receive it electronically.

U >> Unknown >> receive it electronically.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19

The party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway
in which I crouched against the wall. As they passed by
I breathed a sigh of relief. I had not been discovered, and,
best of all, the party was the same that I had followed into
the pits. It consisted of Tars Tarkas and his three guards.

I fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which
the great Thark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained
without while the man with the keys entered with the Thark
to fasten his irons upon him once more. The two outside
started to stroll slowly in the direction of the spiral
runway which led to the floors above, and in a moment were
lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.

The torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so
that its rays illuminated both the corridor and the cell at the
same time. As I saw the two warriors disappear I approached the
entrance to the cell, with a well-defined plan already formulated.

While I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I
had decided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tars Tarkas
and I were to go back together to my little camp in the hills.

Keeping near the wall, I came quite close to the door to
Tars Tarkas' cell, and there I stood with my longsword above
my head, grasped with both hands, that I might bring it down
in one quick cut upon the skull of the jailer as he emerged.

I dislike to dwell upon what followed after I heard the
footsteps of the man as he approached the doorway. It is
enough that within another minute or two, Tars Tarkas,
wearing the metal of a Warhoon chief, was hurrying down
the corridor toward the spiral runway, bearing the Warhoon's
torch to light his way. A dozen paces behind him followed
John Carter, Prince of Helium.

The two companions of the man who lay now beside the
door of the cell that had been Tars Tarkas' had just started
to ascend the runway as the Thark came in view.

"Why so long, Tan Gama?" cried one of the men.

"I had trouble with a lock," replied Tars Tarkas.
"And now I find that I have left my short-sword in
the Thark's cell. Go you on, I'll return and fetch it."

"As you will, Tan Gama," replied he who had before spoken.
"We shall see you above directly."

"Yes," replied Tars Tarkas, and turned as though to retrace
his steps to the cell, but he only waited until the two
had disappeared at the floor above. Then I joined him, we
extinguished the torch, and together we crept toward the
spiral incline that led to the upper floors of the building.

At the first floor we found that the hallway ran but halfway
through, necessitating the crossing of a rear room full of
green folk, ere we could reach the inner courtyard, so there
was but one thing left for us to do, and that was to gain the
second floor and the hallway through which I had traversed
the length of the building.

Cautiously we ascended. We could hear the sounds of
conversation coming from the room above, but the hall still
was unlighted, nor was any one in sight as we gained the top
of the runway. Together we threaded the long hall and reached
the balcony overlooking the courtyard, without being detected.

At our right was the window letting into the room in which I
had seen Tan Gama and the other warriors as they started to
Tars Tarkas' cell earlier in the evening. His companions had
returned here, and we now overheard a portion of their conversation.

"What can be detaining Tan Gama?" asked one.

"He certainly could not be all this time fetching his shortsword
from the Thark's cell," spoke another.

"His short-sword?" asked a woman. "What mean you?"

"Tan Gama left his short-sword in the Thark's cell," explained the
first speaker, "and left us at the runway, to return and get it."

"Tan Gama wore no short-sword this night," said the
woman. "It was broken in to-day's battle with the Thark,
and Tan Gama gave it to me to repair. See, I have it here,"
and as she spoke she drew Tan Gama's short-sword from
beneath her sleeping silks and furs.

The warriors sprang to their feet.

"There is something amiss here," cried one.

"'Tis even what I myself thought when Tan Gama left
us at the runway," said another. "Methought then that his
voice sounded strangely."

"Come! let us hasten to the pits."

We waited to hear no more. Slinging my harness into a
long single strap, I lowered Tars Tarkas to the courtyard
beneath, and an instant later dropped to his side.

We had spoken scarcely a dozen words since I had felled
Tan Gama at the cell door and seen in the torch's light the
expression of utter bewilderment upon the great Thark's face.

"By this time," he had said, "I should have learned to wonder
at nothing which John Carter accomplishes." That was all.
He did not need to tell me that he appreciated the friendship
which had prompted me to risk my life to rescue him, nor did
he need to say that he was glad to see me.

This fierce green warrior had been the first to greet me
that day, now twenty years gone, which had witnessed my
first advent upon Mars. He had met me with levelled spear
and cruel hatred in his heart as he charged down upon me,
bending low at the side of his mighty thoat as I stood beside
the incubator of his horde upon the dead sea bottom beyond Korad.
And now among the inhabitants of two worlds I counted none a
better friend than Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks.

