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-CHAPTER XI WITH DEJAH THORIS
As we reached the open the two female guards who had been detailed to watch over
Dejah Thoris hurried up and made as though to assume custody of her once more.
The poor child shrank against me and I felt her two little hands fold tightly over my
arm.
Waving the women away, I informed them that Sola would attend the captive hereafter,
and I further warned Sarkoja that any more of her cruel attentions bestowed upon Dejah
Thoris would result in Sarkoja's sudden and painful demise.
My threat was unfortunate and resulted in more harm than good to Dejah Thoris, for,
as I learned later, men do not kill women upon Mars, nor women, men.
So Sarkoja merely gave us an ugly look and departed to hatch up deviltries against us.
I soon found Sola and explained to her that I wished her to guard Dejah Thoris as she
had guarded me; that I wished her to find other quarters where they would not be
molested by Sarkoja, and I finally informed
her that I myself would take up my quarters among the men.
Sola glanced at the accouterments which were carried in my hand and slung across my
shoulder.
"You are a great chieftain now, John Carter," she said, "and I must do your
bidding, though indeed I am glad to do it under any circumstances.
The man whose metal you carry was young, but he was a great warrior, and had by his
promotions and kills won his way close to the rank of Tars Tarkas, who, as you know,
is second to Lorquas Ptomel only.
You are eleventh, there are but ten chieftains in this community who rank you
in prowess." "And if I should kill Lorquas Ptomel?"
I asked.
"You would be first, John Carter; but you may only win that honor by the will of the
entire council that Lorquas Ptomel meet you in combat, or should he attack you, you may
kill him in self-defense, and thus win first place."
I laughed, and changed the subject.
I had no particular desire to kill Lorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed among the
Tharks.
I accompanied Sola and Dejah Thoris in a search for new quarters, which we found in
a building nearer the audience chamber and of far more pretentious architecture than
our former habitation.
We also found in this building real sleeping apartments with ancient beds of
highly wrought metal swinging from enormous gold chains depending from the marble
ceilings.
The decoration of the walls was most elaborate, and, unlike the frescoes in the
other buildings I had examined, portrayed many human figures in the compositions.
These were of people like myself, and of a much lighter color than Dejah Thoris.
They were clad in graceful, flowing robes, highly ornamented with metal and jewels,
and their luxuriant hair was of a beautiful golden and reddish bronze.
The men were beardless and only a few wore arms.
The scenes depicted for the most part, a fair-skinned, fair-haired people at play.
Dejah Thoris clasped her hands with an exclamation of rapture as she gazed upon
these magnificent works of art, wrought by a people long extinct; while Sola, on the
other hand, apparently did not see them.
We decided to use this room, on the second floor and overlooking the plaza, for Dejah
Thoris and Sola, and another room adjoining and in the rear for the cooking and
supplies.
I then dispatched Sola to bring the bedding and such food and utensils as she might
need, telling her that I would guard Dejah Thoris until her return.
As Sola departed Dejah Thoris turned to me with a faint smile.
"And whereto, then, would your prisoner escape should you leave her, unless it was
to follow you and crave your protection, and ask your pardon for the cruel thoughts
she has harbored against you these past few days?"
"You are right," I answered, "there is no escape for either of us unless we go
together."
"I heard your challenge to the creature you call Tars Tarkas, and I think I understand
your position among these people, but what I cannot fathom is your statement that you
are not of Barsoom."
"In the name of my first ancestor, then," she continued, "where may you be from?
You are like unto my people, and yet so unlike.
You speak my language, and yet I heard you tell Tars Tarkas that you had but learned
it recently.
All Barsoomians speak the same tongue from the ice-clad south to the ice-clad north,
though their written languages differ.
Only in the valley Dor, where the river Iss empties into the lost sea of Korus, is
there supposed to be a different language spoken, and, except in the legends of our
ancestors, there is no record of a
Barsoomian returning up the river Iss, from the shores of Korus in the valley of Dor.
Do not tell me that you have thus returned!
They would kill you horribly anywhere upon the surface of Barsoom if that were true;
tell me it is not!"
Her eyes were filled with a strange, weird light; her voice was pleading, and her
little hands, reached up upon my breast, were pressed against me as though to wring
a denial from my very heart.
"I do not know your customs, Dejah Thoris, but in my own Virginia a gentleman does not
lie to save himself; I am not of Dor; I have never seen the mysterious Iss; the
lost sea of Korus is still lost, so far as I am concerned.
