CHAPTER XVIII

SOLA'S STORY


Once within the palace, I drew Sola to the dining hall, and, when she
had greeted her father after the formal manner of the green men, she
told the story of the pilgrimage and capture of Dejah Thoris.

"Seven days ago, after her audience with Zat Arras, Dejah Thoris
attempted to slip from the palace in the dead of night.  Although I had
not heard the outcome of her interview with Zat Arras I knew that
something had occurred then to cause her the keenest mental agony, and
when I discovered her creeping from the palace I did not need to be
told her destination.

"Hastily arousing a dozen of her most faithful guards, I explained my
fears to them, and as one they enlisted with me to follow our beloved
Princess in her wanderings, even to the Sacred Iss and the Valley Dor.
We came upon her but a short distance from the palace.  With her was
faithful Woola the hound, but none other.  When we overtook her she
feigned anger, and ordered us back to the palace, but for once we
disobeyed her, and when she found that we would not let her go upon the
last long pilgrimage alone, she wept and embraced us, and together we
went out into the night toward the south.

"The following day we came upon a herd of small thoats, and thereafter
we were mounted and made good time.  We travelled very fast and very
far due south until the morning of the fifth day we sighted a great
fleet of battleships sailing north.  They saw us before we could seek
shelter, and soon we were surrounded by a horde of black men.  The
Princess's guard fought nobly to the end, but they were soon overcome
and slain.  Only Dejah Thoris and I were spared.

"When she realized that she was in the clutches of the black pirates,
she attempted to take her own life, but one of the blacks tore her
dagger from her, and then they bound us both so that we could not use
our hands.

"The fleet continued north after capturing us.  There were about twenty
large battleships in all, besides a number of small swift cruisers.
That evening one of the smaller cruisers that had been far in advance
of the fleet returned with a prisoner--a young red woman whom they had
picked up in a range of hills under the very noses, they said, of a
fleet of three red Martian battleships.

"From scraps of conversation which we overheard it was evident that the
black pirates were searching for a party of fugitives that had escaped
them several days prior.  That they considered the capture of the young
woman important was evident from the long and earnest interview the
commander of the fleet held with her when she was brought to him.
Later she was bound and placed in the compartment with Dejah Thoris and
myself.

"The new captive was a very beautiful girl.  She told Dejah Thoris that
many years ago she had taken the voluntary pilgrimage from the court of
her father, the Jeddak of Ptarth.  She was Thuvia, the Princess of
Ptarth.  And then she asked Dejah Thoris who she might be, and when she
heard she fell upon her knees and kissed Dejah Thoris' fettered hands,
and told her that that very morning she had been with John Carter,
Prince of Helium, and Carthoris, her son.

"Dejah Thoris could not believe her at first, but finally when the girl
had narrated all the strange adventures that had befallen her since she
had met John Carter, and told her of the things John Carter, and
Carthoris, and Xodar had narrated of their adventures in the Land of
the First Born, Dejah Thoris knew that it could be none other than the
Prince of Helium; 'For who,' she said, 'upon all Barsoom other than
John Carter could have done the deeds you tell of.' And when Thuvia
told Dejah Thoris of her love for John Carter, and his loyalty and
devotion to the Princess of his choice, Dejah Thoris broke down and
wept--cursing Zat Arras and the cruel fate that had driven her from
Helium but a few brief days before the return of her beloved lord.

"'I do not blame you for loving him, Thuvia,' she said; 'and that your
affection for him is pure and sincere I can well believe from the
candour of your avowal of it to me.'

"The fleet continued north nearly to Helium, but last night they
evidently realized that John Carter had indeed escaped them and so they
turned toward the south once more.  Shortly thereafter a guard entered
our compartment and dragged me to the deck.

"'There is no place in the Land of the First Born for a green one,' he
said, and with that he gave me a terrific shove that carried me
toppling from the deck of the battleship.  Evidently this seemed to him
the easiest way of ridding the vessel of my presence and killing me at
the same time.

"But a kind fate intervened, and by a miracle I escaped with but slight
bruises.  The ship was moving slowly at the time, and as I lunged
overboard into the darkness beneath I shuddered at the awful plunge I
thought awaited me, for all day the fleet had sailed thousands of feet
above the ground; but to my utter surprise I struck upon a soft mass of
vegetation not twenty feet from the deck of the ship.  In fact, the
keel of the vessel must have been grazing the surface of the ground at
the time.

"I lay all night where I had fallen and the next morning brought an
explanation of the fortunate coincidence that had saved me from a
terrible death.  As the sun rose I saw a vast panorama of sea bottom
and distant hills lying far below me.  I was upon the highest peak of a
lofty range.  The fleet in the darkness of the preceding night had
barely grazed the crest of the hills, and in the brief span that they
hovered close to the surface the black guard had pitched me, as he
supposed, to my death.

"A few miles west of me was a great waterway.  When I reached it I
found to my delight that it belonged to Helium.  Here a thoat was
procured for me--the rest you know."

For many minutes none spoke.  Dejah Thoris in the clutches of the First
Born!  I shuddered at the thought, but of a sudden the old fire of
unconquerable self-confidence surged through me.  I sprang to my feet,
and with back-thrown shoulders and upraised sword took a solemn vow to
reach, rescue, and revenge my Princess.

A hundred swords leaped from a hundred scabbards, and a hundred
fighting-men sprang to the table-top and pledged me their lives and
fortunes to the expedition.  Already my plans were formulated.  I
thanked each loyal friend, and leaving Carthoris to entertain them,
withdrew to my own audience chamber with Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas,
Xodar, and Hor Vastus.

Here we discussed the details of our expedition until long after dark.
Xodar was positive that Issus would choose both Dejah Thoris and Thuvia
to serve her for a year.

"For that length of time at least they will be comparatively safe," he
said, "and we will at least know where to look for them."

In the matter of equipping a fleet to enter Omean the details were left
to Kantos Kan and Xodar.  The former agreed to take such vessels as we
required into dock as rapidly as possible, where Xodar would direct
their equipment with water propellers.

For many years the black had been in charge of the refitting of
captured battleships that they might navigate Omean, and so was
familiar with the construction of the propellers, housings, and the
auxiliary gearing required.

It was estimated that it would require six months to complete our
preparations in view of the fact that the utmost secrecy must be
maintained to keep the project from the ears of Zat Arras.  Kantos Kan
was confident now that the man's ambitions were fully aroused and that
nothing short of the title of Jeddak of Helium would satisfy him.

"I doubt," he said, "if he would even welcome Dejah Thoris' return, for
it would mean another nearer the throne than he.  With you and
Carthoris out of the way there would be little to prevent him from
assuming the title of Jeddak, and you may rest assured that so long as
he is supreme here there is no safety for either of you."

"There is a way," cried Hor Vastus, "to thwart him effectually and for
ever."

"What?" I asked.

He smiled.

"I shall whisper it here, but some day I shall stand upon the dome of
the Temple of Reward and shout it to cheering multitudes below."

"What do you mean?" asked Kantos Kan.

"John Carter, Jeddak of Helium," said Hor Vastus in a low voice.

The eyes of my companions lighted, and grim smiles of pleasure and
anticipation overspread their faces, as each eye turned toward me
questioningly.  But I shook my head.

"No, my friends," I said, smiling, "I thank you, but it cannot be.  Not
yet, at least.  When we know that Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak are gone
to return no more; if I be here, then I shall join you all to see that
the people of Helium are permitted to choose fairly their next Jeddak.
Whom they choose may count upon the loyalty of my sword, nor shall I
seek the honour for myself.  Until then Tardos Mors is Jeddak of
Helium, and Zat Arras is his representative."

"As you will, John Carter," said Hor Vastus, "but--What was that?" he
whispered, pointing toward the window overlooking the gardens.

The words were scarce out of his mouth ere he had sprung to the balcony
without.

"There he goes!" he cried excitedly.  "The guards!  Below there!  The
guards!"