As we reached the courtyard we stood in the shadows beneath
the balcony for a moment to discuss our plans.

"There be five now in the party, Tars Tarkas," I said;
"Thuvia, Xodar, Carthoris, and ourselves. We shall need five
thoats to bear us."

"Carthoris!" he cried. "Your son?"

"Yes. I found him in the prison of Shador, on the Sea of
Omean, in the land of the First Born."

"I know not any of these places, John Carter. Be they
upon Barsoom?"

"Upon and below, my friend; but wait until we shall have made
good our escape, and you shall hear the strangest narrative
that ever a Barsoomian of the outer world gave ear to.
Now we must steal our thoats and be well away to the north
before these fellows discover how we have tricked them."

In safety we reached the great gates at the far end of the
courtyard, through which it was necessary to take our
thoats to the avenue beyond. It is no easy matter to handle
five of these great, fierce beasts, which by nature are as wild
and ferocious as their masters and held in subjection by
cruelty and brute force alone.

As we approached them they sniffed our unfamiliar scent
and with squeals of rage circled about us. Their long,
massive necks upreared raised their great, gaping mouths
high above our heads. They are fearsome appearing brutes at
best, but when they are aroused they are fully as dangerous
as they look. The thoat stands a good ten feet at the shoulder.
His hide is sleek and hairless, and of a dark slate colour
on back and sides, shading down his eight legs to a vivid
yellow at the huge, padded, nailless feet; the belly is pure
white. A broad, flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root,
completes the picture of this ferocious green Martian mount
--a fit war steed for these warlike people.

As the thoats are guided by telepathic means alone, there
is no need for rein or bridle, and so our object now was to
find two that would obey our unspoken commands. As they
charged about us we succeeded in mastering them sufficiently
to prevent any concerted attack upon us, but the din of
their squealing was certain to bring investigating warriors
into the courtyard were it to continue much longer.

At length I was successful in reaching the side of one
great brute, and ere he knew what I was about I was firmly
seated astride his glossy back. A moment later Tars Tarkas
had caught and mounted another, and then between us we
herded three or four more toward the great gates.

Tars Tarkas rode ahead and, leaning down to the latch,
threw the barriers open, while I held the loose thoats from
breaking back to the herd. Then together we rode through
into the avenue with our stolen mounts and, without waiting
to close the gates, hurried off toward the southern boundary
of the city.

Thus far our escape had been little short of marvellous,
nor did our good fortune desert us, for we passed the outer
purlieus of the dead city and came to our camp without hearing
even the faintest sound of pursuit.

Here a low whistle, the prearranged signal, apprised the balance
of our party that I was returning, and we were met by the three
with every manifestation of enthusiastic rejoicing.

But little time was wasted in narration of our adventure.
Tars Tarkas and Carthoris exchanged the dignified and
formal greetings common upon Barsoom, but I could tell
intuitively that the Thark loved my boy and that Carthoris
reciprocated his affection.

Xodar and the green Jeddak were formally presented to
each other. Then Thuvia was lifted to the least fractious
thoat, Xodar and Carthoris mounted two others, and we set
out at a rapid pace toward the east. At the far extremity
of the city we circled toward the north, and under the
glorious rays of the two moons we sped noiselessly across
the dead sea bottom, away from the Warhoons and the First
Born, but to what new dangers and adventures we knew not.

Toward noon of the following day we halted to rest our
mounts and ourselves. The beasts we hobbled, that they
might move slowly about cropping the ochre moss-like
vegetation which constitutes both food and drink for them
on the march. Thuvia volunteered to remain on watch while
the balance of the party slept for an hour.

It seemed to me that I had but closed my eyes when I
felt her hand upon my shoulder and heard her soft voice
warning me of a new danger.

"Arise, O Prince," she whispered. "There be that behind
us which has the appearance of a great body of pursuers."

The girl stood pointing in the direction from whence we
had come, and as I arose and looked, I, too, thought that
I could detect a thin dark line on the far horizon. I awoke
the others. Tars Tarkas, whose giant stature towered high
above the rest of us, could see the farthest.

"It is a great body of mounted men," he said, "and they
are travelling at high speed."

