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I laid the note open upon the floor. Parthak picked it up and,
without a word, left me.
As nearly as I could estimate, I had at this time been
in the pits for three hundred days. If anything was to be done
to save Dejah Thoris it must be done quickly, for, were she
not already dead, her end must soon come, since those
whom Issus chose lived but a single year.
The next time I heard approaching footsteps I could scarce
await to see if Parthak wore the harness and the sword, but
judge, if you can, my chagrin and disappointment when I
saw that he who bore my food was not Parthak.
"What has become of Parthak?" I asked, but the fellow
would not answer, and as soon as he had deposited my food,
turned and retraced his steps to the world above.
Days came and went, and still my new jailer continued
his duties, nor would he ever speak a word to me, either in
reply to the simplest question or of his own initiative.
I could only speculate on the cause of Parthak's removal,
but that it was connected in some way directly with the note
I had given him was most apparent to me. After all my
rejoicing, I was no better off than before, for now I did not
even know that Carthoris lived, for if Parthak had wished to
raise himself in the estimation of Zat Arras he would have
permitted me to go on precisely as I did, so that he could
carry my note to his master, in proof of his own loyalty
and devotion.
Thirty days had passed since I had given the youth the
note. Three hundred and thirty days had passed since my
incarceration. As closely as I could figure, there remained a
bare thirty days ere Dejah Thoris would be ordered to
the arena for the rites of Issus.
As the terrible picture forced itself vividly across my
imagination, I buried my face in my arms, and only with the
greatest difficulty was it that I repressed the tears that welled
to my eyes despite my every effort. To think of that beautiful
creature torn and rended by the cruel fangs of the hideous
white apes! It was unthinkable. Such a horrid fact could
not be; and yet my reason told me that within thirty days
my incomparable Princess would be fought over in the
arena of the First Born by those very wild beasts; that her
bleeding corpse would be dragged through the dirt and the dust,
until at last a part of it would be rescued to be served as
food upon the tables of the black nobles.
I think that I should have gone crazy but for the sound
of my approaching jailer. It distracted my attention from
the terrible thoughts that had been occupying my entire mind.
Now a new and grim determination came to me. I would make
one super-human effort to escape. Kill my jailer by a ruse,
and trust to fate to lead me to the outer world in safety.
With the thought came instant action. I threw myself upon
the floor of my cell close by the wall, in a strained and
distorted posture, as though I were dead after a struggle
or convulsions. When he should stoop over me I had but to
grasp his throat with one hand and strike him a terrific blow
with the slack of my chain, which I gripped firmly in my
right hand for the purpose.
Nearer and nearer came the doomed man. Now I heard
him halt before me. There was a muttered exclamation, and
then a step as he came to my side. I felt him kneel beside me.
My grip tightened upon the chain. He leaned close to me.
I must open my eyes to find his throat, grasp it, and strike
one mighty final blow all at the same instant.
The thing worked just as I had planned. So brief was the
interval between the opening of my eyes and the fall of the
chain that I could not check it, though it that minute
interval I recognized the face so close to mine as that
of my son, Carthoris.
God! What cruel and malign fate had worked to such a
frightful end! What devious chain of circumstances had led
my boy to my side at this one particular minute of our lives
when I could strike him down and kill him, in ignorance
of his identity! A benign though tardy Providence blurred my
vision and my mind as I sank into unconsciousness across the
lifeless body of my only son.
When I regained consciousness it was to feel a cool, firm
hand pressed upon my forehead. For an instant I did not
open my eyes. I was endeavouring to gather the loose ends
of many thoughts and memories which flitted elusively
through my tired and overwrought brain.
At length came the cruel recollection of the thing that I
had done in my last conscious act, and then I dared not
to open my eyes for fear of what I should see lying beside
me. I wondered who it could be who ministered to me.
Carthoris must have had a companion whom I had not seen.
Well, I must face the inevitable some time, so why not now,
and with a sigh I opened my eyes.
Leaning over me was Carthoris, a great bruise upon his
forehead where the chain had struck, but alive, thank
God, alive! There was no one with him. Reaching out my
arms, I took my boy within them, and if ever there arose
from any planet a fervent prayer of gratitude, it was there
beneath the crust of dying Mars as I thanked the Eternal
Mystery for my son's life.