We were close behind him, and all saw the figure of a man run quickly
across a little piece of sward and disappear in the shrubbery beyond.

"He was on the balcony when I first saw him," cried Hor Vastus.
"Quick!  Let us follow him!"

Together we ran to the gardens, but even though we scoured the grounds
with the entire guard for hours, no trace could we find of the night
marauder.

"What do you make of it, Kantos Kan?" asked Tars Tarkas.

"A spy sent by Zat Arras," he replied.  "It was ever his way."

"He will have something interesting to report to his master then,"
laughed Hor Vastus.

"I hope he heard only our references to a new Jeddak," I said.  "If he
overheard our plans to rescue Dejah Thoris, it will mean civil war, for
he will attempt to thwart us, and in that I will not be thwarted.
There would I turn against Tardos Mors himself, were it necessary.  If
it throws all Helium into a bloody conflict, I shall go on with these
plans to save my Princess.  Nothing shall stay me now short of death,
and should I die, my friends, will you take oath to prosecute the
search for her and bring her back in safety to her grandfather's court?"

Upon the hilt of his sword each of them swore to do as I had asked.

It was agreed that the battleships that were to be remodelled should be
ordered to Hastor, another Heliumetic city, far to the south-west.
Kantos Kan thought that the docks there, in addition to their regular
work, would accommodate at least six battleships at a time.  As he was
commander-in-chief of the navy, it would be a simple matter for him to
order the vessels there as they could be handled, and thereafter keep
the remodelled fleet in remote parts of the empire until we should be
ready to assemble it for the dash upon Omean.

It was late that night before our conference broke up, but each man
there had his particular duties outlined, and the details of the entire
plan had been mapped out.

Kantos Kan and Xodar were to attend to the remodelling of the ships.
Tars Tarkas was to get into communication with Thark and learn the
sentiments of his people toward his return from Dor.  If favourable, he
was to repair immediately to Thark and devote his time to the
assembling of a great horde of green warriors whom it was our plan to
send in transports directly to the Valley Dor and the Temple of Issus,
while the fleet entered Omean and destroyed the vessels of the First
Born.

Upon Hor Vastus devolved the delicate mission of organising a secret
force of fighting-men sworn to follow John Carter wherever he might
lead.  As we estimated that it would require over a million men to man
the thousand great battleships we intended to use on Omean and the
transports for the green men as well as the ships that were to convoy
the transports, it was no trifling job that Hor Vastus had before him.

After they had left I bid Carthoris good-night, for I was very tired,
and going to my own apartments, bathed and lay down upon my sleeping
silks and furs for the first good night's sleep I had had an
opportunity to look forward to since I had returned to Barsoom.  But
even now I was to be disappointed.

How long I slept I do not know.  When I awoke suddenly it was to find a
half-dozen powerful men upon me, a gag already in my mouth, and a
moment later my arms and legs securely bound.  So quickly had they
worked and to such good purpose, that I was utterly beyond the power to
resist them by the time I was fully awake.

Never a word spoke they, and the gag effectually prevented me speaking.
Silently they lifted me and bore me toward the door of my chamber.  As
they passed the window through which the farther moon was casting its
brilliant beams, I saw that each of the party had his face swathed in
layers of silk--I could not recognize one of them.

When they had come into the corridor with me, they turned toward a
secret panel in the wall which led to the passage that terminated in
the pits beneath the palace.  That any knew of this panel outside my
own household, I was doubtful.  Yet the leader of the band did not
hesitate a moment.  He stepped directly to the panel, touched the
concealed button, and as the door swung open he stood aside while his
companions entered with me.  Then he closed the panel behind him and
followed us.

Down through the passageways to the pits we went.  The leader rapped
upon it with the hilt of his sword--three quick, sharp blows, a pause,
then three more, another pause, and then two.  A second later the wall
swung in, and I was pushed within a brilliantly lighted chamber in
which sat three richly trapped men.

One of them turned toward me with a sardonic smile upon his thin, cruel
lips--it was Zat Arras.




CHAPTER XIX

BLACK DESPAIR


"Ah," said Zat Arras, "to what kindly circumstance am I indebted for
the pleasure of this unexpected visit from the Prince of Helium?"

While he was speaking, one of my guards had removed the gag from my
mouth, but I made no reply to Zat Arras: simply standing there in
silence with level gaze fixed upon the Jed of Zodanga.  And I doubt not
that my expression was coloured by the contempt I felt for the man.

The eyes of those within the chamber were fixed first upon me and then
upon Zat Arras, until finally a flush of anger crept slowly over his
face.

"You may go," he said to those who had brought me, and when only his
two companions and ourselves were left in the chamber, he spoke to me
again in a voice of ice--very slowly and deliberately, with many
pauses, as though he would choose his words cautiously.

"John Carter," he said, "by the edict of custom, by the law of our
religion, and by the verdict of an impartial court, you are condemned
to die.  The people cannot save you--I alone may accomplish that.  You
are absolutely in my power to do with as I wish--I may kill you, or I
may free you, and should I elect to kill you, none would be the wiser.

"Should you go free in Helium for a year, in accordance with the
conditions of your reprieve, there is little fear that the people would
ever insist upon the execution of the sentence imposed upon you.

"You may go free within two minutes, upon one condition.  Tardos Mors
will never return to Helium.  Neither will Mors Kajak, nor Dejah
Thoris.  Helium must select a new Jeddak within the year.  Zat Arras
would be Jeddak of Helium.  Say that you will espouse my cause.  This
is the price of your freedom.  I am done."

I knew it was within the scope of Zat Arras' cruel heart to destroy me,
and if I were dead I could see little reason to doubt that he might
easily become Jeddak of Helium.  Free, I could prosecute the search for
Dejah Thoris.  Were I dead, my brave comrades might not be able to
carry out our plans.  So, by refusing to accede to his request, it was
quite probable that not only would I not prevent him from becoming
Jeddak of Helium, but that I would be the means of sealing Dejah
Thoris' fate--of consigning her, through my refusal, to the horrors of
the arena of Issus.

For a moment I was perplexed, but for a moment only.  The proud
daughter of a thousand Jeddaks would choose death to a dishonorable
alliance such as this, nor could John Carter do less for Helium than
his Princess would do.

Then I turned to Zat Arras.

"There can be no alliance," I said, "between a traitor to Helium and a
prince of the House of Tardos Mors.  I do not believe, Zat Arras, that
the great Jeddak is dead."

Zat Arras shrugged his shoulders.

"It will not be long, John Carter," he said, "that your opinions will
be of interest even to yourself, so make the best of them while you
can.  Zat Arras will permit you in due time to reflect further upon the
magnanimous offer he has made you.  Into the silence and darkness of
the pits you will enter upon your reflection this night with the
knowledge that should you fail within a reasonable time to agree to the
alternative which has been offered you, never shall you emerge from the
darkness and the silence again.  Nor shall you know at what minute the
hand will reach out through the darkness and the silence with the keen
dagger that shall rob you of your last chance to win again the warmth
and the freedom and joyousness of the outer world."

Zat Arras clapped his hands as he ceased speaking.  The guards returned.

Zat Arras waved his hand in my direction.

"To the pits," he said.  That was all.  Four men accompanied me from
the chamber, and with a radium hand-light to illumine the way, escorted
me through seemingly interminable tunnels, down, ever down beneath the
city of Helium.

At length they halted within a fair-sized chamber.  There were rings
set in the rocky walls.  To them chains were fastened, and at the ends
of many of the chains were human skeletons.  One of these they kicked
aside, and, unlocking the huge padlock that had held a chain about what
had once been a human ankle, they snapped the iron band about my own
leg.  Then they left me, taking the light with them.

Utter darkness prevailed.  For a few minutes I could hear the clanking
of accoutrements, but even this grew fainter and fainter, until at last
the silence was as complete as the darkness.  I was alone with my
gruesome companions--with the bones of dead men whose fate was likely
but the index of my own.

