The warlord of Mars
Then he was upon me, reaching for my throat, and precisely as I had
done that day in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus I did here in the
garden of the palace of Salensus Oll. I ducked beneath his outstretched
arms, and as he lunged past me I planted a terrific right upon the side
of his jaw.
Just as he had done upon that other occasion he did now. Like a top he
spun round, his knees gave beneath him, and he crumpled to the ground
at my feet. Then I heard a voice behind me.
It was the deep voice of authority that marks the ruler of men, and
when I turned to face the resplendent figure of a giant yellow man I
did not need to ask to know that it was Salensus Oll. At his right
stood Matai Shang, and behind them a score of guardsmen.
“Who are you,” he cried, “and what means this intrusion within the
precincts of the women’s garden? I do not recall your face. How came
you here?”
But for his last words I should have forgotten my disguise entirely and
told him outright that I was John Carter, Prince of Helium; but his
question recalled me to myself. I pointed to the dislodged bars of the
window above.
“I am an aspirant to membership in the palace guard,” I said, “and from
yonder window in the tower where I was confined awaiting the final test
for fitness I saw this brute attack the—this woman. I could not stand
idly by, O Jeddak, and see this thing done within the very palace
grounds, and yet feel that I was fit to serve and guard your royal
person.”
I had evidently made an impression upon the ruler of Okar by my fair
words, and when he had turned to Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of Ptarth, and
both had corroborated my statements it began to look pretty dark for
Thurid.
I saw the ugly gleam in Matai Shang’s evil eyes as Dejah Thoris
narrated all that had passed between Thurid and herself, and when she
came to that part which dealt with my interference with the dator of
the First Born her gratitude was quite apparent, though I could see by
her eyes that something puzzled her strangely.
I did not wonder at her attitude toward me while others were present;
but that she should have denied me while she and Thuvia were the only
occupants of the garden still cut me sorely.
As the examination proceeded I cast a glance at Thurid and startled him
looking wide-eyed and wonderingly at me, and then of a sudden he
laughed full in my face.
A moment later Salensus Oll turned toward the black.
“What have you to say in explanation of these charges?” he asked in a
deep and terrible voice. “Dare you aspire to one whom the Father of
Therns has chosen—one who might even be a fit mate for the Jeddak of
Jeddaks himself?”
And then the black-bearded tyrant turned and cast a sudden greedy look
upon Dejah Thoris, as though with the words a new thought and a new
desire had sprung up within his mind and breast.
Thurid had been about to reply and, with a malicious grin upon his
face, was pointing an accusing finger at me, when Salensus Oll’s words
and the expression of his face cut him short.
A cunning look crept into his eyes, and I knew from the expression of
his face that his next words were not the ones he had intended to
speak.
“O Mightiest of Jeddaks,” he said, “the man and the women do not speak
the truth. The fellow had come into the garden to assist them to
escape. I was beyond and overheard their conversation, and when I
entered, the woman screamed and the man sprang upon me and would have
killed me.
“What know you of this man? He is a stranger to you, and I dare say
that you will find him an enemy and a spy. Let him be put on trial,
Salensus Oll, rather than your friend and guest, Thurid, Dator of the
First Born.”
Salensus Oll looked puzzled. He turned again and looked upon Dejah
Thoris, and then Thurid stepped quite close to him and whispered
something in his ear—what, I know not.
Presently the yellow ruler turned to one of his officers.
“See that this man be securely confined until we have time to go deeper
into this affair,” he commanded, “and as bars alone seem inadequate to
restrain him, let chains be added.”
Then he turned and left the garden, taking Dejah Thoris with him—his
hand upon her shoulder. Thurid and Matai Shang went also, and as they
reached the gateway the black turned and laughed again aloud in my
face.
What could be the meaning of his sudden change toward me? Could he
suspect my true identity? It must be that, and the thing that had
betrayed me was the trick and blow that had laid him low for the second
time.
As the guards dragged me away my heart was very sad and bitter indeed,
for now to the two relentless enemies that had hounded her for so long
another and a more powerful one had been added, for I would have been
but a fool had I not recognized the sudden love for Dejah Thoris that
had just been born in the terrible breast of Salensus Oll, Jeddak of
Jeddaks, ruler of Okar.
THE PIT OF PLENTY
I did not languish long within the prison of Salensus Oll. During the
short time that I lay there, fettered with chains of gold, I often
wondered as to the fate of Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth.
My brave companion had followed me into the garden as I attacked
Thurid, and when Salensus Oll had left with Dejah Thoris and the
others, leaving Thuvia of Ptarth behind, he, too, had remained in the
garden with his daughter, apparently unnoticed, for he was appareled
similarly to the guards.
The last I had seen of him he stood waiting for the warriors who
escorted me to close the gate behind them, that he might be alone with
Thuvia. Could it be possible that they had escaped? I doubted it, and
yet with all my heart I hoped that it might be true.
The third day of my incarceration brought a dozen warriors to escort me
to the audience chamber, where Salensus Oll himself was to try me. A
great number of nobles crowded the room, and among them I saw Thurid,
but Matai Shang was not there.
