A princess of Mars
They came quite close to me, rubbing their muzzles against my body and
nosing for the bits of food it was always my practice to reward them
with. Opening the gates I ordered the two great beasts to pass out, and
then slipping quietly after them I closed the portals behind me.
I did not saddle or mount the animals there, but instead walked quietly
in the shadows of the buildings toward an unfrequented avenue which led
toward the point I had arranged to meet Dejah Thoris and Sola. With the
noiselessness of disembodied spirits we moved stealthily along the
deserted streets, but not until we were within sight of the plain
beyond the city did I commence to breathe freely. I was sure that Sola
and Dejah Thoris would find no difficulty in reaching our rendezvous
undetected, but with my great thoats I was not so sure for myself, as
it was quite unusual for warriors to leave the city after dark; in fact
there was no place for them to go within any but a long ride.
I reached the appointed meeting place safely, but as Dejah Thoris and
Sola were not there I led my animals into the entrance hall of one of
the large buildings. Presuming that one of the other women of the same
household may have come in to speak to Sola, and so delayed their
departure, I did not feel any undue apprehension until nearly an hour
had passed without a sign of them, and by the time another half hour
had crawled away I was becoming filled with grave anxiety. Then there
broke upon the stillness of the night the sound of an approaching
party, which, from the noise, I knew could be no fugitives creeping
stealthily toward liberty. Soon the party was near me, and from the
black shadows of my entranceway I perceived a score of mounted
warriors, who, in passing, dropped a dozen words that fetched my heart
clean into the top of my head.
“He would likely have arranged to meet them just without the city, and
so—” I heard no more, they had passed on; but it was enough. Our plan
had been discovered, and the chances for escape from now on to the
fearful end would be small indeed. My one hope now was to return
undetected to the quarters of Dejah Thoris and learn what fate had
overtaken her, but how to do it with these great monstrous thoats upon
my hands, now that the city probably was aroused by the knowledge of my
escape was a problem of no mean proportions.
Suddenly an idea occurred to me, and acting on my knowledge of the
construction of the buildings of these ancient Martian cities with a
hollow court within the center of each square, I groped my way blindly
through the dark chambers, calling the great thoats after me. They had
difficulty in negotiating some of the doorways, but as the buildings
fronting the city’s principal exposures were all designed upon a
magnificent scale, they were able to wriggle through without sticking
fast; and thus we finally made the inner court where I found, as I had
expected, the usual carpet of moss-like vegetation which would provide
their food and drink until I could return them to their own enclosure.
That they would be as quiet and contented here as elsewhere I was
confident, nor was there but the remotest possibility that they would
be discovered, as the green men had no great desire to enter these
outlying buildings, which were frequented by the only thing, I believe,
which caused them the sensation of fear—the great white apes of
Barsoom.
Removing the saddle trappings, I hid them just within the rear doorway
of the building through which we had entered the court, and, turning
the beasts loose, quickly made my way across the court to the rear of
the buildings upon the further side, and thence to the avenue beyond.
Waiting in the doorway of the building until I was assured that no one
was approaching, I hurried across to the opposite side and through the
first doorway to the court beyond; thus, crossing through court after
court with only the slight chance of detection which the necessary
crossing of the avenues entailed, I made my way in safety to the
courtyard in the rear of Dejah Thoris’ quarters.
Here, of course, I found the beasts of the warriors who quartered in
the adjacent buildings, and the warriors themselves I might expect to
meet within if I entered; but, fortunately for me, I had another and
safer method of reaching the upper story where Dejah Thoris should be
found, and, after first determining as nearly as possible which of the
buildings she occupied, for I had never observed them before from the
court side, I took advantage of my relatively great strength and
agility and sprang upward until I grasped the sill of a second-story
window which I thought to be in the rear of her apartment. Drawing
myself inside the room I moved stealthily toward the front of the
building, and not until I had quite reached the doorway of her room was
I made aware by voices that it was occupied.
I did not rush headlong in, but listened without to assure myself that
it was Dejah Thoris and that it was safe to venture within. It was well
indeed that I took this precaution, for the conversation I heard was in
the low gutturals of men, and the words which finally came to me proved
a most timely warning. The speaker was a chieftain and he was giving
orders to four of his warriors.