How long I stood listening in the darkness I do not know, but the
silence was unbroken, and at last I sunk to the hard floor of my
prison, where, leaning my head against the stony wall, I slept.

It must have been several hours later that I awakened to find a young
man standing before me.  In one hand he bore a light, in the other a
receptacle containing a gruel-like mixture--the common prison fare of
Barsoom.

"Zat Arras sends you greetings," said the young man, "and commands me
to inform you that though he is fully advised of the plot to make you
Jeddak of Helium, he is, however, not inclined to withdraw the offer
which he has made you.  To gain your freedom you have but to request me
to advise Zat Arras that you accept the terms of his proposition."

I but shook my head.  The youth said no more, and, after placing the
food upon the floor at my side, returned up the corridor, taking the
light with him.

Twice a day for many days this youth came to my cell with food, and
ever the same greetings from Zat Arras.  For a long time I tried to
engage him in conversation upon other matters, but he would not talk,
and so, at length, I desisted.

For months I sought to devise methods to inform Carthoris of my
whereabouts.  For months I scraped and scraped upon a single link of
the massive chain which held me, hoping eventually to wear it through,
that I might follow the youth back through the winding tunnels to a
point where I could make a break for liberty.

I was beside myself with anxiety for knowledge of the progress of the
expedition which was to rescue Dejah Thoris.  I felt that Carthoris
would not let the matter drop, were he free to act, but in so far as I
knew, he also might be a prisoner in Zat Arras' pits.

That Zat Arras' spy had overheard our conversation relative to the
selection of a new Jeddak, I knew, and scarcely a half-dozen minutes
prior we had discussed the details of the plan to rescue Dejah Thoris.
The chances were that that matter, too, was well known to him.
Carthoris, Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Hor Vastus, and Xodar might even
now be the victims of Zat Arras' assassins, or else his prisoners.

I determined to make at least one more effort to learn something, and
to this end I adopted strategy when next the youth came to my cell.  I
had noticed that he was a handsome fellow, about the size and age of
Carthoris.  And I had also noticed that his shabby trappings but illy
comported with his dignified and noble bearing.

It was with these observations as a basis that I opened my negotiations
with him upon his next subsequent visit.

"You have been very kind to me during my imprisonment here," I said to
him, "and as I feel that I have at best but a very short time to live,
I wish, ere it is too late, to furnish substantial testimony of my
appreciation of all that you have done to render my imprisonment
bearable.

"Promptly you have brought my food each day, seeing that it was pure
and of sufficient quantity.  Never by word or deed have you attempted
to take advantage of my defenceless condition to insult or torture me.
You have been uniformly courteous and considerate--it is this more than
any other thing which prompts my feeling of gratitude and my desire to
give you some slight token of it.

"In the guard-room of my palace are many fine trappings.  Go thou there
and select the harness which most pleases you--it shall be yours.  All
I ask is that you wear it, that I may know that my wish has been
realized.  Tell me that you will do it."

The boy's eyes had lighted with pleasure as I spoke, and I saw him
glance from his rusty trappings to the magnificence of my own.  For a
moment he stood in thought before he spoke, and for that moment my
heart fairly ceased beating--so much for me there was which hung upon
the substance of his answer.

"And I went to the palace of the Prince of Helium with any such demand,
they would laugh at me and, into the bargain, would more than likely
throw me headforemost into the avenue.  No, it cannot be, though I
thank you for the offer.  Why, if Zat Arras even dreamed that I
contemplated such a thing he would have my heart cut out of me."

"There can be no harm in it, my boy," I urged.  "By night you may go to
my palace with a note from me to Carthoris, my son.  You may read the
note before you deliver it, that you may know that it contains nothing
harmful to Zat Arras.  My son will be discreet, and so none but us
three need know.  It is very simple, and such a harmless act that it
could be condemned by no one."

Again he stood silently in deep thought.

"And there is a jewelled short-sword which I took from the body of a
northern Jeddak.  When you get the harness, see that Carthoris gives
you that also.  With it and the harness which you may select there will
be no more handsomely accoutred warrior in all Zodanga.

"Bring writing materials when you come next to my cell, and within a
few hours we shall see you garbed in a style befitting your birth and
carriage."

Still in thought, and without speaking, he turned and left me.  I could
not guess what his decision might be, and for hours I sat fretting over
the outcome of the matter.

If he accepted a message to Carthoris it would mean to me that
Carthoris still lived and was free.  If the youth returned wearing the
harness and the sword, I would know that Carthoris had received my note
and that he knew that I still lived.  That the bearer of the note was a
Zodangan would be sufficient to explain to Carthoris that I was a
prisoner of Zat Arras.

It was with feelings of excited expectancy which I could scarce hide
that I heard the youth's approach upon the occasion of his next regular
visit.  I did not speak beyond my accustomed greeting of him.  As he
placed the food upon the floor by my side he also deposited writing
materials at the same time.

My heart fairly bounded for joy.  I had won my point.  For a moment I
looked at the materials in feigned surprise, but soon I permitted an
expression of dawning comprehension to come into my face, and then,
picking them up, I penned a brief order to Carthoris to deliver to
Parthak a harness of his selection and the short-sword which I
described.  That was all.  But it meant everything to me and to
Carthoris.

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 in 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 to 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 the 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
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.

"Wreak your vengeance to the utmost," was my message to the green
allies, "for by night there will be none left to avenge your wrongs."

Presently I saw the ten battleships that had been ordered to hold the
shaft of Omean.  They were returning at full speed, firing their stern
batteries almost continuously.  There could be but one explanation.
They were being pursued by another hostile fleet.  Well, the situation
could be no worse.  The expedition already was doomed.  No man that had
embarked upon it would return across that dreary ice cap.  How I wished
that I might face Zat Arras with my longsword for just an instant
before I died!  It was he who had caused our failure.

As I watched the oncoming ten I saw their pursuers race swiftly into
sight.  It was another great fleet; for a moment I could not believe my
eyes, but finally I was forced to admit that the most fatal calamity
had overtaken the expedition, for the fleet I saw was none other than
the fleet of the First Born, that should have been safely bottled up in
Omean.  What a series of misfortunes and disasters!  What awful fate
hovered over me, that I should have been so terribly thwarted at every
angle of my search for my lost love!  Could it be possible that the
curse of Issus was upon me!  That there was, indeed, some malign
divinity in that hideous carcass!  I would not believe it, and,
throwing back my shoulders, I ran to the deck below to join my men in
repelling boarders from one of the thern craft that had grappled us
broadside.  In the wild lust of hand-to-hand combat my old dauntless
hopefulness returned.  And as thern after thern went down beneath my
blade, I could almost feel that we should win success in the end, even
from apparent failure.

My presence among the men so greatly inspirited them that they fell
upon the luckless whites with such terrible ferocity that within a few
moments we had turned the tables upon them and a second later as we
swarmed their own decks I had the satisfaction of seeing their
commander take the long leap from the bows of his vessel in token of
surrender and defeat.

Then I joined Kantos Kan.  He had been watching what had taken place on
the deck below, and it seemed to have given him a new thought.
Immediately he passed an order to one of his officers, and presently
the colours of the Prince of Helium broke from every point of the
flagship.  A great cheer arose from the men of our own ship, a cheer
that was taken up by every other vessel of our expedition as they in
turn broke my colours from their upper works.

Then Kantos Kan sprang his coup.  A signal legible to every sailor of
all the fleets engaged in that fierce struggle was strung aloft upon
the flagship.

"Men of Helium for the Prince of Helium against all his enemies," it
read.  Presently my colours broke from one of Zat Arras' ships.  Then
from another and another.  On some we could see fierce battles waging
between the Zodangan soldiery and the Heliumetic crews, but eventually
the colours of the Prince of Helium floated above every ship that had
followed Zat Arras upon our trail--only his flagship flew them not.

Zat Arras had brought five thousand ships.  The sky was black with the
three enormous fleets.  It was Helium against the field now, and the
fight had settled to countless individual duels.  There could be little
or no manoeuvering of fleets in that crowded, fire-split sky.

