, though our victorious armies are surrounding Helium, the people of Zodanga
are voicing their displeasure, for the war is not a popular one, since it is not based
on right or justice.
Our forces took advantage of the absence of the principal fleet of Helium on their
search for the princess, and so we have been able easily to reduce the city to a
sorry plight.
It is said she will fall within the next few passages of the further moon."
"And what, think you, may have been the fate of the princess, Dejah Thoris?"
I asked as casually as possible.
"She is dead," he answered. "This much was learned from a green warrior
recently captured by our forces in the south.
She escaped from the hordes of Thark with a strange creature of another world, only to
fall into the hands of the Warhoons.
Their thoats were found wandering upon the sea bottom and evidences of a bloody
conflict were discovered nearby."
While this information was in no way reassuring, neither was it at all
conclusive proof of the death of Dejah Thoris, and so I determined to make every
effort possible to reach Helium as quickly
as I could and carry to Tardos Mors such news of his granddaughter's possible
whereabouts as lay in my power. Ten days after leaving the three Ptor
brothers I arrived at Zodanga.
From the moment that I had come in contact with the red inhabitants of Mars I had
noticed that Woola drew a great amount of unwelcome attention to me, since the huge
brute belonged to a species which is never domesticated by the red men.
Were one to stroll down Broadway with a Numidian lion at his heels the effect would
be somewhat similar to that which I should have produced had I entered Zodanga with
Woola.
The very thought of parting with the faithful fellow caused me so great regret
and genuine sorrow that I put it off until just before we arrived at the city's gates;
but then, finally, it became imperative that we separate.
Had nothing further than my own safety or pleasure been at stake no argument could
have prevailed upon me to turn away the one creature upon Barsoom that had never failed
in a demonstration of affection and
loyalty; but as I would willingly have offered my life in the service of her in
search of whom I was about to challenge the unknown dangers of this, to me, mysterious
city, I could not permit even Woola's life
to threaten the success of my venture, much less his momentary happiness, for I doubted
not he soon would forget me.
And so I bade the poor beast an affectionate farewell, promising him,
however, that if I came through my adventure in safety that in some way I
should find the means to search him out.
He seemed to understand me fully, and when I pointed back in the direction of Thark he
turned sorrowfully away, nor could I bear to watch him go; but resolutely set my face
toward Zodanga and with a touch of
heartsickness approached her frowning walls.
The letter I bore from them gained me immediate entrance to the vast, walled
city.
It was still very early in the morning and the streets were practically deserted.
The residences, raised high upon their metal columns, resembled huge rookeries,
while the uprights themselves presented the appearance of steel tree trunks.
The shops as a rule were not raised from the ground nor were their doors bolted or
barred, since thievery is practically unknown upon Barsoom.
Assassination is the ever-present fear of all Barsoomians, and for this reason alone
their homes are raised high above the ground at night, or in times of danger.
The Ptor brothers had given me explicit directions for reaching the point of the
city where I could find living accommodations and be near the offices of
the government agents to whom they had given me letters.
My way led to the central square or plaza, which is a characteristic of all Martian
cities.
The plaza of Zodanga covers a square mile and is bounded by the palaces of the
jeddak, the jeds, and other members of the royalty and nobility of Zodanga, as well as
by the principal public buildings, cafes, and shops.
As I was crossing the great square lost in wonder and admiration of the magnificent
architecture and the gorgeous scarlet vegetation which carpeted the broad lawns I
discovered a red Martian walking briskly toward me from one of the avenues.
He paid not the slightest attention to me, but as he came abreast I recognized him,
and turning I placed my hand upon his shoulder, calling out:
"Kaor, Kantos Kan!"
Like lightning he wheeled and before I could so much as lower my hand the point of
his long-sword was at my breast.
"Who are you?" he growled, and then as a backward leap carried me fifty feet from
his sword he dropped the point to the ground and exclaimed, laughing,
"I do not need a better reply, there is but one man upon all Barsoom who can bounce
about like a rubber ball.
By the mother of the further moon, John Carter, how came you here, and have you
become a Darseen that you can change your color at will?"
"You gave me a bad half minute my friend," he continued, after I had briefly outlined
my adventures since parting with him in the arena at Warhoon.
"Were my name and city known to the Zodangans I would shortly be sitting on the
banks of the lost sea of Korus with my revered and departed ancestors.
I am here in the interest of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, to discover the
whereabouts of Dejah Thoris, our princess.
Sab Than, prince of Zodanga, has her hidden in the city and has fallen madly in love
with her.
His father, Than Kosis, Jeddak of Zodanga, has made her voluntary marriage to his son
the price of peace between our countries, but Tardos Mors will not accede to the
demands and has sent word that he and his
people would rather look upon the dead face of their princess than see her wed to any
than her own choice, and that personally he would prefer being engulfed in the ashes of
a lost and burning Helium to joining the metal of his house with that of Than Kosis.
His reply was the deadliest affront he could have put upon Than Kosis and the
Zodangans, but his people love him the more for it and his strength in Helium is
greater today than ever.
"I have been here three days," continued Kantos Kan, "but I have not yet found where
Dejah Thoris is imprisoned.
Today I join the Zodangan navy as an air scout and I hope in this way to win the
confidence of Sab Than, the prince, who is commander of this division of the navy, and
thus learn the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris.
I am glad that you are here, John Carter, for I know your loyalty to my princess and
two of us working together should be able to accomplish much."
The plaza was now commencing to fill with people going and coming upon the daily
activities of their duties. The shops were opening and the cafes
filling with early morning patrons.
Kantos Kan led me to one of these gorgeous eating places where we were served entirely
by mechanical apparatus.
No hand touched the food from the time it entered the building in its raw state until
it emerged hot and delicious upon the tables before the guests, in response to
the touching of tiny buttons to indicate their desires.
After our meal, Kantos Kan took me with him to the headquarters of the air-scout
squadron and introducing me to his superior asked that I be enrolled as a member of the
corps.
In accordance with custom an examination was necessary, but Kantos Kan had told me
to have no fear on this score as he would attend to that part of the matter.
He accomplished this by taking my order for examination to the examining officer and
representing himself as John Carter.
"This ruse will be discovered later," he cheerfully explained, "when they check up
my weights, measurements, and other personal identification data, but it will
be several months before this is done and
our mission should be accomplished or have failed long before that time."
The next few days were spent by Kantos Kan in teaching me the intricacies of flying
and of repairing the dainty little contrivances which the Martians use for
this purpose.
The body of the one-man air craft is about sixteen feet long, two feet wide and three
inches thick, tapering to a point at each end.
The driver sits on top of this plane upon a seat constructed over the small, noiseless
radium engine which propels it.
The medium of buoyancy is contained within the thin metal walls of the body and
consists of the eighth Barsoomian ray, or ray of propulsion, as it may be termed in
view of its properties.
This ray, like the ninth ray, is unknown on Earth, but the Martians have discovered
that it is an inherent property of all light no matter from what source it
emanates.
They have learned that it is the solar eighth ray which propels the light of the
sun to the various planets, and that it is the individual eighth ray of each planet
which "reflects," or propels the light thus obtained out into space once more.
The solar eighth ray would be absorbed by the surface of Barsoom, but the Barsoomian
eighth ray, which tends to propel light from Mars into space, is constantly
streaming out from the planet constituting
a force of repulsion of gravity which when confined is able to lift enormous weights
from the surface of the ground.
It is this ray which has enabled them to so perfect aviation that battle ships far
outweighing anything known upon Earth sail as gracefully and lightly through the thin
air of Barsoom as a toy balloon in the heavy atmosphere of Earth.
During the early years of the discovery of this ray many strange accidents occurred
before the Martians learned to measure and control the wonderful power they had found.
In one instance, some nine hundred years before, the first great battle ship to be
built with eighth ray reservoirs was stored with too great a quantity of the rays and
she had sailed up from Helium with five hundred officers and men, never to return.
Her power of repulsion for the planet was so great that it had carried her far into
space, where she can be seen today, by the aid of powerful telescopes, hurtling
through the heavens ten thousand miles from
Mars; a tiny satellite that will thus encircle Barsoom to the end of time.
The fourth day after my arrival at Zodanga I made my first flight, and as a result of
it I won a promotion which included quarters in the palace of Than Kosis.
As I rose above the city I circled several times, as I had seen Kantos Kan do, and
then throwing my engine into top speed I raced at terrific velocity toward the
south, following one of the great waterways which enter Zodanga from that direction.
I had traversed perhaps two hundred miles in a little less than an hour when I
descried far below me a party of three green warriors racing madly toward a small
figure on foot which seemed to be trying to
reach the confines of one of the walled fields.
Dropping my machine rapidly toward them, and circling to the rear of the warriors,
I soon saw that the object of their pursuit was a red Martian wearing the metal of the
scout squadron to which I was attached.
A short distance away lay his tiny flier, surrounded by the tools with which he had
evidently been occupied in repairing some damage when surprised by the green
warriors.
They were now almost upon him; their flying mounts charging down on the relatively puny
figure at terrific speed, while the warriors leaned low to the right, with
their great metal-shod spears.
Each seemed striving to be the first to impale the poor Zodangan and in another
moment his fate would have been sealed had it not been for my timely arrival.
