The Chessmen of Mars
"Well, hoary one!" he cried. "What brings you out of your beloved and
stinking burrow again this day. We thought that the sight of the
multitude of living men at the games would drive you back to your
corpses as quickly as you could go."
The cackling laugh of I-Gos acknowledged the royal sally. "Ey, ey,
O-Tar," squeaked the ancient one, "I-Gos goes out not upon pleasure
bound; but when one does ruthlessly desecrate the dead of I-Gos,
vengeance must be had!"
"You refer to the act of the slave Turan?" demanded O-Tar.
"Turan, yes, and the slave Tara, who slipped beneath my hide a
murderous blade. Another fraction of an inch, O-Tar, and I-Gos' ancient
and wrinkled covering were even now in some apprentice tanner's hands,
ey, ey!"
"But they have again eluded us," cried O-Tar. "Even in the palace of
the great jeddak twice have they escaped the stupid knaves I call The
Jeddak's Guard." O-Tar had risen and was angrily emphasizing his words
with heavy blows upon the table, dealt with a golden goblet.
"Ey, O-Tar, they elude thy guard but not the wise old calot, I-Gos."
"What mean you? Speak!" commanded O-Tar.
"I know where they are hid," said the ancient taxidermist. "In the dust
of unused corridors their feet have betrayed them."
"You followed them? You have seen them?" demanded the jeddak.
"I followed them and I heard them speaking beyond a closed door,"
replied I-Gos; "but I did not see them."
"Where is that door?" cried O-Tar. "We will send at once and fetch
them," he looked about the table as though to decide to whom he would
entrust this duty. A dozen warrior chiefs arose and laid their hands
upon their swords.
"To the chambers of O-Mai the Cruel I traced them," squeaked I-Gos.
"There you will find them where the moaning Corphals pursue the
shrieking ghost of O-Mai; ey!" and he turned his eyes from O-Tar toward
the warriors who had arisen, only to discover that, to a man, they were
hurriedly resuming their seats.
The cackling laughter of I-Gos broke derisively the hush that had
fallen on the room. The warriors looked sheepishly at the food upon
their plates of gold. O-Tar snapped his fingers impatiently.
"Be there only cravens among the chiefs of Manator?" he cried.
"Repeatedly have these presumptuous slaves flouted the majesty of your
jeddak. Must I command one to go and fetch them?"
Slowly a chief arose and two others followed his example, though with
ill-concealed reluctance. "All, then, are not cowards," commented
O-Tar. "The duty is distasteful. Therefore all three of you shall go,
taking as many warriors as you wish."
"But do not ask for volunteers," interrupted I-Gos, "or you will go
alone."
The three chiefs turned and left the banquet hall, walking slowly like
doomed men to their fate.
Gahan and Tara remained in the chamber to which Tasor had led them, the
man brushing away the dust from a deep and comfortable bench where they
might rest in comparative comfort. He had found the ancient sleeping
silks and furs too far gone to be of any service, crumbling to powder
at a touch, thus removing any chance of making a comfortable bed for
the girl, and so the two sat together, talking in low tones, of the
adventures through which they already had passed and speculating upon
the future; planning means of escape and hoping Tasor would not be long
gone. They spoke of many things--of Hastor, and Helium, and Ptarth, and
finally the conversation reminded Tara of Gathol.
"You have served there?" she asked.
"Yes," replied Turan.
"I met Gahan the Jed of Gathol at my father's palace," she said, "the
very day before the storm snatched me from Helium--he was a
presumptuous fellow, magnificently trapped in platinum and diamonds.
Never in my life saw I so gorgeous a harness as his, and you must well
know, Turan, that the splendor of all Barsoom passes through the court
at Helium; but in my mind I could not see so resplendent a creature
drawing that jeweled sword in mortal combat. I fear me that the Jed of
Gathol, though a pretty picture of a man, is little else."
In the dim light Tara did not perceive the wry expression upon the
half-averted face of her companion.
"You thought little then of the Jed of Gathol?" he asked.
"Then or now," she replied, and with a little laugh; "how it would
pique his vanity to know, if he might, that a poor panthan had won a
higher place in the regard of Tara of Helium," and she laid her fingers
gently upon his knee.
He seized the fingers in his and carried them to his lips. "O, Tara of
Helium," he cried. "Think you that I am a man of stone?" One arm
slipped about her shoulders and drew the yielding body toward him.
"May my first ancestor forgive me my weakness," she cried, as her arms
stole about his neck and she raised her panting lips to his. For long
they clung there in love's first kiss and then she pushed him away,
gently. "I love you, Turan," she half sobbed; "I love you so! It is my
only poor excuse for having done this wrong to Djor Kantos, whom now I
know I never loved, who knew not the meaning of love. And if you love
me as you say, Turan, your love must protect me from greater dishonor,
for I am but as clay in your hands."