Zat Arras' flagship was close to my own.  I could see the thin features
of the man from where I stood.  His Zodangan crew was pouring broadside
after broadside into us and we were returning their fire with equal
ferocity.  Closer and closer came the two vessels until but a few yards
intervened.  Grapplers and boarders lined the contiguous rails of each.
We were preparing for the death struggle with our hated enemy.

There was but a yard between the two mighty ships as the first
grappling irons were hurled.  I rushed to the deck to be with my men as
they boarded.  Just as the vessels came together with a slight shock, I
forced my way through the lines and was the first to spring to the deck
of Zat Arras' ship.  After me poured a yelling, cheering, cursing
throng of Helium's best fighting-men.  Nothing could withstand them in
the fever of battle lust which enthralled them.

Down went the Zodangans before that surging tide of war, and as my men
cleared the lower decks I sprang to the forward deck where stood Zat
Arras.

"You are my prisoner, Zat Arras," I cried.  "Yield and you shall have
quarter."

For a moment I could not tell whether he contemplated acceding to my
demand or facing me with drawn sword.  For an instant he stood
hesitating, and then throwing down his arms he turned and rushed to the
opposite side of the deck.  Before I could overtake him he had sprung
to the rail and hurled himself headforemost into the awful depths below.

And thus came Zat Arras, Jed of Zodanga, to his end.

On and on went that strange battle.  The therns and blacks had not
combined against us.  Wherever thern ship met ship of the First Born
was a battle royal, and in this I thought I saw our salvation.
Wherever messages could be passed between us that could not be
intercepted by our enemies I passed the word that all our vessels were
to withdraw from the fight as rapidly as possible, taking a position to
the west and south of the combatants.  I also sent an air scout to the
fighting green men in the gardens below to re-embark, and to the
transports to join us.

My commanders were further instructed that when engaged with an enemy
to draw him as rapidly as possible toward a ship of his hereditary
foeman, and by careful manoeuvring to force the two to engage, thus
leaving himself free to withdraw.  This stratagem worked to
perfection, and just before the sun went down I had the satisfaction of
seeing all that was left of my once mighty fleet gathered nearly twenty
miles southwest of the still terrific battle between the blacks and
whites.

I now transferred Xodar to another battleship and sent him with all the
transports and five thousand battleships directly overhead to the
Temple of Issus.  Carthoris and I, with Kantos Kan, took the remaining
ships and headed for the entrance to Omean.

Our plan now was to attempt to make a combined assault upon Issus at
dawn of the following day.  Tars Tarkas with his green warriors and Hor
Vastus with the red men, guided by Xodar, were to land within the
garden of Issus or the surrounding plains; while Carthoris, Kantos Kan,
and I were to lead our smaller force from the sea of Omean through the
pits beneath the temple, which Carthoris knew so well.

I now learned for the first time the cause of my ten ships' retreat
from the mouth of the shaft.  It seemed that when they had come upon
the shaft the navy of the First Born were already issuing from its
mouth.  Fully twenty vessels had emerged, and though they gave battle
immediately in an effort to stem the tide that rolled from the black
pit, the odds against them were too great and they were forced to flee.

With great caution we approached the shaft, under cover of darkness.
At a distance of several miles I caused the fleet to be halted, and
from there Carthoris went ahead alone upon a one-man flier to
reconnoitre.  In perhaps half an hour he returned to report that there
was no sign of a patrol boat or of the enemy in any form, and so we
moved swiftly and noiselessly forward once more toward Omean.

At the mouth of the shaft we stopped again for a moment for all the
vessels to reach their previously appointed stations, then with the
flagship I dropped quickly into the black depths, while one by one the
other vessels followed me in quick succession.

We had decided to stake all on the chance that we would be able to
reach the temple by the subterranean way and so we left no guard of
vessels at the shaft's mouth.  Nor would it have profited us any to
have done so, for we did not have sufficient force all told to have
withstood the vast navy of the First Born had they returned to engage
us.

For the safety of our entrance upon Omean we depended largely upon the
very boldness of it, believing that it would be some little time before
the First Born on guard there would realize that it was an enemy and
not their own returning fleet that was entering the vault of the buried
sea.

And such proved to be the case.  In fact, four hundred of my fleet of
five hundred rested safely upon the bosom of Omean before the first
shot was fired.  The battle was short and hot, but there could have
been but one outcome, for the First Born in the carelessness of fancied
security had left but a handful of ancient and obsolete hulks to guard
their mighty harbour.

It was at Carthoris' suggestion that we landed our prisoners under
guard upon a couple of the larger islands, and then towed the ships of
the First Born to the shaft, where we managed to wedge a number of them
securely in the interior of the great well.  Then we turned on the
buoyance rays in the balance of them and let them rise by themselves to
further block the passage to Omean as they came into contact with the
vessels already lodged there.

We now felt that it would be some time at least before the returning
First Born could reach the surface of Omean, and that we would have
ample opportunity to make for the subterranean passages which lead to
Issus.  One of the first steps I took was to hasten personally with a
good-sized force to the island of the submarine, which I took without
resistance on the part of the small guard there.

I found the submarine in its pool, and at once placed a strong guard
upon it and the island, where I remained to wait the coming of
Carthoris and the others.

Among the prisoners was Yersted, commander of the submarine.  He
recognized me from the three trips that I had taken with him during my
captivity among the First Born.

"How does it seem," I asked him, "to have the tables turned?  To be
prisoner of your erstwhile captive?"

He smiled, a very grim smile pregnant with hidden meaning.

"It will not be for long, John Carter," he replied.  "We have been
expecting you and we are prepared."

"So it would appear," I answered, "for you were all ready to become my
prisoners with scarce a blow struck on either side."

"The fleet must have missed you," he said, "but it will return to
Omean, and then that will be a very different matter--for John Carter."

"I do not know that the fleet has missed me as yet," I said, but of
course he did not grasp my meaning, and only looked puzzled.

"Many prisoners travel to Issus in your grim craft, Yersted?" I asked.

"Very many," he assented.

"Might you remember one whom men called Dejah Thoris?"

"Well, indeed, for her great beauty, and then, too, for the fact that
she was wife to the first mortal that ever escaped from Issus through
all the countless ages of her godhood.  And the way that Issus
remembers her best as the wife of one and the mother of another who
raised their hands against the Goddess of Life Eternal."

I shuddered for fear of the cowardly revenge that I knew Issus might
have taken upon the innocent Dejah Thoris for the sacrilege of her son
and her husband.

"And where is Dejah Thoris now?" I asked, knowing that he would say the
words I most dreaded, but yet I loved her so that I could not refrain
from hearing even the worst about her fate so that it fell from the
lips of one who had seen her but recently.  It was to me as though it
brought her closer to me.

"Yesterday the monthly rites of Issus were held," replied Yersted, "and
I saw her then sitting in her accustomed place at the foot of Issus."

"What," I cried, "she is not dead, then?"

"Why, no," replied the black, "it has been no year since she gazed upon
the divine glory of the radiant face of--"

"No year?" I interrupted.

"Why, no," insisted Yersted.  "It cannot have been upward of three
hundred and seventy or eighty days."

A great light burst upon me.  How stupid I had been!  I could scarcely
retain an outward exhibition of my great joy.  Why had I forgotten the
great difference in the length of Martian and Earthly years!  The ten
Earth years I had spent upon Barsoom had encompassed but five years and
ninety-six days of Martian time, whose days are forty-one minutes
longer than ours, and whose years number six hundred and eighty-seven
days.

I am in time!  I am in time!  The words surged through my brain again
and again, until at last I must have voiced them audibly, for Yersted
shook his head.

"In time to save your Princess?" he asked, and then without waiting for
my reply, "No, John Carter, Issus will not give up her own.  She knows
that you are coming, and ere ever a vandal foot is set within the
precincts of the Temple of Issus, if such a calamity should befall,
Dejah Thoris will be put away for ever from the last faint hope of
rescue."

