"[Frontispiece: The cold hollow eye of a revolver sought the center\nof my forehead.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE GODS OF MARS\n\nEdgar Rice Burroughs\n\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nTwelve years had passed since I had laid the body of my great-uncle,\nCaptain John Carter, of Virginia, away from the sight of men in that\nstrange mausoleum in the old cemetery at Richmond.\n\nOften had I pondered on the odd instructions he had left me governing\nthe construction of his mighty tomb, and especially those parts which\ndirected that he be laid in an OPEN casket and that the ponderous\nmechanism which controlled the bolts of the vault's huge door be\naccessible ONLY FROM THE INSIDE.\n\nTwelve years had passed since I had read the remarkable manuscript of\nthis remarkable man; this man who remembered no childhood and who could\nnot even offer a vague guess as to his age; who was always young and\nyet who had dandled my grandfather's great-grandfather upon his knee;\nthis man who had spent ten years upon the planet Mars; who had fought\nfor the green men of Barsoom and fought against them; who had fought\nfor and against the red men and who had won the ever beautiful Dejah\nThoris, Princess of Helium, for his wife, and for nearly ten years had\nbeen a prince of the house of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.\n\nTwelve years had passed since his body had been found upon the bluff\nbefore his cottage overlooking the Hudson, and oft-times during these\nlong years I had wondered if John Carter were really dead, or if he\nagain roamed the dead sea bottoms of that dying planet; if he had\nreturned to Barsoom to find that he had opened the frowning portals of\nthe mighty atmosphere plant in time to save the countless millions who\nwere dying of asphyxiation on that far-gone day that had seen him\nhurtled ruthlessly through forty-eight million miles of space back to\nEarth once more.  I had wondered if he had found his black-haired\nPrincess and the slender son he had dreamed was with her in the royal\ngardens of Tardos Mors, awaiting his return.\n\nOr, had he found that he had been too late, and thus gone back to a\nliving death upon a dead world?  Or was he really dead after all, never\nto return either to his mother Earth or his beloved Mars?\n\nThus was I lost in useless speculation one sultry August evening when\nold Ben, my body servant, handed me a telegram.  Tearing it open I read:\n\n\n'Meet me to-morrow hotel Raleigh Richmond.\n\n'JOHN CARTER'\n\n\nEarly the next morning I took the first train for Richmond and within\ntwo hours was being ushered into the room occupied by John Carter.\n\nAs I entered he rose to greet me, his old-time cordial smile of welcome\nlighting his handsome face.  Apparently he had not aged a minute, but\nwas still the straight, clean-limbed fighting-man of thirty.  His keen\ngrey eyes were undimmed, and the only lines upon his face were the\nlines of iron character and determination that always had been there\nsince first I remembered him, nearly thirty-five years before.\n\n'Well, nephew,' he greeted me, 'do you feel as though you were seeing a\nghost, or suffering from the effects of too many of Uncle Ben's juleps?'\n\n'Juleps, I reckon,' I replied, 'for I certainly feel mighty good; but\nmaybe it's just the sight of you again that affects me.  You have been\nback to Mars?  Tell me.  And Dejah Thoris?  You found her well and\nawaiting you?'\n\n'Yes, I have been to Barsoom again, and--but it's a long story, too\nlong to tell in the limited time I have before I must return.  I have\nlearned the secret, nephew, and I may traverse the trackless void at my\nwill, coming and going between the countless planets as I list; but my\nheart is always in Barsoom, and while it is there in the keeping of my\nMartian Princess, I doubt that I shall ever again leave the dying world\nthat is my life.\n\n'I have come now because my affection for you prompted me to see you\nonce more before you pass over for ever into that other life that I\nshall never know, and which though I have died thrice and shall die\nagain to-night, as you know death, I am as unable to fathom as are you.\n\n'Even the wise and mysterious therns of Barsoom, that ancient cult\nwhich for countless ages has been credited with holding the secret of\nlife and death in their impregnable fastnesses upon the hither slopes\nof the Mountains of Otz, are as ignorant as we.  I have proved it,\nthough I near lost my life in the doing of it; but you shall read it\nall in the notes I have been making during the last three months that I\nhave been back upon Earth.'\n\nHe patted a swelling portfolio that lay on the table at his elbow.\n\n'I know that you are interested and that you believe, and I know that\nthe world, too, is interested, though they will not believe for many\nyears; yes, for many ages, since they cannot understand.  Earth men\nhave not yet progressed to a point where they can comprehend the things\nthat I have written in those notes.\n\n'Give them what you wish of it, what you think will not harm them, but\ndo not feel aggrieved if they laugh at you.'\n\nThat night I walked down to the cemetery with him.  At the door of his\nvault he turned and pressed my hand.\n\n'Good-bye, nephew,' he said.  'I may never see you again, for I doubt\nthat I can ever bring myself to leave my wife and boy while they live,\nand the span of life upon Barsoom is often more than a thousand years.'\n\nHe entered the vault.  The great door swung slowly to.  The ponderous\nbolts grated into place.  The lock clicked.  I have never seen Captain\nJohn Carter, of Virginia, since.\n\nBut here is the story of his return to Mars on that other occasion, as\nI have gleaned it from the great mass of notes which he left for me\nupon the table of his room in the hotel at Richmond.\n\nThere is much which I have left out; much which I have not dared to\ntell; but you will find the story of his second search for Dejah\nThoris, Princess of Helium, even more remarkable than was his first\nmanuscript which I gave to an unbelieving world a short time since and\nthrough which we followed the fighting Virginian across dead sea\nbottoms under the moons of Mars.\n\nE. R. B.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n     I.  The Plant Men\n    II.  A Forest Battle\n   III.  The Chamber of Mystery\n    IV.  Thuvia\n     V.  Corridors of Peril\n    VI.  The Black Pirates of Barsoom\n   VII.  A Fair Goddess\n  VIII.  The Depths of Omean\n    IX.  Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal\n     X.  The Prison Isle of Shador\n    XI.  When Hell Broke Loose\n   XII.  Doomed to Die\n  XIII.  A Break for Liberty\n   XIV.  The Eyes in the Dark\n    XV.  Flight and Pursuit\n   XVI.  Under Arrest\n  XVII.  The Death Sentence\n XVIII.  Sola's Story\n   XIX.  Black Despair\n    XX.  The Air Battle\n   XXI.  Through Flood and Flame\n  XXII.  Victory and Defeat\n\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE PLANT MEN\n\n\nAs I stood upon the bluff before my cottage on that clear cold night in\nthe early part of March, 1886, the noble Hudson flowing like the grey\nand silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange,\ncompelling influence of the mighty god of war, my beloved Mars, which\nfor ten long and lonesome years I had implored with outstretched arms\nto carry me back to my lost love.\n\nNot since that other March night in 1866, when I had stood without that\nArizona cave in which my still and lifeless body lay wrapped in the\nsimilitude of earthly death had I felt the irresistible attraction of\nthe god of my profession.\n\nWith arms outstretched toward the red eye of the great star I stood\npraying for a return of that strange power which twice had drawn me\nthrough the immensity of space, praying as I had prayed on a thousand\nnights before during the long ten years that I had waited and hoped.\n\nSuddenly a qualm of nausea swept over me, my senses swam, my knees gave\nbeneath me and I pitched headlong to the ground upon the very verge of\nthe dizzy bluff.\n\nInstantly my brain cleared and there swept back across the threshold of\nmy memory the vivid picture of the horrors of that ghostly Arizona\ncave; again, as on that far-gone night, my muscles refused to respond\nto my will and again, as though even here upon the banks of the placid\nHudson, I could hear the awful moans and rustling of the fearsome thing\nwhich had lurked and threatened me from the dark recesses of the cave,\nI made the same mighty and superhuman effort to break the bonds of the\nstrange anaesthesia which held me, and again came the sharp click as of\nthe sudden parting of a taut wire, and I stood naked and free beside\nthe staring, lifeless thing that had so recently pulsed with the warm,\nred life-blood of John Carter.\n\nWith scarcely a parting glance I turned my eyes again toward Mars,\nlifted my hands toward his lurid rays, and waited.\n\nNor did I have long to wait; for scarce had I turned ere I shot with\nthe rapidity of thought into the awful void before me.  There was the\nsame instant of unthinkable cold and utter darkness that I had\nexperienced twenty years before, and then I opened my eyes in another\nworld, beneath the burning rays of a hot sun, which beat through a tiny\nopening in the dome of the mighty forest in which I lay.\n\nThe scene that met my eyes was so un-Martian that my heart sprang to my\nthroat as the sudden fear swept through me that I had been aimlessly\ntossed upon some strange planet by a cruel fate.\n\nWhy not?  What guide had I through the trackless waste of\ninterplanetary space?  What assurance that I might not as well be\nhurtled to some far-distant star of another solar system, as to Mars?\n\nI lay upon a close-cropped sward of red grasslike vegetation, and about\nme stretched a grove of strange and beautiful trees, covered with huge\nand gorgeous blossoms and filled with brilliant, voiceless birds.  I\ncall them birds since they were winged, but mortal eye ne'er rested on\nsuch odd, unearthly shapes.\n\nThe vegetation was similar to that which covers the lawns of the red\nMartians of the great waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike\nanything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further\ntrees I could see that most un-Martian of all sights--an open sea, its\nblue waters shimmering beneath the brazen sun.\n\nAs I rose to investigate further I experienced the same ridiculous\ncatastrophe that had met my first attempt to walk under Martian\nconditions.  The lesser attraction of this smaller planet and the\nreduced air pressure of its greatly rarefied atmosphere, afforded so\nlittle resistance to my earthly muscles that the ordinary exertion of\nthe mere act of rising sent me several feet into the air and\nprecipitated me upon my face in the soft and brilliant grass of this\nstrange world.\n\nThis experience, however, gave me some slightly increased assurance\nthat, after all, I might indeed be in some, to me, unknown corner of\nMars, and this was very possible since during my ten years' residence\nupon the planet I had explored but a comparatively tiny area of its\nvast expanse.\n\nI arose again, laughing at my forgetfulness, and soon had mastered once\nmore the art of attuning my earthly sinews to these changed conditions.\n\nAs I walked slowly down the imperceptible slope toward the sea I could\nnot help but note the park-like appearance of the sward and trees.  The\ngrass was as close-cropped and carpet-like as some old English lawn and\nthe trees themselves showed evidence of careful pruning to a uniform\nheight of about fifteen feet from the ground, so that as one turned his\nglance in any direction the forest had the appearance at a little\ndistance of a vast, high-ceiled chamber.\n\nAll these evidences of careful and systematic cultivation convinced me\nthat I had been fortunate enough to make my entry into Mars on this\nsecond occasion through the domain of a civilized people and that when\nI should find them I would be accorded the courtesy and protection that\nmy rank as a Prince of the house of Tardos Mors entitled me to.\n\nThe trees of the forest attracted my deep admiration as I proceeded\ntoward the sea.  Their great stems, some of them fully a hundred feet\nin diameter, attested their prodigious height, which I could only guess\nat, since at no point could I penetrate their dense foliage above me to\nmore than sixty or eighty feet.\n\nAs far aloft as I could see the stems and branches and twigs were as\nsmooth and as highly polished as the newest of American-made pianos.\nThe wood of some of the trees was as black as ebony, while their\nnearest neighbours might perhaps gleam in the subdued light of the\nforest as clear and white as the finest china, or, again, they were\nazure, scarlet, yellow, or deepest purple.\n\nAnd in the same way was the foliage as gay and variegated as the stems,\nwhile the blooms that clustered thick upon them may not be described in\nany earthly tongue, and indeed might challenge the language of the gods.\n\nAs I neared the confines of the forest I beheld before me and between\nthe grove and the open sea, a broad expanse of meadow land, and as I\nwas about to emerge from the shadows of the trees a sight met my eyes\nthat banished all romantic and poetic reflection upon the beauties of\nthe strange landscape.\n\nTo my left the sea extended as far as the eye could reach, before me\nonly a vague, dim line indicated its further shore, while at my right a\nmighty river, broad, placid, and majestic, flowed between scarlet banks\nto empty into the quiet sea before me.\n\nAt a little distance up the river rose mighty perpendicular bluffs,\nfrom the very base of which the great river seemed to rise.\n\nBut it was not these inspiring and magnificent evidences of Nature's\ngrandeur that took my immediate attention from the beauties of the\nforest.  It was the sight of a score of figures moving slowly about the\nmeadow near the bank of the mighty river.\n\nOdd, grotesque shapes they were; unlike anything that I had ever seen\nupon Mars, and yet, at a distance, most manlike in appearance.  The\nlarger specimens appeared to be about ten or twelve feet in height when\nthey stood erect, and to be proportioned as to torso and lower\nextremities precisely as is earthly man.\n\nTheir arms, however, were very short, and from where I stood seemed as\nthough fashioned much after the manner of an elephant's trunk, in that\nthey moved in sinuous and snakelike undulations, as though entirely\nwithout bony structure, or if there were bones it seemed that they must\nbe vertebral in nature.\n\nAs I watched them from behind the stem of a huge tree, one of the\ncreatures moved slowly in my direction, engaged in the occupation that\nseemed to be the principal business of each of them, and which\nconsisted in running their oddly shaped hands over the surface of the\nsward, for what purpose I could not determine.\n\nAs he approached quite close to me I obtained an excellent view of him,\nand though I was later to become better acquainted with his kind, I may\nsay that that single cursory examination of this awful travesty on\nNature would have proved quite sufficient to my desires had I been a\nfree agent.  The fastest flier of the Heliumetic Navy could not quickly\nenough have carried me far from this hideous creature.\n\nIts hairless body was a strange and ghoulish blue, except for a broad\nband of white which encircled its protruding, single eye: an eye that\nwas all dead white--pupil, iris, and ball.\n\nIts nose was a ragged, inflamed, circular hole in the centre of its\nblank face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could\nthink of other than a fresh bullet wound which has not yet commenced to\nbleed.\n\nBelow this repulsive orifice the face was quite blank to the chin, for\nthe thing had no mouth that I could discover.\n\nThe head, with the exception of the face, was covered by a tangled mass\nof jet-black hair some eight or ten inches in length.  Each hair was\nabout the bigness of a large angleworm, and as the thing moved the\nmuscles of its scalp this awful head-covering seemed to writhe and\nwriggle and crawl about the fearsome face as though indeed each\nseparate hair was endowed with independent life.\n\nThe body and the legs were as symmetrically human as Nature could have\nfashioned them, and the feet, too, were human in shape, but of\nmonstrous proportions.  From heel to toe they were fully three feet\nlong, and very flat and very broad.\n\nAs it came quite close to me I discovered that its strange movements,\nrunning its odd hands over the surface of the turf, were the result of\nits peculiar method of feeding, which consists in cropping off the\ntender vegetation with its razorlike talons and sucking it up from its\ntwo mouths, which lie one in the palm of each hand, through its\narm-like throats.\n\nIn addition to the features which I have already described, the beast\nwas equipped with a massive tail about six feet in length, quite round\nwhere it joined the body, but tapering to a flat, thin blade toward the\nend, which trailed at right angles to the ground.\n\nBy far the most remarkable feature of this most remarkable creature,\nhowever, were the two tiny replicas of it, each about six inches in\nlength, which dangled, one on either side, from its armpits.  They were\nsuspended by a small stem which seemed to grow from the exact tops of\ntheir heads to where it connected them with the body of the adult.\n\nWhether they were the young, or merely portions of a composite\ncreature, I did not know.\n\nAs I had been scrutinizing this weird monstrosity the balance of the\nherd had fed quite close to me and I now saw that while many had the\nsmaller specimens dangling from them, not all were thus equipped, and I\nfurther noted that the little ones varied in size from what appeared to\nbe but tiny unopened buds an inch in diameter through various stages of\ndevelopment to the full-fledged and perfectly formed creature of ten to\ntwelve inches in length.\n\nFeeding with the herd were many of the little fellows not much larger\nthan those which remained attached to their parents, and from the young\nof that size the herd graded up to the immense adults.\n\nFearsome-looking as they were, I did not know whether to fear them or\nnot, for they did not seem to be particularly well equipped for\nfighting, and I was on the point of stepping from my hiding-place and\nrevealing myself to them to note the effect upon them of the sight of a\nman when my rash resolve was, fortunately for me, nipped in the bud by\na strange shrieking wail, which seemed to come from the direction of\nthe bluffs at my right.\n\nNaked and unarmed, as I was, my end would have been both speedy and\nhorrible at the hands of these cruel creatures had I had time to put my\nresolve into execution, but at the moment of the shriek each member of\nthe herd turned in the direction from which the sound seemed to come,\nand at the same instant every particular snake-like hair upon their\nheads rose stiffly perpendicular as if each had been a sentient\norganism looking or listening for the source or meaning of the wail.\nAnd indeed the latter proved to be the truth, for this strange growth\nupon the craniums of the plant men of Barsoom represents the thousand\nears of these hideous creatures, the last remnant of the strange race\nwhich sprang from the original Tree of Life.\n\nInstantly every eye turned toward one member of the herd, a large\nfellow who evidently was the leader.  A strange purring sound issued\nfrom the mouth in the palm of one of his hands, and at the same time he\nstarted rapidly toward the bluff, followed by the entire herd.\n\nTheir speed and method of locomotion were both remarkable, springing as\nthey did in great leaps of twenty or thirty feet, much after the manner\nof a kangaroo.\n\nThey were rapidly disappearing when it occurred to me to follow them,\nand so, hurling caution to the winds, I sprang across the meadow in\ntheir wake with leaps and bounds even more prodigious than their own,\nfor the muscles of an athletic Earth man produce remarkable results\nwhen pitted against the lesser gravity and air pressure of Mars.\n\nTheir way led directly towards the apparent source of the river at the\nbase of the cliffs, and as I neared this point I found the meadow\ndotted with huge boulders that the ravages of time had evidently\ndislodged from the towering crags above.\n\nFor this reason I came quite close to the cause of the disturbance\nbefore the scene broke upon my horrified gaze.  As I topped a great\nboulder I saw the herd of plant men surrounding a little group of\nperhaps five or six green men and women of Barsoom.\n\nThat I was indeed upon Mars I now had no doubt, for here were members\nof the wild hordes that people the dead sea bottoms and deserted cities\nof that dying planet.\n\nHere were the great males towering in all the majesty of their imposing\nheight; here were the gleaming white tusks protruding from their\nmassive lower jaws to a point near the centre of their foreheads, the\nlaterally placed, protruding eyes with which they could look forward or\nbackward, or to either side without turning their heads, here the\nstrange antennae-like ears rising from the tops of their foreheads; and\nthe additional pair of arms extending from midway between the shoulders\nand the hips.\n\nEven without the glossy green hide and the metal ornaments which\ndenoted the tribes to which they belonged, I would have known them on\nthe instant for what they were, for where else in all the universe is\ntheir like duplicated?\n\nThere were two men and four females in the party and their ornaments\ndenoted them as members of different hordes, a fact which tended to\npuzzle me infinitely, since the various hordes of green men of Barsoom\nare eternally at deadly war with one another, and never, except on that\nsingle historic instance when the great Tars Tarkas of Thark gathered a\nhundred and fifty thousand green warriors from several hordes to march\nupon the doomed city of Zodanga to rescue Dejah Thoris, Princess of\nHelium, from the clutches of Than Kosis, had I seen green Martians of\ndifferent hordes associated in other than mortal combat.\n\nBut now they stood back to back, facing, in wide-eyed amazement, the\nvery evidently hostile demonstrations of a common enemy.\n\nBoth men and women were armed with long-swords and daggers, but no\nfirearms were in evidence, else it had been short shrift for the\ngruesome plant men of Barsoom.\n\nPresently the leader of the plant men charged the little party, and his\nmethod of attack was as remarkable as it was effective, and by its very\nstrangeness was the more potent, since in the science of the green\nwarriors there was no defence for this singular manner of attack, the\nlike of which it soon was evident to me they were as unfamiliar with as\nthey were with the monstrosities which confronted them.\n\nThe plant man charged to within a dozen feet of the party and then,\nwith a bound, rose as though to pass directly above their heads.  His\npowerful tail was raised high to one side, and as he passed close above\nthem he brought it down in one terrific sweep that crushed a green\nwarrior's skull as though it had been an eggshell.\n\nThe balance of the frightful herd was now circling rapidly and with\nbewildering speed about the little knot of victims.  Their prodigious\nbounds and the shrill, screeching purr of their uncanny mouths were\nwell calculated to confuse and terrorize their prey, so that as two of\nthem leaped simultaneously from either side, the mighty sweep of those\nawful tails met with no resistance and two more green Martians went\ndown to an ignoble death.\n\nThere were now but one warrior and two females left, and it seemed that\nit could be but a matter of seconds ere these, also, lay dead upon the\nscarlet sward.\n\nBut as two more of the plant men charged, the warrior, who was now\nprepared by the experiences of the past few minutes, swung his mighty\nlong-sword aloft and met the hurtling bulk with a clean cut that clove\none of the plant men from chin to groin.\n\nThe other, however, dealt a single blow with his cruel tail that laid\nboth of the females crushed corpses upon the ground.\n\nAs the green warrior saw the last of his companions go down and at the\nsame time perceived that the entire herd was charging him in a body, he\nrushed boldly to meet them, swinging his long-sword in the terrific\nmanner that I had so often seen the men of his kind wield it in their\nferocious and almost continual warfare among their own race.\n\nCutting and hewing to right and left, he laid an open path straight\nthrough the advancing plant men, and then commenced a mad race for the\nforest, in the shelter of which he evidently hoped that he might find a\nhaven of refuge.\n\nHe had turned for that portion of the forest which abutted on the\ncliffs, and thus the mad race was taking the entire party farther and\nfarther from the boulder where I lay concealed.\n\nAs I had watched the noble fight which the great warrior had put up\nagainst such enormous odds my heart had swelled in admiration for him,\nand acting as I am wont to do, more upon impulse than after mature\ndeliberation, I instantly sprang from my sheltering rock and bounded\nquickly toward the bodies of the dead green Martians, a well-defined\nplan of action already formed.\n\nHalf a dozen great leaps brought me to the spot, and another instant\nsaw me again in my stride in quick pursuit of the hideous monsters that\nwere rapidly gaining on the fleeing warrior, but this time I grasped a\nmighty long-sword in my hand and in my heart was the old blood lust of\nthe fighting man, and a red mist swam before my eyes and I felt my lips\nrespond to my heart in the old smile that has ever marked me in the\nmidst of the joy of battle.\n\nSwift as I was I was none too soon, for the green warrior had been\novertaken ere he had made half the distance to the forest, and now he\nstood with his back to a boulder, while the herd, temporarily balked,\nhissed and screeched about him.\n\nWith their single eyes in the centre of their heads and every eye\nturned upon their prey, they did not note my soundless approach, so\nthat I was upon them with my great long-sword and four of them lay dead\nere they knew that I was among them.\n\nFor an instant they recoiled before my terrific onslaught, and in that\ninstant the green warrior rose to the occasion and, springing to my\nside, laid to the right and left of him as I had never seen but one\nother warrior do, with great circling strokes that formed a figure\neight about him and that never stopped until none stood living to\noppose him, his keen blade passing through flesh and bone and metal as\nthough each had been alike thin air.\n\nAs we bent to the slaughter, far above us rose that shrill, weird cry\nwhich I had heard once before, and which had called the herd to the\nattack upon their victims.  Again and again it rose, but we were too\nmuch engaged with the fierce and powerful creatures about us to attempt\nto search out even with our eyes the author of the horrid notes.\n\nGreat tails lashed in frenzied anger about us, razor-like talons cut\nour limbs and bodies, and a green and sticky syrup, such as oozes from\na crushed caterpillar, smeared us from head to foot, for every cut and\nthrust of our longswords brought spurts of this stuff upon us from the\nsevered arteries of the plant men, through which it courses in its\nsluggish viscidity in lieu of blood.\n\nOnce I felt the great weight of one of the monsters upon my back and as\nkeen talons sank into my flesh I experienced the frightful sensation of\nmoist lips sucking the lifeblood from the wounds to which the claws\nstill clung.\n\nI was very much engaged with a ferocious fellow who was endeavouring to\nreach my throat from in front, while two more, one on either side, were\nlashing viciously at me with their tails.\n\nThe green warrior was much put to it to hold his own, and I felt that\nthe unequal struggle could last but a moment longer when the huge\nfellow discovered my plight, and tearing himself from those that\nsurrounded him, he raked the assailant from my back with a single sweep\nof his blade, and thus relieved I had little difficulty with the others.\n\nOnce together, we stood almost back to back against the great boulder,\nand thus the creatures were prevented from soaring above us to deliver\ntheir deadly blows, and as we were easily their match while they\nremained upon the ground, we were making great headway in dispatching\nwhat remained of them when our attention was again attracted by the\nshrill wail of the caller above our heads.\n\nThis time I glanced up, and far above us upon a little natural balcony\non the face of the cliff stood a strange figure of a man shrieking out\nhis shrill signal, the while he waved one hand in the direction of the\nriver's mouth as though beckoning to some one there, and with the other\npointed and gesticulated toward us.\n\nA glance in the direction toward which he was looking was sufficient to\napprise me of his aims and at the same time to fill me with the dread\nof dire apprehension, for, streaming in from all directions across the\nmeadow, from out of the forest, and from the far distance of the flat\nland across the river, I could see converging upon us a hundred\ndifferent lines of wildly leaping creatures such as we were now engaged\nwith, and with them some strange new monsters which ran with great\nswiftness, now erect and now upon all fours.\n\n\"It will be a great death,\" I said to my companion. \"Look!\"\n\nAs he shot a quick glance in the direction I indicated he smiled.\n\n\"We may at least die fighting and as great warriors should, John\nCarter,\" he replied.\n\nWe had just finished the last of our immediate antagonists as he spoke,\nand I turned in surprised wonderment at the sound of my name.\n\nAnd there before my astonished eyes I beheld the greatest of the green\nmen of Barsoom; their shrewdest statesman, their mightiest general, my\ngreat and good friend, Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nA FOREST BATTLE\n\n\nTars Tarkas and I found no time for an exchange of experiences as we\nstood there before the great boulder surrounded by the corpses of our\ngrotesque assailants, for from all directions down the broad valley was\nstreaming a perfect torrent of terrifying creatures in response to the\nweird call of the strange figure far above us.\n\n\"Come,\" cried Tars Tarkas, \"we must make for the cliffs.  There lies\nour only hope of even temporary escape; there we may find a cave or a\nnarrow ledge which two may defend for ever against this motley, unarmed\nhorde.\"\n\nTogether we raced across the scarlet sward, I timing my speed that I\nmight not outdistance my slower companion.  We had, perhaps, three\nhundred yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs, and then to\nsearch out a suitable shelter for our stand against the terrifying\nthings that were pursuing us.\n\nThey were rapidly overhauling us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to hasten\nahead and discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought.  The\nsuggestion was a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might be\nsaved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles into the\neffort, I cleared the remaining distance between myself and the cliffs\nin great leaps and bounds that put me at their base in a moment.\n\nThe cliffs rose perpendicular directly from the almost level sward of\nthe valley.  There was no accumulation of fallen debris, forming a more\nor less rough ascent to them, as is the case with nearly all other\ncliffs I have ever seen.  The scattered boulders that had fallen from\nabove and lay upon or partly buried in the turf, were the only\nindication that any disintegration of the massive, towering pile of\nrocks ever had taken place.\n\nMy first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my heart\nwith forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where the weird\nherald stood still shrieking his shrill summons, the faintest\nindication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty escarpment.\n\nTo my right the bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense foliage of\nthe forest, which terminated at its very foot, rearing its gorgeous\nfoliage fully a thousand feet against its stern and forbidding\nneighbour.\n\nTo the left the cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head of the\nbroad valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to be a range\nof mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley in every\ndirection.\n\nPerhaps a thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed, directly\nfrom the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the remotest\nchance for escape in that direction I turned my attention again toward\nthe forest.\n\nThe cliffs towered above me a good five thousand feet.  The sun was not\nquite upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own shade.  Here\nand there they were broken with streaks and patches of dusky red,\ngreen, and occasional areas of white quartz.\n\nAltogether they were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not regard\nthem with a particularly appreciative eye on this, my first inspection\nof them.\n\nJust then I was absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and so, as\nmy gaze ran quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse in search\nof some cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them as the\nprisoner must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of his dungeon.\n\nTars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came the\nawful horde at his heels.\n\nIt seemed the forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of\nmotioning Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun\npassed the cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull\nsurface it burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished\ngold, of flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more\ngorgeous and inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.\n\nThe face of the entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively\nproved, so shot with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite\npresent the appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except\nwhere it was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond\nboulders--a faint and alluring indication of the vast and unguessable\nriches which lay deeply buried behind the magnificent surface.\n\nBut what caught my most interested attention at the moment that the\nsun's rays set the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black spots\nwhich now appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous\nwall close to the forest's top, and extending apparently below and\nbehind the branches.\n\nAlmost immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark\nopenings of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of escape\nor temporary shelter, could we but reach them.\n\nThere was but a single way, and that led through the mighty, towering\ntrees upon our right.  That I could scale them I knew full well, but\nTars Tarkas, with his mighty bulk and enormous weight, would find it a\ntask possibly quite beyond his prowess or his skill, for Martians are\nat best but poor climbers.  Upon the entire surface of that ancient\nplanet I never before had seen a hill or mountain that exceeded four\nthousand feet in height above the dead sea bottoms, and as the ascent\nwas usually gradual, nearly to their summits they presented but few\nopportunities for the practice of climbing.  Nor would the Martians\nhave embraced even such opportunities as might present themselves, for\nthey could always find a circuitous route about the base of any\neminence, and these roads they preferred and followed in preference to\nthe shorter but more arduous ways.\n\nHowever, there was nothing else to consider than an attempt to scale\nthe trees contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the caves above.\n\nThe Thark grasped the possibilities and the difficulties of the plan at\nonce, but there was no alternative, and so we set out rapidly for the\ntrees nearest the cliff.\n\nOur relentless pursuers were now close to us, so close that it seemed\nthat it would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of Thark to\nreach the forest in advance of them, nor was there any considerable\nwill in the efforts that Tars Tarkas made, for the green men of Barsoom\ndo not relish flight, nor ever before had I seen one fleeing from death\nin whatsoever form it might have confronted him.  But that Tars Tarkas\nwas the bravest of the brave he had proven thousands of times; yes,\ntens of thousands in countless mortal combats with men and beasts.  And\nso I knew that there was another reason than fear of death behind his\nflight, as he knew that a greater power than pride or honour spurred me\nto escape these fierce destroyers.  In my case it was love--love of the\ndivine Dejah Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love\nof life I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death than\nlife--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.\n\nAt length, however, we reached the shadows of the forest, while right\nbehind us sprang the swiftest of our pursuers--a giant plant man with\nclaws outreaching to fasten his bloodsucking mouths upon us.\n\nHe was, I should say, a hundred yards in advance of his closest\ncompanion, and so I called to Tars Tarkas to ascend a great tree that\nbrushed the cliff's face while I dispatched the fellow, thus giving the\nless agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher branches before the\nentire horde should be upon us and every vestige of escape cut off.\n\nBut I had reckoned without a just appreciation either of the cunning of\nmy immediate antagonist or the swiftness with which his fellows were\ncovering the distance which had separated them from me.\n\nAs I raised my long-sword to deal the creature its death thrust it\nhalted in its charge and, as my sword cut harmlessly through the empty\nair, the great tail of the thing swept with the power of a grizzly's\narm across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet to the ground.\nIn an instant the brute was upon me, but ere it could fasten its\nhideous mouths into my breast and throat I grasped a writhing tentacle\nin either hand.\n\nThe plant man was well muscled, heavy, and powerful but my earthly\nsinews and greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly strangle\nhold I had upon him, would have given me, I think, an eventual victory\nhad we had time to discuss the merits of our relative prowess\nuninterrupted.  But  as we strained and struggled about the tree into\nwhich Tars Tarkas was clambering with infinite difficulty, I suddenly\ncaught a glimpse over the shoulder of my antagonist of the great swarm\nof pursuers that now were fairly upon me.\n\nNow, at last, I saw the nature of the other monsters who had come with\nthe plant men in response to the weird calling of the man upon the\ncliff's face.  They were that most dreaded of Martian creatures--great\nwhite apes of Barsoom.\n\nMy former experiences upon Mars had familiarized me thoroughly with\nthem and their methods, and I may say that of all the fearsome and\nterrible, weird and grotesque inhabitants of that strange world, it is\nthe white apes that come nearest to familiarizing me with the sensation\nof fear.\n\nI think that the cause of this feeling which these apes engender within\nme is due to their remarkable resemblance in form to our Earth men,\nwhich gives them a human appearance that is most uncanny when coupled\nwith their enormous size.\n\nThey stand fifteen feet in height and walk erect upon their hind feet.\nLike the green Martians, they have an intermediary set of arms midway\nbetween their upper and lower limbs.  Their eyes are very close set,\nbut do not protrude as do those of the green men of Mars; their ears\nare high set, but more laterally located than are the green men's,\nwhile their snouts and teeth are much like those of our African\ngorilla.  Upon their heads grows an enormous shock of bristly hair.\n\nIt was into the eyes of such as these and the terrible plant men that I\ngazed above the shoulder of my foe, and then, in a mighty wave of\nsnarling, snapping, screaming, purring rage, they swept over me--and of\nall the sounds that assailed my ears as I went down beneath them, to me\nthe most hideous was the horrid purring of the plant men.\n\nInstantly a score of cruel fangs and keen talons were sunk into my\nflesh; cold, sucking lips fastened themselves upon my arteries.  I\nstruggled to free myself, and even though weighed down by these immense\nbodies, I succeeded in struggling to my feet, where, still grasping my\nlong-sword, and shortening my grip upon it until I could use it as a\ndagger, I wrought such havoc among them that at one time I stood for an\ninstant free.\n\nWhat it has taken minutes to write occurred in but a few seconds, but\nduring that time Tars Tarkas had seen my plight and had dropped from\nthe lower branches, which he had reached with such infinite labour, and\nas I flung the last of my immediate antagonists from me the great Thark\nleaped to my side, and again we fought, back to back, as we had done a\nhundred times before.\n\nTime and again the ferocious apes sprang in to close with us, and time\nand again we beat them back with our swords.  The great tails of the\nplant men lashed with tremendous power about us as they charged from\nvarious directions or sprang with the agility of greyhounds above our\nheads; but every attack met a gleaming blade in sword hands that had\nbeen reputed for twenty years the best that Mars ever had known; for\nTars Tarkas and John Carter were names that the fighting men of the\nworld of warriors loved best to speak.\n\nBut even the two best swords in a world of fighters can avail not for\never against overwhelming numbers of fierce and savage brutes that know\nnot what defeat means until cold steel teaches their hearts no longer\nto beat, and so, step by step, we were forced back.  At length we stood\nagainst the giant tree that we had chosen for our ascent, and then, as\ncharge after charge hurled its weight upon us, we gave back again and\nagain, until we had been forced half-way around the huge base of the\ncolossal trunk.\n\nTars Tarkas was in the lead, and suddenly I heard a little cry of\nexultation from him.\n\n\"Here is shelter for one at least, John Carter,\" he said, and, glancing\ndown, I saw an opening in the base of the tree about three feet in\ndiameter.\n\n\"In with you, Tars Tarkas,\" I cried, but he would not go; saying that\nhis bulk was too great for the little aperture, while I might slip in\neasily.\n\n\"We shall both die if we remain without, John Carter; here is a slight\nchance for one of us.  