There was no time to be lost. We sprang to our hobbled
thoats, freed them, and mounted. Then we turned our faces
once more toward the north and took our flight again at the
highest speed of our slowest beast.

For the balance of the day and all the following night we
raced across that ochre wilderness with the pursuers at
our back ever gaining upon us. Slowly but surely they were
lessening the distance between us. Just before dark they had
been close enough for us to plainly distinguish that they were
green Martians, and all during the long night we distinctly
heard the clanking of their accoutrements behind us.

As the sun rose on the second day of our flight it disclosed
the pursuing horde not a half-mile in our rear. As they saw
us a fiendish shout of triumph rose from their ranks.

Several miles in advance lay a range of hills--the farther
shore of the dead sea we had been crossing. Could we but
reach these hills our chances of escape would be greatly
enhanced, but Thuvia's mount, although carrying the lightest
burden, already was showing signs of exhaustion. I was
riding beside her when suddenly her animal staggered and
lurched against mine. I saw that he was going down, but
ere he fell I snatched the girl from his back and swung her
to a place upon my own thoat, behind me, where she clung
with her arms about me.

This double burden soon proved too much for my already
overtaxed beast, and thus our speed was terribly diminished,
for the others would proceed no faster than the slowest of
us could go. In that little party there was not one who would
desert another; yet we were of different countries, different
colours, different races, different religions--and one of us
was of a different world.

We were quite close to the hills, but the Warhoons were
gaining so rapidly that we had given up all hope of reaching
them in time. Thuvia and I were in the rear, for our beast
was lagging more and more. Suddenly I felt the girl's warm
lips press a kiss upon my shoulder. "For thy sake, O my
Prince," she murmured. Then her arms slipped from about
my waist and she was gone.

I turned and saw that she had deliberately slipped to the
ground in the very path of the cruel demons who pursued
us, thinking that by lightening the burden of my mount it
might thus be enabled to bear me to the safety of the hills.
Poor child! She should have known John Carter better than that.

Turning my thoat, I urged him after her, hoping to reach
her side and bear her on again in our hopeless flight.
Carthoris must have glanced behind him at about the same time
and taken in the situation, for by the time I had reached
Thuvia's side he was there also, and, springing from his
mount, he threw her upon its back and, turning the animal's
head toward the hills, gave the beast a sharp crack across
the rump with the flat of his sword. Then he attempted to
do the same with mine.

The brave boy's act of chivalrous self-sacrifice filled me
with pride, nor did I care that it had wrested from us our
last frail chance for escape. The Warhoons were now close
upon us. Tars Tarkas and Xodar had discovered our absence
and were charging rapidly to our support. Everything pointed
toward a splendid ending of my second journey to Barsoom.
I hated to go out without having seen my divine Princess, and
held her in my arms once again; but if it were not writ upon
the book of Fate that such was to be, then would I take the
most that was coming to me, and in these last few moments
that were to be vouchsafed me before I passed over into that
unguessed future I could at least give such an account of
myself in my chosen vocation as would leave the Warhoons of
the South food for discourse for the next twenty generations.

As Carthoris was not mounted, I slipped from the back of
my own mount and took my place at his side to meet the
charge of the howling devils bearing down upon us. A
moment later Tars Tarkas and Xodar ranged themselves on
either hand, turning their thoats loose that we might all
be on an equal footing.

The Warhoons were perhaps a hundred yards from us when a
loud explosion sounded from above and behind us, and almost
at the same instant a shell burst in their advancing ranks.
At once all was confusion. A hundred warriors toppled
to the ground. Riderless thoats plunged hither and
thither among the dead and dying. Dismounted warriors were
trampled underfoot in the stampede which followed. All
semblance of order had left the ranks of the green men, and
as they looked far above our heads to trace the origin of this
unexpected attack, disorder turned to retreat and retreat to a
wild panic. In another moment they were racing as madly
away from us as they had before been charging down upon us.

We turned to look in the direction from whence the first
report had come, and there we saw, just clearing the tops of
the nearer hills, a great battleship swinging majestically
through the air. Her bow gun spoke again even as we looked,
and another shell burst among the fleeing Warhoons.

As she drew nearer I could not repress a wild cry of elation,
for upon her bows I saw the device of Helium.