The brief instant in which I had seen and recognized
Carthoris before the chain fell must have been ample to
check the force of the blow. He told me that he had
lain unconscious for a time--how long he did not know.
"How came you here at all?" I asked, mystified that he
had found me without a guide.
"It was by your wit in apprising me of your existence and
imprisonment through the youth, Parthak. Until he came for
his harness and his sword, we had thought you dead. When
I had read your note I did as you had bid, giving Parthak his
choice of the harnesses in the guardroom, and later bringing
the jewelled short-sword to him; but the minute that I had
fulfilled the promise you evidently had made him, my
obligation to him ceased. Then I commenced to question him,
but he would give me no information as to your whereabouts.
He was intensely loyal to Zat Arras.
"Finally I gave him a fair choice between freedom and
the pits beneath the palace--the price of freedom to be full
information as to where you were imprisoned and directions
which would lead us to you; but still he maintained his
stubborn partisanship. Despairing, I had him removed to
the pits, where he still is.
"No threats of torture or death, no bribes, however fabulous,
would move him. His only reply to all our importunities
was that whenever Parthak died, were it to-morrow or a
thousand years hence, no man could truly say, 'A traitor is
gone to his deserts.'
"Finally, Xodar, who is a fiend for subtle craftiness,
evolved a plan whereby we might worm the information
from him. And so I caused Hor Vastus to be harnessed in
the metal of a Zodangan soldier and chained in Parthak's
cell beside him. For fifteen days the noble Hor Vastus has
languished in the darkness of the pits, but not in vain.
Little by little he won the confidence and friendship of the
Zodangan, until only to-day Parthak, thinking that he was
speaking not only to a countryman, but to a dear friend,
revealed that Hor Vastus the exact cell in which you lay.
"It took me but a short time to locate the plans of the pits
of Helium among thy official papers. To come to you, though,
was a trifle more difficult matter. As you know, while all
the pits beneath the city are connected, there are but single
entrances from those beneath each section and its neighbour,
and that at the upper level just underneath the ground.
"Of course, these openings which lead from contiguous pits to
those beneath government buildings are always guarded, and so,
while I easily came to the entrance to the pits beneath the
palace which Zat Arras is occupying, I found there a Zodangan
soldier on guard. There I left him when I had gone by,
but his soul was no longer with him.
"And here I am, just in time to be nearly killed by you,"
he ended, laughing.
As he talked Carthoris had been working at the lock which
held my fetters, and now, with an exclamation of pleasure,
he dropped the end of the chain to the floor, and I stood up
once more, freed from the galling irons I had chafed in for
almost a year.
He had brought a long-sword and a dagger for me, and
thus armed we set out upon the return journey to my palace.
At the point where we left the pits of Zat Arras we found
the body of the guard Carthoris had slain. It had not yet been
discovered, and, in order to still further delay search and
mystify the jed's people, we carried the body with us for a
short distance, hiding it in a tiny cell off the main corridor
of the pits beneath an adjoining estate.
Some half-hour later we came to the pits beneath our own
palace, and soon thereafter emerged into the audience chamber
itself, where we found Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Hor Vastus,
and Xodar awaiting us most impatiently.
No time was lost in fruitless recounting of my imprisonment.
What I desired to know was how well the plans we had laid
nearly a year ago and had been carried out.
"It has taken much longer than we had expected," replied
Kantos Kan. "The fact that we were compelled to maintain
utter secrecy has handicapped us terribly. Zat Arras' spies
are everywhere. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, no word
of our real plans has reached the villain's ear.
"To-night there lies about the great docks at Hastor a fleet
of a thousand of the mightiest battleships that ever sailed
above Barsoom, and each equipped to navigate the air of Omean
and the waters of Omean itself. Upon each battleship
there are five ten-man cruisers, and ten five-man scouts,
and a hundred one-man scouts; in all, one hundred and sixteen
thousand craft fitted with both air and water propellers.
"At Thark lie the transports for the green warriors of Tars
Tarkas, nine hundred large troopships, and with them their
convoys. Seven days ago all was in readiness, but we waited
in the hope that by so doing your rescue might be encompassed
in time for you to command the expedition. It is well we waited,
my Prince."