Take it and you may live to avenge me, it is\nuseless for me to attempt to worm my way into so small an opening with\nthis horde of demons besetting us on all sides.\"\n\n\"Then we shall die together, Tars Tarkas,\" I replied, \"for I shall not\ngo first.  Let me defend the opening while you get in, then my smaller\nstature will permit me to slip in with you before they can prevent.\"\n\nWe still were fighting furiously as we talked in broken sentences,\npunctured with vicious cuts and thrusts at our swarming enemy.\n\nAt length he yielded, for it seemed the only way in which either of us\nmight be saved from the ever-increasing numbers of our assailants, who\nwere still swarming upon us from all directions across the broad valley.\n\n\"It was ever your way, John Carter, to think last of your own life,\" he\nsaid; \"but still more your way to command the lives and actions of\nothers, even to the greatest of Jeddaks who rule upon Barsoom.\"\n\nThere was a grim smile upon his cruel, hard face, as he, the greatest\nJeddak of them all, turned to obey the dictates of a creature of\nanother world--of a man whose stature was less than half his own.\n\n\"If you fail, John Carter,\" he said, \"know that the cruel and heartless\nThark, to whom you taught the meaning of friendship, will come out to\ndie beside you.\"\n\n\"As you will, my friend,\" I replied; \"but quickly now, head first,\nwhile I cover your retreat.\"\n\nHe hesitated a little at that word, for never before in his whole life\nof continual strife had he turned his back upon aught than a dead or\ndefeated enemy.\n\n\"Haste, Tars Tarkas,\" I urged, \"or we shall both go down to profitless\ndefeat; I cannot hold them for ever alone.\"\n\nAs he dropped to the ground to force his way into the tree, the whole\nhowling pack of hideous devils hurled themselves upon me.  To right and\nleft flew my shimmering blade, now green with the sticky juice of a\nplant man, now red with the crimson blood of a great white ape; but\nalways flying from one opponent to another, hesitating but the barest\nfraction of a second to drink the lifeblood in the centre of some\nsavage heart.\n\nAnd thus I fought as I never had fought before, against such frightful\nodds that I cannot realize even now that human muscles could have\nwithstood that awful onslaught, that terrific weight of hurtling tons\nof ferocious, battling flesh.\n\nWith the fear that we would escape them, the creatures redoubled their\nefforts to pull me down, and though the ground about me was piled high\nwith their dead and dying comrades, they succeeded at last in\noverwhelming me, and I went down beneath them for the second time that\nday, and once again felt those awful sucking lips against my flesh.\n\nBut scarce had I fallen ere I felt powerful hands grip my ankles, and\nin another second I was being drawn within the shelter of the tree's\ninterior.  For a moment it was a tug of war between Tars Tarkas and a\ngreat plant man, who clung tenaciously to my breast, but presently I\ngot the point of my long-sword beneath him and with a mighty thrust\npierced his vitals.\n\nTorn and bleeding from many cruel wounds, I lay panting upon the ground\nwithin the hollow of the tree, while Tars Tarkas defended the opening\nfrom the furious mob without.\n\nFor an hour they howled about the tree, but after a few attempts to\nreach us they confined their efforts to terrorizing shrieks and\nscreams, to horrid growling on the part of the great white apes, and\nthe fearsome and indescribable purring by the plant men.\n\nAt length, all but a score, who had apparently been left to prevent our\nescape, had left us, and our adventure seemed destined to result in a\nsiege, the only outcome of which could be our death by starvation; for\neven should we be able to slip out after dark, whither in this unknown\nand hostile valley could we hope to turn our steps toward possible\nescape?\n\nAs the attacks of our enemies ceased and our eyes became accustomed to\nthe semi-darkness of the interior of our strange retreat, I took the\nopportunity to explore our shelter.\n\nThe tree was hollow to an extent of about fifty feet in diameter, and\nfrom its flat, hard floor I judged that it had often been used to\ndomicile others before our occupancy.  As I raised my eyes toward its\nroof to note the height I saw far above me a faint glow of light.\n\nThere was an opening above.  If we could but reach it we might still\nhope to make the shelter of the cliff caves.  My eyes had now become\nquite used to the subdued light of the interior, and as I pursued my\ninvestigation I presently came upon a rough ladder at the far side of\nthe cave.\n\nQuickly I mounted it, only to find that it connected at the top with\nthe lower of a series of horizontal wooden bars that spanned the now\nnarrow and shaft-like interior of the tree's stem.  These bars were set\none above another about three feet apart, and formed a perfect ladder\nas far above me as I could see.\n\nDropping to the floor once more, I detailed my discovery to Tars\nTarkas, who suggested that I explore aloft as far as I could go in\nsafety while he guarded the entrance against a possible attack.\n\nAs I hastened above to explore the strange shaft I found that the\nladder of horizontal bars mounted always as far above me as my eyes\ncould reach, and as I ascended, the light from above grew brighter and\nbrighter.\n\nFor fully five hundred feet I continued to climb, until at length I\nreached the opening in the stem which admitted the light.  It was of\nabout the same diameter as the entrance at the foot of the tree, and\nopened directly upon a large flat limb, the well worn surface of which\ntestified to its long continued use as an avenue for some creature to\nand from this remarkable shaft.\n\nI did not venture out upon the limb for fear that I might be discovered\nand our retreat in this direction cut off; but instead hurried to\nretrace my steps to Tars Tarkas.\n\nI soon reached him and presently we were both ascending the long ladder\ntoward the opening above.\n\nTars Tarkas went in advance and as I reached the first of the\nhorizontal bars I drew the ladder up after me and, handing it to him,\nhe carried it a hundred feet further aloft, where he wedged it safely\nbetween one of the bars and the side of the shaft.  In like manner I\ndislodged the lower bars as I passed them, so that we soon had the\ninterior of the tree denuded of all possible means of ascent for a\ndistance of a hundred feet from the base; thus precluding possible\npursuit and attack from the rear.\n\nAs we were to learn later, this precaution saved us from dire\npredicament, and was eventually the means of our salvation.\n\nWhen we reached the opening at the top Tars Tarkas drew to one side\nthat I might pass out and investigate, as, owing to my lesser weight\nand greater agility, I was better fitted for the perilous threading of\nthis dizzy, hanging pathway.\n\nThe limb upon which I found myself ascended at a slight angle toward\nthe cliff, and as I followed it I found that it terminated a few feet\nabove a narrow ledge which protruded from the cliff's face at the\nentrance to a narrow cave.\n\nAs I approached the slightly more slender extremity of the branch it\nbent beneath my weight until, as I balanced perilously upon its outer\ntip, it swayed gently on a level with the ledge at a distance of a\ncouple of feet.\n\nFive hundred feet below me lay the vivid scarlet carpet of the valley;\nnearly five thousand feet above towered the mighty, gleaming face of\nthe gorgeous cliffs.\n\nThe cave that I faced was not one of those that I had seen from the\nground, and which lay much higher, possibly a thousand feet.  But so\nfar as I might know it was as good for our purpose as another, and so I\nreturned to the tree for Tars Tarkas.\n\nTogether we wormed our way along the waving pathway, but when we\nreached the end of the branch we found that our combined weight so\ndepressed the limb that the cave's mouth was now too far above us to be\nreached.\n\nWe finally agreed that Tars Tarkas should return along the branch,\nleaving his longest leather harness strap with me, and that when the\nlimb had risen to a height that would permit me to enter the cave I was\nto do so, and on Tars Tarkas' return I could then lower the strap and\nhaul him up to the safety of the ledge.\n\nThis we did without mishap and soon found ourselves together upon the\nverge of a dizzy little balcony, with a magnificent view of the valley\nspreading out below us.\n\nAs far as the eye could reach gorgeous forest and crimson sward skirted\na silent sea, and about all towered the brilliant monster guardian\ncliffs.  Once we thought we discerned a gilded minaret gleaming in the\nsun amidst the waving tops of far-distant trees, but we soon abandoned\nthe idea in the belief that it was but an hallucination born of our\ngreat desire to discover the haunts of civilized men in this beautiful,\nyet forbidding, spot.\n\nBelow us upon the river's bank the great white apes were devouring the\nlast remnants of Tars Tarkas' former companions, while great herds of\nplant men grazed in ever-widening circles about the sward which they\nkept as close clipped as the smoothest of lawns.\n\nKnowing that attack from the tree was now improbable, we determined to\nexplore the cave, which we had every reason to believe was but a\ncontinuation of the path we had already traversed, leading the gods\nalone knew where, but quite evidently away from this valley of grim\nferocity.\n\nAs we advanced we found a well-proportioned tunnel cut from the solid\ncliff.  Its walls rose some twenty feet above the floor, which was\nabout five feet in width.  The roof was arched.  We had no means of\nmaking a light, and so groped our way slowly into the ever-increasing\ndarkness, Tars Tarkas keeping in touch with one wall while I felt along\nthe other, while, to prevent our wandering into diverging branches and\nbecoming separated or lost in some intricate and labyrinthine maze, we\nclasped hands.\n\nHow far we traversed the tunnel in this manner I do not know, but\npresently we came to an obstruction which blocked our further progress.\nIt seemed more like a partition than a sudden ending of the cave, for\nit was constructed not of the material of the cliff, but of something\nwhich felt like very hard wood.\n\nSilently I groped over its surface with my hands, and presently was\nrewarded by the feel of the button which as commonly denotes a door on\nMars as does a door knob on Earth.\n\nGently pressing it, I had the satisfaction of feeling the door slowly\ngive before me, and in another instant we were looking into a dimly\nlighted apartment, which, so far as we could see, was unoccupied.\n\nWithout more ado I swung the door wide open and, followed by the huge\nThark, stepped into the chamber.  As we stood for a moment in silence\ngazing about the room a slight noise behind caused me to turn quickly,\nwhen, to my astonishment, I saw the door close with a sharp click as\nthough by an unseen hand.\n\nInstantly I sprang toward it to wrench it open again, for something in\nthe uncanny movement of the thing and the tense and almost palpable\nsilence of the chamber seemed to portend a lurking evil lying hidden in\nthis rock-bound chamber within the bowels of the Golden Cliffs.\n\nMy fingers clawed futilely at the unyielding portal, while my eyes\nsought in vain for a duplicate of the button which had given us ingress.\n\nAnd then, from unseen lips, a cruel and mocking peal of laughter rang\nthrough the desolate place.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE CHAMBER OF MYSTERY\n\n\nFor moments after that awful laugh had ceased reverberating through the\nrocky room, Tars Tarkas and I stood in tense and expectant silence.\nBut no further sound broke the stillness, nor within the range of our\nvision did aught move.\n\nAt length Tars Tarkas laughed softly, after the manner of his strange\nkind when in the presence of the horrible or terrifying.  It is not an\nhysterical laugh, but rather the genuine expression of the pleasure\nthey derive from the things that move Earth men to loathing or to tears.\n\nOften and again have I seen them roll upon the ground in mad fits of\nuncontrollable mirth when witnessing the death agonies of women and\nlittle children beneath the torture of that hellish green Martian\nfete--the Great Games.\n\nI looked up at the Thark, a smile upon my own lips, for here in truth\nwas greater need for a smiling face than a trembling chin.\n\n\"What do you make of it all?\" I asked.  \"Where in the deuce are we?\"\n\nHe looked at me in surprise.\n\n\"Where are we?\" he repeated.  \"Do you tell me, John Carter, that you\nknow not where you be?\"\n\n\"That I am upon Barsoom is all that I can guess, and but for you and\nthe great white apes I should not even guess that, for the sights I\nhave seen this day are as unlike the things of my beloved Barsoom as I\nknew it ten long years ago as they are unlike the world of my birth.\n\n\"No, Tars Tarkas, I know not where we be.\"\n\n\"Where have you been since you opened the mighty portals of the\natmosphere plant years ago, after the keeper had died and the engines\nstopped and all Barsoom was dying, that had not already died, of\nasphyxiation?  Your body even was never found, though the men of a\nwhole world sought after it for years, though the Jeddak of Helium and\nhis granddaughter, your princess, offered such fabulous rewards that\neven princes of royal blood joined in the search.\n\n\"There was but one conclusion to reach when all efforts to locate you\nhad failed, and that, that you had taken the long, last pilgrimage down\nthe mysterious River Iss, to await in the Valley Dor upon the shores of\nthe Lost Sea of Korus the beautiful Dejah Thoris, your princess.\n\n\"Why you had gone none could guess, for your princess still lived--\"\n\n\"Thank God,\" I interrupted him.  \"I did not dare to ask you, for I\nfeared I might have been too late to save her--she was very low when I\nleft her in the royal gardens of Tardos Mors that long-gone night; so\nvery low that I scarcely hoped even then to reach the atmosphere plant\nere her dear spirit had fled from me for ever.  And she lives yet?\"\n\n\"She lives, John Carter.\"\n\n\"You have not told me where we are,\" I reminded him.\n\n\"We are where I expected to find you, John Carter--and another.  Many\nyears ago you heard the story of the woman who taught me the thing that\ngreen Martians are reared to hate, the woman who taught me to love.\nYou know the cruel tortures and the awful death her love won for her at\nthe hands of the beast, Tal Hajus.\n\n\"She, I thought, awaited me by the Lost Sea of Korus.\n\n\"You know that it was left for a man from another world, for yourself,\nJohn Carter, to teach this cruel Thark what friendship is; and you, I\nthought, also roamed the care-free Valley Dor.\n\n\"Thus were the two I most longed for at the end of the long pilgrimage\nI must take some day, and so as the time had elapsed which Dejah Thoris\nhad hoped might bring you once more to her side, for she has always\ntried to believe that you had but temporarily returned to your own\nplanet, I at last gave way to my great yearning and a month since I\nstarted upon the journey, the end of which you have this day witnessed.\nDo you understand now where you be, John Carter?\"\n\n\"And that was the River Iss, emptying into the Lost Sea of Korus in the\nValley Dor?\" I asked.\n\n\"This is the valley of love and peace and rest to which every\nBarsoomian since time immemorial has longed to pilgrimage at the end of\na life of hate and strife and bloodshed,\" he replied.  \"This, John\nCarter, is Heaven.\"\n\nHis tone was cold and ironical; its bitterness but reflecting the\nterrible disappointment he had suffered.  Such a fearful\ndisillusionment, such a blasting of life-long hopes and aspirations,\nsuch an uprooting of age-old tradition might have excused a vastly\ngreater demonstration on the part of the Thark.\n\nI laid my hand upon his shoulder.\n\n\"I am sorry,\" I said, nor did there seem aught else to say.\n\n\"Think, John Carter, of the countless billions of Barsoomians who have\ntaken the voluntary pilgrimage down this cruel river since the\nbeginning of time, only to fall into the ferocious clutches of the\nterrible creatures that to-day assailed us.\n\n\"There is an ancient legend that once a red man returned from the banks\nof the Lost Sea of Korus, returned from the Valley Dor, back through\nthe mysterious River Iss, and the legend has it that he narrated a\nfearful blasphemy of horrid brutes that inhabited a valley of wondrous\nloveliness, brutes that pounced upon each Barsoomian as he terminated\nhis pilgrimage and devoured him upon the banks of the Lost Sea where he\nhad looked to find love and peace and happiness; but the ancients\nkilled the blasphemer, as tradition has ordained that any shall be\nkilled who return from the bosom of the River of Mystery.\n\n\"But now we know that it was no blasphemy, that the legend is a true\none, and that the man told only of what he saw; but what does it profit\nus, John Carter, since even should we escape, we also would be treated\nas blasphemers?  We are between the wild thoat of certainty and the mad\nzitidar of fact--we can escape neither.\"\n\n\"As Earth men say, we are between the devil and the deep sea, Tars\nTarkas,\" I replied, nor could I help but smile at our dilemma.\n\n\"There is naught that we can do but take things as they come, and at\nleast have the satisfaction of knowing that whoever slays us eventually\nwill have far greater numbers of their own dead to count than they will\nget in return.  White ape or plant man, green Barsoomian or red man,\nwhosoever it shall be that takes the last toll from us will know that\nit is costly in lives to wipe out John Carter, Prince of the House of\nTardos Mors, and Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, at the same time.\"\n\nI could not help but laugh at his grim humour, and he joined in with me\nin one of those rare laughs of real enjoyment which was one of the\nattributes of this fierce Tharkian chief which marked him from the\nothers of his kind.\n\n\"But about yourself, John Carter,\" he cried at last.  \"If you have not\nbeen here all these years where indeed have you been, and how is it\nthat I find you here to-day?\"\n\n\"I have been back to Earth,\" I replied.  \"For ten long Earth years I\nhave been praying and hoping for the day that would carry me once more\nto this grim old planet of yours, for which, with all its cruel and\nterrible customs, I feel a bond of sympathy and love even greater than\nfor the world that gave me birth.\n\n\"For ten years have I been enduring a living death of uncertainty and\ndoubt as to whether Dejah Thoris lived, and now that for the first time\nin all these years my prayers have been answered and my doubt relieved\nI find myself, through a cruel whim of fate, hurled into the one tiny\nspot of all Barsoom from which there is apparently no escape, and if\nthere were, at a price which would put out for ever the last flickering\nhope which I may cling to of seeing my princess again in this life--and\nyou have seen to-day with what pitiful futility man yearns toward a\nmaterial hereafter.\n\n\"Only a bare half-hour before I saw you battling with the plant men I\nwas standing in the moonlight upon the banks of a broad river that taps\nthe eastern shore of Earth's most blessed land.  I have answered you,\nmy friend.  Do you believe?\"\n\n\"I believe,\" replied Tars Tarkas, \"though I cannot understand.\"\n\nAs we talked I had been searching the interior of the chamber with my\neyes.  It was, perhaps, two hundred feet in length and half as broad,\nwith what appeared to be a doorway in the centre of the wall directly\nopposite that through which we had entered.\n\nThe apartment was hewn from the material of the cliff, showing mostly\ndull gold in the dim light which a single minute radium illuminator in\nthe centre of the roof diffused throughout its great dimensions.  Here\nand there polished surfaces of ruby, emerald, and diamond patched the\ngolden walls and ceiling.  The floor was of another material, very\nhard, and worn by much use to the smoothness of glass.  Aside from the\ntwo doors I could discern no sign of other aperture, and as one we knew\nto be locked against us I approached the other.\n\nAs I extended my hand to search for the controlling button, that cruel\nand mocking laugh rang out once more, so close to me this time that I\ninvoluntarily shrank back, tightening my grip upon the hilt of my great\nsword.\n\nAnd then from the far corner of the great chamber a hollow voice\nchanted: \"There is no hope, there is no hope; the dead return not, the\ndead return not; nor is there any resurrection.  Hope not, for there is\nno hope.\"\n\nThough our eyes instantly turned toward the spot from which the voice\nseemed to emanate, there was no one in sight, and I must admit that\ncold shivers played along my spine and the short hairs at the base of\nmy head stiffened and rose up, as do those upon a hound's neck when in\nthe night his eyes see those uncanny things which are hidden from the\nsight of man.\n\nQuickly I walked toward the mournful voice, but it had ceased ere I\nreached the further wall, and then from the other end of the chamber\ncame another voice, shrill and piercing:\n\n\"Fools!  Fools!\" it shrieked.  \"Thinkest thou to defeat the eternal\nlaws of life and death?  Wouldst cheat the mysterious Issus, Goddess of\nDeath, of her just dues?  Did not her mighty messenger, the ancient\nIss, bear you upon her leaden bosom at your own behest to the Valley\nDor?\n\n\"Thinkest thou, O fools, that Issus wilt give up her own?  Thinkest\nthou to escape from whence in all the countless ages but a single soul\nhas fled?\n\n\"Go back the way thou camest, to the merciful maws of the children of\nthe Tree of Life or the gleaming fangs of the great white apes, for\nthere lies speedy surcease from suffering; but insist in your rash\npurpose to thread the mazes of the Golden Cliffs of the Mountains of\nOtz, past the ramparts of the impregnable fortresses of the Holy\nTherns, and upon your way Death in its most frightful form will\novertake you--a death so horrible that even the Holy Therns themselves,\nwho conceived both Life and Death, avert their eyes from its\nfiendishness and close their ears against the hideous shrieks of its\nvictims.\n\n\"Go back, O fools, the way thou camest.\"\n\nAnd then the awful laugh broke out from another part of the chamber.\n\n\"Most uncanny,\" I remarked, turning to Tars Tarkas.\n\n\"What shall we do?\" he asked.  \"We cannot fight empty air; I would\nalmost sooner return and face foes into whose flesh I may feel my blade\nbite and know that I am selling my carcass dearly before I go down to\nthat eternal oblivion which is evidently the fairest and most desirable\neternity that mortal man has the right to hope for.\"\n\n\"If, as you say, we cannot fight empty air, Tars Tarkas,\" I replied,\n\"neither, on the other hand, can empty air fight us.  I, who have faced\nand conquered in my time thousands of sinewy warriors and tempered\nblades, shall not be turned back by wind; nor no more shall you, Thark.\"\n\n\"But unseen voices may emanate from unseen and unseeable creatures who\nwield invisible blades,\" answered the green warrior.\n\n\"Rot, Tars Tarkas,\" I cried, \"those voices come from beings as real as\nyou or as I.  In their veins flows lifeblood that may be let as easily\nas ours, and the fact that they remain invisible to us is the best\nproof to my mind that they are mortal; nor overly courageous mortals at\nthat.  Think you, Tars Tarkas, that John Carter will fly at the first\nshriek of a cowardly foe who dare not come out into the open and face a\ngood blade?\"\n\nI had spoken in a loud voice that there might be no question that our\nwould-be terrorizers should hear me, for I was tiring of this\nnerve-racking fiasco.  It had occurred to me, too, that the whole\nbusiness was but a plan to frighten us back into the valley of death\nfrom which we had escaped, that we might be quickly disposed of by the\nsavage creatures there.\n\nFor a long period there was silence, then of a sudden a soft, stealthy\nsound behind me caused me to turn suddenly to behold a great\nmany-legged banth creeping sinuously upon me.\n\nThe banth is a fierce beast of prey that roams the low hills\nsurrounding the dead seas of ancient Mars.  Like nearly all Martian\nanimals it is almost hairless, having only a great bristly mane about\nits thick neck.\n\nIts long, lithe body is supported by ten powerful legs, its enormous\njaws are equipped, like those of the calot, or Martian hound, with\nseveral rows of long needle-like fangs; its mouth reaches to a point\nfar back of its tiny ears, while its enormous, protruding eyes of green\nadd the last touch of terror to its awful aspect.\n\nAs it crept toward me it lashed its powerful tail against its yellow\nsides, and when it saw that it was discovered it emitted the terrifying\nroar which often freezes its prey into momentary paralysis in the\ninstant that it makes its spring.\n\nAnd so it launched its great bulk toward me, but its mighty voice had\nheld no paralysing terrors for me, and it met cold steel instead of the\ntender flesh its cruel jaws gaped so widely to engulf.\n\nAn instant later I drew my blade from the still heart of this great\nBarsoomian lion, and turning toward Tars Tarkas was surprised to see\nhim facing a similar monster.\n\nNo sooner had he dispatched his than I, turning, as though drawn by the\ninstinct of my guardian subconscious mind, beheld another of the savage\ndenizens of the Martian wilds leaping across the chamber toward me.\n\nFrom then on for the better part of an hour one hideous creature after\nanother was launched upon us, springing apparently from the empty air\nabout us.\n\nTars Tarkas was satisfied; here was something tangible that he could\ncut and slash with his great blade, while I, for my part, may say that\nthe diversion was a marked improvement over the uncanny voices from\nunseen lips.\n\nThat there was nothing supernatural about our new foes was well\nevidenced by their howls of rage and pain as they felt the sharp steel\nat their vitals, and the very real blood which flowed from their\nsevered arteries as they died the real death.\n\nI noticed during the period of this new persecution that the beasts\nappeared only when our backs were turned; we never saw one really\nmaterialize from thin air, nor did I for an instant sufficiently lose\nmy excellent reasoning faculties to be once deluded into the belief\nthat the beasts came into the room other than through some concealed\nand well-contrived doorway.\n\nAmong the ornaments of Tars Tarkas' leather harness, which is the only\nmanner of clothing worn by Martians other than silk capes and robes of\nsilk and fur for protection from the cold after dark, was a small\nmirror, about the bigness of a lady's hand glass, which hung midway\nbetween his shoulders and his waist against his broad back.\n\nOnce as he stood looking down at a newly fallen antagonist my eyes\nhappened to fall upon this mirror and in its shiny surface I saw\npictured a sight that caused me to whisper:\n\n\"Move not, Tars Tarkas!  Move not a muscle!\"\n\nHe did not ask why, but stood like a graven image while my eyes watched\nthe strange thing that meant so much to us.\n\nWhat I saw was the quick movement of a section of the wall behind me.\nIt was turning upon pivots, and with it a section of the floor directly\nin front of it was turning.  It was as though you placed a\nvisiting-card upon end on a silver dollar that you had laid flat upon a\ntable, so that the edge of the card perfectly bisected the surface of\nthe coin.\n\nThe card might represent the section of the wall that turned and the\nsilver dollar the section of the floor.  Both were so nicely fitted\ninto the adjacent portions of the floor and wall that no crack had been\nnoticeable in the dim light of the chamber.\n\nAs the turn was half completed a great beast was revealed sitting upon\nits haunches upon that part of the revolving floor that had been on the\nopposite side before the wall commenced to move; when the section\nstopped, the beast was facing toward me on our side of the\npartition--it was very simple.\n\nBut what had interested me most was the sight that the half-turned\nsection had presented through the opening that it had made.  A great\nchamber, well lighted, in which were several men and women chained to\nthe wall, and in front of them, evidently directing and operating the\nmovement of the secret doorway, a wicked-faced man, neither red as are\nthe red men of Mars, nor green as are the green men, but white, like\nmyself, with a great mass of flowing yellow hair.\n\nThe prisoners behind him were red Martians.  Chained with them were a\nnumber of fierce beasts, such as had been turned upon us, and others\nequally as ferocious.\n\nAs I turned to meet my new foe it was with a heart considerably\nlightened.\n\n\"Watch the wall at your end of the chamber, Tars Tarkas,\" I cautioned,\n\"it is through secret doorways in the wall that the brutes are loosed\nupon us.\"  I was very close to him and spoke in a low whisper that my\nknowledge of their secret might not be disclosed to our tormentors.\n\nAs long as we remained each facing an opposite end of the apartment no\nfurther attacks were made upon us, so it was quite clear to me that the\npartitions were in some way pierced that our actions might be observed\nfrom without.\n\nAt length a plan of action occurred to me, and backing quite close to\nTars Tarkas I unfolded my scheme in a low whisper, keeping my eyes\nstill glued upon my end of the room.\n\nThe great Thark grunted his assent to my proposition when I had done,\nand in accordance with my plan commenced backing toward the wall which\nI faced while I advanced slowly ahead of him.\n\nWhen we had reached a point some ten feet from the secret doorway I\nhalted my companion, and cautioning him to remain absolutely motionless\nuntil I gave the prearranged signal I quickly turned my back to the\ndoor through which I could almost feel the burning and baleful eyes of\nour would be executioner.\n\nInstantly my own eyes sought the mirror upon Tars Tarkas' back and in\nanother second I was closely watching the section of the wall which had\nbeen disgorging its savage terrors upon us.\n\nI had not long to wait, for presently the golden surface commenced to\nmove rapidly.  Scarcely had it started than I gave the signal to Tars\nTarkas, simultaneously springing for the receding half of the pivoting\ndoor.  In like manner the Thark wheeled and leaped for the opening\nbeing made by the inswinging section.\n\nA single bound carried me completely through into the adjoining room\nand brought me face to face with the fellow whose cruel face I had seen\nbefore.  He was about my own height and well muscled and in every\noutward detail moulded precisely as are Earth men.\n\nAt his side hung a long-sword, a short-sword, a dagger, and one of the\ndestructive radium revolvers that are common upon Mars.\n\nThe fact that I was armed only with a long-sword, and so according to\nthe laws and ethics of battle everywhere upon Barsoom should only have\nbeen met with a similar or lesser weapon, seemed to have no effect upon\nthe moral sense of my enemy, for he whipped out his revolver ere I\nscarce had touched the floor by his side, but an uppercut from my\nlong-sword sent it flying from his grasp before he could discharge it.\n\nInstantly he drew his long-sword, and thus evenly armed we set to in\nearnest for one of the closest battles I ever have fought.\n\nThe fellow was a marvellous swordsman and evidently in practice, while\nI had not gripped the hilt of a sword for ten long years before that\nmorning.\n\nBut it did not take me long to fall easily into my fighting stride, so\nthat in a few minutes the man began to realize that he had at last met\nhis match.\n\nHis face became livid with rage as he found my guard impregnable, while\nblood flowed from a dozen minor wounds upon his face and body.\n\n\"Who are you, white man?\" he hissed.  \"That you are no Barsoomian from\nthe outer world is evident from your colour.  And you are not of us.\"\n\nHis last statement was almost a question.\n\n\"What if I were from the Temple of Issus?\" I hazarded on a wild guess.\n\n\"Fate forfend!\" he exclaimed, his face going white under the blood that\nnow nearly covered it.\n\nI did not know how to follow up my lead, but I carefully laid the idea\naway for future use should circumstances require it.  His answer\nindicated that for all he KNEW I might be from the Temple of Issus and\nin it were men like unto myself, and either this man feared the inmates\nof the temple or else he held their persons or their power in such\nreverence that he trembled to think of the harm and indignities he had\nheaped upon one of them.\n\nBut my present business with him was of a different nature than that\nwhich requires any considerable abstract reasoning; it was to get my\nsword between his ribs, and this I succeeded in doing within the next\nfew seconds, nor was I an instant too soon.\n\nThe chained prisoners had been watching the combat in tense silence;\nnot a sound had fallen in the room other than the clashing of our\ncontending blades, the soft shuffling of our naked feet and the few\nwhispered words we had hissed at each other through clenched teeth the\nwhile we continued our mortal duel.\n\nBut as the body of my antagonist sank an inert mass to the floor a cry\nof warning broke from one of the female prisoners.\n\n\"Turn!  Turn!  Behind you!\" she shrieked, and as I wheeled at the first\nnote of her shrill cry I found myself facing a second man of the same\nrace as he who lay at my feet.\n\nThe fellow had crept stealthily from a dark corridor and was almost\nupon me with raised sword ere I saw him.  Tars Tarkas was nowhere in\nsight and the secret panel in the wall, through which I had come, was\nclosed.\n\nHow I wished that he were by my side now!  I had fought almost\ncontinuously for many hours; I had passed through such experiences and\nadventures as must sap the vitality of man, and with all this I had not\neaten for nearly twenty-four hours, nor slept.\n\nI was fagged out, and for the first time in years felt a question as to\nmy ability to cope with an antagonist; but there was naught else for it\nthan to engage my man, and that as quickly and ferociously as lay in\nme, for my only salvation was to rush him off his feet by the\nimpetuosity of my attack--I could not hope to win a long-drawn-out\nbattle.\n\nBut the fellow was evidently of another mind, for he backed and parried\nand parried and sidestepped until I was almost completely fagged from\nthe exertion of attempting to finish him.\n\nHe was a more adroit swordsman, if possible, than my previous foe, and\nI must admit that he led me a pretty chase and in the end came near to\nmaking a sorry fool of me--and a dead one into the bargain.\n\nI could feel myself growing weaker and weaker, until at length objects\ncommenced to blur before my eyes and I staggered and blundered about\nmore asleep than awake, and then it was that he worked his pretty\nlittle coup that came near to losing me my life.\n\nHe had backed me around so that I stood in front of the corpse of his\nfellow, and then he rushed me suddenly so that I was forced back upon\nit, and as my heel struck it the impetus of my body flung me backward\nacross the dead man.\n\nMy head struck the hard pavement with a resounding whack, and to that\nalone I owe my life, for it cleared my brain and the pain roused my\ntemper, so that I was equal for the moment to tearing my enemy to\npieces with my bare hands, and I verily believe that I should have\nattempted it had not my right hand, in the act of raising my body from\nthe ground, come in contact with a bit of cold metal.\n\nAs the eyes of the layman so is the hand of the fighting man when it\ncomes in contact with an implement of his vocation, and thus I did not\nneed to look or reason to know that the dead man's revolver, lying\nwhere it had fallen when I struck it from his grasp, was at my disposal.\n\nThe fellow whose ruse had put me down was springing toward me, the\npoint of his gleaming blade directed straight at my heart, and as he\ncame there rang from his lips the cruel and mocking peal of laughter\nthat I had heard within the Chamber of Mystery.\n\nAnd so he died, his thin lips curled in the snarl of his hateful laugh,\nand a bullet from the revolver of his dead companion bursting in his\nheart.\n\nHis body, borne by the impetus of his headlong rush, plunged upon me.\nThe hilt of his sword must have struck my head, for with the impact of\nthe corpse I lost consciousness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHUVIA\n\n\nIt was the sound of conflict that aroused me once more to the realities\nof life.  For a moment I could neither place my surroundings nor locate\nthe sounds which had aroused me.  And then from beyond the blank wall\nbeside which I lay I heard the shuffling of feet, the snarling of grim\nbeasts, the clank of metal accoutrements, and the heavy breathing of a\nman.\n\nAs I rose to my feet I glanced hurriedly about the chamber in which I\nhad just encountered such a warm reception.  The prisoners and the\nsavage brutes rested in their chains by the opposite wall eyeing me\nwith varying expressions of curiosity, sullen rage, surprise, and hope.\n\nThe latter emotion seemed plainly evident upon the handsome and\nintelligent face of the young red Martian woman whose cry of warning\nhad been instrumental in saving my life.\n\nShe was the perfect type of that remarkably beautiful race whose\noutward appearance is identical with the more god-like races of Earth\nmen, except that this higher race of Martians is of a light reddish\ncopper colour.  As she was entirely unadorned I could not even guess\nher station in life, though it was evident that she was either a\nprisoner or slave in her present environment.\n\nIt was several seconds before the sounds upon the opposite side of the\npartition jolted my slowly returning faculties into a realization of\ntheir probable import, and then of a sudden I grasped the fact that\nthey were caused by Tars Tarkas in what was evidently a desperate\nstruggle with wild beasts or savage men.\n\nWith a cry of encouragement I threw my weight against the secret door,\nbut as well have assayed the down-hurling of the cliffs themselves.\nThen I sought feverishly for the secret of the revolving panel, but my\nsearch was fruitless, and I was about to raise my longsword against the\nsullen gold when the young woman prisoner called out to me.\n\n\"Save thy sword, O Mighty Warrior, for thou shalt need it more where it\nwill avail to some purpose--shatter it not against senseless metal\nwhich yields better to the lightest finger touch of one who knows its\nsecret.\"\n\n\"Know you the secret of it then?\" I asked.\n\n\"Yes; release me and I will give you entrance to the other horror\nchamber, if you wish.  The keys to my fetters are upon the first dead\nof thy foemen.  But why would you return to face again the fierce\nbanth, or whatever other form of destruction they have loosed within\nthat awful trap?\"\n\n\"Because my friend fights there alone,\" I answered, as I hastily sought\nand found the keys upon the carcass of the dead custodian of this grim\nchamber of horrors.\n\nThere were many keys upon the oval ring, but the fair Martian maid\nquickly selected that which sprung the great lock at her waist, and\nfreed she hurried toward the secret panel.\n\nAgain she sought out a key upon the ring.  This time a slender,\nneedle-like affair which she inserted in an almost invisible hole in\nthe wall.  Instantly the door swung upon its pivot, and the contiguous\nsection of the floor upon which I was standing carried me with it into\nthe chamber where Tars Tarkas fought.\n\nThe great Thark stood with his back against an angle of the walls,\nwhile facing him in a semi-circle a half-dozen huge monsters crouched\nwaiting for an opening.  Their blood-streaked heads and shoulders\ntestified to the cause of their wariness as well as to the\nswordsmanship of the green warrior whose glossy hide bore the same mute\nbut eloquent witness to the ferocity of the attacks that he had so far\nwithstood.\n\nSharp talons and cruel fangs had torn leg, arm, and breast literally to\nribbons.  So weak was he from continued exertion and loss of blood that\nbut for the supporting wall I doubt that he even could have stood\nerect.  But with the tenacity and indomitable courage of his kind he\nstill faced his cruel and relentless foes--the personification of that\nancient proverb of his tribe: \"Leave to a Thark his head and one hand\nand he may yet conquer.\"\n\nAs he saw me enter, a grim smile touched those grim lips of his, but\nwhether the smile signified relief or merely amusement at the sight of\nmy own bloody and dishevelled condition I do not know.\n\nAs I was about to spring into the conflict with my sharp long-sword I\nfelt a gentle hand upon my shoulder and turning found, to my surprise,\nthat the young woman had followed me into the chamber.\n\n\"Wait,\" she whispered, \"leave them to me,\" and pushing me advanced, all\ndefenceless and unarmed, upon the snarling banths.\n\nWhen quite close to them she spoke a single Martian word in low but\nperemptory tones.  Like lightning the great beasts wheeled upon her,\nand I looked to see her torn to pieces before I could reach her side,\nbut instead the creatures slunk to her feet like puppies that expect a\nmerited whipping.\n\nAgain she spoke to them, but in tones so low I could not catch the\nwords, and then she started toward the opposite side of the chamber\nwith the six mighty monsters trailing at heel.  One by one she sent\nthem through the secret panel into the room beyond, and when the last\nhad passed from the chamber where we stood in wide-eyed amazement she\nturned and smiled at us and then herself passed through, leaving us\nalone.\n\nFor a moment neither of us spoke.  Then Tars Tarkas said:\n\n\"I heard the fighting beyond the partition through which you passed,\nbut I did not fear for you, John Carter, until I heard the report of a\nrevolver shot.  I knew that there lived no man upon all Barsoom who\ncould face you with naked steel and live, but the shot stripped the\nlast vestige of hope from me, since you I knew to be without firearms.\nTell me of it.\"\n\nI did as he bade, and then together we sought the secret panel through\nwhich I had just entered the apartment--the one at the opposite end of\nthe room from that through which the girl had led her savage companions.\n\nTo our disappointment the panel eluded our every effort to negotiate\nits secret lock.  We felt that once beyond it we might look with some\nlittle hope of success for a passage to the outside world.\n\nThe fact that the prisoners within were securely chained led us to\nbelieve that surely there must be an avenue of escape from the terrible\ncreatures which inhabited this unspeakable place.