CHAPTER XVI

UNDER ARREST

As Carthoris, Xodar, Tars Tarkas, and I stood gazing at
the magnificent vessel which meant so much to all of us,
we saw a second and then a third top the summit of the
hills and glide gracefully after their sister.

Now a score of one-man air scouts were launching from the
upper decks of the nearer vessel, and in a moment more
were speeding in long, swift dives to the ground about us.

In another instant we were surrounded by armed sailors,
and an officer had stepped forward to address us, when his
eyes fell upon Carthoris. With an exclamation of surprised
pleasure he sprang forward, and, placing his hands upon
the boy's shoulder, called him by name.

"Carthoris, my Prince," he cried, "Kaor! Kaor! Hor Vastus
greets the son of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, and of her
husband, John Carter. Where have you been, O my Prince?
All Helium has been plunged in sorrow. Terrible have been the
calamities that have befallen your great-grandsire's mighty
nation since the fatal day that saw you leave our midst."

"Grieve not, my good Hor Vastus," cried Carthoris,
"since I bring not back myself alone to cheer my mother's
heart and the hearts of my beloved people, but also one
whom all Barsoom loved best--her greatest warrior and her
saviour--John Carter, Prince of Helium!"

Hor Vastus turned in the direction indicated by Carthoris,
and as his eyes fell upon me he was like to have collapsed
from sheer surprise.

"John Carter!" he exclaimed, and then a sudden troubled
look came into his eyes. "My Prince," he started, "where
hast thou--" and then he stopped, but I knew the question
that his lips dared not frame. The loyal fellow would not
be the one to force from mine a confession of the terrible
truth that I had returned from the bosom of the Iss, the
River of Mystery, back from the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus,
and the Valley Dor.

"Ah, my Prince," he continued, as though no thought had
interrupted his greeting, "that you are back is sufficient,
and let Hor Vastus' sword have the high honour of
being first at thy feet." With these words the noble
fellow unbuckled his scabbard and flung his sword upon
the ground before me.

Could you know the customs and the character of red
Martians you would appreciate the depth of meaning that
that simple act conveyed to me and to all about us who
witnessed it. The thing was equivalent to saying, "My
sword, my body, my life, my soul are yours to do with as
you wish. Until death and after death I look to you alone
for authority for my every act. Be you right or wrong,
your word shall be my only truth. Whoso raises his hand
against you must answer to my sword."

It is the oath of fealty that men occasionally pay to a
Jeddak whose high character and chivalrous acts have
inspired the enthusiastic love of his followers. Never had
I known this high tribute paid to a lesser mortal. There was
but one response possible. I stooped and lifted the sword
from the ground, raised the hilt to my lips, and then,
stepping to Hor Vastus, I buckled the weapon upon him
with my own hands.

"Hor Vastus," I said, placing my hand upon his shoulder,
"you know best the promptings of your own heart. That I
shall need your sword I have little doubt, but accept from
John Carter upon his sacred honour the assurance that he
will never call upon you to draw this sword other than in
the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness."

"That I knew, my Prince," he replied, "ere ever I threw
my beloved blade at thy feet."

As we spoke other fliers came and went between the
ground and the battleship, and presently a larger boat was
launched from above, one capable of carrying a dozen
persons, perhaps, and dropped lightly near us. As she touched,
an officer sprang from her deck to the ground, and, advancing
to Hor Vastus, saluted.

"Kantos Kan desires that this party whom we have rescued be
brought immediately to the deck of the Xavarian," he said.

As we approached the little craft I looked about for the
members of my party and for the first time noticed that
Thuvia was not among them. Questioning elicited the fact
that none had seen her since Carthoris had sent her thoat
galloping madly toward the hills, in the hope of carrying her
out of harm's way.

Immediately Hor Vastus dispatched a dozen air scouts in
as many directions to search for her. It could not be
possible that she had gone far since we had last seen her.
We others stepped to the deck of the craft that had been sent
to fetch us, and a moment later were upon the Xavarian.

The first man to greet me was Kantos Kan himself. My
old friend had won to the highest place in the navy of
Helium, but he was still to me the same brave comrade
who had shared with me the privations of a Warhoon
dungeon, the terrible atrocities of the Great Games, and
later the dangers of our search for Dejah Thoris within
the hostile city of Zodanga.