Driving my fleet air craft at high speed directly behind the warriors I soon
overtook them and without diminishing my speed I rammed the prow of my little flier
between the shoulders of the nearest.
The impact sufficient to have torn through inches of solid steel, hurled the fellow's
headless body into the air over the head of his thoat, where it fell sprawling upon the
moss.
The mounts of the other two warriors turned squealing in terror, and bolted in opposite
directions.
Reducing my speed I circled and came to the ground at the feet of the astonished
Zodangan.
He was warm in his thanks for my timely aid and promised that my day's work would bring
the reward it merited, for it was none other than a cousin of the jeddak of
Zodanga whose life I had saved.
We wasted no time in talk as we knew that the warriors would surely return as soon as
they had gained control of their mounts.
Hastening to his damaged machine we were bending every effort to finish the needed
repairs and had almost completed them when we saw the two green monsters returning at
top speed from opposite sides of us.
When they had approached within a hundred yards their thoats again became
unmanageable and absolutely refused to advance further toward the air craft which
had frightened them.
The warriors finally dismounted and hobbling their animals advanced toward us
on foot with drawn long-swords.
I advanced to meet the larger, telling the Zodangan to do the best he could with the
other.
Finishing my man with almost no effort, as had now from much practice become habitual
with me, I hastened to return to my new acquaintance whom I found indeed in
desperate straits.
He was wounded and down with the huge foot of his antagonist upon his throat and the
great long-sword raised to deal the final thrust.
With a bound I cleared the fifty feet intervening between us, and with
outstretched point drove my sword completely through the body of the green
warrior.
His sword fell, harmless, to the ground and he sank limply upon the prostrate form of
the Zodangan.
A cursory examination of the latter revealed no mortal injuries and after a
brief rest he asserted that he felt fit to attempt the return voyage.
He would have to pilot his own craft, however, as these frail vessels are not
intended to convey but a single person.
Quickly completing the repairs we rose together into the still, cloudless Martian
sky, and at great speed and without further mishap returned to Zodanga.
As we neared the city we discovered a mighty concourse of civilians and troops
assembled upon the plain before the city.
The sky was black with naval vessels and private and public pleasure craft, flying
long streamers of gay-colored silks, and banners and flags of odd and picturesque
design.
My companion signaled that I slow down, and running his machine close beside mine
suggested that we approach and watch the ceremony, which, he said, was for the
purpose of conferring honors on individual
officers and men for bravery and other distinguished service.
He then unfurled a little ensign which denoted that his craft bore a member of the
royal family of Zodanga, and together we made our way through the maze of low-lying
air vessels until we hung directly over the jeddak of Zodanga and his staff.
All were mounted upon the small domestic bull thoats of the red Martians, and their
trappings and ornamentation bore such a quantity of gorgeously colored feathers
that I could not but be struck with the
startling resemblance the concourse bore to a band of the red Indians of my own Earth.
One of the staff called the attention of Than Kosis to the presence of my companion
above them and the ruler motioned for him to descend.
As they waited for the troops to move into position facing the jeddak the two talked
earnestly together, the jeddak and his staff occasionally glancing up at me.
I could not hear their conversation and presently it ceased and all dismounted, as
the last body of troops had wheeled into position before their emperor.
A member of the staff advanced toward the troops, and calling the name of a soldier
commanded him to advance.
The officer then recited the nature of the heroic act which had won the approval of
the jeddak, and the latter advanced and placed a metal ornament upon the left arm
of the lucky man.
Ten men had been so decorated when the aide called out,
"John Carter, air scout!"
Never in my life had I been so surprised, but the habit of military discipline is
strong within me, and I dropped my little machine lightly to the ground and advanced
on foot as I had seen the others do.
As I halted before the officer, he addressed me in a voice audible to the
entire assemblage of troops and spectators.
"In recognition, John Carter," he said, "of your remarkable courage and skill in
defending the person of the cousin of the jeddak Than Kosis and, singlehanded,
vanquishing three green warriors, it is the
pleasure of our jeddak to confer on you the mark of his esteem."
Than Kosis then advanced toward me and placing an ornament upon me, said:
"My cousin has narrated the details of your wonderful achievement, which seems little
short of miraculous, and if you can so well defend a cousin of the jeddak how much
better could you defend the person of the jeddak himself.
You are therefore appointed a padwar of The Guards and will be quartered in my palace
hereafter."
I thanked him, and at his direction joined the members of his staff.
After the ceremony I returned my machine to its quarters on the roof of the barracks of
the air-scout squadron, and with an orderly from the palace to guide me I reported to
the officer in charge of the palace.
CHAPTER XXII I FIND DEJAH
The major-domo to whom I reported had been given instructions to station me near the
person of the jeddak, who, in time of war, is always in great danger of assassination,
as the rule that all is fair in war seems
to constitute the entire ethics of Martian conflict.
He therefore escorted me immediately to the apartment in which Than Kosis then was.
The ruler was engaged in conversation with his son, Sab Than, and several courtiers of
his household, and did not perceive my entrance.
The walls of the apartment were completely hung with splendid tapestries which hid any
windows or doors which may have pierced them.
The room was lighted by imprisoned rays of sunshine held between the ceiling proper
and what appeared to be a ground-glass false ceiling a few inches below.
My guide drew aside one of the tapestries, disclosing a passage which encircled the
room, between the hangings and the walls of the chamber.
Within this passage I was to remain, he said, so long as Than Kosis was in the
apartment. When he left I was to follow.
My only duty was to guard the ruler and keep out of sight as much as possible.
I would be relieved after a period of four hours.
The major-domo then left me.
The tapestries were of a strange weaving which gave the appearance of heavy solidity
from one side, but from my hiding place I could perceive all that took place within
the room as readily as though there had been no curtain intervening.
Scarcely had I gained my post than the tapestry at the opposite end of the chamber
separated and four soldiers of The Guard entered, surrounding a female figure.
As they approached Than Kosis the soldiers fell to either side and there standing
before the jeddak and not ten feet from me, her beautiful face radiant with smiles, was
Dejah Thoris.
Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga, advanced to meet her, and hand in hand they approached
close to the jeddak. Than Kosis looked up in surprise, and,
rising, saluted her.
"To what strange freak do I owe this visit from the Princess of Helium, who, two days
ago, with rare consideration for my pride, assured me that she would prefer Tal Hajus,
the green Thark, to my son?"
Dejah Thoris only smiled the more and with the roguish dimples playing at the corners
of her mouth she made answer:
"From the beginning of time upon Barsoom it has been the prerogative of woman to change
her mind as she listed and to dissemble in matters concerning her heart.
That you will forgive, Than Kosis, as has your son.
Two days ago I was not sure of his love for me, but now I am, and I have come to beg of
you to forget my rash words and to accept the assurance of the Princess of Helium
that when the time comes she will wed Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga."
"I am glad that you have so decided," replied Than Kosis.
"It is far from my desire to push war further against the people of Helium, and,
your promise shall be recorded and a proclamation to my people issued
forthwith."
"It were better, Than Kosis," interrupted Dejah Thoris, "that the proclamation wait
the ending of this war.
It would look strange indeed to my people and to yours were the Princess of Helium to
give herself to her country's enemy in the midst of hostilities."
"Cannot the war be ended at once?" spoke Sab Than.
"It requires but the word of Than Kosis to bring peace.
Say it, my father, say the word that will hasten my happiness, and end this unpopular
strife." "We shall see," replied Than Kosis, "how
the people of Helium take to peace.
I shall at least offer it to them." Dejah Thoris, after a few words, turned and
left the apartment, still followed by her guards.
Thus was the edifice of my brief dream of happiness dashed, broken, to the ground of
reality.
The woman for whom I had offered my life, and from whose lips I had so recently heard
a declaration of love for me, had lightly forgotten my very existence and smilingly
given herself to the son of her people's most hated enemy.
Although I had heard it with my own ears I could not believe it.
I must search out her apartments and force her to repeat the cruel truth to me alone
before I would be convinced, and so I deserted my post and hastened through the
passage behind the tapestries toward the door by which she had left the chamber.
Slipping quietly through this opening I discovered a maze of winding corridors,
branching and turning in every direction.
Running rapidly down first one and then another of them I soon became hopelessly
lost and was standing panting against a side wall when I heard voices near me.
Apparently they were coming from the opposite side of the partition against
which I leaned and presently I made out the tones of Dejah Thoris.
I could not hear the words but I knew that I could not possibly be mistaken in the
voice. Moving on a few steps I discovered another
passageway at the end of which lay a door.
Walking boldly forward I pushed into the room only to find myself in a small
antechamber in which were the four guards who had accompanied her.
One of them instantly arose and accosted me, asking the nature of my business.
"I am from Than Kosis," I replied, "and wish to speak privately with Dejah Thoris,
Princess of Helium."
"And your order?" asked the fellow.
I did not know what he meant, but replied that I was a member of The Guard, and
without waiting for a reply from him I strode toward the opposite door of the
antechamber, behind which I could hear Dejah Thoris conversing.
But my entrance was not to be so easily accomplished.
The guardsman stepped before me, saying,
"No one comes from Than Kosis without carrying an order or the password.
You must give me one or the other before you may pass."
"The only order I require, my friend, to enter where I will, hangs at my side," I
answered, tapping my long-sword; "will you let me pass in peace or no?"