\n\nAgain and again we turned from one door to another, from the baffling\ngolden panel at one end of the chamber to its mate at the\nother--equally baffling.\n\nWhen we had about given up all hope one of the panels turned silently\ntoward us, and the young woman who had led away the banths stood once\nmore beside us.\n\n\"Who are you?\" she asked, \"and what your mission, that you have the\ntemerity to attempt to escape from the Valley Dor and the death you\nhave chosen?\"\n\n\"I have chosen no death, maiden,\" I replied.  \"I am not of Barsoom, nor\nhave I taken yet the voluntary pilgrimage upon the River Iss.  My\nfriend here is Jeddak of all the Tharks, and though he has not yet\nexpressed a desire to return to the living world, I am taking him with\nme from the living lie that hath lured him to this frightful place.\n\n\"I am of another world.  I am John Carter, Prince of the House of\nTardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.  Perchance some faint rumour of me may\nhave leaked within the confines of your hellish abode.\"\n\nShe smiled.\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied, \"naught that passes in the world we have left is\nunknown here.  I have heard of you, many years ago.  The therns have\nofttimes wondered whither you had flown, since you had neither taken\nthe pilgrimage, nor could be found upon the face of Barsoom.\"\n\n\"Tell me,\" I said, \"and who be you, and why a prisoner, yet with power\nover the ferocious beasts of the place that denotes familiarity and\nauthority far beyond that which might be expected of a prisoner or a\nslave?\"\n\n\"Slave I am,\" she answered.  \"For fifteen years a slave in this\nterrible place, and now that they have tired of me and become fearful\nof the power which my knowledge of their ways has given me I am but\nrecently condemned to die the death.\"\n\nShe shuddered.\n\n\"What death?\" I asked.\n\n\"The Holy Therns eat human flesh,\" she answered me; \"but only that\nwhich has died beneath the sucking lips of a plant man--flesh from\nwhich the defiling blood of life has been drawn.  And to this cruel end\nI have been condemned.  It was to be within a few hours, had your\nadvent not caused an interruption of their plans.\"\n\n\"Was it then Holy Therns who felt the weight of John Carter's hand?\" I\nasked.\n\n\"Oh, no; those whom you laid low are lesser therns; but of the same\ncruel and hateful race.  The Holy Therns abide upon the outer slopes of\nthese grim hills, facing the broad world from which they harvest their\nvictims and their spoils.\n\n\"Labyrinthine passages connect these caves with the luxurious palaces\nof the Holy Therns, and through them pass upon their many duties the\nlesser therns, and hordes of slaves, and prisoners, and fierce beasts;\nthe grim inhabitants of this sunless world.\n\n\"There be within this vast network of winding passages and countless\nchambers men, women, and beasts who, born within its dim and gruesome\nunderworld, have never seen the light of day--nor ever shall.\n\n\"They are kept to do the bidding of the race of therns; to furnish at\nonce their sport and their sustenance.\n\n\"Now and again some hapless pilgrim, drifting out upon the silent sea\nfrom the cold Iss, escapes the plant men and the great white apes that\nguard the Temple of Issus and falls into the remorseless clutches of\nthe therns; or, as was my misfortune, is coveted by the Holy Thern who\nchances to be upon watch in the balcony above the river where it issues\nfrom the bowels of the mountains through the cliffs of gold to empty\ninto the Lost Sea of Korus.\n\n\"All who reach the Valley Dor are, by custom, the rightful prey of the\nplant men and the apes, while their arms and ornaments become the\nportion of the therns; but if one escapes the terrible denizens of the\nvalley for even a few hours the therns may claim such a one as their\nown.  And again the Holy Thern on watch, should he see a victim he\ncovets, often tramples upon the rights of the unreasoning brutes of the\nvalley and takes his prize by foul means if he cannot gain it by fair.\n\n\"It is said that occasionally some deluded victim of Barsoomian\nsuperstition will so far escape the clutches of the countless enemies\nthat beset his path from the moment that he emerges from the\nsubterranean passage through which the Iss flows for a thousand miles\nbefore it enters the Valley Dor as to reach the very walls of the\nTemple of Issus; but what fate awaits one there not even the Holy\nTherns may guess, for who has passed within those gilded walls never\nhas returned to unfold the mysteries they have held since the beginning\nof time.\n\n\"The Temple of Issus is to the therns what the Valley Dor is imagined\nby the peoples of the outer world to be to them; it is the ultimate\nhaven of peace, refuge, and happiness to which they pass after this\nlife and wherein an eternity of eternities is spent amidst the delights\nof the flesh which appeal most strongly to this race of mental giants\nand moral pygmies.\"\n\n\"The Temple of Issus is, I take it, a heaven within a heaven,\" I said.\n\"Let us hope that there it will be meted to the therns as they have\nmeted it here unto others.\"\n\n\"Who knows?\" the girl murmured.\n\n\"The therns, I judge from what you have said, are no less mortal than\nwe; and yet have I always heard them spoken of with the utmost awe and\nreverence by the people of Barsoom, as one might speak of the gods\nthemselves.\"\n\n\"The therns are mortal,\" she replied.  \"They die from the same causes\nas you or I might: those who do not live their allotted span of life,\none thousand years, when by the authority of custom they may take their\nway in happiness through the long tunnel that leads to Issus.\n\n\"Those who die before are supposed to spend the balance of their\nallotted time in the image of a plant man, and it is for this reason\nthat the plant men are held sacred by the therns, since they believe\nthat each of these hideous creatures was formerly a thern.\"\n\n\"And should a plant man die?\" I asked.\n\n\"Should he die before the expiration of the thousand years from the\nbirth of the thern whose immortality abides within him then the soul\npasses into a great white ape, but should the ape die short of the\nexact hour that terminates the thousand years the soul is for ever lost\nand passes for all eternity into the carcass of the slimy and fearsome\nsilians whose wriggling thousands seethe the silent sea beneath the\nhurtling moons when the sun has gone and strange shapes walk through\nthe Valley Dor.\"\n\n\"We sent several Holy Therns to the silians to-day, then,\" said Tars\nTarkas, laughing.\n\n\"And so will your death be the more terrible when it comes,\" said the\nmaiden.  \"And come it will--you cannot escape.\"\n\n\"One has escaped, centuries ago,\" I reminded her, \"and what has been\ndone may be done again.\"\n\n\"It is useless even to try,\" she answered hopelessly.\n\n\"But try we shall,\" I cried, \"and you shall go with us, if you wish.\"\n\n\"To be put to death by mine own people, and render my memory a disgrace\nto my family and my nation?  A Prince of the House of Tardos Mors\nshould know better than to suggest such a thing.\"\n\nTars Tarkas listened in silence, but I could feel his eyes riveted upon\nme and I knew that he awaited my answer as one might listen to the\nreading of his sentence by the foreman of a jury.\n\nWhat I advised the girl to do would seal our fate as well, since if I\nbowed to the inevitable decree of age-old superstition we must all\nremain and meet our fate in some horrible form within this awful abode\nof horror and cruelty.\n\n\"We have the right to escape if we can,\" I answered.  \"Our own moral\nsenses will not be offended if we succeed, for we know that the fabled\nlife of love and peace in the blessed Valley of Dor is a rank and\nwicked deception.  We know that the valley is not sacred; we know that\nthe Holy Therns are not holy; that they are a race of cruel and\nheartless mortals, knowing no more of the real life to come than we do.\n\n\"Not only is it our right to bend every effort to escape--it is a\nsolemn duty from which we should not shrink even though we know that we\nshould be reviled and tortured by our own peoples when we returned to\nthem.\n\n\"Only thus may we carry the truth to those without, and though the\nlikelihood of our narrative being given credence is, I grant you,\nremote, so wedded are mortals to their stupid infatuation for\nimpossible superstitions, we should be craven cowards indeed were we to\nshirk the plain duty which confronts us.\n\n\"Again there is a chance that with the weight of the testimony of\nseveral of us the truth of our statements may be accepted, and at least\na compromise effected which will result in the dispatching of an\nexpedition of investigation to this hideous mockery of heaven.\"\n\nBoth the girl and the green warrior stood silent in thought for some\nmoments.  The former it was who eventually broke the silence.\n\n\"Never had I considered the matter in that light before,\" she said.\n\"Indeed would I give my life a thousand times if I could but save a\nsingle soul from the awful life that I have led in this cruel place.\nYes, you are right, and I will go with you as far as we can go; but I\ndoubt that we ever shall escape.\"\n\nI turned an inquiring glance toward the Thark.\n\n\"To the gates of Issus, or to the bottom of Korus,\" spoke the green\nwarrior; \"to the snows to the north or to the snows to the south, Tars\nTarkas follows where John Carter leads.  I have spoken.\"\n\n\"Come, then,\" I cried, \"we must make the start, for we could not be\nfurther from escape than we now are in the heart of this mountain and\nwithin the four walls of this chamber of death.\"\n\n\"Come, then,\" said the girl, \"but do not flatter yourself that you can\nfind no worse place than this within the territory of the therns.\"\n\nSo saying she swung the secret panel that separated us from the\napartment in which I had found her, and we stepped through once more\ninto the presence of the other prisoners.\n\nThere were in all ten red Martians, men and women, and when we had\nbriefly explained our plan they decided to join forces with us, though\nit was evident that it was with some considerable misgivings that they\nthus tempted fate by opposing an ancient superstition, even though each\nknew through cruel experience the fallacy of its entire fabric.\n\nThuvia, the girl whom I had first freed, soon had the others at\nliberty.  Tars Tarkas and I stripped the bodies of the two therns of\ntheir weapons, which included swords, daggers, and two revolvers of the\ncurious and deadly type manufactured by the red Martians.\n\nWe distributed the weapons as far as they would go among our followers,\ngiving the firearms to two of the women; Thuvia being one so armed.\n\nWith the latter as our guide we set off rapidly but cautiously through\na maze of passages, crossing great chambers hewn from the solid metal\nof the cliff, following winding corridors, ascending steep inclines,\nand now and again concealing ourselves in dark recesses at the sound of\napproaching footsteps.\n\nOur destination, Thuvia said, was a distant storeroom where arms and\nammunition in plenty might be found.  From there she was to lead us to\nthe summit of the cliffs, from where it would require both wondrous wit\nand mighty fighting to win our way through the very heart of the\nstronghold of the Holy Therns to the world without.\n\n\"And even then, O Prince,\" she cried, \"the arm of the Holy Thern is\nlong.  It reaches to every nation of Barsoom.  His secret temples are\nhidden in the heart of every community.  Wherever we go should we\nescape we shall find that word of our coming has preceded us, and death\nawaits us before we may pollute the air with our blasphemies.\"\n\nWe had proceeded for possibly an hour without serious interruption, and\nThuvia had just whispered to me that we were approaching our first\ndestination, when on entering a great chamber we came upon a man,\nevidently a thern.\n\nHe wore in addition to his leathern trappings and jewelled ornaments a\ngreat circlet of gold about his brow in the exact centre of which was\nset an immense stone, the exact counterpart of that which I had seen\nupon the breast of the little old man at the atmosphere plant nearly\ntwenty years before.\n\nIt is the one priceless jewel of Barsoom.  Only two are known to exist,\nand these were worn as the insignia of their rank and position by the\ntwo old men in whose charge was placed the operation of the great\nengines which pump the artificial atmosphere to all parts of Mars from\nthe huge atmosphere plant, the secret to whose mighty portals placed in\nmy possession the ability to save from immediate extinction the life of\na whole world.\n\nThe stone worn by the thern who confronted us was of about the same\nsize as that which I had seen before; an inch in diameter I should say.\nIt scintillated nine different and distinct rays; the seven primary\ncolours of our earthly prism and the two rays which are unknown upon\nEarth, but whose wondrous beauty is indescribable.\n\nAs the thern saw us his eyes narrowed to two nasty slits.\n\n\"Stop!\" he cried.  \"What means this, Thuvia?\"\n\nFor answer the girl raised her revolver and fired point-blank at him.\nWithout a sound he sank to the earth, dead.\n\n\"Beast!\" she hissed.  \"After all these years I am at last revenged.\"\n\nThen as she turned toward me, evidently with a word of explanation on\nher lips, her eyes suddenly widened as they rested upon me, and with a\nlittle exclamation she started toward me.\n\n\"O Prince,\" she cried, \"Fate is indeed kind to us.  The way is still\ndifficult, but through this vile thing upon the floor we may yet win to\nthe outer world.  Notest thou not the remarkable resemblance between\nthis Holy Thern and thyself?\"\n\nThe man was indeed of my precise stature, nor were his eyes and\nfeatures unlike mine; but his hair was a mass of flowing yellow locks,\nlike those of the two I had killed, while mine is black and close\ncropped.\n\n\"What of the resemblance?\" I asked the girl Thuvia.  \"Do you wish me\nwith my black, short hair to pose as a yellow-haired priest of this\ninfernal cult?\"\n\nShe smiled, and for answer approached the body of the man she had\nslain, and kneeling beside it removed the circlet of gold from the\nforehead, and then to my utter amazement lifted the entire scalp bodily\nfrom the corpse's head.\n\nRising, she advanced to my side and placing the yellow wig over my\nblack hair, crowned me with the golden circlet set with the magnificent\ngem.\n\n\"Now don his harness, Prince,\" she said, \"and you may pass where you\nwill in the realms of the therns, for Sator Throg was a Holy Thern of\nthe Tenth Cycle, and mighty among his kind.\"\n\nAs I stooped to the dead man to do her bidding I noted that not a hair\ngrew upon his head, which was quite as bald as an egg.\n\n\"They are all thus from birth,\" explained Thuvia noting my surprise.\n\"The race from which they sprang were crowned with a luxuriant growth\nof golden hair, but for many ages the present race has been entirely\nbald.  The wig, however, has come to be a part of their apparel, and so\nimportant a part do they consider it that it is cause for the deepest\ndisgrace were a thern to appear in public without it.\"\n\nIn another moment I stood garbed in the habiliments of a Holy Thern.\n\nAt Thuvia's suggestion two of the released prisoners bore the body of\nthe dead thern upon their shoulders with us as we continued our journey\ntoward the storeroom, which we reached without further mishap.\n\nHere the keys which Thuvia bore from the dead thern of the prison vault\nwere the means of giving us immediate entrance to the chamber, and very\nquickly we were thoroughly outfitted with arms and ammunition.\n\nBy this time I was so thoroughly fagged out that I could go no further,\nso I threw myself upon the floor, bidding Tars Tarkas to do likewise,\nand cautioning two of the released prisoners to keep careful watch.\n\nIn an instant I was asleep.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nCORRIDORS OF PERIL\n\n\nHow long I slept upon the floor of the storeroom I do not know, but it\nmust have been many hours.\n\nI was awakened with a start by cries of alarm, and scarce were my eyes\nopened, nor had I yet sufficiently collected my wits to quite realize\nwhere I was, when a fusillade of shots rang out, reverberating through\nthe subterranean corridors in a series of deafening echoes.\n\nIn an instant I was upon my feet.  A dozen lesser therns confronted us\nfrom a large doorway at the opposite end of the storeroom from which we\nhad entered.  About me lay the bodies of my companions, with the\nexception of Thuvia and Tars Tarkas, who, like myself, had been asleep\nupon the floor and thus escaped the first raking fire.\n\nAs I gained my feet the therns lowered their wicked rifles, their faces\ndistorted in mingled chagrin, consternation, and alarm.\n\nInstantly I rose to the occasion.\n\n\"What means this?\" I cried in tones of fierce anger.  \"Is Sator Throg\nto be murdered by his own vassals?\"\n\n\"Have mercy, O Master of the Tenth Cycle!\" cried one of the fellows,\nwhile the others edged toward the doorway as though to attempt a\nsurreptitious escape from the presence of the mighty one.\n\n\"Ask them their mission here,\" whispered Thuvia at my elbow.\n\n\"What do you here, fellows?\" I cried.\n\n\"Two from the outer world are at large within the dominions of the\ntherns.  We sought them at the command of the Father of Therns.  One\nwas white with black hair, the other a huge green warrior,\" and here\nthe fellow cast a suspicious glance toward Tars Tarkas.\n\n\"Here, then, is one of them,\" spoke Thuvia, indicating the Thark, \"and\nif you will look upon this dead man by the door perhaps you will\nrecognize the other.  It was left for Sator Throg and his poor slaves\nto accomplish what the lesser therns of the guard were unable to do--we\nhave killed one and captured the other; for this had Sator Throg given\nus our liberty.  And now in your stupidity have you come and killed all\nbut myself, and like to have killed the mighty Sator Throg himself.\"\n\nThe men looked very sheepish and very scared.\n\n\"Had they not better throw these bodies to the plant men and then\nreturn to their quarters, O Mighty One?\" asked Thuvia of me.\n\n\"Yes; do as Thuvia bids you,\" I said.\n\nAs the men picked up the bodies I noticed that the one who stooped to\ngather up the late Sator Throg started as his closer scrutiny fell upon\nthe upturned face, and then the fellow stole a furtive, sneaking glance\nin my direction from the corner of his eye.\n\nThat he suspicioned something of the truth I could have sworn; but that\nit was only a suspicion which he did not dare voice was evidenced by\nhis silence.\n\nAgain, as he bore the body from the room, he shot a quick but searching\nglance toward me, and then his eyes fell once more upon the bald and\nshiny dome of the dead man in his arms.  The last fleeting glimpse that\nI obtained of his profile as he passed from my sight without the\nchamber revealed a cunning smile of triumph upon his lips.\n\nOnly Tars Tarkas, Thuvia, and I were left.  The fatal marksmanship of\nthe therns had snatched from our companions whatever slender chance\nthey had of gaining the perilous freedom of the world without.\n\nSo soon as the last of the gruesome procession had disappeared the girl\nurged us to take up our flight once more.\n\nShe, too, had noted the questioning attitude of the thern who had borne\nSator Throg away.\n\n\"It bodes no good for us, O Prince,\" she said.  \"For even though this\nfellow dared not chance accusing you in error, there be those above\nwith power sufficient to demand a closer scrutiny, and that, Prince,\nwould indeed prove fatal.\"\n\nI shrugged my shoulders.  It seemed that in any event the outcome of\nour plight must end in death.  I was refreshed from my sleep, but still\nweak from loss of blood.  My wounds were painful.  No medicinal aid\nseemed possible.  How I longed for the almost miraculous healing power\nof the strange salves and lotions of the green Martian women.  In an\nhour they would have had me as new.\n\nI was discouraged.  Never had a feeling of such utter hopelessness come\nover me in the face of danger.  Then the long flowing, yellow locks of\nthe Holy Thern, caught by some vagrant draught, blew about my face.\n\nMight they not still open the way of freedom?  If we acted in time,\nmight we not even yet escape before the general alarm was sounded?  We\ncould at least try.\n\n\"What will the fellow do first, Thuvia?\" I asked.  \"How long will it be\nbefore they may return for us?\"\n\n\"He will go directly to the Father of Therns, old Matai Shang.  He may\nhave to wait for an audience, but since he is very high among the\nlesser therns, in fact as a thorian among them, it will not be long\nthat Matai Shang will keep him waiting.\n\n\"Then if the Father of Therns puts credence in his story, another hour\nwill see the galleries and chambers, the courts and gardens, filled\nwith searchers.\"\n\n\"What we do then must be done within an hour.  What is the best way,\nThuvia, the shortest way out of this celestial Hades?\"\n\n\"Straight to the top of the cliffs, Prince,\" she replied, \"and then\nthrough the gardens to the inner courts.  From there our way will lie\nwithin the temples of the therns and across them to the outer court.\nThen the ramparts--O Prince, it is hopeless.  Ten thousand warriors\ncould not hew a way to liberty from out this awful place.\n\n\"Since the beginning of time, little by little, stone by stone, have\nthe therns been ever adding to the defences of their stronghold.  A\ncontinuous line of impregnable fortifications circles the outer slopes\nof the Mountains of Otz.\n\n\"Within the temples that lie behind the ramparts a million fighting-men\nare ever ready.  The courts and gardens are filled with slaves, with\nwomen and with children.\n\n\"None could go a stone's throw without detection.\"\n\n\"If there is no other way, Thuvia, why dwell upon the difficulties of\nthis.  We must face them.\"\n\n\"Can we not better make the attempt after dark?\" asked Tars Tarkas.\n\"There would seem to be no chance by day.\"\n\n\"There would be a little better chance by night, but even then the\nramparts are well guarded; possibly better than by day.  There are\nfewer abroad in the courts and gardens, though,\" said Thuvia.\n\n\"What is the hour?\" I asked.\n\n\"It was midnight when you released me from my chains,\" said Thuvia.\n\"Two hours later we reached the storeroom.  There you slept for\nfourteen hours.  It must now be nearly sundown again.  Come, we will go\nto some nearby window in the cliff and make sure.\"\n\nSo saying, she led the way through winding corridors until at a sudden\nturn we came upon an opening which overlooked the Valley Dor.\n\nAt our right the sun was setting, a huge red orb, below the western\nrange of Otz.  A little below us stood the Holy Thern on watch upon his\nbalcony.  His scarlet robe of office was pulled tightly about him in\nanticipation of the cold that comes so suddenly with darkness as the\nsun sets.  So rare is the atmosphere of Mars that it absorbs very\nlittle heat from the sun.  During the daylight hours it is always\nextremely hot; at night it is intensely cold.  Nor does the thin\natmosphere refract the sun's rays or diffuse its light as upon Earth.\nThere is no twilight on Mars.  When the great orb of day disappears\nbeneath the horizon the effect is precisely as that of the\nextinguishing of a single lamp within a chamber.  From brilliant light\nyou are plunged without warning into utter darkness.  Then the moons\ncome; the mysterious, magic moons of Mars, hurtling like monster\nmeteors low across the face of the planet.\n\nThe declining sun lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus, the\ncrimson sward, the gorgeous forest.  Beneath the trees we saw feeding\nmany herds of plant men.  The adults stood aloft upon their toes and\ntheir mighty tails, their talons pruning every available leaf and twig.\nIt was then that I understood the careful trimming of the trees which\nhad led me to form the mistaken idea when first I opened my eyes upon\nthe grove that it was the playground of a civilized people.\n\nAs we watched, our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued from\nthe base of the cliffs beneath us.  Presently there emerged from the\nmountain a canoe laden with lost souls from the outer world.  There\nwere a dozen of them.  All were of the highly civilized and cultured\nrace of red men who are dominant on Mars.\n\nThe eyes of the herald upon the balcony beneath us fell upon the doomed\nparty as soon as did ours.  He raised his head and leaning far out over\nthe low rail that rimmed his dizzy perch, voiced the shrill, weird wail\nthat called the demons of this hellish place to the attack.\n\nFor an instant the brutes stood with stiffly erected ears, then they\npoured from the grove toward the river's bank, covering the distance\nwith great, ungainly leaps.\n\nThe party had landed and was standing on the sward as the awful horde\ncame in sight.  There was a brief and futile effort of defence.  Then\nsilence as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of their\nvictims and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to the flesh\nof their prey.\n\nI turned away in disgust.\n\n\"Their part is soon over,\" said Thuvia.  \"The great white apes get the\nflesh when the plant men have drained the arteries.  Look, they are\ncoming now.\"\n\nAs I turned my eyes in the direction the girl indicated, I saw a dozen\nof the great white monsters running across the valley toward the river\nbank.  Then the sun went down and darkness that could almost be felt\nengulfed us.\n\nThuvia lost no time in leading us toward the corridor which winds back\nand forth up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands of feet\nabove the level on which we had been.\n\nTwice great banths, wandering loose through the galleries, blocked our\nprogress, but in each instance Thuvia spoke a low word of command and\nthe snarling beasts slunk sullenly away.\n\n\"If you can dissolve all our obstacles as easily as you master these\nfierce brutes I can see no difficulties in our way,\" I said to the\ngirl, smiling.  \"How do you do it?\"\n\nShe laughed, and then shuddered.\n\n\"I do not quite know,\" she said.  \"When first I came here I angered\nSator Throg, because I repulsed him.  He ordered me to be thrown into\none of the great pits in the inner gardens.  It was filled with banths.\nIn my own country I had been accustomed to command.  Something in my\nvoice, I do not know what, cowed the beasts as they sprang to attack me.\n\n\"Instead of tearing me to pieces, as Sator Throg had desired, they\nfawned at my feet.  So greatly were Sator Throg and his friends amused\nby the sight that they kept me to train and handle the terrible\ncreatures.  I know them all by name.  There are many of them wandering\nthrough these lower regions.  They are the scavengers.  Many prisoners\ndie here in their chains.  The banths solve the problem of sanitation,\nat least in this respect.\n\n\"In the gardens and temples above they are kept in pits.  The therns\nfear them.  It is because of the banths that they seldom venture below\nground except as their duties call them.\"\n\nAn idea occurred to me, suggested by what Thuvia had just said.\n\n\"Why not take a number of banths and set them loose before us above\nground?\" I asked.\n\nThuvia laughed.\n\n\"It would distract attention from us, I am sure,\" she said.\n\nShe commenced calling in a low singsong voice that was half purr.  She\ncontinued this as we wound our tedious way through the maze of\nsubterranean passages and chambers.\n\nPresently soft, padded feet sounded close behind us, and as I turned I\nsaw a pair of great, green eyes shining in the dark shadows at our\nrear.  From a diverging tunnel a sinuous, tawny form crept stealthily\ntoward us.\n\nLow growls and angry snarls assailed our ears on every side as we\nhastened on and one by one the ferocious creatures answered the call of\ntheir mistress.\n\nShe spoke a word to each as it joined us.  Like well-schooled terriers,\nthey paced the corridors with us, but I could not help but note the\nlathering jowls, nor the hungry expressions with which they eyed Tars\nTarkas and myself.\n\nSoon we were entirely surrounded by some fifty of the brutes.  Two\nwalked close on either side of Thuvia, as guards might walk.  The sleek\nsides of others now and then touched my own naked limbs.  It was a\nstrange experience; the almost noiseless passage of naked human feet\nand padded paws; the golden walls splashed with precious stones; the\ndim light cast by the tiny radium bulbs set at considerable distances\nalong the roof; the huge, maned beasts of prey crowding with low growls\nabout us; the mighty green warrior towering high above us all; myself\ncrowned with the priceless diadem of a Holy Thern; and leading the\nprocession the beautiful girl, Thuvia.\n\nI shall not soon forget it.\n\nPresently we approached a great chamber more brightly lighted than the\ncorridors.  Thuvia halted us.  Quietly she stole toward the entrance\nand glanced within.  Then she motioned us to follow her.\n\nThe room was filled with specimens of the strange beings that inhabit\nthis underworld; a heterogeneous collection of hybrids--the offspring\nof the prisoners from the outside world; red and green Martians and the\nwhite race of therns.\n\nConstant confinement below ground had wrought odd freaks upon their\nskins.  They more resemble corpses than living beings.  Many are\ndeformed, others maimed, while the majority, Thuvia explained, are\nsightless.\n\nAs they lay sprawled about the floor, sometimes overlapping one\nanother, again in heaps of several bodies, they suggested instantly to\nme the grotesque illustrations that I had seen in copies of Dante's\nINFERNO, and what more fitting comparison?  Was this not indeed a\nveritable hell, peopled by lost souls, dead and damned beyond all hope?\n\nPicking our way carefully we threaded a winding path across the\nchamber, the great banths sniffing hungrily at the tempting prey spread\nbefore them in such tantalizing and defenceless profusion.\n\nSeveral times we passed the entrances to other chambers similarly\npeopled, and twice again we were compelled to cross directly through\nthem.  In others were chained prisoners and beasts.\n\n\"Why is it that we see no therns?\" I asked of Thuvia.\n\n\"They seldom traverse the underworld at night, for then it is that the\ngreat banths prowl the dim corridors seeking their prey.  The therns\nfear the awful denizens of this cruel and hopeless world that they have\nfostered and allowed to grow beneath their feet.  The prisoners even\nsometimes turn upon them and rend them.  The thern can never tell from\nwhat dark shadow an assassin may spring upon his back.\n\n\"By day it is different.  Then the corridors and chambers are filled\nwith guards passing to and fro; slaves from the temples above come by\nhundreds to the granaries and storerooms.  All is life then.  You did\nnot see it because I led you not in the beaten tracks, but through\nroundabout passages seldom used.  Yet it is possible that we may meet a\nthern even yet.  They do occasionally find it necessary to come here\nafter the sun has set.  Because of this I have moved with such great\ncaution.\"\n\nBut we reached the upper galleries without detection and presently\nThuvia halted us at the foot of a short, steep ascent.\n\n\"Above us,\" she said, \"is a doorway which opens on to the inner\ngardens.  I have brought you thus far.  From here on for four miles to\nthe outer ramparts our way will be beset by countless dangers.  Guards\npatrol the courts, the temples, the gardens.  Every inch of the\nramparts themselves is beneath the eye of a sentry.\"\n\nI could not understand the necessity for such an enormous force of\narmed men about a spot so surrounded by mystery and superstition that\nnot a soul upon Barsoom would have dared to approach it even had they\nknown its exact location.  I questioned Thuvia, asking her what enemies\nthe therns could fear in their impregnable fortress.\n\nWe had reached the doorway now and Thuvia was opening it.\n\n\"They fear the black pirates of Barsoom, O Prince,\" she said, \"from\nwhom may our first ancestors preserve us.\"\n\nThe door swung open; the smell of growing things greeted my nostrils;\nthe cool night air blew against my cheek.  The great banths sniffed the\nunfamiliar odours, and then with a rush they broke past us with low\ngrowls, swarming across the gardens beneath the lurid light of the\nnearer moon.\n\nSuddenly a great cry arose from the roofs of the temples; a cry of\nalarm and warning that, taken up from point to point, ran off to the\neast and to the west, from temple, court, and rampart, until it sounded\nas a dim echo in the distance.\n\nThe great Thark's long-sword leaped from its scabbard; Thuvia shrank\nshuddering to my side.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nTHE BLACK PIRATES OF BARSOOM\n\n\n\"What is it?\" I asked of the girl.\n\nFor answer she pointed to the sky.\n\nI looked, and there, above us, I saw shadowy bodies flitting hither and\nthither high over temple, court, and garden.\n\nAlmost immediately flashes of light broke from these strange objects.\nThere was a roar of musketry, and then answering flashes and roars from\ntemple and rampart.\n\n\"The black pirates of Barsoom, O Prince,\" said Thuvia.\n\nIn great circles the air craft of the marauders swept lower and lower\ntoward the defending forces of the therns.\n\nVolley after volley they vomited upon the temple guards; volley on\nvolley crashed through the thin air toward the fleeting and illusive\nfliers.\n\nAs the pirates swooped closer toward the ground, thern soldiery poured\nfrom the temples into the gardens and courts.  The sight of them in the\nopen brought a score of fliers darting toward us from all directions.\n\nThe therns fired upon them through shields affixed to their rifles, but\non, steadily on, came the grim, black craft.  They were small fliers\nfor the most part, built for two to three men.  A few larger ones there\nwere, but these kept high aloft dropping bombs upon the temples from\ntheir keel batteries.\n\nAt length, with a concerted rush, evidently in response to a signal of\ncommand, the pirates in our immediate vicinity dashed recklessly to the\nground in the very midst of the thern soldiery.\n\nScarcely waiting for their craft to touch, the creatures manning them\nleaped among the therns with the fury of demons.  Such fighting!  Never\nhad I witnessed its like before.  I had thought the green Martians the\nmost ferocious warriors in the universe, but the awful abandon with\nwhich the black pirates threw themselves upon their foes transcended\neverything I ever before had seen.\n\nBeneath the brilliant light of Mars' two glorious moons the whole scene\npresented itself in vivid distinctness.  The golden-haired,\nwhite-skinned therns battling with desperate courage in hand-to-hand\nconflict with their ebony-skinned foemen.\n\nHere a little knot of struggling warriors trampled a bed of gorgeous\npimalia; there the curved sword of a black man found the heart of a\nthern and left its dead foeman at the foot of a wondrous statue carved\nfrom a living ruby; yonder a dozen therns pressed a single pirate back\nupon a bench of emerald, upon whose iridescent surface a strangely\nbeautiful Barsoomian design was traced out in inlaid diamonds.\n\nA little to one side stood Thuvia, the Thark, and I.  The tide of\nbattle had not reached us, but the fighters from time to time swung\nclose enough that we might distinctly note them.\n\nThe black pirates interested me immensely.  I had heard vague rumours,\nlittle more than legends they were, during my former life on Mars; but\nnever had I seen them, nor talked with one who had.\n\nThey were popularly supposed to inhabit the lesser moon, from which\nthey descended upon Barsoom at long intervals.  Where they visited they\nwrought the most horrible atrocities, and when they left carried away\nwith them firearms and ammunition, and young girls as prisoners.  These\nlatter, the rumour had it, they sacrificed to some terrible god in an\norgy which ended in the eating of their victims.\n\nI had an excellent opportunity to examine them, as the strife\noccasionally brought now one and now another close to where I stood.\nThey were large men, possibly six feet and over in height.  Their\nfeatures were clear cut and handsome in the extreme; their eyes were\nwell set and large, though a slight narrowness lent them a crafty\nappearance; the iris, as well as I could determine by moonlight, was of\nextreme blackness, while the eyeball itself was quite white and clear.\nThe physical structure of their bodies seemed identical with those of\nthe therns, the red men, and my own.  Only in the colour of their skin\ndid they differ materially from us; that is of the appearance of\npolished ebony, and odd as it may seem for a Southerner to say it, adds\nto rather than detracts from their marvellous beauty.\n\nBut if their bodies are divine, their hearts, apparently, are quite the\nreverse.  Never did I witness such a malign lust for blood as these\ndemons of the outer air evinced in their mad battle with the therns.\n\nAll about us in the garden lay their sinister craft, which the therns\nfor some reason, then unaccountable to me, made no effort to injure.\nNow and again a black warrior would rush from a nearby temple bearing\na young woman in his arms.  Straight for his flier he would leap while\nthose of his comrades who fought near by would rush to cover his escape.\n\nThe therns on their side would hasten to rescue the girl, and in an\ninstant the two would be swallowed in the vortex of a maelstrom of\nyelling devils, hacking and hewing at one another, like fiends\nincarnate.\n\nBut always, it seemed, were the black pirates of Barsoom victorious,\nand the girl, brought miraculously unharmed through the conflict, borne\naway into the outer darkness upon the deck of a swift flier.\n\nFighting similar to that which surrounded us could be heard in both\ndirections as far as sound carried, and Thuvia told me that the attacks\nof the black pirates were usually made simultaneously along the entire\nribbon-like domain of the therns, which circles the Valley Dor on the\nouter slopes of the Mountains of Otz.\n\nAs the fighting receded from our position for a moment, Thuvia turned\ntoward me with a question.\n\n\"Do you understand now, O Prince,\" she said, \"why a million warriors\nguard the domains of the Holy Therns by day and by night?\"\n\n\"The scene you are witnessing now is but a repetition of what I have\nseen enacted a score of times during the fifteen years I have been a\nprisoner here.  From time immemorial the black pirates of Barsoom have\npreyed upon the Holy Therns.\n\n\"Yet they never carry their expeditions to a point, as one might\nreadily believe it was in their power to do, where the extermination of\nthe race of therns is threatened.  It is as though they but utilized\nthe race as playthings, with which they satisfy their ferocious lust\nfor fighting; and from whom they collect toll in arms and ammunition\nand in prisoners.\"\n\n\"Why don't they jump in and destroy these fliers?\" I asked.  \"That\nwould soon put a stop to the attacks, or at least the blacks would\nscarce be so bold.  Why, see how perfectly unguarded they leave their\ncraft, as though they were lying safe in their own hangars at home.\"\n\n\"The therns do not dare.  They tried it once, ages ago, but the next\nnight and for a whole moon thereafter a thousand great black\nbattleships circled the Mountains of Otz, pouring tons of projectiles\nupon the temples, the gardens, and the courts, until every thern who\nwas not killed was driven for safety into the subterranean galleries.\n\n\"The therns know that they live at all only by the sufferance of the\nblack men.  They were near to extermination that once and they will not\nventure risking it again.\"\n\nAs she ceased talking a new element was instilled into the conflict.\nIt came from a source equally unlooked for by either thern or pirate.\nThe great banths which we had liberated in the garden had evidently\nbeen awed at first by the sound of the battle, the yelling of the\nwarriors and the loud report of rifle and bomb.\n\nBut now they must have become angered by the continuous noise and\nexcited by the smell of new blood, for all of a sudden a great form\nshot from a clump of low shrubbery into the midst of a struggling mass\nof humanity.  A horrid scream of bestial rage broke from the banth as\nhe felt warm flesh beneath his powerful talons.\n\nAs though his cry was but a signal to the others, the entire great pack\nhurled themselves among the fighters.  Panic reigned in an instant.\nThern and black man turned alike against the common enemy, for the\nbanths showed no partiality toward either.\n\nThe awful beasts bore down a hundred men by the mere weight of their\ngreat bodies as they hurled themselves into the thick of the fight.\nLeaping and clawing, they mowed down the warriors with their powerful\npaws, turning for an instant to rend their victims with frightful fangs.\n\nThe scene was fascinating in its terribleness, but suddenly it came to\nme that we were wasting valuable time watching this conflict, which in\nitself might prove a means of our escape.\n\nThe therns were so engaged with their terrible assailants that now, if\never, escape should be comparatively easy.  I turned to search for an\nopening through the contending hordes.  If we could but reach the\nramparts we might find that the pirates somewhere had thinned the\nguarding forces and left a way open to us to the world without.\n\nAs my eyes wandered about the garden, the sight of the hundreds of air\ncraft lying unguarded around us suggested the simplest avenue to\nfreedom.  Why it had not occurred to me before!  I was thoroughly\nfamiliar with the mechanism of every known make of flier on Barsoom.\nFor nine years I had sailed and fought with the navy of Helium.  I had\nraced through space on the tiny one-man air scout and I had commanded\nthe greatest battleship that ever had floated in the thin air of dying\nMars.\n\nTo think, with me, is to act.  Grasping Thuvia by the arm, I whispered\nto Tars Tarkas to follow me.  Quickly we glided toward a small flier\nwhich lay furthest from the battling warriors.  Another instant found\nus huddled on the tiny deck.  My hand was on the starting lever.  I\npressed my thumb upon the button which controls the ray of repulsion,\nthat splendid discovery of the Martians which permits them to navigate\nthe thin atmosphere of their planet in huge ships that dwarf the\ndreadnoughts of our earthly navies into pitiful insignificance.\n\nThe craft swayed slightly but she did not move.  Then a new cry of\nwarning broke upon our ears.  Turning, I saw a dozen black pirates\ndashing toward us from the melee.  