Do you believe me?" And then it struck me suddenly that I was
very anxious that she should believe me.
It was not that I feared the results which would follow a general belief that I had
returned from the Barsoomian heaven or hell, or whatever it was.
Why was it, then!
Why should I care what she thought? I looked down at her; her beautiful face
upturned, and her wonderful eyes opening up the very depth of her soul; and as my eyes
met hers I knew why, and--I shuddered.
A similar wave of feeling seemed to stir her; she drew away from me with a sigh, and
with her earnest, beautiful face turned up to mine, she whispered: "I believe you,
John Carter; I do not know what a
'gentleman' is, nor have I ever heard before of Virginia; but on Barsoom no man
lies; if he does not wish to speak the truth he is silent.
Where is this Virginia, your country, John Carter?" she asked, and it seemed that this
fair name of my fair land had never sounded more beautiful than as it fell from those
perfect lips on that far-gone day.
"I am of another world," I answered, "the great planet Earth, which revolves about
our common sun and next within the orbit of your Barsoom, which we know as Mars.
How I came here I cannot tell you, for I do not know; but here I am, and since my
presence has permitted me to serve Dejah Thoris I am glad that I am here."
She gazed at me with troubled eyes, long and questioningly.
That it was difficult to believe my statement I well knew, nor could I hope
that she would do so however much I craved her confidence and respect.
I would much rather not have told her anything of my antecedents, but no man
could look into the depth of those eyes and refuse her slightest behest.
Finally she smiled, and, rising, said: "I shall have to believe even though I cannot
understand.
I can readily perceive that you are not of the Barsoom of today; you are like us, yet
different--but why should I trouble my poor head with such a problem, when my heart
tells me that I believe because I wish to believe!"
It was good logic, good, earthly, feminine logic, and if it satisfied her I certainly
could pick no flaws in it.
As a matter of fact it was about the only kind of logic that could be brought to bear
upon my problem.
We fell into a general conversation then, asking and answering many questions on each
side.
She was curious to learn of the customs of my people and displayed a remarkable
knowledge of events on Earth.
When I questioned her closely on this seeming familiarity with earthly things she
laughed, and cried out:
"Why, every school boy on Barsoom knows the geography, and much concerning the fauna
and flora, as well as the history of your planet fully as well as of his own.
Can we not see everything which takes place upon Earth, as you call it; is it not
hanging there in the heavens in plain sight?"
This baffled me, I must confess, fully as much as my statements had confounded her;
and I told her so.
She then explained in general the instruments her people had used and been
perfecting for ages, which permit them to throw upon a screen a perfect image of what
is transpiring upon any planet and upon many of the stars.
These pictures are so perfect in detail that, when photographed and enlarged,
objects no greater than a blade of grass may be distinctly recognized.
I afterward, in Helium, saw many of these pictures, as well as the instruments which
produced them.
"If, then, you are so familiar with earthly things," I asked, "why is it that you do
not recognize me as identical with the inhabitants of that planet?"
She smiled again as one might in bored indulgence of a questioning child.
"Because, John Carter," she replied, "nearly every planet and star having
atmospheric conditions at all approaching those of Barsoom, shows forms of animal
life almost identical with you and me; and,
further, Earth men, almost without exception, cover their bodies with strange,
unsightly pieces of cloth, and their heads with hideous contraptions the purpose of
which we have been unable to conceive;
while you, when found by the Tharkian warriors, were entirely undisfigured and
unadorned.
"The fact that you wore no ornaments is a strong proof of your un-Barsoomian origin,
while the absence of grotesque coverings might cause a doubt as to your
earthliness."
I then narrated the details of my departure from the Earth, explaining that my body
there lay fully clothed in all the, to her, strange garments of mundane dwellers.
At this point Sola returned with our meager belongings and her young Martian protege,
who, of course, would have to share the quarters with them.
Sola asked us if we had had a visitor during her absence, and seemed much
surprised when we answered in the negative.
It seemed that as she had mounted the approach to the upper floors where our
quarters were located, she had met Sarkoja descending.
We decided that she must have been eavesdropping, but as we could recall
nothing of importance that had passed between us we dismissed the matter as of
little consequence, merely promising
ourselves to be warned to the utmost caution in the future.