"You mean that she will be killed merely to thwart me?" I asked.

"Not that, other than as a last resort," he replied.  "Hast ever heard
of the Temple of the Sun?  It is there that they will put her.  It lies
far within the inner court of the Temple of Issus, a little temple that
raises a thin spire far above the spires and minarets of the great
temple that surrounds it.  Beneath it, in the ground, there lies the
main body of the temple consisting in six hundred and eighty-seven
circular chambers, one below another.  To each chamber a single
corridor leads through solid rock from the pits of Issus.

"As the entire Temple of the Sun revolves once with each revolution of
Barsoom about the sun, but once each year does the entrance to each
separate chamber come opposite the mouth of the corridor which forms
its only link to the world without.

"Here Issus puts those who displease her, but whom she does not care to
execute forthwith.  Or to punish a noble of the First Born she may
cause him to be placed within a chamber of the Temple of the Sun for a
year.  Ofttimes she imprisons an executioner with the condemned, that
death may come in a certain horrible form upon a given day, or again
but enough food is deposited in the chamber to sustain life but the
number of days that Issus has allotted for mental anguish.

"Thus will Dejah Thoris die, and her fate will be sealed by the first
alien foot that crosses the threshold of Issus."

So I was to be thwarted in the end, although I had performed the
miraculous and come within a few short moments of my divine Princess,
yet was I as far from her as when I stood upon the banks of the Hudson
forty-eight million miles away.




CHAPTER XXI

THROUGH FLOOD AND FLAME


Yersted's information convinced me that there was no time to be lost.
I must reach the Temple of Issus secretly before the forces under Tars
Tarkas assaulted at dawn.  Once within its hated walls I was positive
that I could overcome the guards of Issus and bear away my Princess,
for at my back I would have a force ample for the occasion.

No sooner had Carthoris and the others joined me than we commenced the
transportation of our men through the submerged passage to the mouth of
the gangways which lead from the submarine pool at the temple end of
the watery tunnel to the pits of Issus.

Many trips were required, but at last all stood safely together again
at the beginning of the end of our quest.  Five thousand strong we
were, all seasoned fighting-men of the most warlike race of the red men
of Barsoom.

As Carthoris alone knew the hidden ways of the tunnels we could not
divide the party and attack the temple at several points at once as
would have been most desirable, and so it was decided that he lead us
all as quickly as possible to a point near the temple's centre.

As we were about to leave the pool and enter the corridor, an officer
called my attention to the waters upon which the submarine floated.  At
first they seemed to be merely agitated as from the movement of some
great body beneath the surface, and I at once conjectured that another
submarine was rising to the surface in pursuit of us; but presently it
became apparent that the level of the waters was rising, not with
extreme rapidity, but very surely, and that soon they would overflow
the sides of the pool and submerge the floor of the chamber.

For a moment I did not fully grasp the terrible import of the slowly
rising water.  It was Carthoris who realized the full meaning of the
thing--its cause and the reason for it.

"Haste!" he cried.  "If we delay, we all are lost.  The pumps of Omean
have been stopped.  They would drown us like rats in a trap.  We must
reach the upper levels of the pits in advance of the flood or we shall
never reach them.  Come."

"Lead the way, Carthoris," I cried.  "We will follow."

At my command, the youth leaped into one of the corridors, and in
column of twos the soldiers followed him in good order, each company
entering the corridor only at the command of its dwar, or captain.

Before the last company filed from the chamber the water was ankle
deep, and that the men were nervous was quite evident.  Entirely
unaccustomed to water except in quantities sufficient for drinking and
bathing purposes the red Martians instinctively shrank from it in such
formidable depths and menacing activity.  That they were undaunted
while it swirled and eddied about their ankles, spoke well for their
bravery and their discipline.

I was the last to leave the chamber of the submarine, and as I followed
the rear of the column toward the corridor, I moved through water to my
knees.  The corridor, too, was flooded to the same depth, for its floor
was on a level with the floor of the chamber from which it led, nor was
there any perceptible rise for many yards.

The march of the troops through the corridor was as rapid as was
consistent with the number of men that moved through so narrow a
passage, but it was not ample to permit us to gain appreciably on the
pursuing tide.  As the level of the passage rose, so, too, did the
waters rise until it soon became apparent to me, who brought up the
rear, that they were gaining rapidly upon us.  I could understand the
reason for this, as with the narrowing expanse of Omean as the waters
rose toward the apex of its dome, the rapidity of its rise would
increase in inverse ratio to the ever-lessening space to be filled.

Long ere the last of the column could hope to reach the upper pits
which lay above the danger point I was convinced that the waters would
surge after us in overwhelming volume, and that fully half the
expedition would be snuffed out.

As I cast about for some means of saving as many as possible of the
doomed men, I saw a diverging corridor which seemed to rise at a steep
angle at my right.  The waters were now swirling about my waist.  The
men directly before me were quickly becoming panic-stricken.  Something
must be done at once or they would rush forward upon their fellows in a
mad stampede that would result in trampling down hundreds beneath the
flood and eventually clogging the passage beyond any hope of retreat
for those in advance.

Raising my voice to its utmost, I shouted my command to the dwars ahead
of me.

"Call back the last twenty-five utans," I shouted.  "Here seems a way
of escape.  Turn back and follow me."

My orders were obeyed by nearer thirty utans, so that some three
thousand men came about and hastened into the teeth of the flood to
reach the corridor up which I directed them.

As the first dwar passed in with his utan I cautioned him to listen
closely for my commands, and under no circumstances to venture into the
open, or leave the pits for the temple proper until I should have come
up with him, "or you know that I died before I could reach you."

The officer saluted and left me.  The men filed rapidly past me and
entered the diverging corridor which I hoped would lead to safety.  The
water rose breast high.  Men stumbled, floundered, and went down.  Many
I grasped and set upon their feet again, but alone the work was greater
than I could cope with.  Soldiers were being swept beneath the boiling
torrent, never to rise.  At length the dwar of the 10th utan took a
stand beside me.  He was a valorous soldier, Gur Tus by name, and
together we kept the now thoroughly frightened troops in the semblance
of order and rescued many that would have drowned otherwise.

Djor Kantos, son of Kantos Kan, and a padwar of the fifth utan joined
us when his utan reached the opening through which the men were
fleeing.  Thereafter not a man was lost of all the hundreds that
remained to pass from the main corridor to the branch.

As the last utan was filing past us the waters had risen until they
surged about our necks, but we clasped hands and stood our ground until
the last man had passed to the comparative safety of the new
passageway.  Here we found an immediate and steep ascent, so that
within a hundred yards we had reached a point above the waters.

For a few minutes we continued rapidly up the steep grade, which I
hoped would soon bring us quickly to the upper pits that let into the
Temple of Issus.  But I was to meet with a cruel disappointment.

Suddenly I heard a cry of "fire" far ahead, followed almost at once by
cries of terror and the loud commands of dwars and padwars who were
evidently attempting to direct their men away from some grave danger.
At last the report came back to us.  "They have fired the pits ahead."
"We are hemmed in by flames in front and flood behind." "Help, John
Carter; we are suffocating," and then there swept back upon us at the
rear a wave of dense smoke that sent us, stumbling and blinded, into a
choking retreat.

There was naught to do other than seek a new avenue of escape.  The
fire and smoke were to be feared a thousand times over the water, and
so I seized upon the first gallery which led out of and up from the
suffocating smoke that was engulfing us.

Again I stood to one side while the soldiers hastened through on the
new way.  Some two thousand must have passed at a rapid run, when the
stream ceased, but I was not sure that all had been rescued who had not
passed the point of origin of the flames, and so to assure myself that
no poor devil was left behind to die a horrible death, unsuccoured, I
ran quickly up the gallery in the direction of the flames which I could
now see burning with a dull glow far ahead.

