The warlord of Mars
bituminous coal than the priceless Barsoomian gem which in reality it
is.
“There had been but three others cut from the mother stone,” he said,
“which is in my possession. These three are worn by nobles high in my
confidence, all of whom have been sent on secret missions to the court
of Salensus Oll.
“Should you come within fifty feet of any of these three you will feel
a rapid, pricking sensation in the finger upon which you wear this
ring. He who wears one of its mates will experience the same feeling;
it is caused by an electrical action that takes place the moment two of
these gems cut from the same mother stone come within the radius of
each other’s power. By it you will know that a friend is at hand upon
whom you may depend for assistance in time of need.
“Should another wearer of one of these gems call upon you for aid do
not deny him, and should death threaten you swallow the ring rather
than let it fall into the hands of enemies. Guard it with your life,
John Carter, for some day it may mean more than life to you.”
With this parting admonition our good friend turned back toward
Marentina, and we set our faces in the direction of the city of Kadabra
and the court of Salensus Oll, Jeddak of Jeddaks.
That very evening we came within sight of the walled and glass-roofed
city of Kadabra. It lies in a low depression near the pole, surrounded
by rocky, snow-clad hills. From the pass through which we entered the
valley we had a splendid view of this great city of the north. Its
crystal domes sparkled in the brilliant sunlight gleaming above the
frost-covered outer wall that circles the entire one hundred miles of
its circumference.
At regular intervals great gates give entrance to the city; but even at
the distance from which we looked upon the massive pile we could see
that all were closed, and, in accordance with Talu’s suggestion, we
deferred attempting to enter the city until the following morning.
As he had said, we found numerous caves in the hillsides about us, and
into one of these we crept for the night. Our warm orluk skins kept us
perfectly comfortable, and it was only after a most refreshing sleep
that we awoke shortly after daylight on the following morning.
Already the city was astir, and from several of the gates we saw
parties of yellow men emerging. Following closely each detail of the
instructions given us by our good friend of Marentina, we remained
concealed for several hours until one party of some half dozen warriors
had passed along the trail below our hiding place and entered the hills
by way of the pass along which we had come the previous evening.
After giving them time to get well out of sight of our cave, Thuvan
Dihn and I crept out and followed them, overtaking them when they were
well into the hills.
When we had come almost to them I called aloud to their leader, when
the whole party halted and turned toward us. The crucial test had come.
Could we but deceive these men the rest would be comparatively easy.
“Kaor!” I cried as I came closer to them.
“Kaor!” responded the officer in charge of the party.
“We be from Illall,” I continued, giving the name of the most remote
city of Okar, which has little or no intercourse with Kadabra. “Only
yesterday we arrived, and this morning the captain of the gate told us
that you were setting out to hunt orluks, which is a sport we do not
find in our own neighborhood. We have hastened after you to pray that
you allow us to accompany you.”
The officer was entirely deceived, and graciously permitted us to go
with them for the day. The chance guess that they were bound upon an
orluk hunt proved correct, and Talu had said that the chances were ten
to one that such would be the mission of any party leaving Kadabra by
the pass through which we entered the valley, since that way leads
directly to the vast plains frequented by this elephantine beast of
prey.
In so far as the hunt was concerned, the day was a failure, for we did
not see a single orluk; but this proved more than fortunate for us,
since the yellow men were so chagrined by their misfortune that they
would not enter the city by the same gate by which they had left it in
the morning, as it seemed that they had made great boasts to the
captain of that gate about their skill at this dangerous sport.
We, therefore, approached Kadabra at a point several miles from that at
which the party had quitted it in the morning, and so were relieved of
the danger of embarrassing questions and explanations on the part of
the gate captain, whom we had said had directed us to this particular
hunting party.
We had come quite close to the city when my attention was attracted
toward a tall, black shaft that reared its head several hundred feet
into the air from what appeared to be a tangled mass of junk or
wreckage, now partially snow-covered.
I did not dare venture an inquiry for fear of arousing suspicion by
evident ignorance of something which as a yellow man I should have
known; but before we reached the city gate I was to learn the purpose
of that grim shaft and the meaning of the mighty accumulation beneath
it.
We had come almost to the gate when one of the party called to his
fellows, at the same time pointing toward the distant southern horizon.
Following the direction he indicated, my eyes descried the hull of a
large flier approaching rapidly from above the crest of the encircling
hills.
“Still other fools who would solve the mysteries of the forbidden
north,” said the officer, half to himself. “Will they never cease their
fatal curiosity?”
“Let us hope not,” answered one of the warriors, “for then what should
we do for slaves and sport?”
“True; but what stupid beasts they are to continue to come to a region
from whence none of them ever has returned.”
“Let us tarry and watch the end of this one,” suggested one of the men.
The officer looked toward the city.