Dejah Thoris, as radiantly beautiful as ever, sat upon a small throne
beside Salensus Oll. The expression of sad hopelessness upon her dear
face cut deep into my heart.
Her position beside the Jeddak of Jeddaks boded ill for her and me, and
on the instant that I saw her there, there sprang to my mind the firm
intention never to leave that chamber alive if I must leave her in the
clutches of this powerful tyrant.
I had killed better men than Salensus Oll, and killed them with my bare
hands, and now I swore to myself that I should kill him if I found that
the only way to save the Princess of Helium. That it would mean almost
instant death for me I cared not, except that it would remove me from
further efforts in behalf of Dejah Thoris, and for this reason alone I
would have chosen another way, for even though I should kill Salensus
Oll that act would not restore my beloved wife to her own people. I
determined to wait the final outcome of the trial, that I might learn
all that I could of the Okarian ruler’s intentions, and then act
accordingly.
Scarcely had I come before him than Salensus Oll summoned Thurid also.
“Dator Thurid,” he said, “you have made a strange request of me; but,
in accordance with your wishes and your promise that it will result
only to my interests, I have decided to accede.
“You tell me that a certain announcement will be the means of
convicting this prisoner and, at the same time, open the way to the
gratification of my dearest wish.”
Thurid nodded.
“Then shall I make the announcement here before all my nobles,”
continued Salensus Oll. “For a year no queen has sat upon the throne
beside me, and now it suits me to take to wife one who is reputed the
most beautiful woman upon Barsoom. A statement which none may
truthfully deny.
“Nobles of Okar, unsheathe your swords and do homage to Dejah Thoris,
Princess of Helium and future Queen of Okar, for at the end of the
allotted ten days she shall become the wife of Salensus Oll.”
As the nobles drew their blades and lifted them on high, in accordance
with the ancient custom of Okar when a jeddak announces his intention
to wed, Dejah Thoris sprang to her feet and, raising her hand aloft,
cried in a loud voice that they desist.
“I may not be the wife of Salensus Oll,” she pleaded, “for already I be
a wife and mother. John Carter, Prince of Helium, still lives. I know
it to be true, for I overheard Matai Shang tell his daughter Phaidor
that he had seen him in Kaor, at the court of Kulan Tith, Jeddak. A
jeddak does not wed a married woman, nor will Salensus Oll thus violate
the bonds of matrimony.”
Salensus Oll turned upon Thurid with an ugly look.
“Is this the surprise you held in store for me?” he cried. “You assured
me that no obstacle which might not be easily overcome stood between me
and this woman, and now I find that the one insuperable obstacle
intervenes. What mean you, man? What have you to say?”
“And should I deliver John Carter into your hands, Salensus Oll, would
you not feel that I had more than satisfied the promise that I made
you?” answered Thurid.
“Talk not like a fool,” cried the enraged jeddak. “I am no child to be
thus played with.”
“I am talking only as a man who knows,” replied Thurid. “Knows that he
can do all that he claims.”
“Then turn John Carter over to me within ten days or yourself suffer
the end that I should mete out to him were he in my power!” snapped the
Jeddak of Jeddaks, with an ugly scowl.
“You need not wait ten days, Salensus Oll,” replied Thurid; and then,
turning suddenly upon me as he extended a pointing finger, he cried:
“There stands John Carter, Prince of Helium!”
“Fool!” shrieked Salensus Oll. “Fool! John Carter is a white man. This
fellow be as yellow as myself. John Carter’s face is smooth—Matai Shang
has described him to me. This prisoner has a beard and mustache as
large and black as any in Okar. Quick, guardsmen, to the pits with the
black maniac who wishes to throw his life away for a poor joke upon
your ruler!”
“Hold!” cried Thurid, and springing forward before I could guess his
intention, he had grasped my beard and ripped the whole false fabric
from my face and head, revealing my smooth, tanned skin beneath and my
close-cropped black hair.
Instantly pandemonium reigned in the audience chamber of Salensus Oll.
Warriors pressed forward with drawn blades, thinking that I might be
contemplating the assassination of the Jeddak of Jeddaks; while others,
out of curiosity to see one whose name was familiar from pole to pole,
crowded behind their fellows.
As my identity was revealed I saw Dejah Thoris spring to her
feet—amazement writ large upon her face—and then through that jam of
armed men she forced her way before any could prevent. A moment only
and she was before me with outstretched arms and eyes filled with the
light of her great love.
“John Carter! John Carter!” she cried as I folded her to my breast, and
then of a sudden I knew why she had denied me in the garden beneath the
tower.
What a fool I had been! Expecting that she would penetrate the
marvelous disguise that had been wrought for me by the barber of
Marentina! She had not known me, that was all; and when she saw the
sign of love from a stranger she was offended and righteously
indignant. Indeed, but I had been a fool.
“And it was you,” she cried, “who spoke to me from the tower! How could
I dream that my beloved Virginian lay behind that fierce beard and that
yellow skin?”
She had been wont to call me her Virginian as a term of endearment, for
she knew that I loved the sound of that beautiful name, made a thousand
times more beautiful and hallowed by her dear lips, and as I heard it
again after all those long years my eyes became dimmed with tears and
my voice choked with emotion.