Then I had been an unknown wanderer upon a strange
planet, and he a simple padwar in the navy of Helium.
To-day he commanded all Helium's great terrors of the
skies, and I was a Prince of the House of Tardos Mors,
Jeddak of Helium.

He did not ask me where I had been. Like Hor Vastus,
he too dreaded the truth and would not be the one to
wrest a statement from me. That it must come some time he
well knew, but until it came he seemed satisfied to but
know that I was with him once more. He greeted Carthoris
and Tars Tarkas with the keenest delight, but he asked
neither where he had been. He could scarcely keep his
hands off the boy.

"You do not know, John Carter," he said to me, "how we of
Helium love this son of yours. It is as though all the
great love we bore his noble father and his poor mother
had been centred in him. When it became known that he
was lost, ten million people wept."

"What mean you, Kantos Kan," I whispered, "by 'his
poor mother'?" for the words had seemed to carry a sinister
meaning which I could not fathom.

He drew me to one side.

"For a year," he said, "Ever since Carthoris disappeared,
Dejah Thoris has grieved and mourned for her lost boy.
The blow of years ago, when you did not return from the
atmosphere plant, was lessened to some extent by the duties of
motherhood, for your son broke his white shell that very night."

"That she suffered terribly then, all Helium knew, for
did not all Helium suffer with her the loss of her lord! But
with the boy gone there was nothing left, and after expedition
upon expedition returned with the same hopeless tale
of no clue as to his whereabouts, our beloved Princess
drooped lower and lower, until all who saw her felt that it
could be but a matter of days ere she went to join her
loved ones within the precincts of the Valley Dor.

"As a last resort, Mors Kajak, her father, and Tardos Mors,
her grandfather, took command of two mighty expeditions,
and a month ago sailed away to explore every inch of
ground in the northern hemisphere of Barsoom. For two
weeks no word has come back from them, but rumours were
rife that they had met with a terrible disaster and
that all were dead.

"About this time Zat Arras renewed his importunities for
her hand in marriage. He has been for ever after her since
you disappeared. She hated him and feared him, but with
both her father and grandfather gone, Zat Arras was very
powerful, for he is still Jed of Zodanga, to which position,
you will remember, Tardos Mors appointed him after you
had refused the honour.

"He had a secret audience with her six days ago. What
took place none knows, but the next day Dejah Thoris
had disappeared, and with her had gone a dozen of her
household guard and body servants, including Sola the
green woman--Tars Tarkas' daughter, you recall. No word
left they of their intentions, but it is always thus with those
who go upon the voluntary pilgrimage from which none
returns. We cannot think aught than that Dejah Thoris has
sought the icy bosom of Iss, and that her devoted servants
have chosen to accompany her.

"Zat Arras was at Helium when she disappeared. He commands
this fleet which has been searching for her since.
No trace of her have we found, and I fear that it be
a futile quest."

While we talked, Hor Vastus' fliers were returning to
the Xavarian. Not one, however, had discovered a trace of
Thuvia. I was much depressed over the news of Dejah
Thoris' disappearance, and now there was added the further
burden of apprehension concerning the fate of this girl whom
I believed to be the daughter of some proud Barsoomian
house, and it had been my intention to make every effort
to return her to her people.

I was about to ask Kantos Kan to prosecute a further
search for her when a flier from the flagship of the fleet
arrived at the Xavarian with an officer bearing a message
to Kantos Kan from Arras.

My friend read the dispatch and then turned to me.

"Zat Arras commands me to bring our 'prisoners' before
him. There is naught else to do. He is supreme in Helium,
yet it would be far more in keeping with chivalry and good
taste were he to come hither and greet the saviour of
Barsoom with the honours that are his due."

"You know full well, my friend," I said, smiling, "that
Zat Arras has good cause to hate me. Nothing would please
him better than to humiliate me and then to kill me. Now
that he has so excellent an excuse, let us go and see if he
has the courage to take advantage of it."

Summoning Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Xodar, we entered
the small flier with Kantos Kan and Zat Arras' officer, and
in a moment were stepping to the deck of Zat Arras' flagship.

As we approached the Jed of Zodanga no sign of greeting
or recognition crossed his face; not even to Carthoris
did he vouchsafe a friendly word. His attitude was cold,
haughty, and uncompromising.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19