“And when he returns to this chamber,” he was saying, “as he surely
will when he finds she does not meet him at the city’s edge, you four
are to spring upon him and disarm him. It will require the combined
strength of all of you to do it if the reports they bring back from
Korad are correct. When you have him fast bound bear him to the vaults
beneath the jeddak’s quarters and chain him securely where he may be
found when Tal Hajus wishes him. Allow him to speak with none, nor
permit any other to enter this apartment before he comes. There will be
no danger of the girl returning, for by this time she is safe in the
arms of Tal Hajus, and may all her ancestors have pity upon her, for
Tal Hajus will have none; the great Sarkoja has done a noble night’s
work. I go, and if you fail to capture him when he comes, I commend
your carcasses to the cold bosom of Iss.”
CHAPTER XVII
A COSTLY RECAPTURE
As the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment by the door
where I was standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard
enough to fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned
to the courtyard by the way I had come. My plan of action was formed
upon the instant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenue upon
the opposite side I soon stood within the courtyard of Tal Hajus.
The brilliantly lighted apartments of the first floor told me where
first to seek, and advancing to the windows I peered within. I soon
discovered that my approach was not to be the easy thing I had hoped,
for the rear rooms bordering the court were filled with warriors and
women. I then glanced up at the stories above, discovering that the
third was apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entrance to
the building from that point. It was the work of but a moment for me to
reach the windows above, and soon I had drawn myself within the
sheltering shadows of the unlighted third floor.
Fortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping
noiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovered a light in the
apartments ahead of me. Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I
discovered that it was but an opening upon an immense inner chamber
which towered from the first floor, two stories below me, to the
dome-like roof of the building, high above my head. The floor of this
great circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors and women,
and at one end was a great raised platform upon which squatted the most
hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had all the cold, hard,
cruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and
debased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for
many years. There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon his bestial
countenance, while his enormous bulk spread itself out upon the
platform where he squatted like some huge devil fish, his six limbs
accentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling manner.
But the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah Thoris
and Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of him as he
let his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her beautiful
figure. She was speaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor could
I make out the low grumbling of his reply. She stood there erect before
him, her head high held, and even at the distance I was from them I
could read the scorn and disgust upon her face as she let her haughty
glance rest without sign of fear upon him. She was indeed the proud
daughter of a thousand jeddaks, every inch of her dear, precious little
body; so small, so frail beside the towering warriors around her, but
in her majesty dwarfing them into insignificance; she was the mightiest
figure among them and I verily believe that they felt it.
Presently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and that
the prisoners be left alone before him. Slowly the chieftains, the
warriors and the women melted away into the shadows of the surrounding
chambers, and Dejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before the jeddak of
the Tharks.
One chieftain alone had hesitated before departing; I saw him standing
in the shadows of a mighty column, his fingers nervously toying with
the hilt of his great-sword and his cruel eyes bent in implacable
hatred upon Tal Hajus. It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his
thoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing upon
his face. He was thinking of that other woman who, forty years ago, had
stood before this beast, and could I have spoken a word into his ear at
that moment the reign of Tal Hajus would have been over; but finally he
also strode from the room, not knowing that he left his own daughter at
the mercy of the creature he most loathed.
Tal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating his intentions,
hurried to the winding runway which led to the floors below. No one was
near to intercept me, and I reached the main floor of the chamber
unobserved, taking my station in the shadow of the same column that
Tars Tarkas had but just deserted. As I reached the floor Tal Hajus was
speaking.
“Princess of Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom from your people
would I but return you to them unharmed, but a thousand times rather
would I watch that beautiful face writhe in the agony of torture; it
shall be long drawn out, that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were
all too short to show the love I harbor for your race. The terrors of
your death shall haunt the slumbers of the red men through all the ages
to come; they will shudder in the shadows of the night as their fathers
tell them of the awful vengeance of the green men; of the power and
might and hate and cruelty of Tal Hajus. But before the torture you
shall be mine for one short hour, and word of that too shall go forth
to Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your grandfather, that he may grovel
upon the ground in the agony of his sorrow. Tomorrow the torture will
commence; tonight thou art Tal Hajus’; come!”
He sprang down from the platform and grasped her roughly by the arm,
but scarcely had he touched her than I leaped between them. My
short-sword, sharp and gleaming was in my right hand; I could have
plunged it into his putrid heart before he realized that I was upon
him; but as I raised my arm to strike I thought of Tars Tarkas, and,
with all my rage, with all my hatred, I could not rob him of that sweet
moment for which he had lived and hoped all these long, weary years,
and so, instead, I swung my good right fist full upon the point of his