For reply he whipped out his own sword, calling to the others to join him, and thus
the four stood, with drawn weapons, barring my further progress.
"You are not here by the order of Than Kosis," cried the one who had first
addressed me, "and not only shall you not enter the apartments of the Princess of
Helium but you shall go back to Than Kosis
under guard to explain this unwarranted temerity.
Throw down your sword; you cannot hope to overcome four of us," he added with a grim
smile.
My reply was a quick thrust which left me but three antagonists and I can assure you
that they were worthy of my metal. They had me backed against the wall in no
time, fighting for my life.
Slowly I worked my way to a corner of the room where I could force them to come at me
only one at a time, and thus we fought upward of twenty minutes; the clanging of
steel on steel producing a veritable bedlam in the little room.
The noise had brought Dejah Thoris to the door of her apartment, and there she stood
throughout the conflict with Sola at her back peering over her shoulder.
Her face was set and emotionless and I knew that she did not recognize me, nor did
Sola.
Finally a lucky cut brought down a second guardsman and then, with only two opposing
me, I changed my tactics and rushed them down after the fashion of my fighting that
had won me many a victory.
The third fell within ten seconds after the second, and the last lay dead upon the
bloody floor a few moments later.
They were brave men and noble fighters, and it grieved me that I had been forced to
kill them, but I would have willingly depopulated all Barsoom could I have
reached the side of my Dejah Thoris in no other way.
Sheathing my bloody blade I advanced toward my Martian Princess, who still stood mutely
gazing at me without sign of recognition.
"Who are you, Zodangan?" she whispered. "Another enemy to harass me in my misery?"
"I am a friend," I answered, "a once cherished friend."
"No friend of Helium's princess wears that metal," she replied, "and yet the voice!
I have heard it before; it is not--it cannot be--no, for he is dead."
"It is, though, my Princess, none other than John Carter," I said.
"Do you not recognize, even through paint and strange metal, the heart of your
chieftain?"
As I came close to her she swayed toward me with outstretched hands, but as I reached
to take her in my arms she drew back with a shudder and a little moan of misery.
"Too late, too late," she grieved.
"O my chieftain that was, and whom I thought dead, had you but returned one
little hour before--but now it is too late, too late."
"What do you mean, Dejah Thoris?"
I cried. "That you would not have promised yourself
to the Zodangan prince had you known that I lived?"
"Think you, John Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday and today to
another?
I thought that it lay buried with your ashes in the pits of Warhoon, and so today
I have promised my body to another to save my people from the curse of a victorious
Zodangan army."
"But I am not dead, my princess. I have come to claim you, and all Zodanga
cannot prevent it." "It is too late, John Carter, my promise is
given, and on Barsoom that is final.
The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless formalities.
They make the fact of marriage no more certain than does the funeral cortege of a
jeddak again place the seal of death upon him.
I am as good as married, John Carter.
No longer may you call me your princess. No longer are you my chieftain."
"I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejah Thoris, but I do know
that I love you, and if you meant the last words you spoke to me that day as the
hordes of Warhoon were charging down upon
us, no other man shall ever claim you as his bride.
You meant them then, my princess, and you mean them still!
Say that it is true."
"I meant them, John Carter," she whispered. "I cannot repeat them now for I have given
myself to another.
Ah, if you had only known our ways, my friend," she continued, half to herself,
"the promise would have been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed me
before all others.
It might have meant the fall of Helium, but I would have given my empire for my
Tharkian chief." Then aloud she said: "Do you remember the
night when you offended me?
You called me your princess without having asked my hand of me, and then you boasted
that you had fought for me. You did not know, and I should not have
been offended; I see that now.
But there was no one to tell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two
kinds of women in the cities of the red men.
The one they fight for that they may ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight
for also, but never ask their hands.
When a man has won a woman he may address her as his princess, or in any of the
several terms which signify possession.
You had fought for me, but had never asked me in marriage, and so when you called me
your princess, you see," she faltered, "I was hurt, but even then, John Carter, I did
not repulse you, as I should have done,
until you made it doubly worse by taunting me with having won me through combat."
"I do not need ask your forgiveness now, Dejah Thoris," I cried.
"You must know that my fault was of ignorance of your Barsoomian customs.
What I failed to do, through implicit belief that my petition would be
presumptuous and unwelcome, I do now, Dejah Thoris; I ask you to be my wife, and by all
the Virginian fighting blood that flows in my veins you shall be."
"No, John Carter, it is useless," she cried, hopelessly, "I may never be yours
while Sab Than lives."
"You have sealed his death warrant, my princess--Sab Than dies."
"Nor that either," she hastened to explain. "I may not wed the man who slays my
husband, even in self-defense.
It is custom. We are ruled by custom upon Barsoom.
It is useless, my friend. You must bear the sorrow with me.
That at least we may share in common.
That, and the memory of the brief days among the Tharks.
You must go now, nor ever see me again. Good-bye, my chieftain that was."
Disheartened and dejected, I withdrew from the room, but I was not entirely
discouraged, nor would I admit that Dejah Thoris was lost to me until the ceremony
had actually been performed.
As I wandered along the corridors, I was as absolutely lost in the mazes of winding
passageways as I had been before I discovered Dejah Thoris' apartments.
I knew that my only hope lay in escape from the city of Zodanga, for the matter of the
four dead guardsmen would have to be explained, and as I could never reach my
original post without a guide, suspicion
would surely rest on me so soon as I was discovered wandering aimlessly through the
palace.
Presently I came upon a spiral runway leading to a lower floor, and this I
followed downward for several stories until I reached the doorway of a large apartment
in which were a number of guardsmen.
The walls of this room were hung with transparent tapestries behind which I
secreted myself without being apprehended.
The conversation of the guardsmen was general, and awakened no interest in me
until an officer entered the room and ordered four of the men to relieve the
detail who were guarding the Princess of Helium.
Now, I knew, my troubles would commence in earnest and indeed they were upon me all
too soon, for it seemed that the squad had scarcely left the guardroom before one of
their number burst in again breathlessly,
crying that they had found their four comrades butchered in the antechamber.
In a moment the entire palace was alive with people.
Guardsmen, officers, courtiers, servants, and slaves ran helter-skelter through the
corridors and apartments carrying messages and orders, and searching for signs of the
assassin.
This was my opportunity and slim as it appeared I grasped it, for as a number of
soldiers came hurrying past my hiding place I fell in behind them and followed through
the mazes of the palace until, in passing
through a great hall, I saw the blessed light of day coming in through a series of
larger windows.
Here I left my guides, and, slipping to the nearest window, sought for an avenue of
escape.
The windows opened upon a great balcony which overlooked one of the broad avenues
of Zodanga.
The ground was about thirty feet below, and at a like distance from the building was a
wall fully twenty feet high, constructed of polished glass about a foot in thickness.
To a red Martian escape by this path would have appeared impossible, but to me, with
my earthly strength and agility, it seemed already accomplished.
My only fear was in being detected before darkness fell, for I could not make the
leap in broad daylight while the court below and the avenue beyond were crowded
with Zodangans.
Accordingly I searched for a hiding place and finally found one by accident, inside a
huge hanging ornament which swung from the ceiling of the hall, and about ten feet
from the floor.
Into the capacious bowl-like vase I sprang with ease, and scarcely had I settled down
within it than I heard a number of people enter the apartment.
The group stopped beneath my hiding place and I could plainly overhear their every
word. "It is the work of Heliumites," said one of
the men.
"Yes, O Jeddak, but how had they access to the palace?
I could believe that even with the diligent care of your guardsmen a single enemy might
reach the inner chambers, but how a force of six or eight fighting men could have
done so unobserved is beyond me.
We shall soon know, however, for here comes the royal psychologist."
Another man now joined the group, and, after making his formal greetings to his
ruler, said:
"O mighty Jeddak, it is a strange tale I read in the dead minds of your faithful
guardsmen. They were felled not by a number of
fighting men, but by a single opponent."
He paused to let the full weight of this announcement impress his hearers, and that
his statement was scarcely credited was evidenced by the impatient exclamation of
incredulity which escaped the lips of Than Kosis.
"What manner of weird tale are you bringing me, Notan?" he cried.
"It is the truth, my Jeddak," replied the psychologist.
"In fact the impressions were strongly marked on the brain of each of the four
guardsmen.
Their antagonist was a very tall man, wearing the metal of one of your own
guardsmen, and his fighting ability was little short of marvelous for he fought
fair against the entire four and vanquished
them by his surpassing skill and superhuman strength and endurance.
Though he wore the metal of Zodanga, my Jeddak, such a man was never seen before in
this or any other country upon Barsoom.
"The mind of the Princess of Helium whom I have examined and questioned was a blank to
me, she has perfect control, and I could not read one iota of it.
She said that she witnessed a portion of the encounter, and that when she looked
there was but one man engaged with the guardsmen; a man whom she did not recognize
as ever having seen."
"Where is my erstwhile savior?" spoke another of the party, and I recognized the
voice of the cousin of Than Kosis, whom I had rescued from the green warriors.
"By the metal of my first ancestor," he went on, "but the description fits him to
perfection, especially as to his fighting ability."
"Where is this man?" cried Than Kosis.
"Have him brought to me at once. What know you of him, cousin?