We had been discovered.  With\nshrieks of rage the demons sprang for us.  With frenzied insistence I\ncontinued to press the little button which should have sent us racing\nout into space, but still the vessel refused to budge.  Then it came to\nme--the reason that she would not rise.\n\nWe had stumbled upon a two-man flier.  Its ray tanks were charged only\nwith sufficient repulsive energy to lift two ordinary men.  The Thark's\ngreat weight was anchoring us to our doom.\n\nThe blacks were nearly upon us.  There was not an instant to be lost in\nhesitation or doubt.\n\nI pressed the button far in and locked it.  Then I set the lever at\nhigh speed and as the blacks came yelling upon us I slipped from the\ncraft's deck and with drawn long-sword met the attack.\n\nAt the same moment a girl's shriek rang out behind me and an instant\nlater, as the blacks fell upon me.  I heard far above my head, and\nfaintly, in Thuvia's voice: \"My Prince, O my Prince; I would rather\nremain and die with--\" But the rest was lost in the noise of my\nassailants.\n\nI knew though that my ruse had worked and that temporarily at least\nThuvia and Tars Tarkas were safe, and the means of escape was theirs.\n\nFor a moment it seemed that I could not withstand the weight of numbers\nthat confronted me, but again, as on so many other occasions when I had\nbeen called upon to face fearful odds upon this planet of warriors and\nfierce beasts, I found that my earthly strength so far transcended that\nof my opponents that the odds were not so greatly against me as they\nappeared.\n\nMy seething blade wove a net of death about me.  For an instant the\nblacks pressed close to reach me with their shorter swords, but\npresently they gave back, and the esteem in which they suddenly had\nlearned to hold my sword arm was writ large upon each countenance.\n\nI knew though that it was but a question of minutes before their\ngreater numbers would wear me down, or get around my guard.  I must go\ndown eventually to certain death before them.  I shuddered at the\nthought of it, dying thus in this terrible place where no word of my\nend ever could reach my Dejah Thoris.  Dying at the hands of nameless\nblack men in the gardens of the cruel therns.\n\nThen my old-time spirit reasserted itself.  The fighting blood of my\nVirginian sires coursed hot through my veins.  The fierce blood lust\nand the joy of battle surged over me.  The fighting smile that has\nbrought consternation to a thousand foemen touched my lips.  I put the\nthought of death out of my mind, and fell upon my antagonists with fury\nthat those who escaped will remember to their dying day.\n\nThat others would press to the support of those who faced me I knew, so\neven as I fought I kept my wits at work, searching for an avenue of\nescape.\n\nIt came from an unexpected quarter out of the black night behind me.  I\nhad just disarmed a huge fellow who had given me a desperate struggle,\nand for a moment the blacks stood back for a breathing spell.\n\nThey eyed me with malignant fury, yet withal there was a touch of\nrespect in their demeanour.\n\n\"Thern,\" said one, \"you fight like a Dator.  But for your detestable\nyellow hair and your white skin you would be an honour to the First\nBorn of Barsoom.\"\n\n\"I am no thern,\" I said, and was about to explain that I was from\nanother world, thinking that by patching a truce with these fellows and\nfighting with them against the therns I might enlist their aid in\nregaining my liberty.  But just at that moment a heavy object smote me\na resounding whack between my shoulders that nearly felled me to the\nground.\n\nAs I turned to meet this new enemy an object passed over my shoulder,\nstriking one of my assailants squarely in the face and knocking him\nsenseless to the sward.  At the same instant I saw that the thing that\nhad struck us was the trailing anchor of a rather fair-sized air\nvessel; possibly a ten man cruiser.\n\nThe ship was floating slowly above us, not more than fifty feet over\nour heads.  Instantly the one chance for escape that it offered\npresented itself to me.  The vessel was slowly rising and now the\nanchor was beyond the blacks who faced me and several feet above their\nheads.\n\nWith a bound that left them gaping in wide-eyed astonishment I sprang\ncompletely over them.  A second leap carried me just high enough to\ngrasp the now rapidly receding anchor.\n\nBut I was successful, and there I hung by one hand, dragging through\nthe branches of the higher vegetation of the gardens, while my late\nfoemen shrieked and howled beneath me.\n\nPresently the vessel veered toward the west and then swung gracefully\nto the south.  In another instant I was carried beyond the crest of the\nGolden Cliffs, out over the Valley Dor, where, six thousand feet below\nme, the Lost Sea of Korus lay shimmering in the moonlight.\n\nCarefully I climbed to a sitting posture across the anchor's arms.  I\nwondered if by chance the vessel might be deserted.  I hoped so.  Or\npossibly it might belong to a friendly people, and have wandered by\naccident almost within the clutches of the pirates and the therns.  The\nfact that it was retreating from the scene of battle lent colour to\nthis hypothesis.\n\nBut I decided to know positively, and at once, so, with the greatest\ncaution, I commenced to climb slowly up the anchor chain toward the\ndeck above me.\n\nOne hand had just reached for the vessel's rail and found it when a\nfierce black face was thrust over the side and eyes filled with\ntriumphant hate looked into mine.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nA FAIR GODDESS\n\n\nFor an instant the black pirate and I remained motionless, glaring into\neach other's eyes.  Then a grim smile curled the handsome lips above\nme, as an ebony hand came slowly in sight from above the edge of the\ndeck and the cold, hollow eye of a revolver sought the centre of my\nforehead.\n\nSimultaneously my free hand shot out for the black throat, just within\nreach, and the ebony finger tightened on the trigger.  The pirate's\nhissing, \"Die, cursed thern,\" was half choked in his windpipe by my\nclutching fingers.  The hammer fell with a futile click upon an empty\nchamber.\n\nBefore he could fire again I had pulled him so far over the edge of the\ndeck that he was forced to drop his firearm and clutch the rail with\nboth hands.\n\nMy grasp upon his throat effectually prevented any outcry, and so we\nstruggled in grim silence; he to tear away from my hold, I to drag him\nover to his death.\n\nHis face was taking on a livid hue, his eyes were bulging from their\nsockets.  It was evident to him that he soon must die unless he tore\nloose from the steel fingers that were choking the life from him.  With\na final effort he threw himself further back upon the deck, at the same\ninstant releasing his hold upon the rail to tear frantically with both\nhands at my fingers in an effort to drag them from his throat.\n\nThat little second was all that I awaited.  With one mighty downward\nsurge I swept him clear of the deck.  His falling body came near to\ntearing me from the frail hold that my single free hand had upon the\nanchor chain and plunging me with him to the waters of the sea below.\n\nI did not relinquish my grasp upon him, however, for I knew that a\nsingle shriek from those lips as he hurtled to his death in the silent\nwaters of the sea would bring his comrades from above to avenge him.\n\nInstead I held grimly to him, choking, ever choking, while his frantic\nstruggles dragged me lower and lower toward the end of the chain.\n\nGradually his contortions became spasmodic, lessening by degrees until\nthey ceased entirely.  Then I released my hold upon him and in an\ninstant he was swallowed by the black shadows far below.\n\nAgain I climbed to the ship's rail.  This time I succeeded in raising\nmy eyes to the level of the deck, where I could take a careful survey\nof the conditions immediately confronting me.\n\nThe nearer moon had passed below the horizon, but the clear effulgence\nof the further satellite bathed the deck of the cruiser, bringing into\nsharp relief the bodies of six or eight black men sprawled about in\nsleep.\n\nHuddled close to the base of a rapid fire gun was a young white girl,\nsecurely bound.  Her eyes were widespread in an expression of horrified\nanticipation and fixed directly upon me as I came in sight above the\nedge of the deck.\n\nUnutterable relief instantly filled them as if they fell upon the mystic\njewel which sparkled in the centre of my stolen headpiece.  She did not\nspeak.  Instead her eyes warned me to beware the sleeping figures that\nsurrounded her.\n\nNoiselessly I gained the deck.  The girl nodded to me to approach her.\nAs I bent low she whispered to me to release her.\n\n\"I can aid you,\" she said, \"and you will need all the aid available\nwhen they awaken.\"\n\n\"Some of them will awake in Korus,\" I replied smiling.\n\nShe caught the meaning of my words, and the cruelty of her answering\nsmile horrified me.  One is not astonished by cruelty in a hideous\nface, but when it touches the features of a goddess whose\nfine-chiselled lineaments might more fittingly portray love and beauty,\nthe contrast is appalling.\n\nQuickly I released her.\n\n\"Give me a revolver,\" she whispered.  \"I can use that upon those your\nsword does not silence in time.\"\n\nI did as she bid.  Then I turned toward the distasteful work that lay\nbefore me.  This was no time for fine compunctions, nor for a chivalry\nthat these cruel demons would neither appreciate nor reciprocate.\n\nStealthily I approached the nearest sleeper.  When he awoke he was well\non his journey to the bosom of Korus.  His piercing shriek as\nconsciousness returned to him came faintly up to us from the black\ndepths beneath.\n\nThe second awoke as I touched him, and, though I succeeded in hurling\nhim from the cruiser's deck, his wild cry of alarm brought the\nremaining pirates to their feet.  There were five of them.\n\nAs they arose the girl's revolver spoke in sharp staccato and one sank\nback to the deck again to rise no more.\n\nThe others rushed madly upon me with drawn swords.  The girl evidently\ndared not fire for fear of wounding me, but I saw her sneak stealthily\nand cat-like toward the flank of the attackers.  Then they were on me.\n\nFor a few minutes I experienced some of the hottest fighting I had ever\npassed through.  The quarters were too small for foot work.  It was\nstand your ground and give and take.  At first I took considerably more\nthan I gave, but presently I got beneath one fellow's guard and had the\nsatisfaction of seeing him collapse upon the deck.\n\nThe others redoubled their efforts.  The crashing of their blades upon\nmine raised a terrific din that might have been heard for miles through\nthe silent night.  Sparks flew as steel smote steel, and then there was\nthe dull and sickening sound of a shoulder bone parting beneath the\nkeen edge of my Martian sword.\n\nThree now faced me, but the girl was working her way to a point that\nwould soon permit her to reduce the number by one at least.  Then\nthings happened with such amazing rapidity that I can scarce comprehend\neven now all that took place in that brief instant.\n\nThe three rushed me with the evident purpose of forcing me back the few\nsteps that would carry my body over the rail into the void below.  At\nthe same instant the girl fired and my sword arm made two moves.  One\nman dropped with a bullet in his brain; a sword flew clattering across\nthe deck and dropped over the edge beyond as I disarmed one of my\nopponents and the third went down with my blade buried to the hilt in\nhis breast and three feet of it protruding from his back, and falling\nwrenched the sword from my grasp.\n\nDisarmed myself, I now faced my remaining foeman, whose own sword lay\nsomewhere thousands of feet below us, lost in the Lost Sea.\n\nThe new conditions seemed to please my adversary, for a smile of\nsatisfaction bared his gleaming teeth as he rushed at me bare-handed.\nThe great muscles which rolled beneath his glossy black hide evidently\nassured him that here was easy prey, not worth the trouble of drawing\nthe dagger from his harness.\n\nI let him come almost upon me.  Then I ducked beneath his outstretched\narms, at the same time sidestepping to the right.  Pivoting on my left\ntoe, I swung a terrific right to his jaw, and, like a felled ox, he\ndropped in his tracks.\n\nA low, silvery laugh rang out behind me.\n\n\"You are no thern,\" said the sweet voice of my companion, \"for all your\ngolden locks or the harness of Sator Throg.  Never lived there upon all\nBarsoom before one who could fight as you have fought this night.  Who\nare you?\"\n\n\"I am John Carter, Prince of the House of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of\nHelium,\" I replied.  \"And whom,\" I added, \"has the honour of serving\nbeen accorded me?\"\n\nShe hesitated a moment before speaking.  Then she asked:\n\n\"You are no thern.  Are you an enemy of the therns?\"\n\n\"I have been in the territory of the therns for a day and a half.\nDuring that entire time my life has been in constant danger.  I have\nbeen harassed and persecuted.  Armed men and fierce beasts have been\nset upon me.  I had no quarrel with the therns before, but can you\nwonder that I feel no great love for them now?  I have spoken.\"\n\nShe looked at me intently for several minutes before she replied.  It\nwas as though she were attempting to read my inmost soul, to judge my\ncharacter and my standards of chivalry in that long-drawn, searching\ngaze.\n\nApparently the inventory satisfied her.\n\n\"I am Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang, Holy Hekkador of the Holy\nTherns, Father of Therns, Master of Life and Death upon Barsoom,\nBrother of Issus, Prince of Life Eternal.\"\n\nAt that moment I noticed that the black I had dropped with my fist was\ncommencing to show signs of returning consciousness.  I sprang to his\nside.  Stripping his harness from him I securely bound his hands behind\nhis back, and after similarly fastening his feet tied him to a heavy\ngun carriage.\n\n\"Why not the simpler way?\" asked Phaidor.\n\n\"I do not understand.  What 'simpler way'?\" I replied.\n\nWith a slight shrug of her lovely shoulders she made a gesture with her\nhands personating the casting of something over the craft's side.\n\n\"I am no murderer,\" I said.  \"I kill in self-defence only.\"\n\nShe looked at me narrowly.  Then she puckered those divine brows of\nhers, and shook her head.  She could not comprehend.\n\nWell, neither had my own Dejah Thoris been able to understand what to\nher had seemed a foolish and dangerous policy toward enemies.  Upon\nBarsoom, quarter is neither asked nor given, and each dead man means so\nmuch more of the waning resources of this dying planet to be divided\namongst those who survive.\n\nBut there seemed a subtle difference here between the manner in which\nthis girl contemplated the dispatching of an enemy and the\ntender-hearted regret of my own princess for the stern necessity which\ndemanded it.\n\nI think that Phaidor regretted the thrill that the spectacle would have\nafforded her rather than the fact that my decision left another enemy\nalive to threaten us.\n\nThe man had now regained full possession of his faculties, and was\nregarding us intently from where he lay bound upon the deck.  He was a\nhandsome fellow, clean limbed and powerful, with an intelligent face\nand features of such exquisite chiselling that Adonis himself might\nhave envied him.\n\nThe vessel, unguided, had been moving slowly across the valley; but now\nI thought it time to take the helm and direct her course.  Only in a\nvery general way could I guess the location of the Valley Dor.  That it\nwas far south of the equator was evident from the constellations, but I\nwas not sufficiently a Martian astronomer to come much closer than a\nrough guess without the splendid charts and delicate instruments with\nwhich, as an officer in the Heliumite Navy, I had formerly reckoned the\npositions of the vessels on which I sailed.\n\nThat a northerly course would quickest lead me toward the more settled\nportions of the planet immediately decided the direction that I should\nsteer.  Beneath my hand the cruiser swung gracefully about.  Then the\nbutton which controlled the repulsive rays sent us soaring far out into\nspace.  With speed lever pulled to the last notch, we raced toward the\nnorth as we rose ever farther and farther above that terrible valley of\ndeath.\n\nAs we passed at a dizzy height over the narrow domains of the therns\nthe flash of powder far below bore mute witness to the ferocity of the\nbattle that still raged along that cruel frontier.  No sound of\nconflict reached our ears, for in the rarefied atmosphere of our great\naltitude no sound wave could penetrate; they were dissipated in thin\nair far below us.\n\nIt became intensely cold.  Breathing was difficult.  The girl, Phaidor,\nand the black pirate kept their eyes glued upon me.  At length the girl\nspoke.\n\n\"Unconsciousness comes quickly at this altitude,\" she said quietly.\n\"Unless you are inviting death for us all you had best drop, and that\nquickly.\"\n\nThere was no fear in her voice.  It was as one might say: \"You had\nbetter carry an umbrella.  It is going to rain.\"\n\nI dropped the vessel quickly to a lower level.  Nor was I a moment too\nsoon.  The girl had swooned.\n\nThe black, too, was unconscious, while I, myself, retained my senses, I\nthink, only by sheer will.  The one on whom all responsibility rests is\napt to endure the most.\n\nWe were swinging along low above the foothills of the Otz.  It was\ncomparatively warm and there was plenty of air for our starved lungs,\nso I was not surprised to see the black open his eyes, and a moment\nlater the girl also.\n\n\"It was a close call,\" she said.\n\n\"It has taught me two things though,\" I replied.\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"That even Phaidor, daughter of the Master of Life and Death, is\nmortal,\" I said smiling.\n\n\"There is immortality only in Issus,\" she replied.  \"And Issus is for\nthe race of therns alone.  Thus am I immortal.\"\n\nI caught a fleeting grin passing across the features of the black as he\nheard her words.  I did not then understand why he smiled.  Later I was\nto learn, and she, too, in a most horrible manner.\n\n\"If the other thing you have just learned,\" she continued, \"has led to\nas erroneous deductions as the first you are little richer in knowledge\nthan you were before.\"\n\n\"The other,\" I replied, \"is that our dusky friend here does not hail\nfrom the nearer moon--he was like to have died at a few thousand feet\nabove Barsoom.  Had we continued the five thousand miles that lie\nbetween Thuria and the planet he would have been but the frozen memory\nof a man.\"\n\nPhaidor looked at the black in evident astonishment.\n\n\"If you are not of Thuria, then where?\" she asked.\n\nHe shrugged his shoulders and turned his eyes elsewhere, but did not\nreply.\n\nThe girl stamped her little foot in a peremptory manner.\n\n\"The daughter of Matai Shang is not accustomed to having her queries\nremain unanswered,\" she said.  \"One of the lesser breed should feel\nhonoured that a member of the holy race that was born to inherit life\neternal should deign even to notice him.\"\n\nAgain the black smiled that wicked, knowing smile.\n\n\"Xodar, Dator of the First Born of Barsoom, is accustomed to give\ncommands, not to receive them,\" replied the black pirate.  Then,\nturning to me, \"What are your intentions concerning me?\"\n\n\"I intend taking you both back to Helium,\" I said.  \"No harm will come\nto you.  You will find the red men of Helium a kindly and magnanimous\nrace, but if they listen to me there will be no more voluntary\npilgrimages down the river Iss, and the impossible belief that they\nhave cherished for ages will be shattered into a thousand pieces.\"\n\n\"Are you of Helium?\" he asked.\n\n\"I am a Prince of the House of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium,\" I\nreplied, \"but I am not of Barsoom.  I am of another world.\"\n\nXodar looked at me intently for a few moments.\n\n\"I can well believe that you are not of Barsoom,\" he said at length.\n\"None of this world could have bested eight of the First Born\nsingle-handed.  But how is it that you wear the golden hair and the\njewelled circlet of a Holy Thern?\"  He emphasized the word holy with a\ntouch of irony.\n\n\"I had forgotten them,\" I said.  \"They are the spoils of conquest,\" and\nwith a sweep of my hand I removed the disguise from my head.\n\nWhen the black's eyes fell on my close-cropped black hair they opened\nin astonishment.  Evidently he had looked for the bald pate of a thern.\n\n\"You are indeed of another world,\" he said, a touch of awe in his\nvoice.  \"With the skin of a thern, the black hair of a First Born and\nthe muscles of a dozen Dators it was no disgrace even for Xodar to\nacknowledge your supremacy.  A thing he could never do were you a\nBarsoomian,\" he added.\n\n\"You are travelling several laps ahead of me, my friend,\" I\ninterrupted.  \"I glean that your name is Xodar, but whom, pray, are the\nFirst Born, and what a Dator, and why, if you were conquered by a\nBarsoomian, could you not acknowledge it?\"\n\n\"The First Born of Barsoom,\" he explained, \"are the race of black men\nof which I am a Dator, or, as the lesser Barsoomians would say, Prince.\nMy race is the oldest on the planet.  We trace our lineage, unbroken,\ndirect to the Tree of Life which flourished in the centre of the Valley\nDor twenty-three million years ago.\n\n\"For countless ages the fruit of this tree underwent the gradual\nchanges of evolution, passing by degrees from true plant life to a\ncombination of plant and animal.  In the first stages the fruit of the\ntree possessed only the power of independent muscular action, while the\nstem remained attached to the parent plant; later a brain developed in\nthe fruit, so that hanging there by their long stems they thought and\nmoved as individuals.\n\n\"Then, with the development of perceptions came a comparison of them;\njudgments were reached and compared, and thus reason and the power to\nreason were born upon Barsoom.\n\n\"Ages passed.  Many forms of life came and went upon the Tree of Life,\nbut still all were attached to the parent plant by stems of varying\nlengths.  At length the fruit tree consisted in tiny plant men, such as\nwe now see reproduced in such huge dimensions in the Valley Dor, but\nstill hanging to the limbs and branches of the tree by the stems which\ngrew from the tops of their heads.\n\n\"The buds from which the plant men blossomed resembled large nuts about\na foot in diameter, divided by double partition walls into four\nsections.  In one section grew the plant man, in another a\nsixteen-legged worm, in the third the progenitor of the white ape and\nin the fourth the primaeval black man of Barsoom.\n\n\"When the bud burst the plant man remained dangling at the end of his\nstem, but the three other sections fell to the ground, where the\nefforts of their imprisoned occupants to escape sent them hopping about\nin all directions.\n\n\"Thus as time went on, all Barsoom was covered with these imprisoned\ncreatures.  For countless ages they lived their long lives within their\nhard shells, hopping and skipping about the broad planet; falling into\nrivers, lakes, and seas, to be still further spread about the surface\nof the new world.\n\n\"Countless billions died before the first black man broke through his\nprison walls into the light of day.  Prompted by curiosity, he broke\nopen other shells and the peopling of Barsoom commenced.\n\n\"The pure strain of the blood of this first black man has remained\nuntainted by admixture with other creatures in the race of which I am a\nmember; but from the sixteen-legged worm, the first ape and renegade\nblack man has sprung every other form of animal life upon Barsoom.\n\n\"The therns,\" and he smiled maliciously as he spoke, \"are but the\nresult of ages of evolution from the pure white ape of antiquity.  They\nare a lower order still.  There is but one race of true and immortal\nhumans on Barsoom.  It is the race of black men.\n\n\"The Tree of Life is dead, but before it died the plant men learned to\ndetach themselves from it and roam the face of Barsoom with the other\nchildren of the First Parent.\n\n\"Now their bisexuality permits them to reproduce themselves after the\nmanner of true plants, but otherwise they have progressed but little in\nall the ages of their existence.  Their actions and movements are\nlargely matters of instinct and not guided to any great extent by\nreason, since the brain of a plant man is but a trifle larger than the\nend of your smallest finger.  They live upon vegetation and the blood\nof animals, and their brain is just large enough to direct their\nmovements in the direction of food, and to translate the food\nsensations which are carried to it from their eyes and ears.  They have\nno sense of self-preservation and so are entirely without fear in the\nface of danger.  That is why they are such terrible antagonists in\ncombat.\"\n\nI wondered why the black man took such pains to discourse thus at\nlength to enemies upon the genesis of life Barsoomian.  It seemed a\nstrangely inopportune moment for a proud member of a proud race to\nunbend in casual conversation with a captor.  Especially in view of the\nfact that the black still lay securely bound upon the deck.\n\nIt was the faintest straying of his eye beyond me for the barest\nfraction of a second that explained his motive for thus dragging out my\ninterest in his truly absorbing story.\n\nHe lay a little forward of where I stood at the levers, and thus he\nfaced the stern of the vessel as he addressed me.  It was at the end of\nhis description of the plant men that I caught his eye fixed\nmomentarily upon something behind me.\n\nNor could I be mistaken in the swift gleam of triumph that brightened\nthose dark orbs for an instant.\n\nSome time before I had reduced our speed, for we had left the Valley\nDor many miles astern, and I felt comparatively safe.\n\nI turned an apprehensive glance behind me, and the sight that I saw\nfroze the new-born hope of freedom that had been springing up within me.\n\nA great battleship, forging silent and unlighted through the dark\nnight, loomed close astern.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE DEPTHS OF OMEAN\n\n\nNow I realized why the black pirate had kept me engrossed with his\nstrange tale.  For miles he had sensed the approach of succour, and but\nfor that single tell-tale glance the battleship would have been\ndirectly above us in another moment, and the boarding party which was\ndoubtless even now swinging in their harness from the ship's keel,\nwould have swarmed our deck, placing my rising hope of escape in sudden\nand total eclipse.\n\nI was too old a hand in aerial warfare to be at a loss now for the\nright manoeuvre.  Simultaneously I reversed the engines and dropped the\nlittle vessel a sheer hundred feet.\n\nAbove my head I could see the dangling forms of the boarding party as\nthe battleship raced over us.  Then I rose at a sharp angle, throwing\nmy speed lever to its last notch.\n\nLike a bolt from a crossbow my splendid craft shot its steel prow\nstraight at the whirring propellers of the giant above us.  If I could\nbut touch them the huge bulk would be disabled for hours and escape\nonce more possible.\n\nAt the same instant the sun shot above the horizon, disclosing a\nhundred grim, black faces peering over the stern of the battleship upon\nus.\n\nAt sight of us a shout of rage went up from a hundred throats.  Orders\nwere shouted, but it was too late to save the giant propellers, and\nwith a crash we rammed them.\n\nInstantly with the shock of impact I reversed my engine, but my prow\nwas wedged in the hole it had made in the battleship's stern.  Only a\nsecond I hung there before tearing away, but that second was amply long\nto swarm my deck with black devils.\n\nThere was no fight.  In the first place there was no room to fight.  We\nwere simply submerged by numbers.  Then as swords menaced me a command\nfrom Xodar stayed the hands of his fellows.\n\n\"Secure them,\" he said, \"but do not injure them.\"\n\nSeveral of the pirates already had released Xodar.  He now personally\nattended to my disarming and saw that I was properly bound.  At least\nhe thought that the binding was secure.  It would have been had I been\na Martian, but I had to smile at the puny strands that confined my\nwrists.  When the time came I could snap them as they had been cotton\nstring.\n\nThe girl they bound also, and then they fastened us together.  In the\nmeantime they had brought our craft alongside the disabled battleship,\nand soon we were transported to the latter's deck.\n\nFully a thousand black men manned the great engine of destruction.  Her\ndecks were crowded with them as they pressed forward as far as\ndiscipline would permit to get a glimpse of their captives.\n\nThe girl's beauty elicited many brutal comments and vulgar jests.  It\nwas evident that these self-thought supermen were far inferior to the\nred men of Barsoom in refinement and in chivalry.\n\nMy close-cropped black hair and thern complexion were the subjects of\nmuch comment.  When Xodar told his fellow nobles of my fighting ability\nand strange origin they crowded about me with numerous questions.\n\nThe fact that I wore the harness and metal of a thern who had been\nkilled by a member of my party convinced them that I was an enemy of\ntheir hereditary foes, and placed me on a better footing in their\nestimation.\n\nWithout exception the blacks were handsome men, and well built.  The\nofficers were conspicuous through the wondrous magnificence of their\nresplendent trappings.  Many harnesses were so encrusted with gold,\nplatinum, silver and precious stones as to entirely hide the leather\nbeneath.\n\nThe harness of the commanding officer was a solid mass of diamonds.\nAgainst the ebony background of his skin they blazed out with a\npeculiarly accentuated effulgence.  The whole scene was enchanting.\nThe handsome men; the barbaric splendour of the accoutrements; the\npolished skeel wood of the deck; the gloriously grained sorapus of the\ncabins, inlaid with priceless jewels and precious metals in intricate\nand beautiful design; the burnished gold of hand rails; the shining\nmetal of the guns.\n\nPhaidor and I were taken below decks, where, still fast bound, we were\nthrown into a small compartment which contained a single port-hole.  As\nour escort left us they barred the door behind them.\n\nWe could hear the men working on the broken propellers, and from the\nport-hole we could see that the vessel was drifting lazily toward the\nsouth.\n\nFor some time neither of us spoke.  Each was occupied with his own\nthoughts.  For my part I was wondering as to the fate of Tars Tarkas\nand the girl, Thuvia.\n\nEven if they succeeded in eluding pursuit they must eventually fall\ninto the hands of either red men or green, and as fugitives from the\nValley Dor they could look for but little else than a swift and\nterrible death.\n\nHow I wished that I might have accompanied them.  It seemed to me that\nI could not fail to impress upon the intelligent red men of Barsoom the\nwicked deception that a cruel and senseless superstition had foisted\nupon them.\n\nTardos Mors would believe me.  Of that I was positive.  And that he\nwould have the courage of his convictions my knowledge of his character\nassured me.  Dejah Thoris would believe me.  Not a doubt as to that\nentered my head.  Then there were a thousand of my red and green\nwarrior friends whom I knew would face eternal damnation gladly for my\nsake.  Like Tars Tarkas, where I led they would follow.\n\nMy only danger lay in that should I ever escape the black pirates it\nmight be to fall into the hands of unfriendly red or green men.  Then\nit would mean short shrift for me.\n\nWell, there seemed little to worry about on that score, for the\nlikelihood of my ever escaping the blacks was extremely remote.\n\nThe girl and I were linked together by a rope which permitted us to\nmove only about three or four feet from each other.  When we had\nentered the compartment we had seated ourselves upon a low bench\nbeneath the porthole.  The bench was the only furniture of the room.\nIt was of sorapus wood.  The floor, ceiling and walls were of\ncarborundum aluminum, a light, impenetrable composition extensively\nutilized in the construction of Martian fighting ships.\n\nAs I had sat meditating upon the future my eyes had been riveted upon\nthe port-hole which was just level with them as I sat.  Suddenly I\nlooked toward Phaidor.  She was regarding me with a strange expression\nI had not before seen upon her face.  She was very beautiful then.\n\nInstantly her white lids veiled her eyes, and I thought I discovered a\ndelicate flush tingeing her cheek.  Evidently she was embarrassed at\nhaving been detected in the act of staring at a lesser creature, I\nthought.\n\n\"Do you find the study of the lower orders interesting?\" I asked,\nlaughing.\n\nShe looked up again with a nervous but relieved little laugh.\n\n\"Oh very,\" she said, \"especially when they have such excellent\nprofiles.\"\n\nIt was my turn to flush, but I did not.  I felt that she was poking fun\nat me, and I admired a brave heart that could look for humour on the\nroad to death, and so I laughed with her.\n\n\"Do you know where we are going?\" she said.\n\n\"To solve the mystery of the eternal hereafter, I imagine,\" I replied.\n\n\"I am going to a worse fate than that,\" she said, with a little shudder.\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I can only guess,\" she replied, \"since no thern damsel of all the\nmillions that have been stolen away by black pirates during the ages\nthey have raided our domains has ever returned to narrate her\nexperiences among them.  That they never take a man prisoner lends\nstrength to the belief that the fate of the girls they steal is worse\nthan death.\"\n\n\"Is it not a just retribution?\" I could not help but ask.\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"Do not the therns themselves do likewise with the poor creatures who\ntake the voluntary pilgrimage down the River of Mystery?  Was not\nThuvia for fifteen years a plaything and a slave?  Is it less than just\nthat you should suffer as you have caused others to suffer?\"\n\n\"You do not understand,\" she replied.  \"We therns are a holy race.  It\nis an honour to a lesser creature to be a slave among us.  Did we not\noccasionally save a few of the lower orders that stupidly float down an\nunknown river to an unknown end all would become the prey of the plant\nmen and the apes.\"\n\n\"But do you not by every means encourage the superstition among those\nof the outside world?\" I argued.  \"That is the wickedest of your deeds.\nCan you tell me why you foster the cruel deception?\"\n\n\"All life on Barsoom,\" she said, \"is created solely for the support of\nthe race of therns.  How else could we live did the outer world not\nfurnish our labour and our food?  Think you that a thern would demean\nhimself by labour?\"\n\n\"It is true then that you eat human flesh?\" I asked in horror.\n\nShe looked at me in pitying commiseration for my ignorance.\n\n\"Truly we eat the flesh of the lower orders.  Do not you also?\"\n\n\"The flesh of beasts, yes,\" I replied, \"but not the flesh of man.\"\n\n\"As man may eat of the flesh of beasts, so may gods eat of the flesh of\nman.  The Holy Therns are the gods of Barsoom.\"\n\nI was disgusted and I imagine that I showed it.\n\n\"You are an unbeliever now,\" she continued gently, \"but should we be\nfortunate enough to escape the clutches of the black pirates and come\nagain to the court of Matai Shang I think that we shall find an\nargument to convince you of the error of your ways.  And--,\" she\nhesitated, \"perhaps we shall find a way to keep you as--as--one of us.\"\n\nAgain her eyes dropped to the floor, and a faint colour suffused her\ncheek.  I could not understand her meaning; nor did I for a long time.\nDejah Thoris was wont to say that in some things I was a veritable\nsimpleton, and I guess that she was right.\n\n\"I fear that I would ill requite your father's hospitality,\" I\nanswered, \"since the first thing that I should do were I a thern would\nbe to set an armed guard at the mouth of the River Iss to escort the\npoor deluded voyagers back to the outer world.  Also should I devote my\nlife to the extermination of the hideous plant men and their horrible\ncompanions, the great white apes.\"\n\nShe looked at me really horror struck.\n\n\"No, no,\" she cried, \"you must not say such terribly sacrilegious\nthings--you must not even think them.  Should they ever guess that you\nentertained such frightful thoughts, should we chance to regain the\ntemples of the therns, they would mete out a frightful death to you.\nNot even my--my--\"  Again she flushed, and started over.  \"Not even I\ncould save you.\"\n\nI said no more.  Evidently it was useless.  She was even more steeped\nin superstition than the Martians of the outer world.  They only\nworshipped a beautiful hope for a life of love and peace and happiness\nin the hereafter.  The therns worshipped the hideous plant men and the\napes, or at least they reverenced them as the abodes of the departed\nspirits of their own dead.\n\nAt this point the door of our prison opened to admit Xodar.\n\nHe smiled pleasantly at me, and when he smiled his expression was\nkindly--anything but cruel or vindictive.\n\n\"Since you cannot escape under any circumstances,\" he said, \"I cannot\nsee the necessity for keeping you confined below.  I will cut your\nbonds and you may come on deck.  You will witness something very\ninteresting, and as you never shall return to the outer world it will\ndo no harm to permit you to see it.  You will see what no other than\nthe First Born and their slaves know the existence of--the subterranean\nentrance to the Holy Land, to the real heaven of Barsoom.\n\n\"It will be an excellent lesson for this daughter of the therns,\" he\nadded, \"for she shall see the Temple of Issus, and Issus, perchance,\nshall embrace her.\"\n\nPhaidor's head went high.\n\n\"What blasphemy is this, dog of a pirate?\" she cried.  \"Issus would\nwipe out your entire breed an' you ever came within sight of her\ntemple.\"\n\n\"You have much to learn, thern,\" replied Xodar, with an ugly smile,\n\"nor do I envy you the manner in which you will learn it.\"\n\nAs we came on deck I saw to my surprise that the vessel was passing\nover a great field of snow and ice.  As far as the eye could reach in\nany direction naught else was visible.\n\nThere could be but one solution to the mystery.  We were above the\nsouth polar ice cap.  Only at the poles of Mars is there ice or snow\nupon the planet.  No sign of life appeared below us.  Evidently we were\ntoo far south even for the great fur-bearing animals which the Martians\nso delight in hunting.\n\nXodar was at my side as I stood looking out over the ship's rail.\n\n\"What course?\" I asked him.\n\n\"A little west of south,\" he replied.  \"You will see the Otz Valley\ndirectly.  We shall skirt it for a few hundred miles.\"\n\n\"The Otz Valley!\" I exclaimed; \"but, man, is not there where lie the\ndomains of the therns from which I but just escaped?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Xodar.  \"You crossed this ice field last night in the\nlong chase that you led us.  The Otz Valley lies in a mighty depression\nat the south pole.  It is sunk thousands of feet below the level of the\nsurrounding country, like a great round bowl.  A hundred miles from its\nnorthern boundary rise the Otz Mountains which circle the inner Valley\nof Dor, in the exact centre of which lies the Lost Sea of Korus.  On\nthe shore of this sea stands the Golden Temple of Issus in the Land of\nthe First Born.  It is there that we are bound.\"\n\nAs I looked I commenced to realize why it was that in all the ages only\none had escaped from the Valley Dor.  My only wonder was that even the\none had been successful.  To cross this frozen, wind-swept waste of\nbleak ice alone and on foot would be impossible.\n\n\"Only by air boat could the journey be made,\" I finished aloud.\n\n\"It was thus that one did escape the therns in bygone times; but none\nhas ever escaped the First Born,\" said Xodar, with a touch of pride in\nhis voice.\n\nWe had now reached the southernmost extremity of the great ice barrier.\nIt ended abruptly in a sheer wall thousands of feet high at the base of\nwhich stretched a level valley, broken here and there by low rolling\nhills and little clumps of forest, and with tiny rivers formed by the\nmelting of the ice barrier at its base.\n\nOnce we passed far above what seemed to be a deep canyon-like rift\nstretching from the ice wall on the north across the valley as far as\nthe eye could reach.  \"That is the bed of the River Iss,\" said Xodar.\n\"It runs far beneath the ice field, and below the level of the Valley\nOtz, but its canyon is open here.\"\n\nPresently I descried what I took to be a village, and pointing it out\nto Xodar asked him what it might be.\n\n\"It is a village of lost souls,\" he answered, laughing.  \"This strip\nbetween the ice barrier and the mountains is considered neutral ground.\nSome turn off from their voluntary pilgrimage down the Iss, and,\nscaling the awful walls of its canyon below us, stop in the valley.\nAlso a slave now and then escapes from the therns and makes his way\nhither.\n\n\"They do not attempt to recapture such, since there is no escape from\nthis outer valley, and as a matter of fact they fear the patrolling\ncruisers of the First Born too much to venture from their own domains.\n\n\"The poor creatures of this outer valley are not molested by us since\nthey have nothing that we desire, nor are they numerically strong\nenough to give us an interesting fight--so we too leave them alone.\n\n\"There are several villages of them, but they have increased in numbers\nbut little in many years since they are always warring among\nthemselves.\"\n\nNow we swung a little north of west, leaving the valley of lost souls,\nand shortly I discerned over our starboard bow what appeared to be a\nblack mountain rising from the desolate waste of ice.  It was not high\nand seemed to have a flat top.\n\nXodar had left us to attend to some duty on the vessel, and Phaidor and\nI stood alone beside the rail.  The girl had not once spoken since we\nhad been brought to the deck.\n\n\"Is what he has been telling me true?\" I asked her.\n\n\"In part, yes,\" she answered.  \"That about the outer valley is true,\nbut what he says of the location of the Temple of Issus in the centre\nof his country is false.  If it is not false--\" she hesitated.  \"Oh it\ncannot be true, it cannot be true.  For if it were true then for\ncountless ages have my people gone to torture and ignominious death at\nthe hands of their cruel enemies, instead of to the beautiful Life\nEternal that we have been taught to believe Issus holds for us.