"How is it, Tars Tarkas," I asked, "that the men of Thark
take not the accustomed action against one who returns from
the bosom of Iss?"
"They sent a council of fifty chieftains to talk with me
here," replied the Thark. "We are a just people, and when I
had told them the entire story they were as one man in
agreeing that their action toward me would be guided by the
action of Helium toward John Carter. In the meantime, at
their request, I was to resume my throne as Jeddak of Thark,
that I might negotiate with neighboring hordes for warriors
to compose the land forces of the expedition. I have done
that which I agreed. Two hundred and fifty thousand fighting
men, gathered from the ice cap at the north to the ice cap at
the south, and representing a thousand different communities,
from a hundred wild and warlike hordes, fill the great city
of Thark to-night. They are ready to sail for the Land of
the First Born when I give the word and fight there until
I bid them stop. All they ask is the loot they take and
transportation to their own territories when the fighting
and the looting are over. I am done."
"And thou, Hor Vastus," I asked, "what has been thy success?"
"A million veteran fighting-men from Helium's thin waterways man
the battleships, the transports, and the convoys," he replied.
"Each is sworn to loyalty and secrecy, nor were enough recruited
from a single district to cause suspicion."
"Good!" I cried. "Each has done his duty, and now, Kantos Kan,
may we not repair at once to Hastor and get under way before
to-morrow's sun?"
"We should lose no time, Prince," replied Kantos Kan.
"Already the people of Hastor are questioning the purpose of
so great a fleet fully manned with fighting-men. I wonder
much that word of it has not before reached Zat Arras. A
cruiser awaits above at your own dock; let us leave at--"
A fusillade of shots from the palace gardens just without cut
short his further words.
Together we rushed to the balcony in time to see a dozen
members of my palace guard disappear in the shadows of
some distant shrubbery as in pursuit of one who fled. Directly
beneath us upon the scarlet sward a handful of guardsmen
were stooping above a still and prostrate form.
While we watched they lifted the figure in their arms and
at my command bore it to the audience chamber where we
had been in council. When they stretched the body at our
feet we saw that it was that of a red man in the prime of life
--his metal was plain, such as common soldiers wear, or
those who wish to conceal their identity.
"Another of Zat Arras' spies," said Hor Vastus.
"So it would seem," I replied, and then to the guard:
"You may remove the body."
"Wait!" said Xodar. "If you will, Prince, ask that a cloth
and a little thoat oil be brought."
I nodded to one of the soldiers, who left the chamber,
returning presently with the things that Xodar had requested.
The black kneeled beside the body and, dipping a corner of
the cloth in the thoat oil, rubbed for a moment on the dead
face before him, Then he turned to me with a smile, pointing
to his work. I looked and saw that where Xodar had applied
the thoat oil the face was white, as white as mine, and then
Xodar seized the black hair of the corpse and with a sudden
wrench tore it all away, revealing a hairless pate beneath.
Guardsmen and nobles pressed close about the silent witness
upon the marble floor. Many were the exclamations of
astonishment and questioning wonder as Xodar's acts
confirmed the suspicion which he had held.
"A thern!" whispered Tars Tarkas.
"Worse than that, I fear," replied Xodar. "But let us see."
With that he drew his dagger and cut open a locked pouch
which had dangled from the thern's harness, and from it
he brought forth a circlet of gold set with a large gem--it
was the mate to that which I had taken from Sator Throg.
"He was a Holy Thern," said Xodar. "Fortunate indeed it
is for us that he did not escape."
The officer of the guard entered the chamber at this juncture.
"My Prince," he said, "I have to report that this fellow's
companion escaped us. I think that it was with the connivance
of one or more of the men at the gate. I have ordered
them all under arrest."
Xodar handed him the thoat oil and cloth.
"With this you may discover the spy among you," he said.
I at once ordered a secret search within the city, for every
Martian noble maintains a secret service of his own.
A half-hour later the officer of the guard came again to report.
This time it was to confirm our worst fears--half the guards at
the gate that night had been therns disguised as red men.
"Come!" I cried. "We must lose no time. On to Hastor at
once. Should the therns attempt to check us at the southern
verge of the ice cap it may result in the wrecking of all our
plans and the total destruction of the expedition."