It seemed strange to me now that I think upon it that there should have been such a
fighting man in Zodanga, of whose name, even, we were ignorant before today.
And his name too, John Carter, who ever heard of such a name upon Barsoom!"
Word was soon brought that I was nowhere to be found, either in the palace or at my
former quarters in the barracks of the air- scout squadron.
Kantos Kan, they had found and questioned, but he knew nothing of my whereabouts, and
as to my past, he had told them he knew as little, since he had but recently met me
during our captivity among the Warhoons.
"Keep your eyes on this other one," commanded Than Kosis.
"He also is a stranger and likely as not they both hail from Helium, and where one
is we shall sooner or later find the other.
Quadruple the air patrol, and let every man who leaves the city by air or ground be
subjected to the closest scrutiny." Another messenger now entered with word
that I was still within the palace walls.
"The likeness of every person who has entered or left the palace grounds today
has been carefully examined," concluded the fellow, "and not one approaches the
likeness of this new padwar of the guards,
other than that which was recorded of him at the time he entered."
"Then we will have him shortly," commented Than Kosis contentedly, "and in the
meanwhile we will repair to the apartments of the Princess of Helium and question her
in regard to the affair.
She may know more than she cared to divulge to you, Notan.
Come."
They left the hall, and, as darkness had fallen without, I slipped lightly from my
hiding place and hastened to the balcony.
Few were in sight, and choosing a moment when none seemed near I sprang quickly to
the top of the glass wall and from there to the avenue beyond the palace grounds.
>
-CHAPTER XXIII LOST IN THE SKY
Without effort at concealment I hastened to the vicinity of our quarters, where I felt
sure I should find Kantos Kan.
As I neared the building I became more careful, as I judged, and rightly, that the
place would be guarded.
Several men in civilian metal loitered near the front entrance and in the rear were
others.
My only means of reaching, unseen, the upper story where our apartments were
situated was through an adjoining building, and after considerable maneuvering I
managed to attain the roof of a shop several doors away.
Leaping from roof to roof, I soon reached an open window in the building where I
hoped to find the Heliumite, and in another moment I stood in the room before him.
He was alone and showed no surprise at my coming, saying he had expected me much
earlier, as my tour of duty must have ended some time since.
I saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day at the palace, and when I had
enlightened him he was all excitement. The news that Dejah Thoris had promised her
hand to Sab Than filled him with dismay.
"It cannot be," he exclaimed. "It is impossible!
Why no man in all Helium but would prefer death to the selling of our loved princess
to the ruling house of Zodanga.
She must have lost her mind to have assented to such an atrocious bargain.
You, who do not know how we of Helium love the members of our ruling house, cannot
appreciate the horror with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance."
"What can be done, John Carter?" he continued.
"You are a resourceful man. Can you not think of some way to save
Helium from this disgrace?"
"If I can come within sword's reach of Sab Than," I answered, "I can solve the
difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned, but for personal reasons I would
prefer that another struck the blow that frees Dejah Thoris."
Kantos Kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke.
"You love her!" he said.
"Does she know it?" "She knows it, Kantos Kan, and repulses me
only because she is promised to Sab Than."
The splendid fellow sprang to his feet, and grasping me by the shoulder raised his
sword on high, exclaiming:
"And had the choice been left to me I could not have chosen a more fitting mate for the
first princess of Barsoom.
Here is my hand upon your shoulder, John Carter, and my word that Sab Than shall go
out at the point of my sword for the sake of my love for Helium, for Dejah Thoris,
and for you.
This very night I shall try to reach his quarters in the palace."
"How?" I asked.
"You are strongly guarded and a quadruple force patrols the sky."
He bent his head in thought a moment, then raised it with an air of confidence.
"I only need to pass these guards and I can do it," he said at last.
"I know a secret entrance to the palace through the pinnacle of the highest tower.
I fell upon it by chance one day as I was passing above the palace on patrol duty.
In this work it is required that we investigate any unusual occurrence we may
witness, and a face peering from the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace
was, to me, most unusual.
I therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor of the peering face was none
other than Sab Than.
He was slightly put out at being detected and commanded me to keep the matter to
myself, explaining that the passage from the tower led directly to his apartments,
and was known only to him.
If I can reach the roof of the barracks and get my machine I can be in Sab Than's
quarters in five minutes; but how am I to escape from this building, guarded as you
say it is?"
"How well are the machine sheds at the barracks guarded?"
I asked. "There is usually but one man on duty there
at night upon the roof."
"Go to the roof of this building, Kantos Kan, and wait me there."
Without stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way to the street and hastened
to the barracks.
I did not dare to enter the building, filled as it was with members of the air-
scout squadron, who, in common with all Zodanga, were on the lookout for me.
The building was an enormous one, rearing its lofty head fully a thousand feet into
the air.
But few buildings in Zodanga were higher than these barracks, though several topped
it by a few hundred feet; the docks of the great battleships of the line standing some
fifteen hundred feet from the ground, while
the freight and passenger stations of the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high.
It was a long climb up the face of the building, and one fraught with much danger,
but there was no other way, and so I essayed the task.
The fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the feat much simpler
than I had anticipated, since I found ornamental ledges and projections which
fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the way to the eaves of the building.
Here I met my first real obstacle.
The eaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which I clung, and though I
encircled the great building I could find no opening through them.
The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the pastimes of their
kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof through the building.
There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must take--it was for
Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not risk a thousand deaths for such
as she.
Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of the long leather
straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great hook by which air sailors
are hung to the sides and bottoms of their
craft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which landing parties are
lowered to the ground from the battleships.
I swung this hook cautiously to the roof several times before it finally found
lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold, but whether it would
bear the weight of my body I did not know.
It might be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so that as my body
swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and launch me to the pavement a
thousand feet below.
An instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon the supporting ornament, I
swung out into space at the end of the strap.
Far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements, and death.
There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves, and a nasty slipping,
grating sound which turned me cold with apprehension; then the hook caught and I
was safe.
Clambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drew myself to the surface
of the roof above.
As I gained my feet I was confronted by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose
revolver I found myself looking. "Who are you and whence came you?" he
cried.
"I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by the merest chance I
escaped falling to the avenue below," I replied.
"But how came you upon the roof, man?
No one has landed or come up from the building for the past hour.
Quick, explain yourself, or I call the guard."
"Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close a shave I had to
not coming at all," I answered, turning toward the edge of the roof, where, twenty
feet below, at the end of my strap, hung all my weapons.
The fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and to his undoing, for
as he leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped him by his throat and his pistol
arm and threw him heavily to the roof.
The weapon dropped from his grasp, and my fingers choked off his attempted cry for
assistance.
I gagged and bound him and then hung him over the edge of the roof as I myself had
hung a few moments before.
I knew it would be morning before he would be discovered, and I needed all the time
that I could gain.
Donning my trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon had out both my
machine and Kantos Kan's.
Making his fast behind mine I started my engine, and skimming over the edge of the
roof I dove down into the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied
by the air patrol.
In less than a minute I was settling safely upon the roof of our apartment beside the
astonished Kantos Kan.
I lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediately into a discussion of our plans
for the immediate future.
It was decided that I was to try to make Helium while Kantos Kan was to enter the
palace and dispatch Sab Than. If successful he was then to follow me.
He set my compass for me, a clever little device which will remain steadfastly fixed
upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each other farewell we
rose together and sped in the direction of
the palace which lay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.
As we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing its piercing
searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out a command to halt, following
with a shot as I paid no attention to his hail.
Kantos Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rose steadily and at
terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followed by a dozen of the air-scout
craft which had joined the pursuit, and
later by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery of rapid-fire guns.
By twisting and turning my little machine, now rising and now falling, I managed to
elude their search-lights most of the time, but I was also losing ground by these
tactics, and so I decided to hazard
everything on a straight-away course and leave the result to fate and the speed of
my machine.
Kantos Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to the navy of Helium,
that greatly increased the speed of our machines, so that I felt sure I could
distance my pursuers if I could dodge their projectiles for a few moments.
As I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around me convinced me that
only by a miracle could I escape, but the die was cast, and throwing on full speed I
raced a straight course toward Helium.
Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and I was just
congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directed shot from the cruiser
exploded at the prow of my little craft.
The concussion nearly capsized her, and with a sickening plunge she hurtled
downward through the dark night.
How far I fell before I regained control of the plane I do not know, but I must have
been very close to the ground when I started to rise again, as I plainly heard
the squealing of animals below me.
Rising again I scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making out their
lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently in search of me.
Not until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture to flash my
little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my consternation that a fragment
of the projectile had utterly destroyed my only guide, as well as my speedometer.
It was true I could follow the stars in the general direction of Helium, but without
knowing the exact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my
chances for finding it were slim.
Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass intact I
should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four and five hours.
As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding over a vast expanse of dead sea
bottom after nearly six hours of continuous flight at high speed.
Presently a great city showed below me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all
Barsoomian metropolises consists in two immense circular walled cities about
seventy-five miles apart and would have
been easily distinguishable from the altitude at which I was flying.
Believing that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned back in a
southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other large cities, but
none resembling the description which Kantos Kan had given me of Helium.
In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium, another distinguishing feature is
the two immense towers, one of vivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air
from the center of one of the cities, while
the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks her sister.