\"\n\n\"As the lesser Barsoomians of the outer world have been lured by you to\nthe terrible Valley Dor, so may it be that the therns themselves have\nbeen lured by the First Born to an equally horrid fate,\" I suggested.\n\"It would be a stern and awful retribution, Phaidor; but a just one.\"\n\n\"I cannot believe it,\" she said.\n\n\"We shall see,\" I answered, and then we fell silent again for we were\nrapidly approaching the black mountains, which in some indefinable way\nseemed linked with the answer to our problem.\n\nAs we neared the dark, truncated cone the vessel's speed was diminished\nuntil we barely moved.  Then we topped the crest of the mountain and\nbelow us I saw yawning the mouth of a huge circular well, the bottom of\nwhich was lost in inky blackness.\n\nThe diameter of this enormous pit was fully a thousand feet.  The walls\nwere smooth and appeared to be composed of a black, basaltic rock.\n\nFor a moment the vessel hovered motionless directly above the centre of\nthe gaping void, then slowly she began to settle into the black chasm.\nLower and lower she sank until as darkness enveloped us her lights were\nthrown on and in the dim halo of her own radiance the monster\nbattleship dropped on and on down into what seemed to me must be the\nvery bowels of Barsoom.\n\nFor quite half an hour we descended and then the shaft terminated\nabruptly in the dome of a mighty subterranean world.  Below us rose and\nfell the billows of a buried sea.  A phosphorescent radiance\nilluminated the scene.  Thousands of ships dotted the bosom of the\nocean.  Little islands rose here and there to support the strange and\ncolourless vegetation of this strange world.\n\nSlowly and with majestic grace the battleship dropped until she rested\non the water.  Her great propellers had been drawn and housed during\nour descent of the shaft and in their place had been run out the\nsmaller but more powerful water propellers.  As these commenced to\nrevolve the ship took up its journey once more, riding the new element\nas buoyantly and as safely as she had the air.\n\nPhaidor and I were dumbfounded.  Neither had either heard or dreamed\nthat such a world existed beneath the surface of Barsoom.\n\nNearly all the vessels we saw were war craft.  There were a few\nlighters and barges, but none of the great merchantmen such as ply the\nupper air between the cities of the outer world.\n\n\"Here is the harbour of the navy of the First Born,\" said a voice\nbehind us, and turning we saw Xodar watching us with an amused smile on\nhis lips.\n\n\"This sea,\" he continued, \"is larger than Korus.  It receives the\nwaters of the lesser sea above it.  To keep it from filling above a\ncertain level we have four great pumping stations that force the\noversupply back into the reservoirs far north from which the red men\ndraw the water which irrigates their farm lands.\"\n\nA new light burst on me with this explanation.  The red men had always\nconsidered it a miracle that caused great columns of water to spurt\nfrom the solid rock of their reservoir sides to increase the supply of\nthe precious liquid which is so scarce in the outer world of Mars.\n\nNever had their learned men been able to fathom the secret of the\nsource of this enormous volume of water.  As ages passed they had\nsimply come to accept it as a matter of course and ceased to question\nits origin.\n\nWe passed several islands on which were strangely shaped circular\nbuildings, apparently roofless, and pierced midway between the ground\nand their tops with small, heavily barred windows.  They bore the\nearmarks of prisons, which were further accentuated by the armed guards\nwho squatted on low benches without, or patrolled the short beach lines.\n\nFew of these islets contained over an acre of ground, but presently we\nsighted a much larger one directly ahead.  This proved to be our\ndestination, and the great ship was soon made fast against the steep\nshore.\n\nXodar signalled us to follow him and with a half-dozen officers and men\nwe left the battleship and approached a large oval structure a couple\nof hundred yards from the shore.\n\n\"You shall soon see Issus,\" said Xodar to Phaidor.  \"The few prisoners\nwe take are presented to her.  Occasionally she selects slaves from\namong them to replenish the ranks of her handmaidens.  None serves\nIssus above a single year,\" and there was a grim smile on the black's\nlips that lent a cruel and sinister meaning to his simple statement.\n\nPhaidor, though loath to believe that Issus was allied to such as\nthese, had commenced to entertain doubts and fears.  She clung very\nclosely to me, no longer the proud daughter of the Master of Life and\nDeath upon Barsoom, but a young and frightened girl in the power of\nrelentless enemies.\n\nThe building which we now entered was entirely roofless.  In its centre\nwas a long tank of water, set below the level of the floor like the\nswimming pool of a natatorium.  Near one side of the pool floated an\nodd-looking black object.  Whether it were some strange monster of\nthese buried waters, or a queer raft, I could not at once perceive.\n\nWe were soon to know, however, for as we reached the edge of the pool\ndirectly above the thing, Xodar cried out a few words in a strange\ntongue.  Immediately a hatch cover was raised from the surface of the\nobject, and a black seaman sprang from the bowels of the strange craft.\n\nXodar addressed the seaman.\n\n\"Transmit to your officer,\" he said, \"the commands of Dator Xodar.  Say\nto him that Dator Xodar, with officers and men, escorting two\nprisoners, would be transported to the gardens of Issus beside the\nGolden Temple.\"\n\n\"Blessed be the shell of thy first ancestor, most noble Dator,\" replied\nthe man.  \"It shall be done even as thou sayest,\" and raising both\nhands, palms backward, above his head after the manner of salute which\nis common to all races of Barsoom, he disappeared once more into the\nentrails of his ship.\n\nA moment later an officer resplendent in the gorgeous trappings of his\nrank appeared on deck and welcomed Xodar to the vessel, and in the\nlatter's wake we filed aboard and below.\n\nThe cabin in which we found ourselves extended entirely across the\nship, having port-holes on either side below the water line.  No sooner\nwere all below than a number of commands were given, in accordance with\nwhich the hatch was closed and secured, and the vessel commenced to\nvibrate to the rhythmic purr of its machinery.\n\n\"Where can we be going in such a tiny pool of water?\" asked Phaidor.\n\n\"Not up,\" I replied, \"for I noticed particularly that while the\nbuilding is roofless it is covered with a strong metal grating.\"\n\n\"Then where?\" she asked again.\n\n\"From the appearance of the craft I judge we are going down,\" I replied.\n\nPhaidor shuddered.  For such long ages have the waters of Barsoom's\nseas been a thing of tradition only that even this daughter of the\ntherns, born as she had been within sight of Mars' only remaining sea,\nhad the same terror of deep water as is a common attribute of all\nMartians.\n\nPresently the sensation of sinking became very apparent.  We were going\ndown swiftly.  Now we could hear the water rushing past the port-holes,\nand in the dim light that filtered through them to the water beyond the\nswirling eddies were plainly visible.\n\nPhaidor grasped my arm.\n\n\"Save me!\" she whispered.  \"Save me and your every wish shall be\ngranted.  Anything within the power of the Holy Therns to give will be\nyours.  Phaidor--\" she stumbled a little here, and then in a very low\nvoice, \"Phaidor already is yours.\"\n\nI felt very sorry for the poor child, and placed my hand over hers\nwhere it rested on my arm.  I presume my motive was misunderstood, for\nwith a swift glance about the apartment to assure herself that we were\nalone, she threw both her arms about my neck and dragged my face down\nto hers.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nISSUS, GODDESS OF LIFE ETERNAL\n\n\nThe confession of love which the girl's fright had wrung from her\ntouched me deeply; but it humiliated me as well, since I felt that in\nsome thoughtless word or act I had given her reason to believe that I\nreciprocated her affection.\n\nNever have I been much of a ladies' man, being more concerned with\nfighting and kindred arts which have ever seemed to me more befitting a\nman than mooning over a scented glove four sizes too small for him, or\nkissing a dead flower that has begun to smell like a cabbage.  So I was\nquite at a loss as to what to do or say.  A thousand times rather face\nthe wild hordes of the dead sea bottoms than meet the eyes of this\nbeautiful young girl and tell her the thing that I must tell her.\n\nBut there was nothing else to be done, and so I did it.  Very clumsily\ntoo, I fear.\n\nGently I unclasped her hands from about my neck, and still holding them\nin mine I told her the story of my love for Dejah Thoris.  That of all\nthe women of two worlds that I had known and admired during my long\nlife she alone had I loved.\n\nThe tale did not seem to please her.  Like a tigress she sprang,\npanting, to her feet.  Her beautiful face was distorted in an\nexpression of horrible malevolence.  Her eyes fairly blazed into mine.\n\n\"Dog,\" she hissed.  \"Dog of a blasphemer!  Think you that Phaidor,\ndaughter of Matai Shang, supplicates?  She commands.  What to her is\nyour puny outer world passion for the vile creature you chose in your\nother life?\n\n\"Phaidor has glorified you with her love, and you have spurned her.\nTen thousand unthinkably atrocious deaths could not atone for the\naffront that you have put upon me.  The thing that you call Dejah\nThoris shall die the most horrible of them all.  You have sealed the\nwarrant for her doom.\n\n\"And you!  You shall be the meanest slave in the service of the goddess\nyou have attempted to humiliate.  Tortures and ignominies shall be\nheaped upon you until you grovel at my feet asking the boon of death.\n\n\"In my gracious generosity I shall at length grant your prayer, and\nfrom the high balcony of the Golden Cliffs I shall watch the great\nwhite apes tear you asunder.\"\n\nShe had it all fixed up.  The whole lovely programme from start to\nfinish.  It amazed me to think that one so divinely beautiful could at\nthe same time be so fiendishly vindictive.  It occurred to me, however,\nthat she had overlooked one little factor in her revenge, and so,\nwithout any intent to add to her discomfiture, but rather to permit her\nto rearrange her plans along more practical lines, I pointed to the\nnearest port-hole.\n\nEvidently she had entirely forgotten her surroundings and her present\ncircumstances, for a single glance at the dark, swirling waters without\nsent her crumpled upon a low bench, where with her face buried in her\narms she sobbed more like a very unhappy little girl than a proud and\nall-powerful goddess.\n\nDown, down we continued to sink until the heavy glass of the port-holes\nbecame noticeably warm from the heat of the water without.  Evidently\nwe were very far beneath the surface crust of Mars.\n\nPresently our downward motion ceased, and I could hear the propellers\nswirling through the water at our stern and forcing us ahead at high\nspeed.  It was very dark down there, but the light from our port-holes,\nand the reflection from what must have been a powerful searchlight on\nthe submarine's nose showed that we were forging through a narrow\npassage, rock-lined, and tube-like.\n\nAfter a few minutes the propellers ceased their whirring.  We came to a\nfull stop, and then commenced to rise swiftly toward the surface.  Soon\nthe light from without increased and we came to a stop.\n\nXodar entered the cabin with his men.\n\n\"Come,\" he said, and we followed him through the hatchway which had\nbeen opened by one of the seamen.\n\nWe found ourselves in a small subterranean vault, in the centre of\nwhich was the pool in which lay our submarine, floating as we had first\nseen her with only her black back showing.\n\nAround the edge of the pool was a level platform, and then the walls of\nthe cave rose perpendicularly for a few feet to arch toward the centre\nof the low roof.  The walls about the ledge were pierced with a number\nof entrances to dimly lighted passageways.\n\nToward one of these our captors led us, and after a short walk halted\nbefore a steel cage which lay at the bottom of a shaft rising above us\nas far as one could see.\n\nThe cage proved to be one of the common types of elevator cars that I\nhad seen in other parts of Barsoom.  They are operated by means of\nenormous magnets which are suspended at the top of the shaft.  By an\nelectrical device the volume of magnetism generated is regulated and\nthe speed of the car varied.\n\nIn long stretches they move at a sickening speed, especially on the\nupward trip, since the small force of gravity inherent to Mars results\nin very little opposition to the powerful force above.\n\nScarcely had the door of the car closed behind us than we were slowing\nup to stop at the landing above, so rapid was our ascent of the long\nshaft.\n\nWhen we emerged from the little building which houses the upper\nterminus of the elevator, we found ourselves in the midst of a\nveritable fairyland of beauty.  The combined languages of Earth men\nhold no words to convey to the mind the gorgeous beauties of the scene.\n\nOne may speak of scarlet sward and ivory-stemmed trees decked with\nbrilliant purple blooms; of winding walks paved with crushed rubies,\nwith emerald, with turquoise, even with diamonds themselves; of a\nmagnificent temple of burnished gold, hand-wrought with marvellous\ndesigns; but where are the words to describe the glorious colours that\nare unknown to earthly eyes? where the mind or the imagination that can\ngrasp the gorgeous scintillations of unheard-of rays as they emanate\nfrom the thousand nameless jewels of Barsoom?\n\nEven my eyes, for long years accustomed to the barbaric splendours of a\nMartian Jeddak's court, were amazed at the glory of the scene.\n\nPhaidor's eyes were wide in amazement.\n\n\"The Temple of Issus,\" she whispered, half to herself.\n\nXodar watched us with his grim smile, partly of amusement and partly\nmalicious gloating.\n\nThe gardens swarmed with brilliantly trapped black men and women.\nAmong them moved red and white females serving their every want.  The\nplaces of the outer world and the temples of the therns had been robbed\nof their princesses and goddesses that the blacks might have their\nslaves.\n\nThrough this scene we moved toward the temple.  At the main entrance we\nwere halted by a cordon of armed guards.  Xodar spoke a few words to an\nofficer who came forward to question us.  Together they entered the\ntemple, where they remained for some time.\n\nWhen they returned it was to announce that Issus desired to look upon\nthe daughter of Matai Shang, and the strange creature from another\nworld who had been a Prince of Helium.\n\nSlowly we moved through endless corridors of unthinkable beauty;\nthrough magnificent apartments, and noble halls.  At length we were\nhalted in a spacious chamber in the centre of the temple.  One of the\nofficers who had accompanied us advanced to a large door in the further\nend of the chamber.  Here he must have made some sort of signal for\nimmediately the door opened and another richly trapped courtier emerged.\n\nWe were then led up to the door, where we were directed to get down on\nour hands and knees with our backs toward the room we were to enter.\nThe doors were swung open and after being cautioned not to turn our\nheads under penalty of instant death we were commanded to back into the\npresence of Issus.\n\nNever have I been in so humiliating a position in my life, and only my\nlove for Dejah Thoris and the hope which still clung to me that I might\nagain see her kept me from rising to face the goddess of the First Born\nand go down to my death like a gentleman, facing my foes and with their\nblood mingling with mine.\n\nAfter we had crawled in this disgusting fashion for a matter of a\ncouple of hundred feet we were halted by our escort.\n\n\"Let them rise,\" said a voice behind us; a thin, wavering voice, yet\none that had evidently been accustomed to command for many years.\n\n\"Rise,\" said our escort, \"but do not face toward Issus.\"\n\n\"The woman pleases me,\" said the thin, wavering voice again after a few\nmoments of silence.  \"She shall serve me the allotted time.  The man\nyou may return to the Isle of Shador which lies against the northern\nshore of the Sea of Omean.  Let the woman turn and look upon Issus,\nknowing that those of the lower orders who gaze upon the holy vision of\nher radiant face survive the blinding glory but a single year.\"\n\nI watched Phaidor from the corner of my eye.  She paled to a ghastly\nhue.  Slowly, very slowly she turned, as though drawn by some invisible\nyet irresistible force.  She was standing quite close to me, so close\nthat her bare arm touched mine as she finally faced Issus, Goddess of\nLife Eternal.\n\nI could not see the girl's face as her eyes rested for the first time\non the Supreme Deity of Mars, but felt the shudder that ran through her\nin the trembling flesh of the arm that touched mine.\n\n\"It must be dazzling loveliness indeed,\" thought I, \"to cause such\nemotion in the breast of so radiant a beauty as Phaidor, daughter of\nMatai Shang.\"\n\n\"Let the woman remain.  Remove the man.  Go.\"  Thus spoke Issus, and\nthe heavy hand of the officer fell upon my shoulder.  In accordance\nwith his instructions I dropped to my hands and knees once more and\ncrawled from the Presence.  It had been my first audience with deity,\nbut I am free to confess that I was not greatly impressed--other than\nwith the ridiculous figure I cut scrambling about on my marrow bones.\n\nOnce without the chamber the doors closed behind us and I was bid to\nrise.  Xodar joined me and together we slowly retraced our steps toward\nthe gardens.\n\n\"You spared my life when you easily might have taken it,\" he said after\nwe had proceeded some little way in silence, \"and I would aid you if I\nmight.  I can help to make your life here more bearable, but your fate\nis inevitable.  You may never hope to return to the outer world.\"\n\n\"What will be my fate?\" I asked.\n\n\"That will depend largely upon Issus.  So long as she does not send for\nyou and reveal her face to you, you may live on for years in as mild a\nform of bondage as I can arrange for you.\"\n\n\"Why should she send for me?\" I asked.\n\n\"The men of the lower orders she often uses for various purposes of\namusement.  Such a fighter as you, for example, would render fine sport\nin the monthly rites of the temple.  There are men pitted against men,\nand against beasts for the edification of Issus and the replenishment\nof her larder.\"\n\n\"She eats human flesh?\" I asked.  Not in horror, however, for since my\nrecently acquired knowledge of the Holy Therns I was prepared for\nanything in this still less accessible heaven, where all was evidently\ndictated by a single omnipotence; where ages of narrow fanaticism and\nself-worship had eradicated all the broader humanitarian instincts that\nthe race might once have possessed.\n\nThey were a people drunk with power and success, looking upon the other\ninhabitants of Mars as we look upon the beasts of the field and the\nforest.  Why then should they not eat of the flesh of the lower orders\nwhose lives and characters they no more understood than do we the\ninmost thoughts and sensibilities of the cattle we slaughter for our\nearthly tables.\n\n\"She eats only the flesh of the best bred of the Holy Therns and the\nred Barsoomians.  The flesh of the others goes to our boards.  The\nanimals are eaten by the slaves.  She also eats other dainties.\"\n\nI did not understand then that there lay any special significance in\nhis reference to other dainties.  I thought the limit of ghoulishness\nalready had been reached in the recitation of Issus' menu.  I still had\nmuch to learn as to the depths of cruelty and bestiality to which\nomnipotence may drag its possessor.\n\nWe had about reached the last of the many chambers and corridors which\nled to the gardens when an officer overtook us.\n\n\"Issus would look again upon this man,\" he said.  \"The girl has told\nher that he is of wondrous beauty and of such prowess that alone he\nslew seven of the First Born, and with his bare hands took Xodar\ncaptive, binding him with his own harness.\"\n\nXodar looked uncomfortable.  Evidently he did not relish the thought\nthat Issus had learned of his inglorious defeat.\n\nWithout a word he turned and we followed the officer once again to the\nclosed doors before the audience chamber of Issus, Goddess of Life\nEternal.\n\nHere the ceremony of entrance was repeated.  Again Issus bid me rise.\nFor several minutes all was silent as the tomb.  The eyes of deity were\nappraising me.\n\nPresently the thin wavering voice broke the stillness, repeating in a\nsingsong drone the words which for countless ages had sealed the doom\nof numberless victims.\n\n\"Let the man turn and look upon Issus, knowing that those of the lower\norders who gaze upon the holy vision of her radiant face survive the\nblinding glory but a single year.\"\n\nI turned as I had been bid, expecting such a treat as only the\nrevealment of divine glory to mortal eyes might produce.  What I saw\nwas a solid phalanx of armed men between myself and a dais supporting a\ngreat bench of carved sorapus wood.  On this bench, or throne, squatted\na female black.  She was evidently very old.  Not a hair remained upon\nher wrinkled skull.  With the exception of two yellow fangs she was\nentirely toothless.  On either side of her thin, hawk-like nose her\neyes burned from the depths of horribly sunken sockets.  The skin of\nher face was seamed and creased with a million deepcut furrows.  Her\nbody was as wrinkled as her face, and as repulsive.\n\nEmaciated arms and legs attached to a torso which seemed to be mostly\ndistorted abdomen completed the \"holy vision of her radiant beauty.\"\n\nSurrounding her were a number of female slaves, among them Phaidor,\nwhite and trembling.\n\n\"This is the man who slew seven of the First Born and, bare-handed,\nbound Dator Xodar with his own harness?\" asked Issus.\n\n\"Most glorious vision of divine loveliness, it is,\" replied the officer\nwho stood at my side.\n\n\"Produce Dator Xodar,\" she commanded.\n\nXodar was brought from the adjoining room.\n\nIssus glared at him, a baleful light in her hideous eyes.\n\n\"And such as you are a Dator of the First Born?\" she squealed.  \"For\nthe disgrace you have brought upon the Immortal Race you shall be\ndegraded to a rank below the lowest.  No longer be you a Dator, but for\nevermore a slave of slaves, to fetch and carry for the lower orders\nthat serve in the gardens of Issus.  Remove his harness.  Cowards and\nslaves wear no trappings.\"\n\nXodar stood stiffly erect.  Not a muscle twitched, nor a tremor shook\nhis giant frame as a soldier of the guard roughly stripped his gorgeous\ntrappings from him.\n\n\"Begone,\" screamed the infuriated little old woman.  \"Begone, but\ninstead of the light of the gardens of Issus let you serve as a slave\nof this slave who conquered you in the prison on the Isle of Shador in\nthe Sea of Omean.  Take him away out of the sight of my divine eyes.\"\n\nSlowly and with high held head the proud Xodar turned and stalked from\nthe chamber.  Issus rose and turned to leave the room by another exit.\n\nTurning to me, she said: \"You shall be returned to Shador for the\npresent.  Later Issus will see the manner of your fighting.  Go.\" Then\nshe disappeared, followed by her retinue.  Only Phaidor lagged behind,\nand as I started to follow my guard toward the gardens, the girl came\nrunning after me.\n\n\"Oh, do not leave me in this terrible place,\" she begged.  \"Forgive the\nthings I said to you, my Prince.  I did not mean them.  Only take me\naway with you.  Let me share your imprisonment on Shador.\" Her words\nwere an almost incoherent volley of thoughts, so rapidly she spoke.\n\"You did not understand the honour that I did you.  Among the therns\nthere is no marriage or giving in marriage, as among the lower orders\nof the outer world.  We might have lived together for ever in love and\nhappiness.  We have both looked upon Issus and in a year we die.  Let\nus live that year at least together in what measure of joy remains for\nthe doomed.\"\n\n\"If it was difficult for me to understand you, Phaidor,\" I replied,\n\"can you not understand that possibly it is equally difficult for you\nto understand the motives, the customs and the social laws that guide\nme?  I do not wish to hurt you, nor to seem to undervalue the honour\nwhich you have done me, but the thing you desire may not be.\nRegardless of the foolish belief of the peoples of the outer world, or\nof Holy Thern, or ebon First Born, I am not dead.  While I live my\nheart beats for but one woman--the incomparable Dejah Thoris, Princess\nof Helium.  When death overtakes me my heart shall have ceased to beat;\nbut what comes after that I know not.  And in that I am as wise as\nMatai Shang, Master of Life and Death upon Barsoom; or Issus, Goddess\nof Life Eternal.\"\n\nPhaidor stood looking at me intently for a moment.  No anger showed in\nher eyes this time, only a pathetic expression of hopeless sorrow.\n\n\"I do not understand,\" she said, and turning walked slowly in the\ndirection of the door through which Issus and her retinue had passed.\nA moment later she had passed from my sight.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE PRISON ISLE OF SHADOR\n\n\nIn the outer gardens to which the guard now escorted me, I found Xodar\nsurrounded by a crowd of noble blacks.  They were reviling and cursing\nhim.  The men slapped his face.  The women spat upon him.\n\nWhen I appeared they turned their attentions toward me.\n\n\"Ah,\" cried one, \"so this is the creature who overcame the great Xodar\nbare-handed.  Let us see how it was done.\"\n\n\"Let him bind Thurid,\" suggested a beautiful woman, laughing.  \"Thurid\nis a noble Dator.  Let Thurid show the dog what it means to face a real\nman.\"\n\n\"Yes, Thurid!  Thurid!\" cried a dozen voices.\n\n\"Here he is now,\" exclaimed another, and turning in the direction\nindicated I saw a huge black weighed down with resplendent ornaments\nand arms advancing with noble and gallant bearing toward us.\n\n\"What now?\" he cried.  \"What would you of Thurid?\"\n\nQuickly a dozen voices explained.\n\nThurid turned toward Xodar, his eyes narrowing to two nasty slits.\n\n\"Calot!\" he hissed.  \"Ever did I think you carried the heart of a sorak\nin your putrid breast.  Often have you bested me in the secret councils\nof Issus, but now in the field of war where men are truly gauged your\nscabby heart hath revealed its sores to all the world.  Calot, I spurn\nyou with my foot,\" and with the words he turned to kick Xodar.\n\nMy blood was up.  For minutes it had been boiling at the cowardly\ntreatment they had been according this once powerful comrade because he\nhad fallen from the favour of Issus.  I had no love for Xodar, but I\ncannot stand the sight of cowardly injustice and persecution without\nseeing red as through a haze of bloody mist, and doing things on the\nimpulse of the moment that I presume I never should do after mature\ndeliberation.\n\nI was standing close beside Xodar as Thurid swung his foot for the\ncowardly kick.  The degraded Dator stood erect and motionless as a\ncarven image.  He was prepared to take whatever his former comrades had\nto offer in the way of insults and reproaches, and take them in manly\nsilence and stoicism.\n\nBut as Thurid's foot swung so did mine, and I caught him a painful blow\nupon the shin bone that saved Xodar from this added ignominy.\n\nFor a moment there was tense silence, then Thurid, with a roar of rage\nsprang for my throat; just as Xodar had upon the deck of the cruiser.\nThe results were identical.  I ducked beneath his outstretched arms,\nand as he lunged past me planted a terrific right on the side of his\njaw.\n\nThe big fellow spun around like a top, his knees gave beneath him and\nhe crumpled to the ground at my feet.\n\nThe blacks gazed in astonishment, first at the still form of the proud\nDator lying there in the ruby dust of the pathway, then at me as though\nthey could not believe that such a thing could be.\n\n\"You asked me to bind Thurid,\" I cried; \"behold!\"  And then I stooped\nbeside the prostrate form, tore the harness from it, and bound the\nfellow's arms and legs securely.\n\n\"As you have done to Xodar, now do you likewise to Thurid.  Take him\nbefore Issus, bound in his own harness, that she may see with her own\neyes that there be one among you now who is greater than the First\nBorn.\"\n\n\"Who are you?\" whispered the woman who had first suggested that I\nattempt to bind Thurid.\n\n\"I am a citizen of two worlds; Captain John Carter of Virginia, Prince\nof the House of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.  Take this man to your\ngoddess, as I have said, and tell her, too, that as I have done to\nXodar and Thurid, so also can I do to the mightiest of her Dators.\nWith naked hands, with long-sword or with short-sword, I challenge the\nflower of her fighting-men to combat.\"\n\n\"Come,\" said the officer who was guarding me back to Shador; \"my orders\nare imperative; there is to be no delay.  Xodar, come you also.\"\n\nThere was little of disrespect in the tone that the man used in\naddressing either Xodar or myself.  It was evident that he felt less\ncontempt for the former Dator since he had witnessed the ease with\nwhich I disposed of the powerful Thurid.\n\nThat his respect for me was greater than it should have been for a\nslave was quite apparent from the fact that during the balance of the\nreturn journey he walked or stood always behind me, a drawn short-sword\nin his hand.\n\nThe return to the Sea of Omean was uneventful.  We dropped down the\nawful shaft in the same car that had brought us to the surface.  There\nwe entered the submarine, taking the long dive to the tunnel far\nbeneath the upper world.  Then through the tunnel and up again to the\npool from which we had had our first introduction to the wonderful\npassageway from Omean to the Temple of Issus.\n\nFrom the island of the submarine we were transported on a small cruiser\nto the distant Isle of Shador.  Here we found a small stone prison and\na guard of half a dozen blacks.  There was no ceremony wasted in\ncompleting our incarceration.  One of the blacks opened the door of the\nprison with a huge key, we walked in, the door closed behind us, the\nlock grated, and with the sound there swept over me again that terrible\nfeeling of hopelessness that I had felt in the Chamber of Mystery in\nthe Golden Cliffs beneath the gardens of the Holy Therns.\n\nThen Tars Tarkas had been with me, but now I was utterly alone in so\nfar as friendly companionship was concerned.  I fell to wondering about\nthe fate of the great Thark, and of his beautiful companion, the girl,\nThuvia.  Even should they by some miracle have escaped and been\nreceived and spared by a friendly nation, what hope had I of the\nsuccour which I knew they would gladly extend if it lay in their power.\n\nThey could not guess my whereabouts or my fate, for none on all Barsoom\neven dream of such a place as this.  Nor would it have advantaged me\nany had they known the exact location of my prison, for who could hope\nto penetrate to this buried sea in the face of the mighty navy of the\nFirst Born?  No: my case was hopeless.\n\nWell, I would make the best of it, and, rising, I swept aside the\nbrooding despair that had been endeavouring to claim me.  With the idea\nof exploring my prison, I started to look around.\n\nXodar sat, with bowed head, upon a low stone bench near the centre of\nthe room in which we were.  He had not spoken since Issus had degraded\nhim.\n\nThe building was roofless, the walls rising to a height of about thirty\nfeet.  Half-way up were a couple of small, heavily barred windows.  The\nprison was divided into several rooms by partitions twenty feet high.\nThere was no one in the room which we occupied, but two doors which led\nto other rooms were opened.  I entered one of these rooms, but found it\nvacant.  Thus I continued through several of the chambers until in the\nlast one I found a young red Martian boy sleeping upon the stone bench\nwhich constituted the only furniture of any of the prison cells.\n\nEvidently he was the only other prisoner.  As he slept I leaned over\nand looked at him.  There was something strangely familiar about his\nface, and yet I could not place him.\n\nHis features were very regular and, like the proportions of his\ngraceful limbs and body, beautiful in the extreme.  He was very light\nin colour for a red man, but in other respects he seemed a typical\nspecimen of this handsome race.\n\nI did not awaken him, for sleep in prison is such a priceless boon that\nI have seen men transformed into raging brutes when robbed by one of\ntheir fellow-prisoners of a few precious moments of it.\n\nReturning to my own cell, I found Xodar still sitting in the same\nposition in which I had left him.\n\n\"Man,\" I cried, \"it will profit you nothing to mope thus.  It were no\ndisgrace to be bested by John Carter.  You have seen that in the ease\nwith which I accounted for Thurid.  You knew it before when on the\ncruiser's deck you saw me slay three of your comrades.\"\n\n\"I would that you had dispatched me at the same time,\" he said.\n\n\"Come, come!\" I cried.  \"There is hope yet.  Neither of us is dead.  We\nare great fighters.  Why not win to freedom?\"\n\nHe looked at me in amazement.\n\n\"You know not of what you speak,\" he replied.  \"Issus is omnipotent.\nIssus is omniscient. She hears now the words you speak.  She knows the\nthoughts you think.  It is sacrilege even to dream of breaking her\ncommands.\"\n\n\"Rot, Xodar,\" I ejaculated impatiently.\n\nHe sprang to his feet in horror.\n\n\"The curse of Issus will fall upon you,\" he cried.  \"In another instant\nyou will be smitten down, writhing to your death in horrible agony.\"\n\n\"Do you believe that, Xodar?\" I asked.\n\n\"Of course; who would dare doubt?\"\n\n\"I doubt; yes, and further, I deny,\" I said.  \"Why, Xodar, you tell me\nthat she even knows my thoughts.  The red men have all had that power\nfor ages.  And another wonderful power.  They can shut their minds so\nthat none may read their thoughts.  I learned the first secret years\nago; the other I never had to learn, since upon all Barsoom is none who\ncan read what passes in the secret chambers of my brain.\n\n\"Your goddess cannot read my thoughts; nor can she read yours when you\nare out of sight, unless you will it.  Had she been able to read mine,\nI am afraid that her pride would have suffered a rather severe shock\nwhen I turned at her command to 'gaze upon the holy vision of her\nradiant face.'\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" he whispered in an affrighted voice, so low that I\ncould scarcely hear him.\n\n\"I mean that I thought her the most repulsive and vilely hideous\ncreature my eyes ever had rested upon.\"\n\nFor a moment he eyed me in horror-stricken amazement, and then with a\ncry of \"Blasphemer\" he sprang upon me.\n\nI did not wish to strike him again, nor was it necessary, since he was\nunarmed and therefore quite harmless to me.\n\nAs he came I grasped his left wrist with my left hand, and, swinging my\nright arm about his left shoulder, caught him beneath the chin with my\nelbow and bore him backward across my thigh.\n\nThere he hung helpless for a moment, glaring up at me in impotent rage.\n\n\"Xodar,\" I said, \"let us be friends.  For a year, possibly, we may be\nforced to live together in the narrow confines of this tiny room.  I am\nsorry to have offended you, but I could not dream that one who had\nsuffered from the cruel injustice of Issus still could believe her\ndivine.\n\n\"I will say a few more words, Xodar, with no intent to wound your\nfeelings further, but rather that you may give thought to the fact that\nwhile we live we are still more the arbiters of our own fate than is\nany god.\n\n\"Issus, you see, has not struck me dead, nor is she rescuing her\nfaithful Xodar from the clutches of the unbeliever who defamed her fair\nbeauty.  No, Xodar, your Issus is a mortal old woman.  Once out of her\nclutches and she cannot harm you.\n\n\"With your knowledge of this strange land, and my knowledge of the\nouter world, two such fighting-men as you and I should be able to win\nour way to freedom.  Even though we died in the attempt, would not our\nmemories be fairer than as though we remained in servile fear to be\nbutchered by a cruel and unjust tyrant--call her goddess or mortal, as\nyou will.\"\n\nAs I finished I raised Xodar to his feet and released him.  He did not\nrenew the attack upon me, nor did he speak.  Instead, he walked toward\nthe bench, and, sinking down upon it, remained lost in deep thought for\nhours.\n\nA long time afterward I heard a soft sound at the doorway leading to\none of the other apartments, and, looking up, beheld the red Martian\nyouth gazing intently at us.\n\n\"Kaor,\" I cried, after the red Martian manner of greeting.\n\n\"Kaor,\" he replied.  \"What do you here?\"\n\n\"I await my death, I presume,\" I replied with a wry smile.\n\nHe too smiled, a brave and winning smile.\n\n\"I also,\" he said.  \"Mine will come soon.  I looked upon the radiant\nbeauty of Issus nearly a year since.  It has always been a source of\nkeen wonder to me that I did not drop dead at the first sight of that\nhideous countenance.  And her belly!  By my first ancestor, but never\nwas there so grotesque a figure in all the universe.  That they should\ncall such a one Goddess of Life Eternal, Goddess of Death, Mother of\nthe Nearer Moon, and fifty other equally impossible titles, is quite\nbeyond me.\"\n\n\"How came you here?\" I asked.\n\n\"It is very simple.  I was flying a one-man air scout far to the south\nwhen the brilliant idea occurred to me that I should like to search for\nthe Lost Sea of Korus which tradition places near to the south pole.  I\nmust have inherited from my father a wild lust for adventure, as well\nas a hollow where my bump of reverence should be.\n\n\"I had reached the area of eternal ice when my port propeller jammed,\nand I dropped to the ground to make repairs.  Before I knew it the air\nwas black with fliers, and a hundred of these First Born devils were\nleaping to the ground all about me.\n\n\"With drawn swords they made for me, but before I went down beneath\nthem they had tasted of the steel of my father's sword, and I had given\nsuch an account of myself as I know would have pleased my sire had he\nlived to witness it.\"\n\n\"Your father is dead?\" I asked.\n\n\"He died before the shell broke to let me step out into a world that\nhas been very good to me.  But for the sorrow that I had never the\nhonour to know my father, I have been very happy.  My only sorrow now\nis that my mother must mourn me as she has for ten long years mourned\nmy father.\"\n\n\"Who was your father?\" I asked.\n\nHe was about to reply when the outer door of our prison opened and a\nburly guard entered and ordered him to his own quarters for the night,\nlocking the door after him as he passed through into the further\nchamber.\n\n\"It is Issus' wish that you two be confined in the same room,\" said the\nguard when he had returned to our cell.  \"This cowardly slave of a\nslave is to serve you well,\" he said to me, indicating Xodar with a\nwave of his hand.  \"If he does not, you are to beat him into\nsubmission.  It is Issus' wish that you heap upon him every indignity\nand degradation of which you can conceive.\"\n\nWith these words he left us.\n\nXodar still sat with his face buried in his hands.  I walked to his\nside and placed my hand upon his shoulder.\n\n\"Xodar,\" I said, \"you have heard the commands of Issus, but you need\nnot fear that I shall attempt to put them into execution.  You are a\nbrave man, Xodar.  It is your own affair if you wish to be persecuted\nand humiliated; but were I you I should assert my manhood and defy my\nenemies.\"\n\n\"I have been thinking very hard, John Carter,\" he said, \"of all the new\nideas you gave me a few hours since.  Little by little I have been\npiecing together the things that you said which sounded blasphemous to\nme then with the things that I have seen in my past life and dared not\neven think about for fear of bringing down upon me the wrath of Issus.\n\n\"I believe now that she is a fraud; no more divine than you or I.  More\nI am willing to concede--that the First Born are no holier than the\nHoly Therns, nor the Holy Therns more holy than the red men.\n\n\"The whole fabric of our religion is based on superstitious belief in\nlies that have been foisted upon us for ages by those directly above\nus, to whose personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us\ncontinue to believe as they wished us to believe.\n\n\"I am ready to cast off the ties that have bound me.  I am ready to\ndefy Issus herself; but what will it avail us?  Be the First Born gods\nor mortals, they are a powerful race, and we are as fast in their\nclutches as though we were already dead.  There is no escape.\"\n\n\"I have escaped from bad plights in the past, my friend,\" I replied;\n\"nor while life is in me shall I despair of escaping from the Isle of\nShador and the Sea of Omean.\"\n\n\"But we cannot escape even from the four walls of our prison,\" urged\nXodar.  \"Test this flint-like surface,\" he cried, smiting the solid\nrock that confined us.  \"And look upon this polished surface; none\ncould cling to it to reach the top.\"\n\nI smiled.\n\n\"That is the least of our troubles, Xodar,\" I replied.  \"I will\nguarantee to scale the wall and take you with me, if you will help with\nyour knowledge of the customs here to appoint the best time for the\nattempt, and guide me to the shaft that lets from the dome of this\nabysmal sea to the light of God's pure air above.\"\n\n\"Night time is the best and offers the only slender chance we have, for\nthen men sleep, and only a dozing watch nods in the tops of the\nbattleships.  No watch is kept upon the cruisers and smaller craft.\nThe watchers upon the larger vessels see to all about them.  It is\nnight now.\"\n\n\"But,\" I exclaimed, \"it is not dark!  How can it be night, then?\"\n\nHe smiled.\n\n\"You forget,\" he said, \"that we are far below ground.  The light of the\nsun never penetrates here.  There are no moons and no stars reflected\nin the bosom of Omean.  The phosphorescent light you now see pervading\nthis great subterranean vault emanates from the rocks that form its\ndome; it is always thus upon Omean, just as the billows are always as\nyou see them--rolling, ever rolling over a windless sea.