It was hot and stifling work, but at last I reached a point where the
fire lit up the corridor sufficiently for me to see that no soldier of
Helium lay between me and the conflagration--what was in it or upon the
far side I could not know, nor could any man have passed through that
seething hell of chemicals and lived to learn.

Having satisfied my sense of duty, I turned and ran rapidly back to the
corridor through which my men had passed.  To my horror, however, I
found that my retreat in this direction had been blocked--across the
mouth of the corridor stood a massive steel grating that had evidently
been lowered from its resting-place above for the purpose of
effectually cutting off my escape.

That our principal movements were known to the First Born I could not
have doubted, in view of the attack of the fleet upon us the day
before, nor could the stopping of the pumps of Omean at the
psychological moment have been due to chance, nor the starting of a
chemical combustion within the one corridor through which we were
advancing upon the Temple of Issus been due to aught than
well-calculated design.

And now the dropping of the steel gate to pen me effectually between
fire and flood seemed to indicate that invisible eyes were upon us at
every moment.  What chance had I, then, to rescue Dejah Thoris were I
to be compelled to fight foes who never showed themselves.  A thousand
times I berated myself for being drawn into such a trap as I might have
known these pits easily could be.  Now I saw that it would have been
much better to have kept our force intact and made a concerted attack
upon the temple from the valley side, trusting to chance and our great
fighting ability to have overwhelmed the First Born and compelled the
safe delivery of Dejah Thoris to me.

The smoke from the fire was forcing me further and further back down
the corridor toward the waters which I could hear surging through the
darkness.  With my men had gone the last torch, nor was this corridor
lighted by the radiance of phosphorescent rock as were those of the
lower levels.  It was this fact that assured me that I was not far from
the upper pits which lie directly beneath the temple.

Finally I felt the lapping waters about my feet.  The smoke was thick
behind me.  My suffering was intense.  There seemed but one thing to
do, and that to choose the easier death which confronted me, and so I
moved on down the corridor until the cold waters of Omean closed about
me, and I swam on through utter blackness toward--what?

The instinct of self-preservation is strong even when one, unafraid and
in the possession of his highest reasoning faculties, knows that
death--positive and unalterable--lies just ahead.  And so I swam slowly
on, waiting for my head to touch the top of the corridor, which would
mean that I had reached the limit of my flight and the point where I
must sink for ever to an unmarked grave.

But to my surprise I ran against a blank wall before I reached a point
where the waters came to the roof of the corridor.  Could I be
mistaken?  I felt around.  No, I had come to the main corridor, and
still there was a breathing space between the surface of the water and
the rocky ceiling above.  And then I turned up the main corridor in the
direction that Carthoris and the head of the column had passed a
half-hour before.  On and on I swam, my heart growing lighter at every
stroke, for I knew that I was approaching closer and closer to the
point where there would be no chance that the waters ahead could be
deeper than they were about me.  I was positive that I must soon feel
the solid floor beneath my feet again and that once more my chance
would come to reach the Temple of Issus and the side of the fair
prisoner who languished there.

But even as hope was at its highest I felt the sudden shock of contact
as my head struck the rocks above.  The worst, then, had come to me.  I
had reached one of those rare places where a Martian tunnel dips
suddenly to a lower level.  Somewhere beyond I knew that it rose again,
but of what value was that to me, since I did not know how great the
distance that it maintained a level entirely beneath the surface of the
water!

There was but a single forlorn hope, and I took it.  Filling my lungs
with air, I dived beneath the surface and swam through the inky, icy
blackness on and on along the submerged gallery.  Time and time again I
rose with upstretched hand, only to feel the disappointing rocks close
above me.

Not for much longer would my lungs withstand the strain upon them.  I
felt that I must soon succumb, nor was there any retreating now that I
had gone this far.  I knew positively that I could never endure to
retrace my path now to the point from which I had felt the waters close
above my head.  Death stared me in the face, nor ever can I recall a
time that I so distinctly felt the icy breath from his dead lips upon
my brow.

One more frantic effort I made with my fast ebbing strength.  Weakly I
rose for the last time--my tortured lungs gasped for the breath that
would fill them with a strange and numbing element, but instead I felt
the revivifying breath of life-giving air surge through my starving
nostrils into my dying lungs.  I was saved.

A few more strokes brought me to a point where my feet touched the
floor, and soon thereafter I was above the water level entirely, and
racing like mad along the corridor searching for the first doorway that
would lead me to Issus.  If I could not have Dejah Thoris again I was
at least determined to avenge her death, nor would any life satisfy me
other than that of the fiend incarnate who was the cause of such
immeasurable suffering upon Barsoom.

Sooner than I had expected I came to what appeared to me to be a sudden
exit into the temple above.  It was at the right side of the corridor,
which ran on, probably, to other entrances to the pile above.

To me one point was as good as another.  What knew I where any of them
led!  And so without waiting to be again discovered and thwarted, I ran
quickly up the short, steep incline and pushed open the doorway at its
end.

The portal swung slowly in, and before it could be slammed against me I
sprang into the chamber beyond.  Although not yet dawn, the room was
brilliantly lighted.  Its sole occupant lay prone upon a low couch at
the further side, apparently in sleep.  From the hangings and sumptuous
furniture of the room I judged it to be a living-room of some
priestess, possibly of Issus herself.

At the thought the blood tingled through my veins.  What, indeed, if
fortune had been kind enough to place the hideous creature alone and
unguarded in my hands.  With her as hostage I could force acquiescence
to my every demand.  Cautiously I approached the recumbent figure, on
noiseless feet.  Closer and closer I came to it, but I had crossed but
little more than half the chamber when the figure stirred, and, as I
sprang, rose and faced me.

At first an expression of terror overspread the features of the woman
who confronted me--then startled incredulity--hope--thanksgiving.

My heart pounded within my breast as I advanced toward her--tears came
to my eyes--and the words that would have poured forth in a perfect
torrent choked in my throat as I opened my arms and took into them once
more the woman I loved--Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.




CHAPTER XXII

VICTORY AND DEFEAT


"John Carter, John Carter," she sobbed, with her dear head upon my
shoulder; "even now I can scarce believe the witness of my own eyes.
When the girl, Thuvia, told me that you had returned to Barsoom, I
listened, but I could not understand, for it seemed that such happiness
would be impossible for one who had suffered so in silent loneliness
for all these long years.  At last, when I realized that it was truth,
and then came to know the awful place in which I was held prisoner, I
learned to doubt that even you could reach me here.

"As the days passed, and moon after moon went by without bringing even
the faintest rumour of you, I resigned myself to my fate.  And now that
you have come, scarce can I believe it.  For an hour I have heard the
sounds of conflict within the palace.  I knew not what they meant, but
I have hoped against hope that it might be the men of Helium headed by
my Prince.

"And tell me, what of Carthoris, our son?"

"He was with me less than an hour since, Dejah Thoris," I replied.  "It
must have been he whose men you have heard battling within the
precincts of the temple.

"Where is Issus?" I asked suddenly.

Dejah Thoris shrugged her shoulders.

"She sent me under guard to this room just before the fighting began
within the temple halls.  She said that she would send for me later.
She seemed very angry and somewhat fearful.  Never have I seen her act
in so uncertain and almost terrified a manner.  Now I know that it must
have been because she had learned that John Carter, Prince of Helium,
was approaching to demand an accounting of her for the imprisonment of
his Princess."

The sounds of conflict, the clash of arms, the shouting and the
hurrying of many feet came to us from various parts of the temple.  I
knew that I was needed there, but I dared not leave Dejah Thoris, nor
dared I take her with me into the turmoil and danger of battle.

At last I bethought me of the pits from which I had just emerged.  Why
not secrete her there until I could return and fetch her away in safety
and for ever from this awful place.  I explained my plan to her.

For a moment she clung more closely to me.