CHAPTER XXIV TARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND
About noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as I skimmed out
across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand green warriors engaged in
a terrific battle.
Scarcely had I seen them than a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the
almost unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined wreck,
sinking erratically to the ground.
I fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat, among warriors who had not
seen my approach so busily were they engaged in life and death struggles.
The men were fighting on foot with long- swords, while an occasional shot from a
sharpshooter on the outskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who
might for an instant separate himself from the entangled mass.
As my machine sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with good chances
of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with drawn long-sword ready to
defend myself as I could.
I fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists, and as I
glanced at his fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I recognized Tars Tarkas
the Thark.
He did not see me, as I was a trifle behind him, and just then the three warriors
opposing him, and whom I recognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously.
The mighty fellow made quick work of one of them, but in stepping back for another
thrust he fell over a dead body behind him and was down and at the mercy of his foes
in an instant.
Quick as lightning they were upon him, and Tars Tarkas would have been gathered to his
fathers in short order had I not sprung before his prostrate form and engaged his
adversaries.
I had accounted for one of them when the mighty Thark regained his feet and quickly
settled the other.
He gave me one look, and a slight smile touched his grim lip as, touching my
shoulder, he said,
"I would scarcely recognize you, John Carter, but there is no other mortal upon
Barsoom who would have done what you have for me.
I think I have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend."
He said no more, nor was there opportunity, for the Warhoons were closing in about us,
and together we fought, shoulder to shoulder, during all that long, hot
afternoon, until the tide of battle turned
and the remnant of the fierce Warhoon horde fell back upon their thoats, and fled into
the gathering darkness.
Ten thousand men had been engaged in that titanic struggle, and upon the field of
battle lay three thousand dead. Neither side asked or gave quarter, nor did
they attempt to take prisoners.
On our return to the city after the battle we had gone directly to Tars Tarkas'
quarters, where I was left alone while the chieftain attended the customary council
which immediately follows an engagement.
As I sat awaiting the return of the green warrior I heard something move in an
adjoining apartment, and as I glanced up there rushed suddenly upon me a huge and
hideous creature which bore me backward
upon the pile of silks and furs upon which I had been reclining.
It was Woola--faithful, loving Woola.
He had found his way back to Thark and, as Tars Tarkas later told me, had gone
immediately to my former quarters where he had taken up his pathetic and seemingly
hopeless watch for my return.
"Tal Hajus knows that you are here, John Carter," said Tars Tarkas, on his return
from the jeddak's quarters; "Sarkoja saw and recognized you as we were returning.
Tal Hajus has ordered me to bring you before him tonight.
I have ten thoats, John Carter; you may take your choice from among them, and I
will accompany you to the nearest waterway that leads to Helium.
Tars Tarkas may be a cruel green warrior, but he can be a friend as well.
Come, we must start." "And when you return, Tars Tarkas?"
I asked.
"The wild calots, possibly, or worse," he replied.
"Unless I should chance to have the opportunity I have so long waited of
battling with Tal Hajus."
"We will stay, Tars Tarkas, and see Tal Hajus tonight.
You shall not sacrifice yourself, and it may be that tonight you can have the chance
you wait."
He objected strenuously, saying that Tal Hajus often flew into wild fits of passion
at the mere thought of the blow I had dealt him, and that if ever he laid his hands
upon me I would be subjected to the most horrible tortures.
While we were eating I repeated to Tars Tarkas the story which Sola had told me
that night upon the sea bottom during the march to Thark.
He said but little, but the great muscles of his face worked in passion and in agony
at recollection of the horrors which had been heaped upon the only thing he had ever
loved in all his cold, cruel, terrible existence.
He no longer demurred when I suggested that we go before Tal Hajus, only saying that he
would like to speak to Sarkoja first.
At his request I accompanied him to her quarters, and the look of venomous hatred
she cast upon me was almost adequate recompense for any future misfortunes this
accidental return to Thark might bring me.
"Sarkoja," said Tars Tarkas, "forty years ago you were instrumental in bringing about
the torture and death of a woman named Gozava.
I have just discovered that the warrior who loved that woman has learned of your part
in the transaction.
He may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not our custom, but there is nothing to prevent him
tying one end of a strap about your neck and the other end to a wild thoat, merely
to test your fitness to survive and help perpetuate our race.
Having heard that he would do this on the morrow, I thought it only right to warn
you, for I am a just man.
The river Iss is but a short pilgrimage, Sarkoja.
Come, John Carter." The next morning Sarkoja was gone, nor was
she ever seen after.
In silence we hastened to the jeddak's palace, where we were immediately admitted
to his presence; in fact, he could scarcely wait to see me and was standing erect upon
his platform glowering at the entrance as I came in.
"Strap him to that pillar," he shrieked. "We shall see who it is dares strike the
mighty Tal Hajus.
Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall burn the eyes from his head that he may not
pollute my person with his vile gaze."
"Chieftains of Thark," I cried, turning to the assembled council and ignoring Tal
Hajus, "I have been a chief among you, and today I have fought for Thark shoulder to
shoulder with her greatest warrior.
You owe me, at least, a hearing. I have won that much today.
You claim to be just people--" "Silence," roared Tal Hajus.
"Gag the creature and bind him as I command."
"Justice, Tal Hajus," exclaimed Lorquas Ptomel.
"Who are you to set aside the customs of ages among the Tharks."
"Yes, justice!" echoed a dozen voices, and so, while Tal Hajus fumed and frothed, I
continued.
"You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty jeddak
during the fighting today? I did not see him in the thick of battle;
he was not there.
He rends defenseless women and little children in his lair, but how recently has
one of you seen him fight with men? Why, even I, a midget beside him, felled
him with a single blow of my fist.
Is it of such that the Tharks fashion their jeddaks?
There stands beside me now a great Thark, a mighty warrior and a noble man.
Chieftains, how sounds, Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark?"
A roar of deep-toned applause greeted this suggestion.
"It but remains for this council to command, and Tal Hajus must prove his
fitness to rule.
Were he a brave man he would invite Tars Tarkas to combat, for he does not love him,
but Tal Hajus is afraid; Tal Hajus, your jeddak, is a coward.
With my bare hands I could kill him, and he knows it."
After I ceased there was tense silence, as all eyes were riveted upon Tal Hajus.
He did not speak or move, but the blotchy green of his countenance turned livid, and
the froth froze upon his lips.
"Tal Hajus," said Lorquas Ptomel in a cold, hard voice, "never in my long life have I
seen a jeddak of the Tharks so humiliated. There could be but one answer to this
arraignment.
We wait it." And still Tal Hajus stood as though
electrified.
"Chieftains," continued Lorquas Ptomel, "shall the jeddak, Tal Hajus, prove his
fitness to rule over Tars Tarkas?"
There were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords flashed high in
assent. There was no alternative.
That decree was final, and so Tal Hajus drew his long-sword and advanced to meet
Tars Tarkas.
The combat was soon over, and, with his foot upon the neck of the dead monster,
Tars Tarkas became jeddak among the Tharks.
His first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I had won by my
combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them.
Seeing the favorable disposition of the warriors toward Tars Tarkas, as well as
toward me, I grasped the opportunity to enlist them in my cause against Zodanga.
I told Tars Tarkas the story of my adventures, and in a few words had
explained to him the thought I had in mind.
"John Carter has made a proposal," he said, addressing the council, "which meets with
my sanction. I shall put it to you briefly.
Dejah Thoris, the Princess of Helium, who was our prisoner, is now held by the jeddak
of Zodanga, whose son she must wed to save her country from devastation at the hands
of the Zodangan forces.
"John Carter suggests that we rescue her and return her to Helium.
The loot of Zodanga would be magnificent, and I have often thought that had we an
alliance with the people of Helium we could obtain sufficient assurance of sustenance
to permit us to increase the size and
frequency of our hatchings, and thus become unquestionably supreme among the green men
of all Barsoom. What say you?"
It was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the bait as a
speckled trout to a fly.
For Tharks they were wildly enthusiastic, and before another half hour had passed
twenty mounted messengers were speeding across dead sea bottoms to call the hordes
together for the expedition.
In three days we were on the march toward Zodanga, one hundred thousand strong, as
Tars Tarkas had been able to enlist the services of three smaller hordes on the
promise of the great loot of Zodanga.
At the head of the column I rode beside the great Thark while at the heels of my mount
trotted my beloved Woola.
We traveled entirely by night, timing our marches so that we camped during the day at
deserted cities where, even to the beasts, we were all kept indoors during the
daylight hours.
On the march Tars Tarkas, through his remarkable ability and statesmanship,
enlisted fifty thousand more warriors from various hordes, so that, ten days after we
set out we halted at midnight outside the
great walled city of Zodanga, one hundred and fifty thousand strong.
The fighting strength and efficiency of this horde of ferocious green monsters was
equivalent to ten times their number of red men.
Never in the history of Barsoom, Tars Tarkas told me, had such a force of green
warriors marched to battle together.
It was a monstrous task to keep even a semblance of harmony among them, and it was
a marvel to me that he got them to the city without a mighty battle among themselves.
But as we neared Zodanga their personal quarrels were submerged by their greater
hatred for the red men, and especially for the Zodangans, who had for years waged a
ruthless campaign of extermination against
the green men, directing special attention toward despoiling their incubators.