\n\n\"At the appointed hour of night upon the world above, the men whose\nduties hold them here sleep, but the light is ever the same.\"\n\n\"It will make escape more difficult,\" I said, and then I shrugged my\nshoulders; for what, pray, is the pleasure of doing an easy thing?\n\n\"Let us sleep on it to-night,\" said Xodar.  \"A plan may come with our\nawakening.\"\n\nSo we threw ourselves upon the hard stone floor of our prison and slept\nthe sleep of tired men.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nWHEN HELL BROKE LOOSE\n\n\nEarly the next morning Xodar and I commenced work upon our plans for\nescape.  First I had him sketch upon the stone floor of our cell as\naccurate a map of the south polar regions as was possible with the\ncrude instruments at our disposal--a buckle from my harness, and the\nsharp edge of the wondrous gem I had taken from Sator Throg.\n\nFrom this I computed the general direction of Helium and the distance\nat which it lay from the opening which led to Omean.\n\nThen I had him draw a map of Omean, indicating plainly the position of\nShador and of the opening in the dome which led to the outer world.\n\nThese I studied until they were indelibly imprinted in my memory.  From\nXodar I learned the duties and customs of the guards who patrolled\nShador.  It seemed that during the hours set aside for sleep only one\nman was on duty at a time.  He paced a beat that passed around the\nprison, at a distance of about a hundred feet from the building.\n\nThe pace of the sentries, Xodar said, was very slow, requiring nearly\nten minutes to make a single round.  This meant that for practically\nfive minutes at a time each side of the prison was unguarded as the\nsentry pursued his snail-like pace upon the opposite side.\n\n\"This information you ask,\" said Xodar, \"will be all very valuable\nAFTER we get out, but nothing that you have asked has any bearing on\nthat first and most important consideration.\"\n\n\"We will get out all right,\" I replied, laughing.  \"Leave that to me.\"\n\n\"When shall we make the attempt?\" he asked.\n\n\"The first night that finds a small craft moored near the shore of\nShador,\" I replied.\n\n\"But how will you know that any craft is moored near Shador?  The\nwindows are far beyond our reach.\"\n\n\"Not so, friend Xodar; look!\"\n\nWith a bound I sprang to the bars of the window opposite us, and took a\nquick survey of the scene without.\n\nSeveral small craft and two large battleships lay within a hundred\nyards of Shador.\n\n\"To-night,\" I thought, and was just about to voice my decision to\nXodar, when, without warning, the door of our prison opened and a guard\nstepped in.\n\nIf the fellow saw me there our chances of escape might quickly go\nglimmering, for I knew that they would put me in irons if they had the\nslightest conception of the wonderful agility which my earthly muscles\ngave me upon Mars.\n\nThe man had entered and was standing facing the centre of the room, so\nthat his back was toward me.  Five feet above me was the top of a\npartition wall separating our cell from the next.\n\nThere was my only chance to escape detection.  If the fellow turned, I\nwas lost; nor could I have dropped to the floor undetected, since he\nwas so nearly below me that I would have struck him had I done so.\n\n\"Where is the white man?\" cried the guard of Xodar.  \"Issus commands\nhis presence.\"  He started to turn to see if I were in another part of\nthe cell.\n\nI scrambled up the iron grating of the window until I could catch a\ngood footing on the sill with one foot; then I let go my hold and\nsprang for the partition top.\n\n\"What was that?\" I heard the deep voice of the black bellow as my metal\ngrated against the stone wall as I slipped over.  Then I dropped\nlightly to the floor of the cell beyond.\n\n\"Where is the white slave?\" again cried the guard.\n\n\"I know not,\" replied Xodar.  \"He was here even as you entered.  I am\nnot his keeper--go find him.\"\n\nThe black grumbled something that I could not understand, and then I\nheard him unlocking the door into one of the other cells on the further\nside.  Listening intently, I caught the sound as the door closed behind\nhim.  Then I sprang once more to the top of the partition and dropped\ninto my own cell beside the astonished Xodar.\n\n\"Do you see now how we will escape?\" I asked him in a whisper.\n\n\"I see how you may,\" he replied, \"but I am no wiser than before as to\nhow I am to pass these walls.  Certain it is that I cannot bounce over\nthem as you do.\"\n\nWe heard the guard moving about from cell to cell, and finally, his\nrounds completed, he again entered ours.  When his eyes fell upon me\nthey fairly bulged from his head.\n\n\"By the shell of my first ancestor!\" he roared.  \"Where have you been?\"\n\n\"I have been in prison since you put me here yesterday,\" I answered.\n\"I was in this room when you entered.  You had better look to your\neyesight.\"\n\nHe glared at me in mingled rage and relief.\n\n\"Come,\" he said.  \"Issus commands your presence.\"\n\nHe conducted me outside the prison, leaving Xodar behind.  There we\nfound several other guards, and with them the red Martian youth who\noccupied another cell upon Shador.\n\nThe journey I had taken to the Temple of Issus on the preceding day was\nrepeated.  The guards kept the red boy and myself separated, so that we\nhad no opportunity to continue the conversation that had been\ninterrupted the previous night.\n\nThe youth's face had haunted me.  Where had I seen him before.  There\nwas something strangely familiar in every line of him; in his carriage,\nhis manner of speaking, his gestures.  I could have sworn that I knew\nhim, and yet I knew too that I had never seen him before.\n\nWhen we reached the gardens of Issus we were led away from the temple\ninstead of toward it.  The way wound through enchanted parks to a\nmighty wall that towered a hundred feet in air.\n\nMassive gates gave egress upon a small plain, surrounded by the same\ngorgeous forests that I had seen at the foot of the Golden Cliffs.\n\nCrowds of blacks were strolling in the same direction that our guards\nwere leading us, and with them mingled my old friends the plant men and\ngreat white apes.\n\nThe brutal beasts moved among the crowd as pet dogs might.  If they\nwere in the way the blacks pushed them roughly to one side, or whacked\nthem with the flat of a sword, and the animals slunk away as in great\nfear.\n\nPresently we came upon our destination, a great amphitheatre situated\nat the further edge of the plain, and about half a mile beyond the\ngarden walls.\n\nThrough a massive arched gateway the blacks poured in to take their\nseats, while our guards led us to a smaller entrance near one end of\nthe structure.\n\nThrough this we passed into an enclosure beneath the seats, where we\nfound a number of other prisoners herded together under guard.  Some of\nthem were in irons, but for the most part they seemed sufficiently awed\nby the presence of their guards to preclude any possibility of\nattempted escape.\n\nDuring the trip from Shador I had had no opportunity to talk with my\nfellow-prisoner, but now that we were safely within the barred paddock\nour guards abated their watchfulness, with the result that I found\nmyself able to approach the red Martian youth for whom I felt such a\nstrange attraction.\n\n\"What is the object of this assembly?\" I asked him.  \"Are we to fight\nfor the edification of the First Born, or is it something worse than\nthat?\"\n\n\"It is a part of the monthly rites of Issus,\" he replied, \"in which\nblack men wash the sins from their souls in the blood of men from the\nouter world.  If, perchance, the black is killed, it is evidence of his\ndisloyalty to Issus--the unpardonable sin.  If he lives through the\ncontest he is held acquitted of the charge that forced the sentence of\nthe rites, as it is called, upon him.\n\n\"The forms of combat vary.  A number of us may be pitted together\nagainst an equal number, or twice the number of blacks; or singly we\nmay be sent forth to face wild beasts, or some famous black warrior.\"\n\n\"And if we are victorious,\" I asked, \"what then--freedom?\"\n\nHe laughed.\n\n\"Freedom, forsooth.  The only freedom for us death.  None who enters\nthe domains of the First Born ever leave.  If we prove able fighters we\nare permitted to fight often.  If we are not mighty fighters--\"  He\nshrugged his shoulders.  \"Sooner or later we die in the arena.\"\n\n\"And you have fought often?\" I asked.\n\n\"Very often,\" he replied.  \"It is my only pleasure.  Some hundred black\ndevils have I accounted for during nearly a year of the rites of Issus.\nMy mother would be very proud could she only know how well I have\nmaintained the traditions of my father's prowess.\"\n\n\"Your father must have been a mighty warrior!\" I said.  \"I have known\nmost of the warriors of Barsoom in my time; doubtless I knew him.  Who\nwas he?\"\n\n\"My father was--\"\n\n\"Come, calots!\" cried the rough voice of a guard.  \"To the slaughter\nwith you,\" and roughly we were hustled to the steep incline that led to\nthe chambers far below which let out upon the arena.\n\nThe amphitheatre, like all I had ever seen upon Barsoom, was built in a\nlarge excavation.  Only the highest seats, which formed the low wall\nsurrounding the pit, were above the level of the ground.  The arena\nitself was far below the surface.\n\nJust beneath the lowest tier of seats was a series of barred cages on a\nlevel with the surface of the arena.  Into these we were herded.  But,\nunfortunately, my youthful friend was not of those who occupied a cage\nwith me.\n\nDirectly opposite my cage was the throne of Issus.  Here the horrid\ncreature squatted, surrounded by a hundred slave maidens sparkling in\njewelled trappings.  Brilliant cloths of many hues and strange patterns\nformed the soft cushion covering of the dais upon which they reclined\nabout her.\n\nOn four sides of the throne and several feet below it stood three solid\nranks of heavily armed soldiery, elbow to elbow.  In front of these\nwere the high dignitaries of this mock heaven--gleaming blacks bedecked\nwith precious stones, upon their foreheads the insignia of their rank\nset in circles of gold.\n\nOn both sides of the throne stretched a solid mass of humanity from top\nto bottom of the amphitheatre.  There were as many women as men, and\neach was clothed in the wondrously wrought harness of his station and\nhis house.  With each black was from one to three slaves, drawn from\nthe domains of the therns and from the outer world.  The blacks are all\n\"noble.\"  There is no peasantry among the First Born.  Even the lowest\nsoldier is a god, and has his slaves to wait upon him.\n\nThe First Born do no work.  The men fight--that is a sacred privilege\nand duty; to fight and die for Issus.  The women do nothing, absolutely\nnothing.  Slaves wash them, slaves dress them, slaves feed them.  There\nare some, even, who have slaves that talk for them, and I saw one who\nsat during the rites with closed eyes while a slave narrated to her the\nevents that were transpiring within the arena.\n\nThe first event of the day was the Tribute to Issus.  It marked the end\nof those poor unfortunates who had looked upon the divine glory of the\ngoddess a full year before.  There were ten of them--splendid beauties\nfrom the proud courts of mighty Jeddaks and from the temples of the\nHoly Therns.  For a year they had served in the retinue of Issus;\nto-day they were to pay the price of this divine preferment with their\nlives; tomorrow they would grace the tables of the court functionaries.\n\nA huge black entered the arena with the young women.  Carefully he\ninspected them, felt of their limbs and poked them in the ribs.\nPresently he selected one of their number whom he led before the throne\nof Issus.  He addressed some words to the goddess which I could not\nhear.  Issus nodded her head.  The black raised his hands above his\nhead in token of salute, grasped the girl by the wrist, and dragged her\nfrom the arena through a small doorway below the throne.\n\n\"Issus will dine well to-night,\" said a prisoner beside me.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" I asked.\n\n\"That was her dinner that old Thabis is taking to the kitchens.  Didst\nnot note how carefully he selected the plumpest and tenderest of the\nlot?\"\n\nI growled out my curses on the monster sitting opposite us on the\ngorgeous throne.\n\n\"Fume not,\" admonished my companion; \"you will see far worse than that\nif you live even a month among the First Born.\"\n\nI turned again in time to see the gate of a nearby cage thrown open and\nthree monstrous white apes spring into the arena.  The girls shrank in\na frightened group in the centre of the enclosure.\n\nOne was on her knees with imploring hands outstretched toward Issus;\nbut the hideous deity only leaned further forward in keener\nanticipation of the entertainment to come.  At length the apes spied\nthe huddled knot of terror-stricken maidens and with demoniacal shrieks\nof bestial frenzy, charged upon them.\n\nA wave of mad fury surged over me.  The cruel cowardliness of the\npower-drunk creature whose malignant mind conceived such frightful\nforms of torture stirred to their uttermost depths my resentment and my\nmanhood.  The blood-red haze that presaged death to my foes swam before\nmy eyes.\n\nThe guard lolled before the unbarred gate of the cage which confined\nme.  What need of bars, indeed, to keep those poor victims from rushing\ninto the arena which the edict of the gods had appointed as their death\nplace!\n\nA single blow sent the black unconscious to the ground.  Snatching up\nhis long-sword, I sprang into the arena.  The apes were almost upon the\nmaidens, but a couple of mighty bounds were all my earthly muscles\nrequired to carry me to the centre of the sand-strewn floor.\n\nFor an instant silence reigned in the great amphitheatre, then a wild\nshout arose from the cages of the doomed.  My long-sword circled\nwhirring through the air, and a great ape sprawled, headless, at the\nfeet of the fainting girls.\n\nThe other apes turned now upon me, and as I stood facing them a sullen\nroar from the audience answered the wild cheers from the cages.  From\nthe tail of my eye I saw a score of guards rushing across the\nglistening sand toward me.  Then a figure broke from one of the cages\nbehind them.  It was the youth whose personality so fascinated me.\n\nHe paused a moment before the cages, with upraised sword.\n\n\"Come, men of the outer world!\" he shouted.  \"Let us make our deaths\nworth while, and at the back of this unknown warrior turn this day's\nTribute to Issus into an orgy of revenge that will echo through the\nages and cause black skins to blanch at each repetition of the rites of\nIssus.  Come!  The racks without your cages are filled with blades.\"\n\nWithout waiting to note the outcome of his plea, he turned and bounded\ntoward me.  From every cage that harboured red men a thunderous shout\nwent up in answer to his exhortation.  The inner guards went down\nbeneath howling mobs, and the cages vomited forth their inmates hot\nwith the lust to kill.\n\nThe racks that stood without were stripped of the swords with which the\nprisoners were to have been armed to enter their allotted combats, and\na swarm of determined warriors sped to our support.\n\nThe great apes, towering in all their fifteen feet of height, had gone\ndown before my sword while the charging guards were still some distance\naway.  Close behind them pursued the youth.  At my back were the young\ngirls, and as it was in their service that I fought, I remained\nstanding there to meet my inevitable death, but with the determination\nto give such an account of myself as would long be remembered in the\nland of the First Born.\n\nI noted the marvellous speed of the young red man as he raced after the\nguards.  Never had I seen such speed in any Martian.  His leaps and\nbounds were little short of those which my earthly muscles had produced\nto create such awe and respect on the part of the green Martians into\nwhose hands I had fallen on that long-gone day that had seen my first\nadvent upon Mars.\n\nThe guards had not reached me when he fell upon them from the rear, and\nas they turned, thinking from the fierceness of his onslaught that a\ndozen were attacking them, I rushed them from my side.\n\nIn the rapid fighting that followed I had little chance to note aught\nelse than the movements of my immediate adversaries, but now and again\nI caught a fleeting glimpse of a purring sword and a lightly springing\nfigure of sinewy steel that filled my heart with a strange yearning and\na mighty but unaccountable pride.\n\nOn the handsome face of the boy a grim smile played, and ever and anon\nhe threw a taunting challenge to the foes that faced him.  In this and\nother ways his manner of fighting was similar to that which had always\nmarked me on the field of combat.\n\nPerhaps it was this vague likeness which made me love the boy, while\nthe awful havoc that his sword played amongst the blacks filled my soul\nwith a tremendous respect for him.\n\nFor my part, I was fighting as I had fought a thousand times\nbefore--now sidestepping a wicked thrust, now stepping quickly in to\nlet my sword's point drink deep in a foeman's heart, before it buried\nitself in the throat of his companion.\n\nWe were having a merry time of it, we two, when a great body of Issus'\nown guards were ordered into the arena.  On they came with fierce\ncries, while from every side the armed prisoners swarmed upon them.\n\nFor half an hour it was as though all hell had broken loose.  In the\nwalled confines of the arena we fought in an inextricable\nmass--howling, cursing, blood-streaked demons; and ever the sword of\nthe young red man flashed beside me.\n\nSlowly and by repeated commands I had succeeded in drawing the\nprisoners into a rough formation about us, so that at last we fought\nformed into a rude circle in the centre of which were the doomed maids.\n\nMany had gone down on both sides, but by far the greater havoc had been\nwrought in the ranks of the guards of Issus.  I could see messengers\nrunning swiftly through the audience, and as they passed the nobles\nthere unsheathed their swords and sprang into the arena.  They were\ngoing to annihilate us by force of numbers--that was quite evidently\ntheir plan.\n\nI caught a glimpse of Issus leaning far forward upon her throne, her\nhideous countenance distorted in a horrid grimace of hate and rage, in\nwhich I thought I could distinguish an expression of fear.  It was that\nface that inspired me to the thing that followed.\n\nQuickly I ordered fifty of the prisoners to drop back behind us and\nform a new circle about the maidens.\n\n\"Remain and protect them until I return,\" I commanded.\n\nThen, turning to those who formed the outer line, I cried, \"Down with\nIssus!  Follow me to the throne; we will reap vengeance where vengeance\nis deserved.\"\n\nThe youth at my side was the first to take up the cry of \"Down with\nIssus!\" and then at my back and from all sides rose a hoarse shout, \"To\nthe throne!  To the throne!\"\n\nAs one man we moved, an irresistible fighting mass, over the bodies of\ndead and dying foes toward the gorgeous throne of the Martian deity.\nHordes of the doughtiest fighting-men of the First Born poured from the\naudience to check our progress.  We mowed them down before us as they\nhad been paper men.\n\n\"To the seats, some of you!\" I cried as we approached the arena's\nbarrier wall.  \"Ten of us can take the throne,\" for I had seen that\nIssus' guards had for the most part entered the fray within the arena.\n\nOn both sides of me the prisoners broke to left and right for the\nseats, vaulting the low wall with dripping swords lusting for the\ncrowded victims who awaited them.\n\nIn another moment the entire amphitheatre was filled with the shrieks\nof the dying and the wounded, mingled with the clash of arms and\ntriumphant shouts of the victors.\n\nSide by side the young red man and I, with perhaps a dozen others,\nfought our way to the foot of the throne.  The remaining guards,\nreinforced by the high dignitaries and nobles of the First Born, closed\nin between us and Issus, who sat leaning far forward upon her carved\nsorapus bench, now screaming high-pitched commands to her following,\nnow hurling blighting curses upon those who sought to desecrate her\ngodhood.\n\nThe frightened slaves about her trembled in wide-eyed expectancy,\nknowing not whether to pray for our victory or our defeat.  Several\namong them, proud daughters no doubt of some of Barsoom's noblest\nwarriors, snatched swords from the hands of the fallen and fell upon\nthe guards of Issus, but they were soon cut down; glorious martyrs to a\nhopeless cause.\n\nThe men with us fought well, but never since Tars Tarkas and I fought\nout that long, hot afternoon shoulder to shoulder against the hordes of\nWarhoon in the dead sea bottom before Thark, had I seen two men fight\nto such good purpose and with such unconquerable ferocity as the young\nred man and I fought that day before the throne of Issus, Goddess of\nDeath, and of Life Eternal.\n\nMan by man those who stood between us and the carven sorapus wood bench\nwent down before our blades.  Others swarmed in to fill the breach, but\ninch by inch, foot by foot we won nearer and nearer to our goal.\n\nPresently a cry went up from a section of the stands near by--\"Rise\nslaves!\"  \"Rise slaves!\" it rose and fell until it swelled to a mighty\nvolume of sound that swept in great billows around the entire\namphitheatre.\n\nFor an instant, as though by common assent, we ceased our fighting to\nlook for the meaning of this new note nor did it take but a moment to\ntranslate its significance.  In all parts of the structure the female\nslaves were falling upon their masters with whatever weapon came first\nto hand.  A dagger snatched from the harness of her mistress was waved\naloft by some fair slave, its shimmering blade crimson with the\nlifeblood of its owner; swords plucked from the bodies of the dead\nabout them; heavy ornaments which could be turned into bludgeons--such\nwere the implements with which these fair women wreaked the long-pent\nvengeance which at best could but partially recompense them for the\nunspeakable cruelties and indignities which their black masters had\nheaped upon them.  And those who could find no other weapons used their\nstrong fingers and their gleaming teeth.\n\nIt was at once a sight to make one shudder and to cheer; but in a brief\nsecond we were engaged once more in our own battle with only the\nunquenchable battle cry of the women to remind us that they still\nfought--\"Rise slaves!\" \"Rise slaves!\"\n\nOnly a single thin rank of men now stood between us and Issus.  Her\nface was blue with terror.  Foam flecked her lips.  She seemed too\nparalysed with fear to move.  Only the youth and I fought now.  The\nothers all had fallen, and I was like to have gone down too from a\nnasty long-sword cut had not a hand reached out from behind my\nadversary and clutched his elbow as the blade was falling upon me.  The\nyouth sprang to my side and ran his sword through the fellow before he\ncould recover to deliver another blow.\n\nI should have died even then but for that as my sword was tight wedged\nin the breastbone of a Dator of the First Born.  As the fellow went\ndown I snatched his sword from him and over his prostrate body looked\ninto the eyes of the one whose quick hand had saved me from the first\ncut of his sword--it was Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang.\n\n\"Fly, my Prince!\" she cried.  \"It is useless to fight them longer.  All\nwithin the arena are dead.  All who charged the throne are dead but you\nand this youth.  Only among the seats are there left any of your\nfighting-men, and they and the slave women are fast being cut down.\nListen!  You can scarce hear the battle-cry of the women now for nearly\nall are dead.  For each one of you there are ten thousand blacks within\nthe domains of the First Born.  Break for the open and the sea of\nKorus.  With your mighty sword arm you may yet win to the Golden Cliffs\nand the templed gardens of the Holy Therns.  There tell your story to\nMatai Shang, my father.  He will keep you, and together you may find a\nway to rescue me.  Fly while there is yet a bare chance for flight.\"\n\nBut that was not my mission, nor could I see much to be preferred in\nthe cruel hospitality of the Holy Therns to that of the First Born.\n\n\"Down with Issus!\" I shouted, and together the boy and I took up the\nfight once more.  Two blacks went down with our swords in their vitals,\nand we stood face to face with Issus.  As my sword went up to end her\nhorrid career her paralysis left her, and with an ear-piercing shriek\nshe turned to flee.  Directly behind her a black gulf suddenly yawned\nin the flooring of the dais.  She sprang for the opening with the youth\nand I close at her heels.  Her scattered guard rallied at her cry and\nrushed for us.  A blow fell upon the head of the youth.  He staggered\nand would have fallen, but I caught him in my left arm and turned to\nface an infuriated mob of religious fanatics crazed by the affront I\nhad put upon their goddess, just as Issus disappeared into the black\ndepths beneath me.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nDOOMED TO DIE\n\n\nFor an instant I stood there before they fell upon me, but the first\nrush of them forced me back a step or two.  My foot felt for the floor\nbut found only empty space.  I had backed into the pit which had\nreceived Issus.  For a second I toppled there upon the brink.  Then I\ntoo with the boy still tightly clutched in my arms pitched backward\ninto the black abyss.\n\nWe struck a polished chute, the opening above us closed as magically as\nit had opened, and we shot down, unharmed, into a dimly lighted\napartment far below the arena.\n\nAs I rose to my feet the first thing I saw was the malignant\ncountenance of Issus glaring at me through the heavy bars of a grated\ndoor at one side of the chamber.\n\n\"Rash mortal!\" she shrilled.  \"You shall pay the awful penalty for your\nblasphemy in this secret cell.  Here you shall lie alone and in\ndarkness with the carcass of your accomplice festering in its\nrottenness by your side, until crazed by loneliness and hunger you feed\nupon the crawling maggots that were once a man.\"\n\nThat was all.  In another instant she was gone, and the dim light which\nhad filled the cell faded into Cimmerian blackness.\n\n\"Pleasant old lady,\" said a voice at my side.\n\n\"Who speaks?\" I asked.\n\n\"'Tis I, your companion, who has had the honour this day of fighting\nshoulder to shoulder with the greatest warrior that ever wore metal\nupon Barsoom.\"\n\n\"I thank God that you are not dead,\" I said.  \"I feared for that nasty\ncut upon your head.\"\n\n\"It but stunned me,\" he replied.  \"A mere scratch.\"\n\n\"Maybe it were as well had it been final,\" I said.  \"We seem to be in a\npretty fix here with a splendid chance of dying of starvation and\nthirst.\"\n\n\"Where are we?\"\n\n\"Beneath the arena,\" I replied.  \"We tumbled down the shaft that\nswallowed Issus as she was almost at our mercy.\"\n\nHe laughed a low laugh of pleasure and relief, and then reaching out\nthrough the inky blackness he sought my shoulder and pulled my ear\nclose to his mouth.\n\n\"Nothing could be better,\" he whispered.  \"There are secrets within the\nsecrets of Issus of which Issus herself does not dream.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I laboured with the other slaves a year since in the remodelling of\nthese subterranean galleries, and at that time we found below these an\nancient system of corridors and chambers that had been sealed up for\nages.  The blacks in charge of the work explored them, taking several\nof us along to do whatever work there might be occasion for.  I know\nthe entire system perfectly.\n\n\"There are miles of corridors honeycombing the ground beneath the\ngardens and the temple itself, and there is one passage that leads down\nto and connects with the lower regions that open on the water shaft\nthat gives passage to Omean.\n\n\"If we can reach the submarine undetected we may yet make the sea in\nwhich there are many islands where the blacks never go.  There we may\nlive for a time, and who knows what may transpire to aid us to escape?\"\n\nHe had spoken all in a low whisper, evidently fearing spying ears even\nhere, and so I answered him in the same subdued tone.\n\n\"Lead back to Shador, my friend,\" I whispered.  \"Xodar, the black, is\nthere.  We were to attempt our escape together, so I cannot desert him.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the boy, \"one cannot desert a friend.  It were better to be\nrecaptured ourselves than that.\"\n\nThen he commenced groping his way about the floor of the dark chamber\nsearching for the trap that led to the corridors beneath.  At length he\nsummoned me by a low, \"S-s-t,\" and I crept toward the sound of his\nvoice to find him kneeling on the brink of an opening in the floor.\n\n\"There is a drop here of about ten feet,\" he whispered.  \"Hang by your\nhands and you will alight safely on a level floor of soft sand.\"\n\nVery quietly I lowered myself from the inky cell above into the inky\npit below.  So utterly dark was it that we could not see our hands at\nan inch from our noses.  Never, I think, have I known such complete\nabsence of light as existed in the pits of Issus.\n\nFor an instant I hung in mid air.  There is a strange sensation\nconnected with an experience of that nature which is quite difficult to\ndescribe.  When the feet tread empty air and the distance below is\nshrouded in darkness there is a feeling akin to panic at the thought of\nreleasing the hold and taking the plunge into unknown depths.\n\nAlthough the boy had told me that it was but ten feet to the floor\nbelow I experienced the same thrills as though I were hanging above a\nbottomless pit.  Then I released my hold and dropped--four feet to a\nsoft cushion of sand.\n\nThe boy followed me.\n\n\"Raise me to your shoulders,\" he said, \"and I will replace the trap.\"\n\nThis done he took me by the hand, leading me very slowly, with much\nfeeling about and frequent halts to assure himself that he did not\nstray into wrong passageways.\n\nPresently we commenced the descent of a very steep incline.\n\n\"It will not be long,\" he said, \"before we shall have light.  At the\nlower levels we meet the same stratum of phosphorescent rock that\nilluminates Omean.\"\n\nNever shall I forget that trip through the pits of Issus.  While it was\ndevoid of important incidents yet it was filled for me with a strange\ncharm of excitement and adventure which I think must have hinged\nprincipally on the unguessable antiquity of these long-forgotten\ncorridors.  The things which the Stygian darkness hid from my objective\neye could not have been half so wonderful as the pictures which my\nimagination wrought as it conjured to life again the ancient peoples of\nthis dying world and set them once more to the labours, the intrigues,\nthe mysteries and the cruelties which they had practised to make their\nlast stand against the swarming hordes of the dead sea bottoms that had\ndriven them step by step to the uttermost pinnacle of the world where\nthey were now intrenched behind an impenetrable barrier of superstition.\n\nIn addition to the green men there had been three principal races upon\nBarsoom.  The blacks, the whites, and a race of yellow men.  As the\nwaters of the planet dried and the seas receded, all other resources\ndwindled until life upon the planet became a constant battle for\nsurvival.\n\nThe various races had made war upon one another for ages, and the three\nhigher types had easily bested the green savages of the water places of\nthe world, but now that the receding seas necessitated constant\nabandonment of their fortified cities and forced upon them a more or\nless nomadic life in which they became separated into smaller\ncommunities they soon fell prey to the fierce hordes of green men.  The\nresult was a partial amalgamation of the blacks, whites and yellows,\nthe result of which is shown in the present splendid race of red men.\n\nI had always supposed that all traces of the original races had\ndisappeared from the face of Mars, yet within the past four days I had\nfound both whites and blacks in great multitudes.  Could it be possible\nthat in some far-off corner of the planet there still existed a remnant\nof the ancient race of yellow men?\n\nMy reveries were broken in upon by a low exclamation from the boy.\n\n\"At last, the lighted way,\" he cried, and looking up I beheld at a long\ndistance before us a dim radiance.\n\nAs we advanced the light increased until presently we emerged into\nwell-lighted passageways.  From then on our progress was rapid until we\ncame suddenly to the end of a corridor that let directly upon the ledge\nsurrounding the pool of the submarine.\n\nThe craft lay at her moorings with uncovered hatch.  Raising his finger\nto his lips and then tapping his sword in a significant manner, the\nyouth crept noiselessly toward the vessel.  I was close at his heels.\n\nSilently we dropped to the deserted deck, and on hands and knees\ncrawled toward the hatchway.  A stealthy glance below revealed no guard\nin sight, and so with the quickness and the soundlessness of cats we\ndropped together into the main cabin of the submarine.  Even here was\nno sign of life.  Quickly we covered and secured the hatch.\n\nThen the boy stepped into the pilot house, touched a button and the\nboat sank amid swirling waters toward the bottom of the shaft.  Even\nthen there was no scurrying of feet as we had expected, and while the\nboy remained to direct the boat I slid from cabin to cabin in futile\nsearch for some member of the crew.  The craft was entirely deserted.\nSuch good fortune seemed almost unbelievable.\n\nWhen I returned to the pilot house to report the good news to my\ncompanion he handed me a paper.\n\n\"This may explain the absence of the crew,\" he said.\n\nIt was a radio-aerial message to the commander of the submarine:\n\n\n\"The slaves have risen.  Come with what men you have and those that you\ncan gather on the way.  Too late to get aid from Omean.  They are\nmassacring all within the amphitheatre.  Issus is threatened.  Haste.\n\n\"ZITHAD\"\n\n\n\"Zithad is Dator of the guards of Issus,\" explained the youth.  \"We\ngave them a bad scare--one that they will not soon forget.\"\n\n\"Let us hope that it is but the beginning of the end of Issus,\" I said.\n\n\"Only our first ancestor knows,\" he replied.\n\nWe reached the submarine pool in Omean without incident.  Here we\ndebated the wisdom of sinking the craft before leaving her, but finally\ndecided that it would add nothing to our chances for escape.  There\nwere plenty of blacks on Omean to thwart us were we apprehended;\nhowever many more might come from the temples and gardens of Issus\nwould not in any way decrease our chances.\n\nWe were now in a quandary as to how to pass the guards who patrolled\nthe island about the pool.  At last I hit upon a plan.\n\n\"What is the name or title of the officer in charge of these guards?\" I\nasked the boy.\n\n\"A fellow named Torith was on duty when we entered this morning,\" he\nreplied.\n\n\"Good.  And what is the name of the commander of the submarine?\"\n\n\"Yersted.\"\n\nI found a dispatch blank in the cabin and wrote the following order:\n\n\n\"Dator Torith: Return these two slaves at once to Shador.\n\n\"YERSTED\"\n\n\n\"That will be the simpler way to return,\" I said, smiling, as I handed\nthe forged order to the boy.  \"Come, we shall see now how well it\nworks.\"\n\n\"But our swords!\" he exclaimed.  \"What shall we say to explain them?\"\n\n\"Since we cannot explain them we shall have to leave them behind us,\" I\nreplied.\n\n\"Is it not the extreme of rashness to thus put ourselves again,\nunarmed, in the power of the First Born?\"\n\n\"It is the only way,\" I answered.  \"You may trust me to find a way out\nof the prison of Shador, and I think, once out, that we shall find no\ngreat difficulty in arming ourselves once more in a country which\nabounds so plentifully in armed men.\"\n\n\"As you say,\" he replied with a smile and shrug.  \"I could not follow\nanother leader who inspired greater confidence than you.  Come, let us\nput your ruse to the test.\"\n\nBoldly we emerged from the hatchway of the craft, leaving our swords\nbehind us, and strode to the main exit which led to the sentry's post\nand the office of the Dator of the guard.\n\nAt sight of us the members of the guard sprang forward in surprise, and\nwith levelled rifles halted us.  I held out the message to one of them.\nHe took it and seeing to whom it was addressed turned and handed it to\nTorith who was emerging from his office to learn the cause of the\ncommotion.\n\nThe black read the order, and for a moment eyed us with evident\nsuspicion.\n\n\"Where is Dator Yersted?\" he asked, and my heart sank within me, as I\ncursed myself for a stupid fool in not having sunk the submarine to\nmake good the lie that I must tell.\n\n\"His orders were to return immediately to the temple landing,\" I\nreplied.\n\nTorith took a half step toward the entrance to the pool as though to\ncorroborate my story.  For that instant everything hung in the balance,\nfor had he done so and found the empty submarine still lying at her\nwharf the whole weak fabric of my concoction would have tumbled about\nour heads; but evidently he decided the message must be genuine, nor\nindeed was there any good reason to doubt it since it would scarce have\nseemed credible to him that two slaves would voluntarily have given\nthemselves into custody in any such manner as this.  It was the very\nboldness of the plan which rendered it successful.\n\n\"Were you connected with the rising of the slaves?\" asked Torith.  \"We\nhave just had meagre reports of some such event.\"\n\n\"All were involved,\" I replied.  \"But it amounted to little.  The\nguards quickly overcame and killed the majority of us.\"\n\nHe seemed satisfied with this reply.  \"Take them to Shador,\" he\nordered, turning to one of his subordinates.  We entered a small boat\nlying beside the island, and in a few minutes were disembarking upon\nShador.  Here we were returned to our respective cells; I with Xodar,\nthe boy by himself; and behind locked doors we were again prisoners of\nthe First Born.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nA BREAK FOR LIBERTY\n\n\nXodar listened in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the\nevents which had transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus.  He\ncould scarce conceive, even though he had already professed his doubt\nas to the deity of Issus, that one could threaten her with sword in\nhand and not be blasted into a thousand fragments by the mere fury of\nher divine wrath.\n\n\"It is the final proof,\" he said, at last.  \"No more is needed to\ncompletely shatter the last remnant of my superstitious belief in the\ndivinity of Issus.  She is only a wicked old woman, wielding a mighty\npower for evil through machinations that have kept her own people and\nall Barsoom in religious ignorance for ages.\"\n\n\"She is still all-powerful here, however,\" I replied.  \"So it behooves\nus to leave at the first moment that appears at all propitious.\"\n\n\"I hope that you may find a propitious moment,\" he said, with a laugh,\n\"for it is certain that in all my life I have never seen one in which a\nprisoner of the First Born might escape.\"\n\n\"To-night will do as well as any,\" I replied.\n\n\"It will soon be night,\" said Xodar.  \"How may I aid in the adventure?\"\n\n\"Can you swim?\" I asked him.\n\n\"No slimy silian that haunts the depths of Korus is more at home in\nwater than is Xodar,\" he replied.\n\n\"Good.  The red one in all probability cannot swim,\" I said, \"since\nthere is scarce enough water in all their domains to float the tiniest\ncraft.  One of us therefore will have to support him through the sea to\nthe craft we select.  I had hoped that we might make the entire\ndistance below the surface, but I fear that the red youth could not\nthus perform the trip.  Even the bravest of the brave among them are\nterrorized at the mere thought of deep water, for it has been ages\nsince their forebears saw a lake, a river or a sea.\"\n\n\"The red one is to accompany us?\" asked Xodar.\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"It is well.  Three swords are better than two.  Especially when the\nthird is as mighty as this fellow's.  I have seen him battle in the\narena at the rites of Issus many times.  Never, until I saw you fight,\nhad I seen one who seemed unconquerable even in the face of great odds.\nOne might think you two master and pupil, or father and son.  Come to\nrecall his face there is a resemblance between you.  It is very marked\nwhen you fight--there is the same grim smile, the same maddening\ncontempt for your adversary apparent in every movement of your bodies\nand in every changing expression of your faces.\"\n\n\"Be that as it may, Xodar, he is a great fighter.  I think that we will\nmake a trio difficult to overcome, and if my friend Tars Tarkas, Jeddak\nof Thark, were but one of us we could fight our way from one end of\nBarsoom to the other even though the whole world were pitted against\nus.\"\n\n\"It will be,\" said Xodar, \"when they find from whence you have come.\nThat is but one of the superstitions which Issus has foisted upon a\ncredulous humanity.  She works through the Holy Therns who are as\nignorant of her real self as are the Barsoomians of the outer world.\nHer decrees are borne to the therns written in blood upon a strange\nparchment.  The poor deluded fools think that they are receiving the\nrevelations of a goddess through some supernatural agency, since they\nfind these messages upon their guarded altars to which none could have\naccess without detection.  I myself have borne these messages for Issus\nfor many years.  There is a long tunnel from the temple of Issus to the\nprincipal temple of Matai Shang.  It was dug ages ago by the slaves of\nthe First Born in such utter secrecy that no thern ever guessed its\nexistence.\n\n\"The therns for their part have temples dotted about the entire\ncivilized world.  Here priests whom the people never see communicate\nthe doctrine of the Mysterious River Iss, the Valley Dor, and the Lost\nSea of Korus to persuade the poor deluded creatures to take the\nvoluntary pilgrimage that swells the wealth of the Holy Therns and adds\nto the numbers of their slaves.\n\n\"Thus the therns are used as the principal means for collecting the\nwealth and labour that the First Born wrest from them as they need it.\nOccasionally the First Born themselves make raids upon the outer world.\nIt is then that they capture many females of the royal houses of the\nred men, and take the newest in battleships and the trained artisans\nwho build them, that they may copy what they cannot create.