"I cannot bear to be parted from you now, even for a moment, John
Carter," she said.  "I shudder at the thought of being alone again
where that terrible creature might discover me.  You do not know her.
None can imagine her ferocious cruelty who has not witnessed her daily
acts for over half a year.  It has taken me nearly all this time to
realize even the things that I have seen with my own eyes."

"I shall not leave you, then, my Princess," I replied.

She was silent for a moment, then she drew my face to hers and kissed
me.

"Go, John Carter," she said.  "Our son is there, and the soldiers of
Helium, fighting for the Princess of Helium.  Where they are you should
be.  I must not think of myself now, but of them and of my husband's
duty.  I may not stand in the way of that.  Hide me in the pits, and
go."

I led her to the door through which I had entered the chamber from
below.  There I pressed her dear form to me, and then, though it tore
my heart to do it, and filled me only with the blackest shadows of
terrible foreboding, I guided her across the threshold, kissed her once
again, and closed the door upon her.

Without hesitating longer, I hurried from the chamber in the direction
of the greatest tumult.  Scarce half a dozen chambers had I traversed
before I came upon the theatre of a fierce struggle.  The blacks were
massed at the entrance to a great chamber where they were attempting to
block the further progress of a body of red men toward the inner sacred
precincts of the temple.

Coming from within as I did, I found myself behind the blacks, and,
without waiting to even calculate their numbers or the foolhardiness of
my venture, I charged swiftly across the chamber and fell upon them
from the rear with my keen long-sword.

As I struck the first blow I cried aloud, "For Helium!" And then I
rained cut after cut upon the surprised warriors, while the reds
without took heart at the sound of my voice, and with shouts of "John
Carter!  John Carter!" redoubled their efforts so effectually that
before the blacks could recover from their temporary demoralization
their ranks were broken and the red men had burst into the chamber.

The fight within that room, had it had but a competent chronicler,
would go down in the annals of Barsoom as a historic memorial to the
grim ferocity of her warlike people.  Five hundred men fought there
that day, the black men against the red.  No man asked quarter or gave
it.  As though by common assent they fought, as though to determine
once and for all their right to live, in accordance with the law of the
survival of the fittest.

I think we all knew that upon the outcome of this battle would hinge
for ever the relative positions of these two races upon Barsoom.  It
was a battle between the old and the new, but not for once did I
question the outcome of it.  With Carthoris at my side I fought for the
red men of Barsoom and for their total emancipation from the throttling
bondage of a hideous superstition.

Back and forth across the room we surged, until the floor was ankle
deep in blood, and dead men lay so thickly there that half the time we
stood upon their bodies as we fought.  As we swung toward the great
windows which overlooked the gardens of Issus a sight met my gaze which
sent a wave of exultation over me.

"Look!" I cried.  "Men of the First Born, look!"

For an instant the fighting ceased, and with one accord every eye
turned in the direction I had indicated, and the sight they saw was one
no man of the First Born had ever imagined could be.

Across the gardens, from side to side, stood a wavering line of black
warriors, while beyond them and forcing them ever back was a great
horde of green warriors astride their mighty thoats.  And as we
watched, one, fiercer and more grimly terrible than his fellows, rode
forward from the rear, and as he came he shouted some fierce command to
his terrible legion.

It was Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and as he couched his great
forty-foot metal-shod lance we saw his warriors do likewise.  Then it
was that we interpreted his command.  Twenty yards now separated the
green men from the black line.  Another word from the great Thark, and
with a wild and terrifying battle-cry the green warriors charged.  For
a moment the black line held, but only for a moment--then the fearsome
beasts that bore equally terrible riders passed completely through it.

After them came utan upon utan of red men.  The green horde broke to
surround the temple.  The red men charged for the interior, and then we
turned to continue our interrupted battle; but our foes had vanished.

My first thought was of Dejah Thoris.  Calling to Carthoris that I had
found his mother, I started on a run toward the chamber where I had
left her, with my boy close beside me.  After us came those of our
little force who had survived the bloody conflict.

The moment I entered the room I saw that some one had been there since
I had left.  A silk lay upon the floor.  It had not been there before.
There were also a dagger and several metal ornaments strewn about as
though torn from their wearer in a struggle.  But worst of all, the
door leading to the pits where I had hidden my Princess was ajar.

With a bound I was before it, and, thrusting it open, rushed within.
Dejah Thoris had vanished.  I called her name aloud again and again,
but there was no response.  I think in that instant I hovered upon the
verge of insanity.  I do not recall what I said or did, but I know that
for an instant I was seized with the rage of a maniac.

"Issus!" I cried.  "Issus!  Where is Issus?  Search the temple for her,
but let no man harm her but John Carter.  Carthoris, where are the
apartments of Issus?"

"This way," cried the boy, and, without waiting to know that I had
heard him, he dashed off at breakneck speed, further into the bowels of
the temple.  As fast as he went, however, I was still beside him,
urging him on to greater speed.

At last we came to a great carved door, and through this Carthoris
dashed, a foot ahead of me.  Within, we came upon such a scene as I had
witnessed within the temple once before--the throne of Issus, with the
reclining slaves, and about it the ranks of soldiery.

We did not even give the men a chance to draw, so quickly were we upon
them.  With a single cut I struck down two in the front rank.  And then
by the mere weight and momentum of my body, I rushed completely through
the two remaining ranks and sprang upon the dais beside the carved
sorapus throne.

The repulsive creature, squatting there in terror, attempted to escape
me and leap into a trap behind her.  But this time I was not to be
outwitted by any such petty subterfuge.  Before she had half arisen I
had grasped her by the arm, and then, as I saw the guard starting to
make a concerted rush upon me from all sides, I whipped out my dagger
and, holding it close to that vile breast, ordered them to halt.

"Back!" I cried to them.  "Back!  The first black foot that is planted
upon this platform sends my dagger into Issus' heart."

For an instant they hesitated.  Then an officer ordered them back,
while from the outer corridor there swept into the throne room at the
heels of my little party of survivors a full thousand red men under
Kantos Kan, Hor Vastus, and Xodar.

"Where is Dejah Thoris?" I cried to the thing within my hands.

For a moment her eyes roved wildly about the scene beneath her.  I
think that it took a moment for the true condition to make any
impression upon her--she could not at first realize that the temple had
fallen before the assault of men of the outer world.  When she did,
there must have come, too, a terrible realization of what it meant to
her--the loss of power--humiliation--the exposure of the fraud and
imposture which she had for so long played upon her own people.

There was just one thing needed to complete the reality of the picture
she was seeing, and that was added by the highest noble of her
realm--the high priest of her religion--the prime minister of her
government.

"Issus, Goddess of Death, and of Life Eternal," he cried, "arise in the
might of thy righteous wrath and with one single wave of thy omnipotent
hand strike dead thy blasphemers!  Let not one escape.  Issus, thy
people depend upon thee.  Daughter of the Lesser Moon, thou only art
all-powerful.  Thou only canst save thy people.  I am done.  We await
thy will.  Strike!"

And then it was that she went mad.  A screaming, gibbering maniac
writhed in my grasp.  It bit and clawed and scratched in impotent fury.
And then it laughed a weird and terrible laughter that froze the blood.
The slave girls upon the dais shrieked and cowered away.  And the thing
jumped at them and gnashed its teeth and then spat upon them from
frothing lips.  God, but it was a horrid sight.

Finally, I shook the thing, hoping to recall it for a moment to
rationality.

"Where is Dejah Thoris?" I cried again.

The awful creature in my grasp mumbled inarticulately for a moment,
then a sudden gleam of cunning shot into those hideous, close-set eyes.

"Dejah Thoris?  Dejah Thoris?" and then that shrill, unearthly laugh
pierced our ears once more.

"Yes, Dejah Thoris--I know.  And Thuvia, and Phaidor, daughter of Matai
Shang.  They each love John Carter.  Ha-ah!  but it is droll.  Together
for a year they will meditate within the Temple of the Sun, but ere the
year is quite gone there will be no more food for them.  Ho-oh! what
divine entertainment," and she licked the froth from her cruel lips.
"There will be no more food--except each other.  Ha-ah!  Ha-ah!"