Now that we were before Zodanga the task of obtaining entry to the city devolved upon
me, and directing Tars Tarkas to hold his forces in two divisions out of earshot of
the city, with each division opposite a
large gateway, I took twenty dismounted warriors and approached one of the small
gates that pierced the walls at short intervals.
These gates have no regular guard, but are covered by sentries, who patrol the avenue
that encircles the city just within the walls as our metropolitan police patrol
their beats.
The walls of Zodanga are seventy-five feet in height and fifty feet thick.
They are built of enormous blocks of carborundum, and the task of entering the
city seemed, to my escort of green warriors, an impossibility.
The fellows who had been detailed to accompany me were of one of the smaller
hordes, and therefore did not know me.
Placing three of them with their faces to the wall and arms locked, I commanded two
more to mount to their shoulders, and a sixth I ordered to climb upon the shoulders
of the upper two.
The head of the topmost warrior towered over forty feet from the ground.
In this way, with ten warriors, I built a series of three steps from the ground to
the shoulders of the topmost man.
Then starting from a short distance behind them I ran swiftly up from one tier to the
next, and with a final bound from the broad shoulders of the highest I clutched the top
of the great wall and quietly drew myself to its broad expanse.
After me I dragged six lengths of leather from an equal number of my warriors.
These lengths we had previously fastened together, and passing one end to the
topmost warrior I lowered the other end cautiously over the opposite side of the
wall toward the avenue below.
No one was in sight, so, lowering myself to the end of my leather strap, I dropped the
remaining thirty feet to the pavement below.
I had learned from Kantos Kan the secret of opening these gates, and in another moment
my twenty great fighting men stood within the doomed city of Zodanga.
I found to my delight that I had entered at the lower boundary of the enormous palace
grounds.
The building itself showed in the distance a blaze of glorious light, and on the
instant I determined to lead a detachment of warriors directly within the palace
itself, while the balance of the great
horde was attacking the barracks of the soldiery.
Dispatching one of my men to Tars Tarkas for a detail of fifty Tharks, with word of
my intentions, I ordered ten warriors to capture and open one of the great gates
while with the nine remaining I took the other.
We were to do our work quietly, no shots were to be fired and no general advance
made until I had reached the palace with my fifty Tharks.
Our plans worked to perfection.
The two sentries we met were dispatched to their fathers upon the banks of the lost
sea of Korus, and the guards at both gates followed them in silence.
>
-CHAPTER XXV THE LOOTING OF ZODANGA
As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed by Tars Tarkas
himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats. I led them to the palace walls, which I
negotiated easily without assistance.
Once inside, however, the gate gave me considerable trouble, but I finally was
rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon my fierce escort was
riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.
As we approached the palace I could see through the great windows of the first
floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber of Than Kosis.
The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women, as though some important
function was in progress.
There was not a guard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact that
the city and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so I came close and peered
within.
At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted with diamonds, sat
Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by officers and dignitaries of state.
Before them stretched a broad aisle lined on either side with soldiery, and as I
looked there entered this aisle at the far end of the hall, the head of a procession
which advanced to the foot of the throne.
First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard bearing a huge salver on
which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a great golden chain with a collar
and padlock at each end.
Directly behind these officers came four others carrying a similar salver which
supported the magnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the reigning house
of Zodanga.
At the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted, facing each other at
opposite sides of the aisle.
Then came more dignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, and
finally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not a feature of
either was discernible.
These two stopped at the foot of the throne, facing Than Kosis.
When the balance of the procession had entered and assumed their stations Than
Kosis addressed the couple standing before him.
I could not hear his words, but presently two officers advanced and removed the
scarlet robe from one of the figures, and I saw that Kantos Kan had failed in his
mission, for it was Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga, who stood revealed before me.
Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers and placed one of
the collars of gold about his son's neck, springing the padlock fast.
After a few more words addressed to Sab Than he turned to the other figure, from
which the officers now removed the enshrouding silks, disclosing to my now
comprehending view Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.
The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment Dejah Thoris would be
joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga.
It was an impressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed
the most fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments were
adjusted upon her beautiful figure and her
collar of gold swung open in the hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my
head, and, with the heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great window and sprang
into the midst of the astonished assemblage.
With a bound I was on the steps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as he stood
riveted with surprise I brought my long- sword down upon the golden chain that would
have bound Dejah Thoris to another.
In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced me from every quarter,
and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger he had drawn from his nuptial
ornaments.
I could have killed him as easily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of
Barsoom stayed my hand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart I
held him as though in a vise and with my
long-sword pointed to the far end of the hall.
"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"
All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forging through the
portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his fifty warriors on their great
thoats.
A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word of fear, and in a
moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were hurling themselves upon the advancing
Tharks.
Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris to my side.
Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than Kosis now stood facing me,
with drawn long-sword.
In an instant we were engaged, and I found no mean antagonist.
As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the steps to aid his
father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah Thoris sprang before him and
then my sword found the spot that made Sab Than jeddak of Zodanga.
As his father rolled dead upon the floor the new jeddak tore himself free from Dejah
Thoris' grasp, and again we faced each other.
He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and, with my back against a
golden throne, I fought once again for Dejah Thoris.
I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down Sab Than and, with him, my
last chance to win the woman I loved.
My blade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parry the thrusts
and cuts of my opponents.
Two I had disarmed, and one was down, when several more rushed to the aid of their new
ruler, and to avenge the death of the old. As they advanced there were cries of "The
woman!
The woman! Strike her down; it is her plot.
Kill her! Kill her!"
Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the little doorway
back of the throne, but the officers realized my intentions, and three of them
sprang in behind me and blocked my chances
for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris against any army of
swordsmen.
The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, and I began to
realize that nothing short of a miracle could save Dejah Thoris and myself, when I
saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd of pygmies that swarmed about him.
With one swing of his mighty longsword he laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he
hewed a pathway before him until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside
me, dealing death and destruction right and left.
The bravery of the Zodangans was awe- inspiring, not one attempted to escape, and
when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks remained alive in the great
hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.
Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower of Zodangan
nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles.
My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, and leaving Dejah
Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriors and hastened to the dungeons
beneath the palace.
The jailers had all left to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched
the labyrinthine prison without opposition.
I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridor and compartment, and finally I
was rewarded by hearing a faint response. Guided by the sound, we soon found him
helpless in a dark recess.
He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight, faint echoes of
which had reached his prison cell.
He told me that the air patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of the
palace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.
We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the bars and chains
which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I returned to search the bodies
on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks of his cell and of his chains.
Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon we had Kantos
Kan with us in the throne room.
The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to us from the
city's streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct the fighting without.
Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide, the green warriors commencing a thorough
search of the palace for other Zodangans and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were
left alone.
She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her she greeted
me with a wan smile. "Was there ever such a man!" she exclaimed.
"I know that Barsoom has never before seen your like.
Can it be that all Earth men are as you?
Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in a few short
months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever done: joined together the
wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought
them to fight as allies of a red Martian people."
"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris," I replied smiling.
"It was not I who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would work
greater miracles than this you have seen." A pretty flush overspread her face and she
answered,
"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free."
"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late," I returned.
"I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser men would not
have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed of winning a Dejah Thoris
for myself--for never had I dreamed that in
all the universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium.
That you are a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough to make me
doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine."
"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea before the plea
were made," she replied, rising and placing her dear hands upon my shoulders, and so I
took her in my arms and kissed her.
And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the alarms of war;
with death and destruction reaping their terrible harvest around her, did Dejah
Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughter
of Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter, Gentleman of
Virginia.
CHAPTER XXVI THROUGH CARNAGE TO JOY
Sometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to report that Zodanga had been
completely reduced.
Her forces were entirely destroyed or captured, and no further resistance was to
be expected from within.
Several battleships had escaped, but there were thousands of war and merchant vessels
under guard of Thark warriors.
The lesser hordes had commenced looting and quarreling among themselves, so it was
decided that we collect what warriors we could, man as many vessels as possible with
Zodangan prisoners and make for Helium without further loss of time.
Five hours later we sailed from the roofs of the dock buildings with a fleet of two
hundred and fifty battleships, carrying nearly one hundred thousand green warriors,
followed by a fleet of transports with our thoats.
Behind us we left the stricken city in the fierce and brutal clutches of some forty
thousand green warriors of the lesser hordes.
They were looting, murdering, and fighting amongst themselves.
In a hundred places they had applied the torch, and columns of dense smoke were
rising above the city as though to blot out from the eye of heaven the horrid sights
beneath.
In the middle of the afternoon we sighted the scarlet and yellow towers of Helium,
and a short time later a great fleet of Zodangan battleships rose from the camps of
the besiegers without the city, and advanced to meet us.
The banners of Helium had been strung from stem to stern of each of our mighty craft,
but the Zodangans did not need this sign to realize that we were enemies, for our green
Martian warriors had opened fire upon them almost as they left the ground.
With their uncanny marksmanship they raked the on-coming fleet with volley after
volley.
The twin cities of Helium, perceiving that we were friends, sent out hundreds of
vessels to aid us, and then began the first real air battle I had ever witnessed.