Dejah Thoris and I then fell to examining the architecture and decorations of the
beautiful chambers of the building we were occupying.
She told me that these people had presumably flourished over a hundred
thousand years before.
They were the early progenitors of her race, but had mixed with the other great
race of early Martians, who were very dark, almost black, and also with the reddish
yellow race which had flourished at the same time.
These three great divisions of the higher Martians had been forced into a mighty
alliance as the drying up of the Martian seas had compelled them to seek the
comparatively few and always diminishing
fertile areas, and to defend themselves, under new conditions of life, against the
wild hordes of green men.
Ages of close relationship and intermarrying had resulted in the race of
red men, of which Dejah Thoris was a fair and beautiful daughter.
During the ages of hardships and incessant warring between their own various races, as
well as with the green men, and before they had fitted themselves to the changed
conditions, much of the high civilization
and many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians had become lost; but the red race
of today has reached a point where it feels that it has made up in new discoveries and
in a more practical civilization for all
that lies irretrievably buried with the ancient Barsoomians, beneath the countless
intervening ages.
These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race, but during
the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of readjustment to new conditions, not only
did their advancement and production cease
entirely, but practically all their archives, records, and literature were
lost.
Dejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legends concerning this lost race of
noble and kindly people.
She said that the city in which we were camping was supposed to have been a center
of commerce and culture known as Korad. It had been built upon a beautiful, natural
harbor, landlocked by magnificent hills.
The little valley on the west front of the city, she explained, was all that remained
of the harbor, while the pass through the hills to the old sea bottom had been the
channel through which the shipping passed up to the city's gates.
The shores of the ancient seas were dotted with just such cities, and lesser ones, in
diminishing numbers, were to be found converging toward the center of the oceans,
as the people had found it necessary to
follow the receding waters until necessity had forced upon them their ultimate
salvation, the so-called Martian canals.
We had been so engrossed in exploration of the building and in our conversation that
it was late in the afternoon before we realized it.
We were brought back to a realization of our present conditions by a messenger
bearing a summons from Lorquas Ptomel directing me to appear before him
forthwith.
Bidding Dejah Thoris and Sola farewell, and commanding Woola to remain on guard, I
hastened to the audience chamber, where I found Lorquas Ptomel and Tars Tarkas seated
upon the rostrum.
CHAPTER XII A PRISONER WITH POWER
As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and, fixing his
great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:
"You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by your prowess
won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you are not one of us;
you owe us no allegiance.
"Your position is a peculiar one," he continued; "you are a prisoner and yet you
give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and yet you are a Tharkian
chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can
kill a mighty warrior with one blow of your fist.
And now you are reported to have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of
another race; a prisoner who, from her own admission, half believes you are returned
from the valley of Dor.
Either one of these accusations, if proved, would be sufficient grounds for your
execution, but we are a just people and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark,
if Tal Hajus so commands.
"But," he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, "if you run off with the red girl it
is I who shall have to account to Tal Hajus; it is I who shall have to face Tars
Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right to
command, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better man, for such is the
custom of the Tharks.
"I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule supreme the greatest of
the lesser communities among the green men; we do not wish to fight between ourselves;
and so if you were dead, John Carter, I should be glad.
Under two conditions only, however, may you be killed by us without orders from Tal
Hajus; in personal combat in self-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you
apprehended in an attempt to escape.
"As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of these two excuses
for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility.
The safe delivery of the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatest importance.
Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such a capture; she is the
granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks, who is also our bitterest enemy.
I have spoken.
The red girl told us that we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we
are a just and truthful race. You may go."
Turning, I left the audience chamber.
So this was the beginning of Sarkoja's persecution!
I knew that none other could be responsible for this report which had reached the ears
of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly, and now I recalled those portions of our conversation
which had touched upon escape and upon my origin.
Sarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas' oldest and most trusted female.
As such she was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior had the confidence
of Lorquas Ptomel to such an extent as did his ablest lieutenant, Tars Tarkas.
However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind, my audience
with Lorquas Ptomel only served to center my every faculty on this subject.
Now, more than before, the absolute necessity for escape, in so far as Dejah
Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me, for I was convinced that some horrible
fate awaited her at the headquarters of Tal Hajus.
As described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated personification of all the ages
of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which he had descended.
Cold, cunning, calculating; he was, also, in marked contrast to most of his fellows,
a slave to that brute passion which the waning demands for procreation upon their
dying planet has almost stilled in the Martian breast.
The thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into the clutches of such an
abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me.
Far better that we save friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did
those brave frontier women of my lost land, who took their own lives rather than fall
into the hands of the Indian braves.
As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tars Tarkas approached
me on his way from the audience chamber.
His demeanor toward me was unchanged, and he greeted me as though we had not just
parted a few moments before. "Where are your quarters, John Carter?" he
asked.
"I have selected none," I replied. "It seemed best that I quartered either by
myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting an opportunity to ask your
advice.
As you know," and I smiled, "I am not yet familiar with all the customs of the
Tharks."
"Come with me," he directed, and together we moved off across the plaza to a building
which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Sola and her charges.
"My quarters are on the first floor of this building," he said, "and the second floor
also is fully occupied by warriors, but the third floor and the floors above are
vacant; you may take your choice of these.
"I understand," he continued, "that you have given up your woman to the red
prisoner.
Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, but you can fight well enough to
do about as you please, and so, if you wish to give your woman to a captive, it is your
own affair; but as a chieftain you should
have those to serve you, and in accordance with our customs you may select any or all
the females from the retinues of the chieftains whose metal you now wear."
I thanked him, but assured him that I could get along very nicely without assistance
except in the matter of preparing food, and so he promised to send women to me for this
purpose and also for the care of my arms
and the manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would be necessary.
I suggested that they might also bring some of the sleeping silks and furs which
belonged to me as spoils of combat, for the nights were cold and I had none of my own.
He promised to do so, and departed.
Left alone, I ascended the winding corridor to the upper floors in search of suitable
quarters.
The beauties of the other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, I was soon
lost in a tour of investigation and discovery.
I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this brought me nearer to
Dejah Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor of the adjoining building, and
it flashed upon me that I could rig up some
means of communication whereby she might signal me in case she needed either my
services or my protection.
Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other sleeping and
living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor.
The windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which formed the center of
the square made by the buildings which faced the four contiguous streets, and
which was now given over to the quartering
of the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying the adjoining buildings.
While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like vegetation which
blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet numerous fountains, statuary,
benches, and pergola-like contraptions bore
witness to the beauty which the court must have presented in bygone times, when graced
by the fair-haired, laughing people whom stern and unalterable cosmic laws had
driven not only from their homes, but from
all except the vague legends of their descendants.
One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian vegetation
which once filled this scene with life and color; the graceful figures of the
beautiful women, the straight and handsome
men; the happy frolicking children--all sunlight, happiness and peace.
It was difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages of darkness,
cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of culture and
humanitarianism had risen ascendant once
more in the final composite race which now is dominant upon Mars.
My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young females bearing loads of
weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and casks of food and drink,
including considerable loot from the air craft.
All this, it seemed, had been the property of the two chieftains I had slain, and now,
by the customs of the Tharks, it had become mine.
At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the back rooms, and then departed,
only to return with a second load, which they advised me constituted the balance of
my goods.
On the second trip they were accompanied by ten or fifteen other women and youths, who,
it seemed, formed the retinues of the two chieftains.
They were not their families, nor their wives, nor their servants; the relationship
was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that it is most difficult to
describe.
All property among the green Martians is owned in common by the community, except
the personal weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals.
These alone can one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more of these
than are required for his actual needs.
The surplus he holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members
of the community as necessity demands.
The women and children of a man's retinue may be likened to a military unit for which
he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of instruction, discipline,
sustenance, and the exigencies of their
continual roamings and their unending strife with other communities and with the
red Martians. His women are in no sense wives.
The green Martians use no word corresponding in meaning with this earthly
word.
Their mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is directed without
reference to natural selection.
The council of chieftains of each community control the matter as surely as the owner
of a Kentucky racing stud directs the scientific breeding of his stock for the
improvement of the whole.
In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but the results of
ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the community interest in the
offspring being held paramount to that of
the mother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy, loveless,
mirthless existence.
It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both men and women,
with the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; but better far a finer balance
of human characteristics even at the
expense of a slight and occasional loss of chastity.
Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whether I would or
not, I made the best of it and directed them to find quarters on the upper floors,
leaving the third floor to me.
One of the girls I charged with the duties of my simple cuisine, and directed the
others to take up the various activities which had formerly constituted their
vocations.
Thereafter I saw little of them, nor did I care to.