“The watch has seen him,” he said; “we may remain, for we may be
needed.”
I looked toward the city and saw several hundred warriors issuing from
the nearest gate. They moved leisurely, as though there were no need
for haste—nor was there, as I was presently to learn.
Then I turned my eyes once more toward the flier. She was moving
rapidly toward the city, and when she had come close enough I was
surprised to see that her propellers were idle.
Straight for that grim shaft she bore. At the last minute I saw the
great blades move to reverse her, yet on she came as though drawn by
some mighty, irresistible power.
Intense excitement prevailed upon her deck, where men were running
hither and thither, manning the guns and preparing to launch the small,
one-man fliers, a fleet of which is part of the equipment of every
Martian war vessel. Closer and closer to the black shaft the ship sped.
In another instant she must strike, and then I saw the familiar signal
flown that sends the lesser boats in a great flock from the deck of the
mother ship.
Instantly a hundred tiny fliers rose from her deck, like a swarm of
huge dragon flies; but scarcely were they clear of the battleship than
the nose of each turned toward the shaft, and they, too, rushed on at
frightful speed toward the same now seemingly inevitable end that
menaced the larger vessel.
A moment later the collision came. Men were hurled in every direction
from the ship’s deck, while she, bent and crumpled, took the last, long
plunge to the scrap-heap at the shaft’s base.
With her fell a shower of her own tiny fliers, for each of them had
come in violent collision with the solid shaft.
I noticed that the wrecked fliers scraped down the shaft’s side, and
that their fall was not as rapid as might have been expected; and then
suddenly the secret of the shaft burst upon me, and with it an
explanation of the cause that prevented a flier that passed too far
across the ice-barrier ever returning.
The shaft was a mighty magnet, and when once a vessel came within the
radius of its powerful attraction for the aluminum steel that enters so
largely into the construction of all Barsoomian craft, no power on
earth could prevent such an end as we had just witnessed.
I afterward learned that the shaft rests directly over the magnetic
pole of Mars, but whether this adds in any way to its incalculable
power of attraction I do not know. I am a fighting man, not a
scientist.
Here, at last, was an explanation of the long absence of Tardos Mors
and Mors Kajak. These valiant and intrepid warriors had dared the
mysteries and dangers of the frozen north to search for Carthoris,
whose long absence had bowed in grief the head of his beautiful mother,
Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.
The moment that the last of the fliers came to rest at the base of the
shaft the black-bearded, yellow warriors swarmed over the mass of
wreckage upon which they lay, making prisoners of those who were
uninjured and occasionally despatching with a sword-thrust one of the
wounded who seemed prone to resent their taunts and insults.
A few of the uninjured red men battled bravely against their cruel
foes, but for the most part they seemed too overwhelmed by the horror
of the catastrophe that had befallen them to do more than submit
supinely to the golden chains with which they were manacled.
When the last of the prisoners had been confined, the party returned to
the city, at the gate of which we met a pack of fierce, gold-collared
apts, each of which marched between two warriors, who held them with
strong chains of the same metal as their collars.
Just beyond the gate the attendants loosened the whole terrible herd,
and as they bounded off toward the grim, black shaft I did not need to
ask to know their mission. Had there not been those within the cruel
city of Kadabra who needed succor far worse than the poor unfortunate
dead and dying out there in the cold upon the bent and broken carcasses
of a thousand fliers I could not have restrained my desire to hasten
back and do battle with those horrid creatures that had been despatched
to rend and devour them.
As it was I could but follow the yellow warriors, with bowed head, and
give thanks for the chance that had given Thuvan Dihn and me such easy
ingress to the capital of Salensus Oll.
Once within the gates, we had no difficulty in eluding our friends of
the morning, and presently found ourselves in a Martian hostelry.
IN DURANCE
The public houses of Barsoom, I have found, vary but little. There is
no privacy for other than married couples.
Men without their wives are escorted to a large chamber, the floor of
which is usually of white marble or heavy glass, kept scrupulously
clean. Here are many small, raised platforms for the guest’s sleeping
silks and furs, and if he have none of his own clean, fresh ones are
furnished at a nominal charge.
Once a man’s belongings have been deposited upon one of these platforms
he is a guest of the house, and that platform his own until he leaves.
No one will disturb or molest his belongings, as there are no thieves
upon Mars.
As assassination is the one thing to be feared, the proprietors of the
hostelries furnish armed guards, who pace back and forth through the
sleeping-rooms day and night. The number of guards and gorgeousness of
their trappings quite usually denote the status of the hotel.
No meals are served in these houses, but generally a public eating
place adjoins them. Baths are connected with the sleeping chambers, and
each guest is required to bathe daily or depart from the hotel.
Usually on a second or third floor there is a large sleeping-room for
single women guests, but its appointments do not vary materially from
the chamber occupied by men. The guards who watch the women remain in