\n\n\"We are a non-productive race, priding ourselves upon our\nnon-productiveness.  It is criminal for a First Born to labour or\ninvent.  That is the work of the lower orders, who live merely that the\nFirst Born may enjoy long lives of luxury and idleness.  With us\nfighting is all that counts; were it not for that there would be more\nof the First Born than all the creatures of Barsoom could support, for\nin so far as I know none of us ever dies a natural death.  Our females\nwould live for ever but for the fact that we tire of them and remove\nthem to make place for others.  Issus alone of all is protected against\ndeath.  She has lived for countless ages.\"\n\n\"Would not the other Barsoomians live for ever but for the doctrine of\nthe voluntary pilgrimage which drags them to the bosom of Iss at or\nbefore their thousandth year?\" I asked him.\n\n\"I feel now that there is no doubt but that they are precisely the same\nspecies of creature as the First Born, and I hope that I shall live to\nfight for them in atonement of the sins I have committed against them\nthrough the ignorance born of generations of false teaching.\"\n\nAs he ceased speaking a weird call rang out across the waters of Omean.\nI had heard it at the same time the previous evening and knew that it\nmarked the ending of the day, when the men of Omean spread their silks\nupon the deck of battleship and cruiser and fall into the dreamless\nsleep of Mars.\n\nOur guard entered to inspect us for the last time before the new day\nbroke upon the world above.  His duty was soon performed and the heavy\ndoor of our prison closed behind him--we were alone for the night.\n\nI gave him time to return to his quarters, as Xodar said he probably\nwould do, then I sprang to the grated window and surveyed the nearby\nwaters.  At a little distance from the island, a quarter of a mile\nperhaps, lay a monster battleship, while between her and the shore were\na number of smaller cruisers and one-man scouts.  Upon the battleship\nalone was there a watch.  I could see him plainly in the upper works of\nthe ship, and as I watched I saw him spread his sleeping silks upon the\ntiny platform in which he was stationed.  Soon he threw himself at full\nlength upon his couch.  The discipline on Omean was lax indeed.  But it\nis not to be wondered at since no enemy guessed the existence upon\nBarsoom of such a fleet, or even of the First Born, or the Sea of\nOmean.  Why indeed should they maintain a watch?\n\nPresently I dropped to the floor again and talked with Xodar,\ndescribing the various craft I had seen.\n\n\"There is one there,\" he said, \"my personal property, built to carry\nfive men, that is the swiftest of the swift.  If we can board her we\ncan at least make a memorable run for liberty,\" and then he went on to\ndescribe to me the equipment of the boat; her engines, and all that\nwent to make her the flier that she was.\n\nIn his explanation I recognized a trick of gearing that Kantos Kan had\ntaught me that time we sailed under false names in the navy of Zodanga\nbeneath Sab Than, the Prince.  And I knew then that the First Born had\nstolen it from the ships of Helium, for only they are thus geared.  And\nI knew too that Xodar spoke the truth when he lauded the speed of his\nlittle craft, for nothing that cleaves the thin air of Mars can\napproximate the speed of the ships of Helium.\n\nWe decided to wait for an hour at least until all the stragglers had\nsought their silks.  In the meantime I was to fetch the red youth to\nour cell so that we would be in readiness to make our rash break for\nfreedom together.\n\nI sprang to the top of our partition wall and pulled myself up on to\nit.  There I found a flat surface about a foot in width and along this\nI walked until I came to the cell in which I saw the boy sitting upon\nhis bench.  He had been leaning back against the wall looking up at the\nglowing dome above Omean, and when he spied me balancing upon the\npartition wall above him his eyes opened wide in astonishment.  Then a\nwide grin of appreciative understanding spread across his countenance.\n\nAs I stooped to drop to the floor beside him he motioned me to wait,\nand coming close below me whispered: \"Catch my hand; I can almost leap\nto the top of that wall myself.  I have tried it many times, and each\nday I come a little closer.  Some day I should have been able to make\nit.\"\n\nI lay upon my belly across the wall and reached my hand far down toward\nhim.  With a little run from the centre of the cell he sprang up until\nI grasped his outstretched hand, and thus I pulled him to the wall's\ntop beside me.\n\n\"You are the first jumper I ever saw among the red men of Barsoom,\" I\nsaid.\n\nHe smiled.  \"It is not strange.  I will tell you why when we have more\ntime.\"\n\nTogether we returned to the cell in which Xodar sat; descending to talk\nwith him until the hour had passed.\n\nThere we made our plans for the immediate future, binding ourselves by\na solemn oath to fight to the death for one another against whatsoever\nenemies should confront us, for we knew that even should we succeed in\nescaping the First Born we might still have a whole world against\nus--the power of religious superstition is mighty.\n\nIt was agreed that I should navigate the craft after we had reached\nher, and that if we made the outer world in safety we should attempt to\nreach Helium without a stop.\n\n\"Why Helium?\" asked the red youth.\n\n\"I am a prince of Helium,\" I replied.\n\nHe gave me a peculiar look, but said nothing further on the subject.  I\nwondered at the time what the significance of his expression might be,\nbut in the press of other matters it soon left my mind, nor did I have\noccasion to think of it again until later.\n\n\"Come,\" I said at length, \"now is as good a time as any.  Let us go.\"\n\nAnother moment found me at the top of the partition wall again with the\nboy beside me.  Unbuckling my harness I snapped it together with a\nsingle long strap which I lowered to the waiting Xodar below.  He\ngrasped the end and was soon sitting beside us.\n\n\"How simple,\" he laughed.\n\n\"The balance should be even simpler,\" I replied.  Then I raised myself\nto the top of the outer wall of the prison, just so that I could peer\nover and locate the passing sentry.  For a matter of five minutes I\nwaited and then he came in sight on his slow and snail-like beat about\nthe structure.\n\nI watched him until he had made the turn at the end of the building\nwhich carried him out of sight of the side of the prison that was to\nwitness our dash for freedom.  The moment his form disappeared I\ngrasped Xodar and drew him to the top of the wall.  Placing one end of\nmy harness strap in his hands I lowered him quickly to the ground\nbelow.  Then the boy grasped the strap and slid down to Xodar's side.\n\nIn accordance with our arrangement they did not wait for me, but walked\nslowly toward the water, a matter of a hundred yards, directly past the\nguard-house filled with sleeping soldiers.\n\nThey had taken scarce a dozen steps when I too dropped to the ground\nand followed them leisurely toward the shore.  As I passed the\nguard-house the thought of all the good blades lying there gave me\npause, for if ever men were to have need of swords it was my companions\nand I on the perilous trip upon which we were about to embark.\n\nI glanced toward Xodar and the youth and saw that they had slipped over\nthe edge of the dock into the water.  In accordance with our plan they\nwere to remain there clinging to the metal rings which studded the\nconcrete-like substance of the dock at the water's level, with only\ntheir mouths and noses above the surface of the sea, until I should\njoin them.\n\nThe lure of the swords within the guard-house was strong upon me, and I\nhesitated a moment, half inclined to risk the attempt to take the few\nwe needed.  That he who hesitates is lost proved itself a true aphorism\nin this instance, for another moment saw me creeping stealthily toward\nthe door of the guard-house.\n\nGently I pressed it open a crack; enough to discover a dozen blacks\nstretched upon their silks in profound slumber.  At the far side of the\nroom a rack held the swords and firearms of the men.  Warily I pushed\nthe door a trifle wider to admit my body.  A hinge gave out a resentful\ngroan.  One of the men stirred, and my heart stood still.  I cursed\nmyself for a fool to have thus jeopardized our chances for escape; but\nthere was nothing for it now but to see the adventure through.\n\nWith a spring as swift and as noiseless as a tiger's I lit beside the\nguardsman who had moved.  My hands hovered about his throat awaiting\nthe moment that his eyes should open.  For what seemed an eternity to\nmy overwrought nerves I remained poised thus.  Then the fellow turned\nagain upon his side and resumed the even respiration of deep slumber.\n\nCarefully I picked my way between and over the soldiers until I had\ngained the rack at the far side of the room.  Here I turned to survey\nthe sleeping men.  All were quiet.  Their regular breathing rose and\nfell in a soothing rhythm that seemed to me the sweetest music I ever\nhad heard.\n\nGingerly I drew a long-sword from the rack.  The scraping of the\nscabbard against its holder as I withdrew it sounded like the filing of\ncast iron with a great rasp, and I looked to see the room immediately\nfilled with alarmed and attacking guardsmen.  But none stirred.\n\nThe second sword I withdrew noiselessly, but the third clanked in its\nscabbard with a frightful din.  I knew that it must awaken some of the\nmen at least, and was on the point of forestalling their attack by a\nrapid charge for the doorway, when again, to my intense surprise, not a\nblack moved.  Either they were wondrous heavy sleepers or else the\nnoises that I made were really much less than they seemed to me.\n\nI was about to leave the rack when my attention was attracted by the\nrevolvers.  I knew that I could not carry more than one away with me,\nfor I was already too heavily laden to move quietly with any degree of\nsafety or speed.  As I took one of them from its pin my eye fell for\nthe first time on an open window beside the rack.  Ah, here was a\nsplendid means of escape, for it let directly upon the dock, not twenty\nfeet from the water's edge.\n\nAnd as I congratulated myself, I heard the door opposite me open, and\nthere looking me full in the face stood the officer of the guard.  He\nevidently took in the situation at a glance and appreciated the gravity\nof it as quickly as I, for our revolvers came up simultaneously and the\nsounds of the two reports were as one as we touched the buttons on the\ngrips that exploded the cartridges.\n\nI felt the wind of his bullet as it whizzed past my ear, and at the\nsame instant I saw him crumple to the ground.  Where I hit him I do not\nknow, nor if I killed him, for scarce had he started to collapse when I\nwas through the window at my rear.  In another second the waters of\nOmean closed above my head, and the three of us were making for the\nlittle flier a hundred yards away.\n\nXodar was burdened with the boy, and I with the three long-swords.  The\nrevolver I had dropped, so that while we were both strong swimmers it\nseemed to me that we moved at a snail's pace through the water.  I was\nswimming entirely beneath the surface, but Xodar was compelled to rise\noften to let the youth breathe, so it was a wonder that we were not\ndiscovered long before we were.\n\nIn fact we reached the boat's side and were all aboard before the watch\nupon the battleship, aroused by the shots, detected us.  Then an alarm\ngun bellowed from a ship's bow, its deep boom reverberating in\ndeafening tones beneath the rocky dome of Omean.\n\nInstantly the sleeping thousands were awake.  The decks of a thousand\nmonster craft teemed with fighting-men, for an alarm on Omean was a\nthing of rare occurrence.\n\nWe cast away before the sound of the first gun had died, and another\nsecond saw us rising swiftly from the surface of the sea.  I lay at\nfull length along the deck with the levers and buttons of control\nbefore me.  Xodar and the boy were stretched directly behind me, prone\nalso that we might offer as little resistance to the air as possible.\n\n\"Rise high,\" whispered Xodar.  \"They dare not fire their heavy guns\ntoward the dome--the fragments of the shells would drop back among\ntheir own craft.  If we are high enough our keel plates will protect us\nfrom rifle fire.\"\n\nI did as he bade.  Below us we could see the men leaping into the water\nby hundreds, and striking out for the small cruisers and one-man fliers\nthat lay moored about the big ships.  The larger craft were getting\nunder way, following us rapidly, but not rising from the water.\n\n\"A little to your right,\" cried Xodar, for there are no points of\ncompass upon Omean where every direction is due north.\n\nThe pandemonium that had broken out below us was deafening.  Rifles\ncracked, officers shouted orders, men yelled directions to one another\nfrom the water and from the decks of myriad boats, while through all\nran the purr of countless propellers cutting water and air.\n\nI had not dared pull my speed lever to the highest for fear of\noverrunning the mouth of the shaft that passed from Omean's dome to the\nworld above, but even so we were hitting a clip that I doubt has ever\nbeen equalled on the windless sea.\n\nThe smaller fliers were commencing to rise toward us when Xodar\nshouted: \"The shaft!  The shaft!  Dead ahead,\" and I saw the opening,\nblack and yawning in the glowing dome of this underworld.\n\nA ten-man cruiser was rising directly in front to cut off our escape.\nIt was the only vessel that stood in our way, but at the rate that it\nwas traveling it would come between us and the shaft in plenty of time\nto thwart our plans.\n\nIt was rising at an angle of about forty-five degrees dead ahead of us,\nwith the evident intention of combing us with grappling hooks from\nabove as it skimmed low over our deck.\n\nThere was but one forlorn hope for us, and I took it.  It was useless\nto try to pass over her, for that would have allowed her to force us\nagainst the rocky dome above, and we were already too near that as it\nwas.  To have attempted to dive below her would have put us entirely at\nher mercy, and precisely where she wanted us.  On either side a hundred\nother menacing craft were hastening toward us.  The alternative was\nfilled with risk--in fact it was all risk, with but a slender chance of\nsuccess.\n\nAs we neared the cruiser I rose as though to pass above her, so that\nshe would do just what she did do, rise at a steeper angle to force me\nstill higher.  Then as we were almost upon her I yelled to my\ncompanions to hold tight, and throwing the little vessel into her\nhighest speed I deflected her bows at the same instant until we were\nrunning horizontally and at terrific velocity straight for the\ncruiser's keel.\n\nHer commander may have seen my intentions then, but it was too late.\nAlmost at the instant of impact I turned my bows upward, and then with\na shattering jolt we were in collision.  What I had hoped for happened.\nThe cruiser, already tilted at a perilous angle, was carried completely\nover backward by the impact of my smaller vessel.  Her crew fell\ntwisting and screaming through the air to the water far below, while\nthe cruiser, her propellers still madly churning, dived swiftly\nheadforemost after them to the bottom of the Sea of Omean.\n\nThe collision crushed our steel bows, and notwithstanding every effort\non our part came near to hurling us from the deck.  As it was we landed\nin a wildly clutching heap at the very extremity of the flier, where\nXodar and I succeeded in grasping the hand-rail, but the boy would have\nplunged overboard had I not fortunately grasped his ankle as he was\nalready partially over.\n\nUnguided, our vessel careened wildly in its mad flight, rising ever\nnearer the rocks above.  It took but an instant, however, for me to\nregain the levers, and with the roof barely fifty feet above I turned\nher nose once more into the horizontal plane and headed her again for\nthe black mouth of the shaft.\n\nThe collision had retarded our progress and now a hundred swift scouts\nwere close upon us.  Xodar had told me that ascending the shaft by\nvirtue of our repulsive rays alone would give our enemies their best\nchance to overtake us, since our propellers would be idle and in rising\nwe would be outclassed by many of our pursuers.  The swifter craft are\nseldom equipped with large buoyancy tanks, since the added bulk of them\ntends to reduce a vessel's speed.\n\nAs many boats were now quite close to us it was inevitable that we\nwould be quickly overhauled in the shaft, and captured or killed in\nshort order.\n\nTo me there always seems a way to gain the opposite side of an\nobstacle.  If one cannot pass over it, or below it, or around it, why\nthen there is but a single alternative left, and that is to pass\nthrough it.  I could not get around the fact that many of these other\nboats could rise faster than ours by the fact of their greater\nbuoyancy, but I was none the less determined to reach the outer world\nfar in advance of them or die a death of my own choosing in event of\nfailure.\n\n\"Reverse?\" screamed Xodar, behind me.  \"For the love of your first\nancestor, reverse.  We are at the shaft.\"\n\n\"Hold tight!\" I screamed in reply.  \"Grasp the boy and hold tight--we\nare going straight up the shaft.\"\n\nThe words were scarce out of my mouth as we swept beneath the\npitch-black opening.  I threw the bow hard up, dragged the speed lever\nto its last notch, and clutching a stanchion with one hand and the\nsteering-wheel with the other hung on like grim death and consigned my\nsoul to its author.\n\nI heard a little exclamation of surprise from Xodar, followed by a grim\nlaugh.  The boy laughed too and said something which I could not catch\nfor the whistling of the wind of our awful speed.\n\nI looked above my head, hoping to catch the gleam of stars by which I\ncould direct our course and hold the hurtling thing that bore us true\nto the centre of the shaft.  To have touched the side at the speed we\nwere making would doubtless have resulted in instant death for us all.\nBut not a star showed above--only utter and impenetrable darkness.\n\nThen I glanced below me, and there I saw a rapidly diminishing circle\nof light--the mouth of the opening above the phosphorescent radiance of\nOmean.  By this I steered, endeavouring to keep the circle of light\nbelow me ever perfect.  At best it was but a slender cord that held us\nfrom destruction, and I think that I steered that night more by\nintuition and blind faith than by skill or reason.\n\nWe were not long in the shaft, and possibly the very fact of our\nenormous speed saved us, for evidently we started in the right\ndirection and so quickly were we out again that we had no time to alter\nour course.  Omean lies perhaps two miles below the surface crust of\nMars.  Our speed must have approximated two hundred miles an hour, for\nMartian fliers are swift, so that at most we were in the shaft not over\nforty seconds.\n\nWe must have been out of it for some seconds before I realised that we\nhad accomplished the impossible.  Black darkness enshrouded all about\nus.  There were neither moons nor stars.  Never before had I seen such\na thing upon Mars, and for the moment I was nonplussed.  Then the\nexplanation came to me.  It was summer at the south pole.  The ice cap\nwas melting and those meteoric phenomena, clouds, unknown upon the\ngreater part of Barsoom, were shutting out the light of heaven from\nthis portion of the planet.\n\nFortunate indeed it was for us, nor did it take me long to grasp the\nopportunity for escape which this happy condition offered us.  Keeping\nthe boat's nose at a stiff angle I raced her for the impenetrable\ncurtain which Nature had hung above this dying world to shut us out\nfrom the sight of our pursuing enemies.\n\nWe plunged through the cold damp fog without diminishing our speed, and\nin a moment emerged into the glorious light of the two moons and the\nmillion stars.  I dropped into a horizontal course and headed due\nnorth.  Our enemies were a good half-hour behind us with no conception\nof our direction.  We had performed the miraculous and come through a\nthousand dangers unscathed--we had escaped from the land of the First\nBorn.  No other prisoners in all the ages of Barsoom had done this\nthing, and now as I looked back upon it it did not seem to have been so\ndifficult after all.\n\nI said as much to Xodar, over my shoulder.\n\n\"It is very wonderful, nevertheless,\" he replied.  \"No one else could\nhave accomplished it but John Carter.\"\n\nAt the sound of that name the boy jumped to his feet.\n\n\"John Carter!\" he cried.  \"John Carter!  Why, man, John Carter, Prince\nof Helium, has been dead for years.  I am his son.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nTHE EYES IN THE DARK\n\n\nMy son!  I could not believe my ears.  Slowly I rose and faced the\nhandsome youth.  Now that I looked at him closely I commenced to see\nwhy his face and personality had attracted me so strongly.  There was\nmuch of his mother's incomparable beauty in his clear-cut features, but\nit was strongly masculine beauty, and his grey eyes and the expression\nof them were mine.\n\nThe boy stood facing me, half hope and half uncertainty in his look.\n\n\"Tell me of your mother,\" I said.  \"Tell me all you can of the years\nthat I have been robbed by a relentless fate of her dear companionship.\"\n\nWith a cry of pleasure he sprang toward me and threw his arms about my\nneck, and for a brief moment as I held my boy close to me the tears\nwelled to my eyes and I was like to have choked after the manner of\nsome maudlin fool--but I do not regret it, nor am I ashamed.  A long\nlife has taught me that a man may seem weak where women and children\nare concerned and yet be anything but a weakling in the sterner avenues\nof life.\n\n\"Your stature, your manner, the terrible ferocity of your\nswordsmanship,\" said the boy, \"are as my mother has described them to\nme a thousand times--but even with such evidence I could scarce credit\nthe truth of what seemed so improbable to me, however much I desired it\nto be true.  Do you know what thing it was that convinced me more than\nall the others?\"\n\n\"What, my boy?\" I asked.\n\n\"Your first words to me--they were of my mother.  None else but the man\nwho loved her as she has told me my father did would have thought first\nof her.\"\n\n\"For long years, my son, I can scarce recall a moment that the radiant\nvision of your mother's face has not been ever before me.  Tell me of\nher.\"\n\n\"Those who have known her longest say that she has not changed, unless\nit be to grow more beautiful--were that possible.  Only, when she\nthinks I am not about to see her, her face grows very sad, and, oh, so\nwistful.  She thinks ever of you, my father, and all Helium mourns with\nher and for her.  Her grandfather's people love her.  They loved you\nalso, and fairly worship your memory as the saviour of Barsoom.\n\n\"Each year that brings its anniversary of the day that saw you racing\nacross a near dead world to unlock the secret of that awful portal\nbehind which lay the mighty power of life for countless millions a\ngreat festival is held in your honour; but there are tears mingled with\nthe thanksgiving--tears of real regret that the author of the happiness\nis not with them to share the joy of living he died to give them.  Upon\nall Barsoom there is no greater name than John Carter.\"\n\n\"And by what name has your mother called you, my boy?\" I asked.\n\n\"The people of Helium asked that I be named with my father's name, but\nmy mother said no, that you and she had chosen a name for me together,\nand that your wish must be honoured before all others, so the name that\nshe called me is the one that you desired, a combination of hers and\nyours--Carthoris.\"\n\nXodar had been at the wheel as I talked with my son, and now he called\nme.\n\n\"She is dropping badly by the head, John Carter,\" he said.  \"So long as\nwe were rising at a stiff angle it was not noticeable, but now that I\nam trying to keep a horizontal course it is different.  The wound in\nher bow has opened one of her forward ray tanks.\"\n\nIt was true, and after I had examined the damage I found it a much\ngraver matter than I had anticipated.  Not only was the forced angle at\nwhich we were compelled to maintain the bow in order to keep a\nhorizontal course greatly impeding our speed, but at the rate that we\nwere losing our repulsive rays from the forward tanks it was but a\nquestion of an hour or more when we would be floating stern up and\nhelpless.\n\nWe had slightly reduced our speed with the dawning of a sense of\nsecurity, but now I took the helm once more and pulled the noble little\nengine wide open, so that again we raced north at terrific velocity.\nIn the meantime Carthoris and Xodar with tools in hand were puttering\nwith the great rent in the bow in a hopeless endeavour to stem the tide\nof escaping rays.\n\nIt was still dark when we passed the northern boundary of the ice cap\nand the area of clouds.  Below us lay a typical Martian landscape.\nRolling ochre sea bottom of long dead seas, low surrounding hills, with\nhere and there the grim and silent cities of the dead past; great piles\nof mighty architecture tenanted only by age-old memories of a once\npowerful race, and by the great white apes of Barsoom.\n\nIt was becoming more and more difficult to maintain our little vessel\nin a horizontal position.  Lower and lower sagged the bow until it\nbecame necessary to stop the engine to prevent our flight terminating\nin a swift dive to the ground.\n\nAs the sun rose and the light of a new day swept away the darkness of\nnight our craft gave a final spasmodic plunge, turned half upon her\nside, and then with deck tilting at a sickening angle swung in a slow\ncircle, her bow dropping further below her stern each moment.\n\nTo hand-rail and stanchion we clung, and finally as we saw the end\napproaching, snapped the buckles of our harness to the rings at her\nsides.  In another moment the deck reared at an angle of ninety degrees\nand we hung in our leather with feet dangling a thousand yards above\nthe ground.\n\nI was swinging quite close to the controlling devices, so I reached out\nto the lever that directed the rays of repulsion.  The boat responded\nto the touch, and very gently we began to sink toward the ground.\n\nIt was fully half an hour before we touched.  Directly north of us rose\na rather lofty range of hills, toward which we decided to make our way,\nsince they afforded greater opportunity for concealment from the\npursuers we were confident might stumble in this direction.\n\nAn hour later found us in the time-rounded gullies of the hills, amid\nthe beautiful flowering plants that abound in the arid waste places of\nBarsoom.  There we found numbers of huge milk-giving shrubs--that\nstrange plant which serves in great part as food and drink for the wild\nhordes of green men.  It was indeed a boon to us, for we all were\nnearly famished.\n\nBeneath a cluster of these which afforded perfect concealment from\nwandering air scouts, we lay down to sleep--for me the first time in\nmany hours.  This was the beginning of my fifth day upon Barsoom since\nI had found myself suddenly translated from my cottage on the Hudson to\nDor, the valley beautiful, the valley hideous.  In all this time I had\nslept but twice, though once the clock around within the storehouse of\nthe therns.\n\nIt was mid-afternoon when I was awakened by some one seizing my hand\nand covering it with kisses.  With a start I opened my eyes to look\ninto the beautiful face of Thuvia.\n\n\"My Prince!  My Prince!\" she cried, in an ecstasy of happiness.  \"'Tis\nyou whom I had mourned as dead.  My ancestors have been good to me; I\nhave not lived in vain.\"\n\nThe girl's voice awoke Xodar and Carthoris.  The boy gazed upon the\nwoman in surprise, but she did not seem to realize the presence of\nanother than I.  She would have thrown her arms about my neck and\nsmothered me with caresses, had I not gently but firmly disengaged\nmyself.\n\n\"Come, come, Thuvia,\" I said soothingly; \"you are overwrought by the\ndanger and hardships you have passed through.  You forget yourself, as\nyou forget that I am the husband of the Princess of Helium.\"\n\n\"I forget nothing, my Prince,\" she replied.  \"You have spoken no word\nof love to me, nor do I expect that you ever shall; but nothing can\nprevent me loving you.  I would not take the place of Dejah Thoris.  My\ngreatest ambition is to serve you, my Prince, for ever as your slave.\nNo greater boon could I ask, no greater honour could I crave, no\ngreater happiness could I hope.\"\n\nAs I have before said, I am no ladies' man, and I must admit that I\nseldom have felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed as I did that moment.\nWhile I was quite familiar with the Martian custom which allows female\nslaves to Martian men, whose high and chivalrous honour is always ample\nprotection for every woman in his household, yet I had never myself\nchosen other than men as my body servants.\n\n\"And I ever return to Helium, Thuvia,\" I said, \"you shall go with me,\nbut as an honoured equal, and not as a slave.  There you shall find\nplenty of handsome young nobles who would face Issus herself to win a\nsmile from you, and we shall have you married in short order to one of\nthe best of them.  Forget your foolish gratitude-begotten infatuation,\nwhich your innocence has mistaken for love.  I like your friendship\nbetter, Thuvia.\"\n\n\"You are my master; it shall be as you say,\" she replied simply, but\nthere was a note of sadness in her voice.\n\n\"How came you here, Thuvia?\" I asked.  \"And where is Tars Tarkas?\"\n\n\"The great Thark, I fear, is dead,\" she replied sadly.  \"He was a\nmighty fighter, but a multitude of green warriors of another horde than\nhis overwhelmed him.  The last that I saw of him they were bearing him,\nwounded and bleeding, to the deserted city from which they had sallied\nto attack us.\"\n\n\"You are not sure that he is dead, then?\" I asked.  \"And where is this\ncity of which you speak?\"\n\n\"It is just beyond this range of hills.  The vessel in which you so\nnobly resigned a place that we might find escape defied our small skill\nin navigation, with the result that we drifted aimlessly about for two\ndays.  Then we decided to abandon the craft and attempt to make our way\non foot to the nearest waterway.  Yesterday we crossed these hills and\ncame upon the dead city beyond.  We had passed within its streets and\nwere walking toward the central portion, when at an intersecting avenue\nwe saw a body of green warriors approaching.\n\n\"Tars Tarkas was in advance, and they saw him, but me they did not see.\nThe Thark sprang back to my side and forced me into an adjacent\ndoorway, where he told me to remain in hiding until I could escape,\nmaking my way to Helium if possible.\n\n\"'There will be no escape for me now,' he said, 'for these be the\nWarhoon of the South.  When they have seen my metal it will be to the\ndeath.'\n\n\"Then he stepped out to meet them.  Ah, my Prince, such fighting!  For\nan hour they swarmed about him, until the Warhoon dead formed a hill\nwhere he had stood; but at last they overwhelmed him, those behind\npushing the foremost upon him until there remained no space to swing\nhis great sword.  Then he stumbled and went down and they rolled over\nhim like a huge wave.  When they carried him away toward the heart of\nthe city, he was dead, I think, for I did not see him move.\"\n\n\"Before we go farther we must be sure,\" I said.  \"I cannot leave Tars\nTarkas alive among the Warhoons.  To-night I shall enter the city and\nmake sure.\"\n\n\"And I shall go with you,\" spoke Carthoris.\n\n\"And I,\" said Xodar.\n\n\"Neither one of you shall go,\" I replied.  \"It is work that requires\nstealth and strategy, not force.  One man alone may succeed where more\nwould invite disaster.  I shall go alone.  If I need your help, I will\nreturn for you.\"\n\nThey did not like it, but both were good soldiers, and it had been\nagreed that I should command.  The sun already was low, so that I did\nnot have long to wait before the sudden darkness of Barsoom engulfed us.\n\nWith a parting word of instructions to Carthoris and Xodar, in case I\nshould not return, I bade them all farewell and set forth at a rapid\ndogtrot toward the city.\n\nAs I emerged from the hills the nearer moon was winging its wild flight\nthrough the heavens, its bright beams turning to burnished silver the\nbarbaric splendour of the ancient metropolis.  The city had been built\nupon the gently rolling foothills that in the dim and distant past had\nsloped down to meet the sea.  It was due to this fact that I had no\ndifficulty in entering the streets unobserved.\n\nThe green hordes that use these deserted cities seldom occupy more than\na few squares about the central plaza, and as they come and go always\nacross the dead sea bottoms that the cities face, it is usually a\nmatter of comparative ease to enter from the hillside.\n\nOnce within the streets, I kept close in the dense shadows of the\nwalls.  At intersections I halted a moment to make sure that none was\nin sight before I sprang quickly to the shadows of the opposite side.\nThus I made the journey to the vicinity of the plaza without detection.\nAs I approached the purlieus of the inhabited portion of the city I was\nmade aware of the proximity of the warriors' quarters by the squealing\nand grunting of the thoats and zitidars corralled within the hollow\ncourtyards formed by the buildings surrounding each square.\n\nThese old familiar sounds that are so distinctive of green Martian life\nsent a thrill of pleasure surging through me.  It was as one might feel\non coming home after a long absence.  It was amid such sounds that I\nhad first courted the incomparable Dejah Thoris in the age-old marble\nhalls of the dead city of Korad.\n\nAs I stood in the shadows at the far corner of the first square which\nhoused members of the horde, I saw warriors emerging from several of\nthe buildings.  They all went in the same direction, toward a great\nbuilding which stood in the centre of the plaza.  My knowledge of green\nMartian customs convinced me that this was either the quarters of the\nprincipal chieftain or contained the audience chamber wherein the\nJeddak met his jeds and lesser chieftains.  In either event, it was\nevident that something was afoot which might have a bearing on the\nrecent capture of Tars Tarkas.\n\nTo reach this building, which I now felt it imperative that I do, I\nmust needs traverse the entire length of one square and cross a broad\navenue and a portion of the plaza.  From the noises of the animals\nwhich came from every courtyard about me, I knew that there were many\npeople in the surrounding buildings--probably several communities of\nthe great horde of the Warhoons of the South.\n\nTo pass undetected among all these people was in itself a difficult\ntask, but if I was to find and rescue the great Thark I must expect\neven more formidable obstacles before success could be mine.  I had\nentered the city from the south and now stood on the corner of the\navenue through which I had passed and the first intersecting avenue\nsouth of the plaza.  The buildings upon the south side of this square\ndid not appear to be inhabited, as I could see no lights, and so I\ndecided to gain the inner courtyard through one of them.\n\nNothing occurred to interrupt my progress through the deserted pile I\nchose, and I came into the inner court close to the rear walls of the\neast buildings without detection.  Within the court a great herd of\nthoats and zitidars moved restlessly about, cropping the moss-like\nochre vegetation which overgrows practically the entire uncultivated\narea of Mars.  What breeze there was came from the north-west, so there\nwas little danger that the beasts would scent me.  Had they, their\nsquealing and grunting would have grown to such a volume as to attract\nthe attention of the warriors within the buildings.\n\nClose to the east wall, beneath the overhanging balconies of the second\nfloors, I crept in dense shadows the full length of the courtyard,\nuntil I came to the buildings at the north end.  These were lighted for\nabout three floors up, but above the third floor all was dark.\n\nTo pass through the lighted rooms was, of course, out of the question,\nsince they swarmed with green Martian men and women.  My only path lay\nthrough the upper floors, and to gain these it was necessary to scale\nthe face of the wall.  The reaching of the balcony of the second floor\nwas a matter of easy accomplishment--an agile leap gave my hands a\ngrasp upon the stone hand-rail above.  In another instant I had drawn\nmyself up on the balcony.\n\nHere through the open windows I saw the green folk squatting upon their\nsleeping silks and furs, grunting an occasional monosyllable, which, in\nconnection with their wondrous telepathic powers, is ample for their\nconversational requirements.  As I drew closer to listen to their words\na warrior entered the room from the hall beyond.\n\n\"Come, Tan Gama,\" he cried, \"we are to take the Thark before Kab Kadja.\nBring another with you.\"\n\nThe warrior addressed arose and, beckoning to a fellow squatting near,\nthe three turned and left the apartment.\n\nIf I could but follow them the chance might come to free Tars Tarkas at\nonce.  At least I would learn the location of his prison.\n\nAt my right was a door leading from the balcony into the building.  It\nwas at the end of an unlighted hall, and on the impulse of the moment I\nstepped within.  The hall was broad and led straight through to the\nfront of the building.  On either side were the doorways of the various\napartments which lined it.\n\nI had no more than entered the corridor than I saw the three warriors\nat the other end--those whom I had just seen leaving the apartment.\nThen a turn to the right took them from my sight again.  Quickly I\nhastened along the hallway in pursuit.  My gait was reckless, but I\nfelt that Fate had been kind indeed to throw such an opportunity within\nmy grasp, and I could not afford to allow it to elude me now.\n\nAt the far end of the corridor I found a spiral stairway leading to the\nfloors above and below.  The three had evidently left the floor by this\navenue.  That they had gone down and not up I was sure from my\nknowledge of these ancient buildings and the methods of the Warhoons.\n\nI myself had once been a prisoner of the cruel hordes of northern\nWarhoon, and the memory of the underground dungeon in which I lay still\nis vivid in my memory.  And so I felt certain that Tars Tarkas lay in\nthe dark pits beneath some nearby building, and that in that direction\nI should find the trail of the three warriors leading to his cell.\n\nNor was I wrong.  At the bottom of the runway, or rather at the landing\non the floor below, I saw that the shaft descended into the pits\nbeneath, and as I glanced down the flickering light of a torch revealed\nthe presence of the three I was trailing.\n\nDown they went toward the pits beneath the structure, and at a safe\ndistance behind I followed the flicker of their torch.  The way led\nthrough a maze of tortuous corridors, unlighted save for the wavering\nlight they carried.  We had gone perhaps a hundred yards when the party\nturned abruptly through a doorway at their right.  I hastened on as\nrapidly as I dared through the darkness until I reached the point at\nwhich they had left the corridor.  There, through an open door, I saw\nthem removing the chains that secured the great Thark, Tars Tarkas, to\nthe wall.\n\nHustling him roughly between them, they came immediately from the\nchamber, so quickly in fact that I was near to being apprehended.  But\nI managed to run along the corridor in the direction I had been going\nin my pursuit of them far enough to be without the radius of their\nmeagre light as they emerged from the cell.\n\nI had naturally assumed that they would return with Tars Tarkas the\nsame way that they had come, which would have carried them away from\nme; but, to my chagrin, they wheeled directly in my direction as they\nleft the room.  There was nothing for me but to hasten on in advance\nand keep out of the light of their torch.  I dared not attempt to halt\nin the darkness of any of the many intersecting corridors, for I knew\nnothing of the direction they might take.  Chance was as likely as not\nto carry me into the very corridor they might choose to enter.\n\nThe sensation of moving rapidly through these dark passages was far\nfrom reassuring.  I knew not at what moment I might plunge headlong\ninto some terrible pit or meet with some of the ghoulish creatures that\ninhabit these lower worlds beneath the dead cities of dying Mars.\nThere filtered to me a faint radiance from the torch of the men\nbehind--just enough to permit me to trace the direction of the winding\npassageways directly before me, and so keep me from dashing myself\nagainst the walls at the turns.\n\nPresently I came to a place where five corridors diverged from a common\npoint.  I had hastened along one of them for some little distance when\nsuddenly the faint light of the torch disappeared from behind me.  I\npaused to listen for sounds of the party behind me, but the silence was\nas utter as the silence of the tomb.\n\nQuickly I realized that the warriors had taken one of the other\ncorridors with their prisoner, and so I hastened back with a feeling of\nconsiderable relief to take up a much safer and more desirable position\nbehind them.  It was much slower work returning, however, than it had\nbeen coming, for now the darkness was as utter as the silence.\n\nIt was necessary to feel every foot of the way back with my hand\nagainst the side wall, that I might not pass the spot where the five\nroads radiated.  After what seemed an eternity to me, I reached the\nplace and recognized it by groping across the entrances to the several\ncorridors until I had counted five of them.  In not one, however,\nshowed the faintest sign of light.\n\nI listened intently, but the naked feet of the green men sent back no\nguiding echoes, though presently I thought I detected the clank of side\narms in the far distance of the middle corridor.  Up this, then, I\nhastened, searching for the light, and stopping to listen occasionally\nfor a repetition of the sound; but soon I was forced to admit that I\nmust have been following a blind lead, as only darkness and silence\nrewarded my efforts.\n\nAgain I retraced my steps toward the parting of the ways, when to my\nsurprise I came upon the entrance to three diverging corridors, any one\nof which I might have traversed in my hasty dash after the false clue I\nhad been following.  Here was a pretty fix, indeed!  