The horror of the suggestion nearly paralysed me.  To this awful fate
the creature within my power had condemned my Princess.  I trembled in
the ferocity of my rage.  As a terrier shakes a rat I shook Issus,
Goddess of Life Eternal.

"Countermand your orders!" I cried.  "Recall the condemned.  Haste, or
you die!"

"It is too late.  Ha-ah!  Ha-ah!" and then she commenced her gibbering
and shrieking again.

Almost of its own volition, my dagger flew up above that putrid heart.
But something stayed my hand, and I am now glad that it did.  It were a
terrible thing to have struck down a woman with one's own hand.  But a
fitter fate occurred to me for this false deity.

"First Born," I cried, turning to those who stood within the chamber,
"you have seen to-day the impotency of Issus--the gods are impotent.
Issus is no god.  She is a cruel and wicked old woman, who has deceived
and played upon you for ages.  Take her.  John Carter, Prince of
Helium, would not contaminate his hand with her blood," and with that I
pushed the raving beast, whom a short half-hour before a whole world
had worshipped as divine, from the platform of her throne into the
waiting clutches of her betrayed and vengeful people.

Spying Xodar among the officers of the red men, I called him to lead me
quickly to the Temple of the Sun, and, without waiting to learn what
fate the First Born would wreak upon their goddess, I rushed from the
chamber with Xodar, Carthoris, Hor Vastus, Kantos Kan, and a score of
other red nobles.

The black led us rapidly through the inner chambers of the temple,
until we stood within the central court--a great circular space paved
with a transparent marble of exquisite whiteness.  Before us rose a
golden temple wrought in the most wondrous and fanciful designs, inlaid
with diamond, ruby, sapphire, turquoise, emerald, and the thousand
nameless gems of Mars, which far transcend in loveliness and purity of
ray the most priceless stones of Earth.

"This way," cried Xodar, leading us toward the entrance to a tunnel
which opened in the courtyard beside the temple.  Just as we were on
the point of descending we heard a deep-toned roar burst from the
Temple of Issus, which we had but just quitted, and then a red man,
Djor Kantos, padwar of the fifth utan, broke from a nearby gate, crying
to us to return.

"The blacks have fired the temple," he cried.  "In a thousand places it
is burning now.  Haste to the outer gardens, or you are lost."

As he spoke we saw smoke pouring from a dozen windows looking out upon
the courtyard of the Temple of the Sun, and far above the highest
minaret of Issus hung an ever-growing pall of smoke.

"Go back!  Go back!" I cried to those who had accompanied me.  "The
way!  Xodar; point the way and leave me.  I shall reach my Princess
yet."

"Follow me, John Carter," replied Xodar, and without waiting for my
reply he dashed down into the tunnel at our feet.  At his heels I ran
down through a half-dozen tiers of galleries, until at last he led me
along a level floor at the end of which I discerned a lighted chamber.

Massive bars blocked our further progress, but beyond I saw her--my
incomparable Princess, and with her were Thuvia and Phaidor.  When she
saw me she rushed toward the bars that separated us.  Already the
chamber had turned upon its slow way so far that but a portion of the
opening in the temple wall was opposite the barred end of the corridor.
Slowly the interval was closing.  In a short time there would be but a
tiny crack, and then even that would be closed, and for a long
Barsoomian year the chamber would slowly revolve until once more for a
brief day the aperture in its wall would pass the corridor's end.

But in the meantime what horrible things would go on within that
chamber!

"Xodar!" I cried.  "Can no power stop this awful revolving thing?  Is
there none who holds the secret of these terrible bars?"

"None, I fear, whom we could fetch in time, though I shall go and make
the attempt.  Wait for me here."

After he had left I stood and talked with Dejah Thoris, and she
stretched her dear hand through those cruel bars that I might hold it
until the last moment.

Thuvia and Phaidor came close also, but when Thuvia saw that we would
be alone she withdrew to the further side of the chamber.  Not so the
daughter of Matai Shang.

"John Carter," she said, "this be the last time that you shall see any
of us.  Tell me that you love me, that I may die happy."

"I love only the Princess of Helium," I replied quietly.  "I am sorry,
Phaidor, but it is as I have told you from the beginning."

She bit her lip and turned away, but not before I saw the black and
ugly scowl she turned upon Dejah Thoris.  Thereafter she stood a little
way apart, but not so far as I should have desired, for I had many
little confidences to impart to my long-lost love.

For a few minutes we stood thus talking in low tones.  Ever smaller and
smaller grew the opening.  In a short time now it would be too small
even to permit the slender form of my Princess to pass.  Oh, why did
not Xodar haste.  Above we could hear the faint echoes of a great
tumult.  It was the multitude of black and red and green men fighting
their way through the fire from the burning Temple of Issus.

A draught from above brought the fumes of smoke to our nostrils.  As we
stood waiting for Xodar the smoke became thicker and thicker.
Presently we heard shouting at the far end of the corridor, and
hurrying feet.

"Come back, John Carter, come back!" cried a voice, "even the pits are
burning."

In a moment a dozen men broke through the now blinding smoke to my
side.  There was Carthoris, and Kantos Kan, and Hor Vastus, and Xodar,
with a few more who had followed me to the temple court.

"There is no hope, John Carter," cried Xodar.  "The keeper of the keys
is dead and his keys are not upon his carcass.  Our only hope is to
quench this conflagration and trust to fate that a year will find your
Princess alive and well.  I have brought sufficient food to last them.
When this crack closes no smoke can reach them, and if we hasten to
extinguish the flames I believe they will be safe."

"Go, then, yourself and take these others with you," I replied.  "I
shall remain here beside my Princess until a merciful death releases me
from my anguish.  I care not to live."

As I spoke Xodar had been tossing a great number of tiny cans within
the prison cell.  The remaining crack was not over an inch in width a
moment later.  Dejah Thoris stood as close to it as she could,
whispering words of hope and courage to me, and urging me to save
myself.

Suddenly beyond her I saw the beautiful face of Phaidor contorted into
an expression of malign hatred.  As my eyes met hers she spoke.

"Think not, John Carter, that you may so lightly cast aside the love of
Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang.  Nor ever hope to hold thy Dejah
Thoris in thy arms again.  Wait you the long, long year; but know that
when the waiting is over it shall be Phaidor's arms which shall welcome
you--not those of the Princess of Helium.  Behold, she dies!"

And as she finished speaking I saw her raise a dagger on high, and then
I saw another figure.  It was Thuvia's.  As the dagger fell toward the
unprotected breast of my love, Thuvia was almost between them.  A
blinding gust of smoke blotted out the tragedy within that fearsome
cell--a shriek rang out, a single shriek, as the dagger fell.

The smoke cleared away, but we stood gazing upon a blank wall.  The
last crevice had closed, and for a long year that hideous chamber would
retain its secret from the eyes of men.

They urged me to leave.

"In a moment it will be too late," cried Xodar.  "There is, in fact,
but a bare chance that we can come through to the outer garden alive
even now.  I have ordered the pumps started, and in five minutes the
pits will be flooded.  If we would not drown like rats in a trap we
must hasten above and make a dash for safety through the burning
temple."

"Go," I urged them.  "Let me die here beside my Princess--there is no
hope or happiness elsewhere for me.  When they carry her dear body from
that terrible place a year hence let them find the body of her lord
awaiting her."

Of what happened after that I have only a confused recollection.  It
seems as though I struggled with many men, and then that I was picked
bodily from the ground and borne away.  I do not know.  I have never
asked, nor has any other who was there that day intruded on my sorrow
or recalled to my mind the occurrences which they know could but at
best reopen the terrible wound within my heart.

Ah!  If I could but know one thing, what a burden of suspense would be
lifted from my shoulders!  But whether the assassin's dagger reached
one fair bosom or another, only time will divulge.









End of Project Gutenberg's The Gods of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GODS OF MARS ***