Ten minutes later we were speeding through the night toward Hastor,
prepared to strike the first blow for the preservation of Dejah Thoris.
CHAPTER XX
THE AIR BATTLE
Two hours after leaving my palace at Helium, or about
midnight, Kantos Kan, Xodar, and I arrived at Hastor.
Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Hor Vastus had gone directly
to Thark upon another cruiser.
The transports were to get under way immediately and
move slowly south. The fleet of battleships would overtake
them on the morning of the second day.
At Hastor we found all in readiness, and so perfectly had
Kantos Kan planned every detail of the campaign that within
ten minutes of our arrival the first of the fleet had soared
aloft from its dock, and thereafter, at the rate of one a
second, the great ships floated gracefully out into the night
to form a long, thin line which stretched for miles toward
the south.
It was not until after we had entered the cabin of Kantos
Kan that I thought to ask the date, for up to now I was
not positive how long I had lain in the pits of Zat Arras.
When Kantos Kan told me, I realized with a pang of dismay
that I had misreckoned the time while I lay in the utter
darkness of my cell. Three hundred and sixty-five
days had passed--it was too late to save Dejah Thoris.
The expedition was no longer one of rescue but of revenge.
I did not remind Kantos Kan of the terrible fact that ere
we could hope to enter the Temple of Issus, the Princess
of Helium would be no more. In so far as I knew she might
be already dead, for I did not know the exact date on which
she first viewed Issus.
What now the value of burdening my friends with my
added personal sorrows--they had shared quite enough of
them with me in the past. Hereafter I would keep my grief
to myself, and so I said nothing to any other of the fact
that we were too late. The expedition could yet do much
if it could but teach the people of Barsoom the facts of
the cruel deception that had been worked upon them for
countless ages, and thus save thousands each year from the
horrid fate that awaited them at the conclusion of the
voluntary pilgrimage.
If it could open to the red men the fair Valley Dor it
would have accomplished much, and in the Land of Lost
Souls between the Mountains of Otz and the ice barrier
were many broad acres that needed no irrigation to bear
rich harvests.
Here at the bottom of a dying world was the only naturally
productive area upon its surface. Here alone were dews
and rains, here alone was an open sea, here was water in
plenty; and all this was but the stamping ground of fierce
brutes and from its beauteous and fertile expanse the
wicked remnants of two once mighty races barred all the
other millions of Barsoom. Could I but succeed in once
breaking down the barrier of religious superstition which
had kept the red races from this El Dorado it would be
a fitting memorial to the immortal virtues of my Princess--I
should have again served Barsoom and Dejah Thoris' martyrdom
would not have been in vain.
On the morning of the second day we raised the great
fleet of transports and their consorts at the first flood
of dawn, and soon were near enough to exchange signals.
I may mention here that radio-aerograms are seldom if
ever used in war time, or for the transmission of secret
dispatches at any time, for as often as one nation discovers
a new cipher, or invents a new instrument for wireless
purposes its neighbours bend every effort until they are
able to intercept and translate the messages. For so long
a time has this gone on that practically every possibility
of wireless communication has been exhausted and no nation
dares transmit dispatches of importance in this way.
Tars Tarkas reported all well with the transports. The
battleships passed through to take an advanced position,
and the combined fleets moved slowly over the ice cap,
hugging the surface closely to prevent detection by the
therns whose land we were approaching.
Far in advance of all a thin line of one-man air scouts
protected us from surprise, and on either side they flanked
us, while a smaller number brought up the rear some
twenty miles behind the transports. In this formation we
had progressed toward the entrance to Omean for several
hours when one of our scouts returned from the front to
report that the cone-like summit of the entrance was in
sight. At almost the same instant another scout from the
left flank came racing toward the flagship.
His very speed bespoke the importance of his information.
Kantos Kan and I awaited him upon the little forward deck
which corresponds with the bridge of earthly battleships.
Scarcely had his tiny flier come to rest upon the broad
landing-deck of the flagship ere he was bounding up the
stairway to the deck where we stood.
"A great fleet of battleships south-south-east, my Prince,"
he cried. "There must be several thousands and they are
bearing down directly upon us."
"The thern spies were not in the palace of John Carter
for nothing," said Kantos Kan to me. "Your orders, Prince."