The vessels carrying our green warriors were kept circling above the contending
fleets of Helium and Zodanga, since their batteries were useless in the hands of the
Tharks who, having no navy, have no skill in naval gunnery.
Their small-arm fire, however, was most effective, and the final outcome of the
engagement was strongly influenced, if not wholly determined, by their presence.
At first the two forces circled at the same altitude, pouring broadside after broadside
into each other.
Presently a great hole was torn in the hull of one of the immense battle craft from the
Zodangan camp; with a lurch she turned completely over, the little figures of her
crew plunging, turning and twisting toward
the ground a thousand feet below; then with sickening velocity she tore after them,
almost completely burying herself in the soft loam of the ancient sea bottom.
A wild cry of exultation arose from the Heliumite squadron, and with redoubled
ferocity they fell upon the Zodangan fleet.
By a pretty maneuver two of the vessels of Helium gained a position above their
adversaries, from which they poured upon them from their keel bomb batteries a
perfect torrent of exploding bombs.
Then, one by one, the battleships of Helium succeeded in rising above the Zodangans,
and in a short time a number of the beleaguering battleships were drifting
hopeless wrecks toward the high scarlet tower of greater Helium.
Several others attempted to escape, but they were soon surrounded by thousands of
tiny individual fliers, and above each hung a monster battleship of Helium ready to
drop boarding parties upon their decks.
Within but little more than an hour from the moment the victorious Zodangan squadron
had risen to meet us from the camp of the besiegers the battle was over, and the
remaining vessels of the conquered
Zodangans were headed toward the cities of Helium under prize crews.
There was an extremely pathetic side to the surrender of these mighty fliers, the
result of an age-old custom which demanded that surrender should be signalized by the
voluntary plunging to earth of the commander of the vanquished vessel.
One after another the brave fellows, holding their colors high above their
heads, leaped from the towering bows of their mighty craft to an awful death.
Not until the commander of the entire fleet took the fearful plunge, thus indicating
the surrender of the remaining vessels, did the fighting cease, and the useless
sacrifice of brave men come to an end.
We now signaled the flagship of Helium's navy to approach, and when she was within
hailing distance I called out that we had the Princess Dejah Thoris on board, and
that we wished to transfer her to the
flagship that she might be taken immediately to the city.
As the full import of my announcement bore in upon them a great cry arose from the
decks of the flagship, and a moment later the colors of the Princess of Helium broke
from a hundred points upon her upper works.
When the other vessels of the squadron caught the meaning of the signals flashed
them they took up the wild acclaim and unfurled her colors in the gleaming
sunlight.
The flagship bore down upon us, and as she swung gracefully to and touched our side a
dozen officers sprang upon our decks.
As their astonished gaze fell upon the hundreds of green warriors, who now came
forth from the fighting shelters, they stopped aghast, but at sight of Kantos Kan,
who advanced to meet them, they came forward, crowding about him.
Dejah Thoris and I then advanced, and they had no eyes for other than her.
She received them gracefully, calling each by name, for they were men high in the
esteem and service of her grandfather, and she knew them well.
"Lay your hands upon the shoulder of John Carter," she said to them, turning toward
me, "the man to whom Helium owes her princess as well as her victory today."
They were very courteous to me and said many kind and complimentary things, but
what seemed to impress them most was that I had won the aid of the fierce Tharks in my
campaign for the liberation of Dejah Thoris, and the relief of Helium.
"You owe your thanks more to another man than to me," I said, "and here he is; meet
one of Barsoom's greatest soldiers and statesmen, Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark."
With the same polished courtesy that had marked their manner toward me they extended
their greetings to the great Thark, nor, to my surprise, was he much behind them in
ease of bearing or in courtly speech.
Though not a garrulous race, the Tharks are extremely formal, and their ways lend
themselves amazingly well to dignified and courtly manners.
Dejah Thoris went aboard the flagship, and was much put out that I would not follow,
but, as I explained to her, the battle was but partly won; we still had the land
forces of the besieging Zodangans to
account for, and I would not leave Tars Tarkas until that had been accomplished.
The commander of the naval forces of Helium promised to arrange to have the armies of
Helium attack from the city in conjunction with our land attack, and so the vessels
separated and Dejah Thoris was borne in
triumph back to the court of her grandfather, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.
In the distance lay our fleet of transports, with the thoats of the green
warriors, where they had remained during the battle.
Without landing stages it was to be a difficult matter to unload these beasts
upon the open plain, but there was nothing else for it, and so we put out for a point
about ten miles from the city and began the task.
It was necessary to lower the animals to the ground in slings and this work occupied
the remainder of the day and half the night.
Twice we were attacked by parties of Zodangan cavalry, but with little loss,
however, and after darkness shut down they withdrew.
As soon as the last thoat was unloaded Tars Tarkas gave the command to advance, and in
three parties we crept upon the Zodangan camp from the north, the south and the
east.
About a mile from the main camp we encountered their outposts and, as had been
prearranged, accepted this as the signal to charge.
With wild, ferocious cries and amidst the nasty squealing of battle-enraged thoats we
bore down upon the Zodangans. We did not catch them napping, but found a
well-entrenched battle line confronting us.
Time after time we were repulsed until, toward noon, I began to fear for the result
of the battle.
The Zodangans numbered nearly a million fighting men, gathered from pole to pole,
wherever stretched their ribbon-like waterways, while pitted against them were
less than a hundred thousand green warriors.
The forces from Helium had not arrived, nor could we receive any word from them.
Just at noon we heard heavy firing all along the line between the Zodangans and
the cities, and we knew then that our much- needed reinforcements had come.
Again Tars Tarkas ordered the charge, and once more the mighty thoats bore their
terrible riders against the ramparts of the enemy.
At the same moment the battle line of Helium surged over the opposite breastworks
of the Zodangans and in another moment they were being crushed as between two
millstones.
Nobly they fought, but in vain.
The plain before the city became a veritable shambles ere the last Zodangan
surrendered, but finally the carnage ceased, the prisoners were marched back to
Helium, and we entered the greater city's
gates, a huge triumphal procession of conquering heroes.
The broad avenues were lined with women and children, among which were the few men
whose duties necessitated that they remain within the city during the battle.
We were greeted with an endless round of applause and showered with ornaments of
gold, platinum, silver, and precious jewels.
The city had gone mad with joy.
My fierce Tharks caused the wildest excitement and enthusiasm.
Never before had an armed body of green warriors entered the gates of Helium, and
that they came now as friends and allies filled the red men with rejoicing.
That my poor services to Dejah Thoris had become known to the Heliumites was
evidenced by the loud crying of my name, and by the loads of ornaments that were
fastened upon me and my huge thoat as we
passed up the avenues to the palace, for even in the face of the ferocious
appearance of Woola the populace pressed close about me.
As we approached this magnificent pile we were met by a party of officers who greeted
us warmly and requested that Tars Tarkas and his jeds with the jeddaks and jeds of
his wild allies, together with myself,
dismount and accompany them to receive from Tardos Mors an expression of his gratitude
for our services.
At the top of the great steps leading up to the main portals of the palace stood the
royal party, and as we reached the lower steps one of their number descended to meet
us.
He was an almost perfect specimen of manhood; tall, straight as an arrow,
superbly muscled and with the carriage and bearing of a ruler of men.
I did not need to be told that he was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.
The first member of our party he met was Tars Tarkas and his first words sealed
forever the new friendship between the races.
"That Tardos Mors," he said, earnestly, "may meet the greatest living warrior of
Barsoom is a priceless honor, but that he may lay his hand on the shoulder of a
friend and ally is a far greater boon."
"Jeddak of Helium," returned Tars Tarkas, "it has remained for a man of another world
to teach the green warriors of Barsoom the meaning of friendship; to him we owe the
fact that the hordes of Thark can
understand you; that they can appreciate and reciprocate the sentiments so
graciously expressed."
Tardos Mors then greeted each of the green jeddaks and jeds, and to each spoke words
of friendship and appreciation. As he approached me he laid both hands upon
my shoulders.
"Welcome, my son," he said; "that you are granted, gladly, and without one word of
opposition, the most precious jewel in all Helium, yes, on all Barsoom, is sufficient
earnest of my esteem."
We were then presented to Mors Kajak, Jed of lesser Helium, and father of Dejah
Thoris.
He had followed close behind Tardos Mors and seemed even more affected by the
meeting than had his father.
He tried a dozen times to express his gratitude to me, but his voice choked with
emotion and he could not speak, and yet he had, as I was to later learn, a reputation
for ferocity and fearlessness as a fighter
that was remarkable even upon warlike Barsoom.
In common with all Helium he worshiped his daughter, nor could he think of what she
had escaped without deep emotion.
>
-CHAPTER XXVII FROM JOY TO DEATH
For ten days the hordes of Thark and their wild allies were feasted and entertained,
and, then, loaded with costly presents and escorted by ten thousand soldiers of Helium
commanded by Mors Kajak, they started on the return journey to their own lands.
The jed of lesser Helium with a small party of nobles accompanied them all the way to
Thark to cement more closely the new bonds of peace and friendship.
Sola also accompanied Tars Tarkas, her father, who before all his chieftains had
acknowledged her as his daughter.