Again he crushed her to him and then as suddenly released her, and
rising, strode rapidly to and fro across the chamber as though he
endeavored by violent exercise to master and subdue some evil spirit
that had laid hold upon him. Ringing through his brain and heart and
soul like some joyous paean were those words that had so altered the
world for Gahan of Gathol: "I love you, Turan; I love you so!" And it
had come so suddenly. He had thought that she felt for him only
gratitude for his loyalty and then, in an instant, her barriers were
all down, she was no longer a princess; but instead a--his reflections
were interrupted by a sound from beyond the closed door. His sandals of
zitidar hide had given forth no sound upon the marble floor he strode,
and as his rapid pacing carried him past the entrance to the chamber
there came faintly from the distance of the long corridor the sound of
metal on metal--the unmistakable herald of the approach of armed men.
For a moment Gahan listened intently, close to the door, until there
could be no doubt but that a party of warriors was approaching. From
what Tasor had told him he guessed correctly that they would be coming
to this portion of the palace but for a single purpose--to search for
Tara and himself--and it behooved him therefore to seek immediate means
for eluding them. The chamber in which they were had other doorways
beside that at which they had entered, and to one of these he must look
for some safer hiding place. Crossing to Tara he acquainted her with
his suspicion, leading her to one of the doors which they found
unsecured. Beyond it lay a dimly-lighted chamber at the threshold of
which they halted in consternation, drawing back quickly into the
chamber they had just quitted, for their first glance revealed four
warriors seated around a jetan board.
That their entrance had not been noted was attributed by Gahan to the
absorption of the two players and their friends in the game. Quietly
closing the door the fugitives moved silently to the next, which they
found locked. There was now but another door which they had not tried,
and this they approached quickly as they knew that the searching party
must be close to the chamber. To their chagrin they found this avenue
of escape barred.
Now indeed were they in a sorry plight, for should the searchers have
information leading them to this room they were lost. Again leading
Tara to the door behind which were the jetan players Gahan drew his
sword and waited, listening. The sound of the party in the corridor
came distinctly to their ears--they must be quite close, and doubtless
they were coming in force. Beyond the door were but four warriors who
might be readily surprised. There could, then, be but one choice and
acting upon it Gahan quietly opened the door again, stepped through
into the adjoining chamber, Tara's hand in his, and closed the door
behind them. The four at the jetan board evidently failed to hear them.
One player had either just made or was contemplating a move, for his
fingers grasped a piece that still rested upon the board. The other
three were watching his move. For an instant Gahan looked at them,
playing jetan there in the dim light of this forgotten and forbidden
chamber, and then a slow smile of understanding lighted his face.
"Come!" he said to Tara. "We have nothing to fear from these. For more
than five thousand years they have sat thus, a monument to the
handiwork of some ancient taxidermist."
As they approached more closely they saw that the lifelike figures were
coated with dust, but that otherwise the skin was in as fine a state of
preservation as the most recent of I-Gos' groups, and then they heard
the door of the chamber they had quitted open and knew that the
searchers were close upon them. Across the room they saw the opening of
what appeared to be a corridor and which investigation proved to be a
short passageway, terminating in a chamber in the center of which was
an ornate sleeping dais. This room, like the others, was but poorly
lighted, time having dimmed the radiance of its bulbs and coated them
with dust. A glance showed that it was hung with heavy goods and
contained considerable massive furniture in addition to the sleeping
platform, a second glance at which revealed what appeared to be the
form of a man lying partially on the floor and partially on the dais.
No doorways were visible other than that at which they had entered,
though both knew that others might be concealed by the hangings.
Gahan, his curiosity aroused by the legends surrounding this portion of
the palace, crossed to the dais to examine the figure that apparently
had fallen from it, to find the dried and shrivelled corpse of a man
lying upon his back on the floor with arms outstretched and fingers
stiffly outspread. One of his feet was doubled partially beneath him,
while the other was still entangled in the sleeping silks and furs upon
the dais. After five thousand years the expression of the withered face
and the eyeless sockets retained the aspect of horrid fear to such an
extent, that Gahan knew that he was looking upon the body of O-Mai the
Cruel.
Suddenly Tara, who stood close beside him, clutched his arm and pointed
toward a far corner of the room. Gahan looked and looking felt the
hairs upon his neck rising. He threw his left arm about the girl and
with bared sword stood between her and the hangings that they watched,
and then slowly Gahan of Gathol backed away, for in this grim and
somber chamber, which no human foot had trod for five thousand years
and to which no breath of wind might enter, the heavy hangings in the
far corner had moved. Not gently had they moved as a draught might have
moved them had there been a draught, but suddenly they had bulged out
as though pushed against from behind. To the opposite corner backed
Gahan until they stood with their backs against the hangings there, and
then hearing the approach of their pursuers across the chamber beyond
Gahan pushed Tara through the hangings and, following her, kept open
with his left hand, which he had disengaged from the girl's grasp, a
tiny opening through which he could view the apartment and the doorway
upon the opposite side through which the pursuers would enter, if they
came this far.
Behind the hangings there was a space of about three feet in width
between them and the wall, making a passageway entirely around the
room, broken only by the single entrance opposite them; this being a
common arrangement especially in the sleeping apartments of the rich