"Dispatch ten battleships to guard the entrance to Omean,
with orders to let no hostile enter or leave the shaft.
That will bottle up the great fleet of the First Born.
"Form the balance of the battleships into a great V with the
apex pointing directly south-south-east. Order the transports,
surrounded by their convoys, to follow closely in the wake of
the battleships until the point of the V has entered the
enemies' line, then the V must open outward at the apex,
the battleships of each leg engage the enemy fiercely and
drive him back to form a lane through his line into which the
transports with their convoys must race at top speed that they
may gain a position above the temples and gardens of the therns.
"Here let them land and teach the Holy Therns such a
lesson in ferocious warfare as they will not forget for
countless ages. It had not been my intention to be
distracted from the main issue of the campaign, but we must
settle this attack with the therns once and for all, or there
will be no peace for us while our fleet remains near Dor,
and our chances of ever returning to the outer world will
be greatly minimized."
Kantos Kan saluted and turned to deliver my instructions
to his waiting aides. In an incredibly short space of time
the formation of the battleships changed in accordance with
my commands, the ten that were to guard the way to
Omean were speeding toward their destination, and the
troopships and convoys were closing up in preparation for
the spurt through the lane.
The order of full speed ahead was given, the fleet sprang
through the air like coursing greyhounds, and in another
moment the ships of the enemy were in full view. They
formed a ragged line as far as the eye could reach in
either direction and about three ships deep. So sudden was
our onslaught that they had no time to prepare for it. It was
as unexpected as lightning from a clear sky.
Every phase of my plan worked splendidly. Our huge
ships mowed their way entirely through the line of thern
battlecraft; then the V opened up and a broad lane appeared
through which the transports leaped toward the temples of
the therns which could now be plainly seen glistening in the
sunlight. By the time the therns had rallied from the attack a
hundred thousand green warriors were already pouring
through their courts and gardens, while a hundred and fifty
thousand others leaned from low swinging transports to direct
their almost uncanny marksmanship upon the thern soldiery
that manned the ramparts, or attempted to defend the temples.
Now the two great fleets closed in a titanic struggle
far above the fiendish din of battle in the gorgeous gardens
of the therns. Slowly the two lines of Helium's battleships
joined their ends, and then commenced the circling within
the line of the enemy which is so marked a characteristic of
Barsoomian naval warfare.
Around and around in each other's tracks moved the ships under
Kantos Kan, until at length they formed nearly a perfect circle.
By this time they were moving at high speed so that they presented
a difficult target for the enemy. Broadside after broadside they
delivered as each vessel came in line with the ships of the therns.
The latter attempted to rush in and break up the formation, but it
was like stopping a buzz saw with the bare hand.
From my position on the deck beside Kantos Kan I saw
ship after ship of the enemy take the awful, sickening dive
which proclaims its total destruction. Slowly we manoeuvered
our circle of death until we hung above the gardens where
our green warriors were engaged. The order was passed down
for them to embark. Then they rose slowly to a position within
the centre of the circle.
In the meantime the therns' fire had practically ceased.
They had had enough of us and were only too glad to let
us go on our way in peace. But our escape was not to be
encompassed with such ease, for scarcely had we gotten
under way once more in the direction of the entrance to
Omean than we saw far to the north a great black line topping
the horizon. It could be nothing other than a fleet of war.
Whose or whither bound, we could not even conjecture.
When they had come close enough to make us out at all,
Kantos Kan's operator received a radio-aerogram, which
he immediately handed to my companion. He read the thing
and handed it to me.
"Kantos Kan:" it read. "Surrender, in the name of the
Jeddak of Helium, for you cannot escape," and it was
signed, "Zat Arras."
The therns must have caught and translated the message
almost as soon as did we, for they immediately renewed
hostilities when they realized that we were soon to be set
upon by other enemies.
Before Zat Arras had approached near enough to fire a
shot we were again hotly engaged with the thern fleet, and
as soon as he drew near he too commenced to pour a
terrific fusillade of heavy shot into us. Ship after ship reeled
and staggered into uselessness beneath the pitiless fire that
we were undergoing.
The thing could not last much longer. I ordered the transports
to descend again into the gardens of the therns.
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