Three weeks later, Mors Kajak and his officers, accompanied by Tars Tarkas and
Sola, returned upon a battleship that had been dispatched to Thark to fetch them in
time for the ceremony which made Dejah Thoris and John Carter one.
For nine years I served in the councils and fought in the armies of Helium as a prince
of the house of Tardos Mors.
The people seemed never to tire of heaping honors upon me, and no day passed that did
not bring some new proof of their love for my princess, the incomparable Dejah Thoris.
In a golden incubator upon the roof of our palace lay a snow-white egg.
For nearly five years ten soldiers of the jeddak's Guard had constantly stood over
it, and not a day passed when I was in the city that Dejah Thoris and I did not stand
hand in hand before our little shrine
planning for the future, when the delicate shell should break.
Vivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as we sat there talking in low
tones of the strange romance which had woven our lives together and of this wonder
which was coming to augment our happiness and fulfill our hopes.
In the distance we saw the bright-white light of an approaching airship, but we
attached no special significance to so common a sight.
Like a bolt of lightning it raced toward Helium until its very speed bespoke the
unusual.
Flashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearer for the jeddak, it circled
impatiently awaiting the tardy patrol boat which must convoy it to the palace docks.
Ten minutes after it touched at the palace a message called me to the council chamber,
which I found filling with the members of that body.
On the raised platform of the throne was Tardos Mors, pacing back and forth with
tense-drawn face. When all were in their seats he turned
toward us.
"This morning," he said, "word reached the several governments of Barsoom that the
keeper of the atmosphere plant had made no wireless report for two days, nor had
almost ceaseless calls upon him from a
score of capitals elicited a sign of response.
"The ambassadors of the other nations asked us to take the matter in hand and hasten
the assistant keeper to the plant.
All day a thousand cruisers have been searching for him until just now one of
them returns bearing his dead body, which was found in the pits beneath his house
horribly mutilated by some assassin.
"I do not need to tell you what this means to Barsoom.
It would take months to penetrate those mighty walls, in fact the work has already
commenced, and there would be little to fear were the engine of the pumping plant
to run as it should and as they all have
for hundreds of years now; but the worst, we fear, has happened.
The instruments show a rapidly decreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom--the
engine has stopped."
"My gentlemen," he concluded, "we have at best three days to live."
There was absolute silence for several minutes, and then a young noble arose, and
with his drawn sword held high above his head addressed Tardos Mors.
"The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have ever shown Barsoom how a
nation of red men should live, now is our opportunity to show them how they should
die.
Let us go about our duties as though a thousand useful years still lay before us."
The chamber rang with applause and as there was nothing better to do than to allay the
fears of the people by our example we went our ways with smiles upon our faces and
sorrow gnawing at our hearts.
When I returned to my palace I found that the rumor already had reached Dejah Thoris,
so I told her all that I had heard.
"We have been very happy, John Carter," she said, "and I thank whatever fate overtakes
us that it permits us to die together."
The next two days brought no noticeable change in the supply of air, but on the
morning of the third day breathing became difficult at the higher altitudes of the
rooftops.
The avenues and plazas of Helium were filled with people.
All business had ceased. For the most part the people looked bravely
into the face of their unalterable doom.
Here and there, however, men and women gave way to quiet grief.
Toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumb and within an
hour the people of Barsoom were sinking by thousands into the unconsciousness which
precedes death by asphyxiation.
Dejah Thoris and I with the other members of the royal family had collected in a
sunken garden within an inner courtyard of the palace.
We conversed in low tones, when we conversed at all, as the awe of the grim
shadow of death crept over us.
Even Woola seemed to feel the weight of the impending calamity, for he pressed close to
Dejah Thoris and to me, whining pitifully.
The little incubator had been brought from the roof of our palace at request of Dejah
Thoris and now she sat gazing longingly upon the unknown little life that now she
would never know.
As it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe Tardos Mors arose, saying,
"Let us bid each other farewell. The days of the greatness of Barsoom are
over.
Tomorrow's sun will look down upon a dead world which through all eternity must go
swinging through the heavens peopled not even by memories.
It is the end."
He stooped and kissed the women of his family, and laid his strong hand upon the
shoulders of the men. As I turned sadly from him my eyes fell
upon Dejah Thoris.
Her head was drooping upon her breast, to all appearances she was lifeless.
With a cry I sprang to her and raised her in my arms.
Her eyes opened and looked into mine.
"Kiss me, John Carter," she murmured. "I love you!
I love you!
It is cruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon a life of love and
happiness."
As I pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling of unconquerable power and
authority rose in me. The fighting blood of Virginia sprang to
life in my veins.
"It shall not be, my princess," I cried. "There is, there must be some way, and John
Carter, who has fought his way through a strange world for love of you, will find
it."
And with my words there crept above the threshold of my conscious mind a series of
nine long forgotten sounds.
Like a flash of lightning in the darkness their full purport dawned upon me--the key
to the three great doors of the atmosphere plant!
Turning suddenly toward Tardos Mors as I still clasped my dying love to my breast I
cried. "A flier, Jeddak!
Quick!
Order your swiftest flier to the palace top.
I can save Barsoom yet."
He did not wait to question, but in an instant a guard was racing to the nearest
dock and though the air was thin and almost gone at the rooftop they managed to launch
the fastest one-man, air-scout machine that the skill of Barsoom had ever produced.
Kissing Dejah Thoris a dozen times and commanding Woola, who would have followed
me, to remain and guard her, I bounded with my old agility and strength to the high
ramparts of the palace, and in another
moment I was headed toward the goal of the hopes of all Barsoom.
I had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe, but I took a straight course
across an old sea bottom and so had to rise only a few feet above the ground.
I traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against time with death.
The face of Dejah Thoris hung always before me.
As I turned for a last look as I left the palace garden I had seen her stagger and
sink upon the ground beside the little incubator.
That she had dropped into the last coma which would end in death, if the air supply
remained unreplenished, I well knew, and so, throwing caution to the winds, I flung
overboard everything but the engine and
compass, even to my ornaments, and lying on my belly along the deck with one hand on
the steering wheel and the other pushing the speed lever to its last notch I split
the thin air of dying Mars with the speed of a meteor.
An hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphere plant loomed suddenly before me,
and with a sickening thud I plunged to the ground before the small door which was
withholding the spark of life from the inhabitants of an entire planet.
Beside the door a great crew of men had been laboring to pierce the wall, but they
had scarcely scratched the flint-like surface, and now most of them lay in the
last sleep from which not even air would awaken them.
Conditions seemed much worse here than at Helium, and it was with difficulty that I
breathed at all.
There were a few men still conscious, and to one of these I spoke.
"If I can open these doors is there a man who can start the engines?"
I asked.
"I can," he replied, "if you open quickly. I can last but a few moments more.
But it is useless, they are both dead and no one else upon Barsoom knew the secret of
these awful locks.
For three days men crazed with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts
to solve its mystery."
I had no time to talk, I was becoming very weak and it was with difficulty that I
controlled my mind at all.
But, with a final effort, as I sank weakly to my knees I hurled the nine thought waves
at that awful thing before me.
The Martian had crawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panel
before us we waited in the silence of death.
Slowly the mighty door receded before us.
I attempted to rise and follow it but I was too weak.
"After it," I cried to my companion, "and if you reach the pump room turn loose all
the pumps.
It is the only chance Barsoom has to exist tomorrow!"
From where I lay I opened the second door, and then the third, and as I saw the hope
of Barsoom crawling weakly on hands and knees through the last doorway I sank
unconscious upon the ground.
CHAPTER XXVIII AT THE ARIZONA CAVE
It was dark when I opened my eyes again. Strange, stiff garments were upon my body;
garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I rose to a sitting posture.
I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was clothed, though
when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I had been naked.
Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed through a ragged aperture.
As my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and in one of these
a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper.
One of these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appeared to be a huge
cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange, still figure huddled over a tiny
bench.
As I approached it I saw that it was the dead and mummified remains of a little old
woman with long black hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner
upon which rested a round copper vessel
containing a small quantity of greenish powder.
Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs, and stretching entirely
across the cave, was a row of human skeletons.
From the thong which held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old
woman; as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a noise as of the
rustling of dry leaves.
It was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into the fresh air; glad
to escape from so gruesome a place.
The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge which ran before the
entrance of the cave filled me with consternation.
A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze.
The silvered mountains in the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky,
the cacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars.
I could scarcely believe my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me--I was
looking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I had gazed
with longing upon Mars.
Burying my head in my arms I turned, broken, and sorrowful, down the trail from
the cave.
Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret, forty-eight million miles
away. Did the Martian reach the pump room?
Did the vitalizing air reach the people of that distant planet in time to save them?
Was my Dejah Thoris alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the
tiny golden incubator in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard of the palace of
Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium?
For ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions.
For ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of my lost love.
I would rather lie dead beside her there than live on Earth all those millions of
terrible miles from her.
The old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously wealthy; but what care I
for wealth!
As I sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the Hudson, just twenty years
have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.
I can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk, and tonight
she seems calling to me again as she has not called before since that long dead
night, and I think I can see, across that
awful abyss of space, a beautiful black- haired woman standing in the garden of a
palace, and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around her as she points into
the sky toward the planet Earth, while at
their feet is a huge and hideous creature with a heart of gold.
I believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells me that I shall
soon know.
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