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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.