Once back at the\npoint where the five passageways met, I might wait with some assurance\nfor the return of the warriors with Tars Tarkas.  My knowledge of their\ncustoms lent colour to the belief that he was but being escorted to the\naudience chamber to have sentence passed upon him.  I had not the\nslightest doubt but that they would preserve so doughty a warrior as\nthe great Thark for the rare sport he would furnish at the Great Games.\n\nBut unless I could find my way back to that point the chances were most\nexcellent that I would wander for days through the awful blackness,\nuntil, overcome by thirst and hunger, I lay down to die, or--What was\nthat!\n\nA faint shuffling sounded behind me, and as I cast a hasty glance over\nmy shoulder my blood froze in my veins for the thing I saw there.  It\nwas not so much fear of the present danger as it was the horrifying\nmemories it recalled of that time I near went mad over the corpse of\nthe man I had killed in the dungeons of the Warhoons, when blazing eyes\ncame out of the dark recesses and dragged the thing that had been a man\nfrom my clutches and I heard it scraping over the stone of my prison as\nthey bore it away to their terrible feast.\n\nAnd now in these black pits of the other Warhoons I looked into those\nsame fiery eyes, blazing at me through the terrible darkness, revealing\nno sign of the beast behind them.  I think that the most fearsome\nattribute of these awesome creatures is their silence and the fact that\none never sees them--nothing but those baleful eyes glaring\nunblinkingly out of the dark void behind.\n\nGrasping my long-sword tightly in my hand, I backed slowly along the\ncorridor away from the thing that watched me, but ever as I retreated\nthe eyes advanced, nor was there any sound, not even the sound of\nbreathing, except the occasional shuffling sound as of the dragging of\na dead limb, that had first attracted my attention.\n\nOn and on I went, but I could not escape my sinister pursuer.  Suddenly\nI heard the shuffling noise at my right, and, looking, saw another pair\nof eyes, evidently approaching from an intersecting corridor.  As I\nstarted to renew my slow retreat I heard the noise repeated behind me,\nand then before I could turn I heard it again at my left.\n\nThe things were all about me.  They had me surrounded at the\nintersection of two corridors.  Retreat was cut off in all directions,\nunless I chose to charge one of the beasts.  Even then I had no doubt\nbut that the others would hurl themselves upon my back.  I could not\neven guess the size or nature of the weird creatures.  That they were\nof goodly proportions I guessed from the fact that the eyes were on a\nlevel with my own.\n\nWhy is it that darkness so magnifies our dangers?  By day I would have\ncharged the great banth itself, had I thought it necessary, but hemmed\nin by the darkness of these silent pits I hesitated before a pair of\neyes.\n\nSoon I saw that the matter shortly would be taken entirely from my\nhands, for the eyes at my right were moving slowly nearer me, as were\nthose at my left and those behind and before me.  Gradually they were\nclosing in upon me--but still that awful stealthy silence!\n\nFor what seemed hours the eyes approached gradually closer and closer,\nuntil I felt that I should go mad for the horror of it.  I had been\nconstantly turning this way and that to prevent any sudden rush from\nbehind, until I was fairly worn out.  At length I could endure it no\nlonger, and, taking a fresh grasp upon my long-sword, I turned suddenly\nand charged down upon one of my tormentors.\n\nAs I was almost upon it the thing retreated before me, but a sound from\nbehind caused me to wheel in time to see three pairs of eyes rushing at\nme from the rear.  With a cry of rage I turned to meet the cowardly\nbeasts, but as I advanced they retreated as had their fellow.  Another\nglance over my shoulder discovered the first eyes sneaking on me again.\nAnd again I charged, only to see the eyes retreat before me and hear\nthe muffled rush of the three at my back.\n\nThus we continued, the eyes always a little closer in the end than they\nhad been before, until I thought that I should go mad with the terrible\nstrain of the ordeal.  That they were waiting to spring upon my back\nseemed evident, and that it would not be long before they succeeded was\nequally apparent, for I could not endure the wear of this repeated\ncharge and countercharge indefinitely.  In fact, I could feel myself\nweakening from the mental and physical strain I had been undergoing.\n\nAt that moment I caught another glimpse from the corner of my eye of\nthe single pair of eyes at my back making a sudden rush upon me.  I\nturned to meet the charge; there was a quick rush of the three from the\nother direction; but I determined to pursue the single pair until I\nshould have at least settled my account with one of the beasts and thus\nbe relieved of the strain of meeting attacks from both directions.\n\nThere was no sound in the corridor, only that of my own breathing, yet\nI knew that those three uncanny creatures were almost upon me.  The\neyes in front were not retreating so rapidly now; I was almost within\nsword reach of them.  I raised my sword arm to deal the blow that\nshould free me, and then I felt a heavy body upon my back.  A cold,\nmoist, slimy something fastened itself upon my throat.  I stumbled and\nwent down.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nFLIGHT AND PURSUIT\n\n\nI could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds, and yet I\nknow that I was unconscious, for the next thing I realized was that a\ngrowing radiance was illuminating the corridor about me and the eyes\nwere gone.\n\nI was unharmed except for a slight bruise upon my forehead where it had\nstruck the stone flagging as I fell.\n\nI sprang to my feet to ascertain the cause of the light.  It came from\na torch in the hand of one of a party of four green warriors, who were\ncoming rapidly down the corridor toward me.  They had not yet seen me,\nand so I lost no time in slipping into the first intersecting corridor\nthat I could find.  This time, however, I did not advance so far away\nfrom the main corridor as on the other occasion that had resulted in my\nlosing Tars Tarkas and his guards.\n\nThe party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway in which I\ncrouched against the wall.  As they passed by I breathed a sigh of\nrelief.  I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party was the\nsame that I had followed into the pits.  It consisted of Tars Tarkas\nand his three guards.\n\nI fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which the great\nThark had been chained.  Two of the warriors remained without while the\nman with the keys entered with the Thark to fasten his irons upon him\nonce more.  The two outside started to stroll slowly in the direction\nof the spiral runway which led to the floors above, and in a moment\nwere lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.\n\nThe torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so that its rays\nilluminated both the corridor and the cell at the same time.  As I saw\nthe two warriors disappear I approached the entrance to the cell, with\na well-defined plan already formulated.\n\nWhile I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I had\ndecided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tars Tarkas and I were to\ngo back together to my little camp in the hills.\n\nKeeping near the wall, I came quite close to the door to Tars Tarkas'\ncell, and there I stood with my longsword above my head, grasped with\nboth hands, that I might bring it down in one quick cut upon the skull\nof the jailer as he emerged.\n\nI dislike to dwell upon what followed after I heard the footsteps of\nthe man as he approached the doorway.  It is enough that within another\nminute or two, Tars Tarkas, wearing the metal of a Warhoon chief, was\nhurrying down the corridor toward the spiral runway, bearing the\nWarhoon's torch to light his way.  A dozen paces behind him followed\nJohn Carter, Prince of Helium.\n\nThe two companions of the man who lay now beside the door of the cell\nthat had been Tars Tarkas' had just started to ascend the runway as the\nThark came in view.\n\n\"Why so long, Tan Gama?\" cried one of the men.\n\n\"I had trouble with a lock,\" replied Tars Tarkas.  \"And now I find that\nI have left my short-sword in the Thark's cell.  Go you on, I'll return\nand fetch it.\"\n\n\"As you will, Tan Gama,\" replied he who had before spoken.  \"We shall\nsee you above directly.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" replied Tars Tarkas, and turned as though to retrace his steps\nto the cell, but he only waited until the two had disappeared at the\nfloor above.  Then I joined him, we extinguished the torch, and\ntogether we crept toward the spiral incline that led to the upper\nfloors of the building.\n\nAt the first floor we found that the hallway ran but halfway through,\nnecessitating the crossing of a rear room full of green folk, ere we\ncould reach the inner courtyard, so there was but one thing left for us\nto do, and that was to gain the second floor and the hallway through\nwhich I had traversed the length of the building.\n\nCautiously we ascended.  We could hear the sounds of conversation\ncoming from the room above, but the hall still was unlighted, nor was\nany one in sight as we gained the top of the runway.  Together we\nthreaded the long hall and reached the balcony overlooking the\ncourtyard, without being detected.\n\nAt our right was the window letting into the room in which I had seen\nTan Gama and the other warriors as they started to Tars Tarkas' cell\nearlier in the evening.  His companions had returned here, and we now\noverheard a portion of their conversation.\n\n\"What can be detaining Tan Gama?\" asked one.\n\n\"He certainly could not be all this time fetching his shortsword from\nthe Thark's cell,\" spoke another.\n\n\"His short-sword?\" asked a woman.  \"What mean you?\"\n\n\"Tan Gama left his short-sword in the Thark's cell,\" explained the\nfirst speaker, \"and left us at the runway, to return and get it.\"\n\n\"Tan Gama wore no short-sword this night,\" said the woman.  \"It was\nbroken in to-day's battle with the Thark, and Tan Gama gave it to me to\nrepair.  See, I have it here,\" and as she spoke she drew Tan Gama's\nshort-sword from beneath her sleeping silks and furs.\n\nThe warriors sprang to their feet.\n\n\"There is something amiss here,\" cried one.\n\n\"'Tis even what I myself thought when Tan Gama left us at the runway,\"\nsaid another.  \"Methought then that his voice sounded strangely.\"\n\n\"Come! let us hasten to the pits.\"\n\nWe waited to hear no more.  Slinging my harness into a long single\nstrap, I lowered Tars Tarkas to the courtyard beneath, and an instant\nlater dropped to his side.\n\nWe had spoken scarcely a dozen words since I had felled Tan Gama at the\ncell door and seen in the torch's light the expression of utter\nbewilderment upon the great Thark's face.\n\n\"By this time,\" he had said, \"I should have learned to wonder at\nnothing which John Carter accomplishes.\"  That was all.  He did not\nneed to tell me that he appreciated the friendship which had prompted\nme to risk my life to rescue him, nor did he need to say that he was\nglad to see me.\n\nThis fierce green warrior had been the first to greet me that day, now\ntwenty years gone, which had witnessed my first advent upon Mars.  He\nhad met me with levelled spear and cruel hatred in his heart as he\ncharged down upon me, bending low at the side of his mighty thoat as I\nstood beside the incubator of his horde upon the dead sea bottom beyond\nKorad.  And now among the inhabitants of two worlds I counted none a\nbetter friend than Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks.\n\nAs we reached the courtyard we stood in the shadows beneath the balcony\nfor a moment to discuss our plans.\n\n\"There be five now in the party, Tars Tarkas,\" I said; \"Thuvia, Xodar,\nCarthoris, and ourselves.  We shall need five thoats to bear us.\"\n\n\"Carthoris!\" he cried.  \"Your son?\"\n\n\"Yes.  I found him in the prison of Shador, on the Sea of Omean, in the\nland of the First Born.\"\n\n\"I know not any of these places, John Carter.  Be they upon Barsoom?\"\n\n\"Upon and below, my friend; but wait until we shall have made good our\nescape, and you shall hear the strangest narrative that ever a\nBarsoomian of the outer world gave ear to.  Now we must steal our\nthoats and be well away to the north before these fellows discover how\nwe have tricked them.\"\n\nIn safety we reached the great gates at the far end of the courtyard,\nthrough which it was necessary to take our thoats to the avenue beyond.\nIt is no easy matter to handle five of these great, fierce beasts,\nwhich by nature are as wild and ferocious as their masters and held in\nsubjection by cruelty and brute force alone.\n\nAs we approached them they sniffed our unfamiliar scent and with\nsqueals of rage circled about us.  Their long, massive necks upreared\nraised their great, gaping mouths high above our heads.  They are\nfearsome appearing brutes at best, but when they are aroused they are\nfully as dangerous as they look.  The thoat stands a good ten feet at\nthe shoulder.  His hide is sleek and hairless, and of a dark slate\ncolour on back and sides, shading down his eight legs to a vivid yellow\nat the huge, padded, nailless feet; the belly is pure white.  A broad,\nflat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, completes the picture of\nthis ferocious green Martian mount--a fit war steed for these warlike\npeople.\n\nAs the thoats are guided by telepathic means alone, there is no need\nfor rein or bridle, and so our object now was to find two that would\nobey our unspoken commands.  As they charged about us we succeeded in\nmastering them sufficiently to prevent any concerted attack upon us,\nbut the din of their squealing was certain to bring investigating\nwarriors into the courtyard were it to continue much longer.\n\nAt length I was successful in reaching the side of one great brute, and\nere he knew what I was about I was firmly seated astride his glossy\nback.  A moment later Tars Tarkas had caught and mounted another, and\nthen between us we herded three or four more toward the great gates.\n\nTars Tarkas rode ahead and, leaning down to the latch, threw the\nbarriers open, while I held the loose thoats from breaking back to the\nherd.  Then together we rode through into the avenue with our stolen\nmounts and, without waiting to close the gates, hurried off toward the\nsouthern boundary of the city.\n\nThus far our escape had been little short of marvellous, nor did our\ngood fortune desert us, for we passed the outer purlieus of the dead\ncity and came to our camp without hearing even the faintest sound of\npursuit.\n\nHere a low whistle, the prearranged signal, apprised the balance of our\nparty that I was returning, and we were met by the three with every\nmanifestation of enthusiastic rejoicing.\n\nBut little time was wasted in narration of our adventure.  Tars Tarkas\nand Carthoris exchanged the dignified and formal greetings common upon\nBarsoom, but I could tell intuitively that the Thark loved my boy and\nthat Carthoris reciprocated his affection.\n\nXodar and the green Jeddak were formally presented to each other.  Then\nThuvia was lifted to the least fractious thoat, Xodar and Carthoris\nmounted two others, and we set out at a rapid pace toward the east.  At\nthe far extremity of the city we circled toward the north, and under\nthe glorious rays of the two moons we sped noiselessly across the dead\nsea bottom, away from the Warhoons and the First Born, but to what new\ndangers and adventures we knew not.\n\nToward noon of the following day we halted to rest our mounts and\nourselves.  The beasts we hobbled, that they might move slowly about\ncropping the ochre moss-like vegetation which constitutes both food and\ndrink for them on the march.  Thuvia volunteered to remain on watch\nwhile the balance of the party slept for an hour.\n\nIt seemed to me that I had but closed my eyes when I felt her hand upon\nmy shoulder and heard her soft voice warning me of a new danger.\n\n\"Arise, O Prince,\" she whispered.  \"There be that behind us which has\nthe appearance of a great body of pursuers.\"\n\nThe girl stood pointing in the direction from whence we had come, and\nas I arose and looked, I, too, thought that I could detect a thin dark\nline on the far horizon.  I awoke the others.  Tars Tarkas, whose giant\nstature towered high above the rest of us, could see the farthest.\n\n\"It is a great body of mounted men,\" he said, \"and they are travelling\nat high speed.\"\n\nThere was no time to be lost.  We sprang to our hobbled thoats, freed\nthem, and mounted.  Then we turned our faces once more toward the north\nand took our flight again at the highest speed of our slowest beast.\n\nFor the balance of the day and all the following night we raced across\nthat ochre wilderness with the pursuers at our back ever gaining upon\nus.  Slowly but surely they were lessening the distance between us.\nJust before dark they had been close enough for us to plainly\ndistinguish that they were green Martians, and all during the long\nnight we distinctly heard the clanking of their accoutrements behind us.\n\nAs the sun rose on the second day of our flight it disclosed the\npursuing horde not a half-mile in our rear.  As they saw us a fiendish\nshout of triumph rose from their ranks.\n\nSeveral miles in advance lay a range of hills--the farther shore of the\ndead sea we had been crossing.  Could we but reach these hills our\nchances of escape would be greatly enhanced, but Thuvia's mount,\nalthough carrying the lightest burden, already was showing signs of\nexhaustion.  I was riding beside her when suddenly her animal staggered\nand lurched against mine.  I saw that he was going down, but ere he\nfell I snatched the girl from his back and swung her to a place upon my\nown thoat, behind me, where she clung with her arms about me.\n\nThis double burden soon proved too much for my already overtaxed beast,\nand thus our speed was terribly diminished, for the others would\nproceed no faster than the slowest of us could go.  In that little\nparty there was not one who would desert another; yet we were of\ndifferent countries, different colours, different races, different\nreligions--and one of us was of a different world.\n\nWe were quite close to the hills, but the Warhoons were gaining so\nrapidly that we had given up all hope of reaching them in time.  Thuvia\nand I were in the rear, for our beast was lagging more and more.\nSuddenly I felt the girl's warm lips press a kiss upon my shoulder.\n\"For thy sake, O my Prince,\" she murmured.  Then her arms slipped from\nabout my waist and she was gone.\n\nI turned and saw that she had deliberately slipped to the ground in the\nvery path of the cruel demons who pursued us, thinking that by\nlightening the burden of my mount it might thus be enabled to bear me\nto the safety of the hills.  Poor child!  She should have known John\nCarter better than that.\n\nTurning my thoat, I urged him after her, hoping to reach her side and\nbear her on again in our hopeless flight.  Carthoris must have glanced\nbehind him at about the same time and taken in the situation, for by\nthe time I had reached Thuvia's side he was there also, and, springing\nfrom his mount, he threw her upon its back and, turning the animal's\nhead toward the hills, gave the beast a sharp crack across the rump\nwith the flat of his sword.  Then he attempted to do the same with mine.\n\nThe brave boy's act of chivalrous self-sacrifice filled me with pride,\nnor did I care that it had wrested from us our last frail chance for\nescape.  The Warhoons were now close upon us.  Tars Tarkas and Xodar\nhad discovered our absence and were charging rapidly to our support.\nEverything pointed toward a splendid ending of my second journey to\nBarsoom.  I hated to go out without having seen my divine Princess, and\nheld her in my arms once again; but if it were not writ upon the book\nof Fate that such was to be, then would I take the most that was coming\nto me, and in these last few moments that were to be vouchsafed me\nbefore I passed over into that unguessed future I could at least give\nsuch an account of myself in my chosen vocation as would leave the\nWarhoons of the South food for discourse for the next twenty\ngenerations.\n\nAs Carthoris was not mounted, I slipped from the back of my own mount\nand took my place at his side to meet the charge of the howling devils\nbearing down upon us.  A moment later Tars Tarkas and Xodar ranged\nthemselves on either hand, turning their thoats loose that we might all\nbe on an equal footing.\n\nThe Warhoons were perhaps a hundred yards from us when a loud explosion\nsounded from above and behind us, and almost at the same instant a\nshell burst in their advancing ranks.  At once all was confusion.  A\nhundred warriors toppled to the ground.  Riderless thoats plunged\nhither and thither among the dead and dying.  Dismounted warriors were\ntrampled underfoot in the stampede which followed.  All semblance of\norder had left the ranks of the green men, and as they looked far above\nour heads to trace the origin of this unexpected attack, disorder\nturned to retreat and retreat to a wild panic.  In another moment they\nwere racing as madly away from us as they had before been charging down\nupon us.\n\nWe turned to look in the direction from whence the first report had\ncome, and there we saw, just clearing the tops of the nearer hills, a\ngreat battleship swinging majestically through the air.  Her bow gun\nspoke again even as we looked, and another shell burst among the\nfleeing Warhoons.\n\nAs she drew nearer I could not repress a wild cry of elation, for upon\nher bows I saw the device of Helium.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nUNDER ARREST\n\n\nAs Carthoris, Xodar, Tars Tarkas, and I stood gazing at the magnificent\nvessel which meant so much to all of us, we saw a second and then a\nthird top the summit of the hills and glide gracefully after their\nsister.\n\nNow a score of one-man air scouts were launching from the upper decks\nof the nearer vessel, and in a moment more were speeding in long, swift\ndives to the ground about us.\n\nIn another instant we were surrounded by armed sailors, and an officer\nhad stepped forward to address us, when his eyes fell upon Carthoris.\nWith an exclamation of surprised pleasure he sprang forward, and,\nplacing his hands upon the boy's shoulder, called him by name.\n\n\"Carthoris, my Prince,\" he cried, \"Kaor!  Kaor!  Hor Vastus greets the\nson of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, and of her husband, John\nCarter.  Where have you been, O my Prince?  All Helium has been plunged\nin sorrow.  Terrible have been the calamities that have befallen your\ngreat-grandsire's mighty nation since the fatal day that saw you leave\nour midst.\"\n\n\"Grieve not, my good Hor Vastus,\" cried Carthoris, \"since I bring not\nback myself alone to cheer my mother's heart and the hearts of my\nbeloved people, but also one whom all Barsoom loved best--her greatest\nwarrior and her saviour--John Carter, Prince of Helium!\"\n\nHor Vastus turned in the direction indicated by Carthoris, and as his\neyes fell upon me he was like to have collapsed from sheer surprise.\n\n\"John Carter!\" he exclaimed, and then a sudden troubled look came into\nhis eyes.  \"My Prince,\" he started, \"where hast thou--\" and then he\nstopped, but I knew the question that his lips dared not frame.  The\nloyal fellow would not be the one to force from mine a confession of\nthe terrible truth that I had returned from the bosom of the Iss, the\nRiver of Mystery, back from the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus, and the\nValley Dor.\n\n\"Ah, my Prince,\" he continued, as though no thought had interrupted his\ngreeting, \"that you are back is sufficient, and let Hor Vastus' sword\nhave the high honour of being first at thy feet.\"  With these words the\nnoble fellow unbuckled his scabbard and flung his sword upon the ground\nbefore me.\n\nCould you know the customs and the character of red Martians you would\nappreciate the depth of meaning that that simple act conveyed to me and\nto all about us who witnessed it.  The thing was equivalent to saying,\n\"My sword, my body, my life, my soul are yours to do with as you wish.\nUntil death and after death I look to you alone for authority for my\nevery act.  Be you right or wrong, your word shall be my only truth.\nWhoso raises his hand against you must answer to my sword.\"\n\nIt is the oath of fealty that men occasionally pay to a Jeddak whose\nhigh character and chivalrous acts have inspired the enthusiastic love\nof his followers.  Never had I known this high tribute paid to a lesser\nmortal.  There was but one response possible.  I stooped and lifted the\nsword from the ground, raised the hilt to my lips, and then, stepping\nto Hor Vastus, I buckled the weapon upon him with my own hands.\n\n\"Hor Vastus,\" I said, placing my hand upon his shoulder, \"you know best\nthe promptings of your own heart.  That I shall need your sword I have\nlittle doubt, but accept from John Carter upon his sacred honour the\nassurance that he will never call upon you to draw this sword other\nthan in the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness.\"\n\n\"That I knew, my Prince,\" he replied, \"ere ever I threw my beloved\nblade at thy feet.\"\n\nAs we spoke other fliers came and went between the ground and the\nbattleship, and presently a larger boat was launched from above, one\ncapable of carrying a dozen persons, perhaps, and dropped lightly near\nus.  As she touched, an officer sprang from her deck to the ground,\nand, advancing to Hor Vastus, saluted.\n\n\"Kantos Kan desires that this party whom we have rescued be brought\nimmediately to the deck of the Xavarian,\" he said.\n\nAs we approached the little craft I looked about for the members of my\nparty and for the first time noticed that Thuvia was not among them.\nQuestioning elicited the fact that none had seen her since Carthoris\nhad sent her thoat galloping madly toward the hills, in the hope of\ncarrying her out of harm's way.\n\nImmediately Hor Vastus dispatched a dozen air scouts in as many\ndirections to search for her.  It could not be possible that she had\ngone far since we had last seen her.  We others stepped to the deck of\nthe craft that had been sent to fetch us, and a moment later were upon\nthe Xavarian.\n\nThe first man to greet me was Kantos Kan himself.  My old friend had\nwon to the highest place in the navy of Helium, but he was still to me\nthe same brave comrade who had shared with me the privations of a\nWarhoon dungeon, the terrible atrocities of the Great Games, and later\nthe dangers of our search for Dejah Thoris within the hostile city of\nZodanga.\n\nThen I had been an unknown wanderer upon a strange planet, and he a\nsimple padwar in the navy of Helium.  To-day he commanded all Helium's\ngreat terrors of the skies, and I was a Prince of the House of Tardos\nMors, Jeddak of Helium.\n\nHe did not ask me where I had been.  Like Hor Vastus, he too dreaded\nthe truth and would not be the one to wrest a statement from me.  That\nit must come some time he well knew, but until it came he seemed\nsatisfied to but know that I was with him once more.  He greeted\nCarthoris and Tars Tarkas with the keenest delight, but he asked\nneither where he had been.  He could scarcely keep his hands off the\nboy.\n\n\"You do not know, John Carter,\" he said to me, \"how we of Helium love\nthis son of yours.  It is as though all the great love we bore his\nnoble father and his poor mother had been centred in him.  When it\nbecame known that he was lost, ten million people wept.\"\n\n\"What mean you, Kantos Kan,\" I whispered, \"by 'his poor mother'?\" for\nthe words had seemed to carry a sinister meaning which I could not\nfathom.\n\nHe drew me to one side.\n\n\"For a year,\" he said, \"Ever since Carthoris disappeared, Dejah Thoris\nhas grieved and mourned for her lost boy.  The blow of years ago, when\nyou did not return from the atmosphere plant, was lessened to some\nextent by the duties of motherhood, for your son broke his white shell\nthat very night.\"\n\n\"That she suffered terribly then, all Helium knew, for did not all\nHelium suffer with her the loss of her lord!  But with the boy gone\nthere was nothing left, and after expedition upon expedition returned\nwith the same hopeless tale of no clue as to his whereabouts, our\nbeloved Princess drooped lower and lower, until all who saw her felt\nthat it could be but a matter of days ere she went to join her loved\nones within the precincts of the Valley Dor.\n\n\"As a last resort, Mors Kajak, her father, and Tardos Mors, her\ngrandfather, took command of two mighty expeditions, and a month ago\nsailed away to explore every inch of ground in the northern hemisphere\nof Barsoom.  For two weeks no word has come back from them, but rumours\nwere rife that they had met with a terrible disaster and that all were\ndead.\n\n\"About this time Zat Arras renewed his importunities for her hand in\nmarriage.  He has been for ever after her since you disappeared.  She\nhated him and feared him, but with both her father and grandfather\ngone, Zat Arras was very powerful, for he is still Jed of Zodanga, to\nwhich position, you will remember, Tardos Mors appointed him after you\nhad refused the honour.\n\n\"He had a secret audience with her six days ago.  What took place none\nknows, but the next day Dejah Thoris had disappeared, and with her had\ngone a dozen of her household guard and body servants, including Sola\nthe green woman--Tars Tarkas' daughter, you recall.  No word left they\nof their intentions, but it is always thus with those who go upon the\nvoluntary pilgrimage from which none returns.  We cannot think aught\nthan that Dejah Thoris has sought the icy bosom of Iss, and that her\ndevoted servants have chosen to accompany her.\n\n\"Zat Arras was at Helium when she disappeared.  He commands this fleet\nwhich has been searching for her since.  No trace of her have we found,\nand I fear that it be a futile quest.\"\n\nWhile we talked, Hor Vastus' fliers were returning to the Xavarian.\nNot one, however, had discovered a trace of Thuvia.  I was much\ndepressed over the news of Dejah Thoris' disappearance, and now there\nwas added the further burden of apprehension concerning the fate of\nthis girl whom I believed to be the daughter of some proud Barsoomian\nhouse, and it had been my intention to make every effort to return her\nto her people.\n\nI was about to ask Kantos Kan to prosecute a further search for her\nwhen a flier from the flagship of the fleet arrived at the Xavarian\nwith an officer bearing a message to Kantos Kan from Arras.\n\nMy friend read the dispatch and then turned to me.\n\n\"Zat Arras commands me to bring our 'prisoners' before him.  There is\nnaught else to do.  He is supreme in Helium, yet it would be far more\nin keeping with chivalry and good taste were he to come hither and\ngreet the saviour of Barsoom with the honours that are his due.\"\n\n\"You know full well, my friend,\" I said, smiling, \"that Zat Arras has\ngood cause to hate me.  Nothing would please him better than to\nhumiliate me and then to kill me.  Now that he has so excellent an\nexcuse, let us go and see if he has the courage to take advantage of\nit.\"\n\nSummoning Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Xodar, we entered the small flier\nwith Kantos Kan and Zat Arras' officer, and in a moment were stepping\nto the deck of Zat Arras' flagship.\n\nAs we approached the Jed of Zodanga no sign of greeting or recognition\ncrossed his face; not even to Carthoris did he vouchsafe a friendly\nword.  His attitude was cold, haughty, and uncompromising.\n\n\"Kaor, Zat Arras,\" I said in greeting, but he did not respond.\n\n\"Why were these prisoners not disarmed?\" he asked to Kantos Kan.\n\n\"They are not prisoners, Zat Arras,\" replied the officer.\n\n\"Two of them are of Helium's noblest family.  Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of\nThark, is Tardos Mors' best beloved ally.  The other is a friend and\ncompanion of the Prince of Helium--that is enough for me to know.\"\n\n\"It is not enough for me, however,\" retorted Zat Arras.  \"More must I\nhear from those who have taken the pilgrimage than their names.  Where\nhave you been, John Carter?\"\n\n\"I have just come from the Valley Dor and the Land of the First Born,\nZat Arras,\" I replied.\n\n\"Ah!\" he exclaimed in evident pleasure, \"you do not deny it, then?  You\nhave returned from the bosom of Iss?\"\n\n\"I have come back from a land of false hope, from a valley of torture\nand death; with my companions I have escaped from the hideous clutches\nof lying fiends.  I have come back to the Barsoom that I saved from a\npainless death to again save her, but this time from death in its most\nfrightful form.\"\n\n\"Cease, blasphemer!\" cried Zat Arras.  \"Hope not to save thy cowardly\ncarcass by inventing horrid lies to--\" But he got no further.  One does\nnot call John Carter \"coward\" and \"liar\" thus lightly, and Zat Arras\nshould have known it.  Before a hand could be raised to stop me, I was\nat his side and one hand grasped his throat.\n\n\"Come I from heaven or hell, Zat Arras, you will find me still the same\nJohn Carter that I have always been; nor did ever man call me such\nnames and live--without apologizing.\" And with that I commenced to bend\nhim back across my knee and tighten my grip upon his throat.\n\n\"Seize him!\" cried Zat Arras, and a dozen officers sprang forward to\nassist him.\n\nKantos Kan came close and whispered to me.\n\n\"Desist, I beg of you.  It will but involve us all, for I cannot see\nthese men lay hands upon you without aiding you.  My officers and men\nwill join me and we shall have a mutiny then that may lead to the\nrevolution.  For the sake of Tardos Mors and Helium, desist.\"\n\nAt his words I released Zat Arras and, turning my back upon him, walked\ntoward the ship's rail.\n\n\"Come, Kantos Kan,\" I said, \"the Prince of Helium would return to the\nXavarian.\"\n\nNone interfered.  Zat Arras stood white and trembling amidst his\nofficers.  Some there were who looked upon him with scorn and drew\ntoward me, while one, a man long in the service and confidence of\nTardos Mors, spoke to me in a low tone as I passed him.\n\n\"You may count my metal among your fighting-men, John Carter,\" he said.\n\nI thanked him and passed on.  In silence we embarked, and shortly after\nstepped once more upon the deck of the Xavarian.  Fifteen minutes later\nwe received orders from the flagship to proceed toward Helium.\n\nOur journey thither was uneventful.  Carthoris and I were wrapped in\nthe gloomiest of thoughts.  Kantos Kan was sombre in contemplation of\nthe further calamity that might fall upon Helium should Zat Arras\nattempt to follow the age-old precedent that allotted a terrible death\nto fugitives from the Valley Dor.  Tars Tarkas grieved for the loss of\nhis daughter.  Xodar alone was care-free--a fugitive and outlaw, he\ncould be no worse off in Helium than elsewhere.\n\n\"Let us hope that we may at least go out with good red blood upon our\nblades,\" he said.  It was a simple wish and one most likely to be\ngratified.\n\nAmong the officers of the Xavarian I thought I could discern division\ninto factions ere we had reached Helium.  There were those who gathered\nabout Carthoris and myself whenever the opportunity presented, while\nabout an equal number held aloof from us.  They offered us only the\nmost courteous treatment, but were evidently bound by their\nsuperstitious belief in the doctrine of Dor and Iss and Korus.  I could\nnot blame them, for I knew how strong a hold a creed, however\nridiculous it may be, may gain upon an otherwise intelligent people.\n\nBy returning from Dor we had committed a sacrilege; by recounting our\nadventures there, and stating the facts as they existed we had outraged\nthe religion of their fathers.  We were blasphemers--lying heretics.\nEven those who still clung to us from personal love and loyalty I think\ndid so in the face of the fact that at heart they questioned our\nveracity--it is very hard to accept a new religion for an old, no\nmatter how alluring the promises of the new may be; but to reject the\nold as a tissue of falsehoods without being offered anything in its\nstead is indeed a most difficult thing to ask of any people.\n\nKantos Kan would not talk of our experiences among the therns and the\nFirst Born.\n\n\"It is enough,\" he said, \"that I jeopardize my life here and hereafter\nby countenancing you at all--do not ask me to add still further to my\nsins by listening to what I have always been taught was the rankest\nheresy.\"\n\nI knew that sooner or later the time must come when our friends and\nenemies would be forced to declare themselves openly.  When we reached\nHelium there must be an accounting, and if Tardos Mors had not returned\nI feared that the enmity of Zat Arras might weigh heavily against us,\nfor he represented the government of Helium.  To take sides against him\nwere equivalent to treason.  The majority of the troops would doubtless\nfollow the lead of their officers, and I knew that many of the highest\nand most powerful men of both land and air forces would cleave to John\nCarter in the face of god, man, or devil.\n\nOn the other hand, the majority of the populace unquestionably would\ndemand that we pay the penalty of our sacrilege.  The outlook seemed\ndark from whatever angle I viewed it, but my mind was so torn with\nanguish at the thought of Dejah Thoris that I realize now that I gave\nthe terrible question of Helium's plight but scant attention at that\ntime.\n\nThere was always before me, day and night, a horrible nightmare of the\nfrightful scenes through which I knew my Princess might even then be\npassing--the horrid plant men--the ferocious white apes.  At times I\nwould cover my face with my hands in a vain effort to shut out the\nfearful thing from my mind.\n\nIt was in the forenoon that we arrived above the mile-high scarlet\ntower which marks greater Helium from her twin city.  As we descended\nin great circles toward the navy docks a mighty multitude could be seen\nsurging in the streets beneath.  Helium had been notified by\nradio-aerogram of our approach.\n\nFrom the deck of the Xavarian we four, Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, Xodar,\nand I, were transferred to a lesser flier to be transported to quarters\nwithin the Temple of Reward.  It is here that Martian justice is meted\nto benefactor and malefactor.  Here the hero is decorated.  Here the\nfelon is condemned.  We were taken into the temple from the landing\nstage upon the roof, so that we did not pass among the people at all,\nas is customary.  Always before I had seen prisoners of note, or\nreturned wanderers of eminence, paraded from the Gate of Jeddaks to the\nTemple of Reward up the broad Avenue of Ancestors through dense crowds\nof jeering or cheering citizens.\n\nI knew that Zat Arras dared not trust the people near to us, for he\nfeared that their love for Carthoris and myself might break into a\ndemonstration which would wipe out their superstitious horror of the\ncrime we were to be charged with.  What his plans were I could only\nguess, but that they were sinister was evidenced by the fact that only\nhis most trusted servitors accompanied us upon the flier to the Temple\nof Reward.\n\nWe were lodged in a room upon the south side of the temple, overlooking\nthe Avenue of Ancestors down which we could see the full length to the\nGate of Jeddaks, five miles away.  The people in the temple plaza and\nin the streets for a distance of a full mile were standing as close\npacked as it was possible for them to get.  They were very\norderly--there were neither scoffs nor plaudits, and when they saw us\nat the window above them there were many who buried their faces in\ntheir arms and wept.\n\nLate in the afternoon a messenger arrived from Zat Arras to inform us\nthat we would be tried by an impartial body of nobles in the great hall\nof the temple at the 1st zode* on the following day, or about 8:40 A.M.\nEarth time.\n\n\n*Wherever Captain Carter has used Martian measurements of time,\ndistance, weight, and the like I have translated them into as nearly\ntheir equivalent in earthly values as is possible.  His notes contain\nmany Martian tables, and a great volume of scientific data, but since\nthe International Astronomic Society is at present engaged in\nclassifying, investigating, and verifying this vast fund of remarkable\nand valuable information, I have felt that it will add nothing to the\ninterest of Captain Carter's story or to the sum total of human\nknowledge to maintain a strict adherence to the original manuscript in\nthese matters, while it might readily confuse the reader and detract\nfrom the interest of the history.  For those who may be interested,\nhowever, I will explain that the Martian day is a trifle over 24 hours\n37 minutes duration (Earth time).  This the Martians divide into ten\nequal parts, commencing the day at about 6 A.M.  Earth time.  The zodes\nare divided into fifty shorter periods, each of which in turn is\ncomposed of 200 brief periods of time, about equivalent to the earthly\nsecond.  The Barsoomian Table of Time as here given is but a part of\nthe full table appearing in Captain Carter's notes.\n\n                 TABLE\n\n   200 tals . . . . . . . . . 1 xat\n    50 xats . . . . . . . . . 1 zode\n    10 zodes  . . . . . . . . 1 revolution of Mars upon its axis.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nTHE DEATH SENTENCE\n\n\nA few moments before the appointed time on the following morning a\nstrong guard of Zat Arras' officers appeared at our quarters to conduct\nus to the great hall of the temple.\n\nIn twos we entered the chamber and marched down the broad Aisle of\nHope, as it is called, to the platform in the centre of the hall.\nBefore and behind us marched armed guards, while three solid ranks of\nZodangan soldiery lined either side of the aisle from the entrance to\nthe rostrum.\n\nAs we reached the raised enclosure I saw our judges.  As is the custom\nupon Barsoom there were thirty-one, supposedly selected by lot from men\nof the noble class, for nobles were on trial.  But to my amazement I\nsaw no single friendly face among them.  Practically all were\nZodangans, and it was I to whom Zodanga owed her defeat at the hands of\nthe green hordes and her subsequent vassalage to Helium.  There could\nbe little justice here for John Carter, or his son, or for the great\nThark who had commanded the savage tribesmen who overran Zodanga's\nbroad avenues, looting, burning, and murdering.\n\nAbout us the vast circular coliseum was packed to its full capacity.\nAll classes were represented--all ages, and both sexes.  As we entered\nthe hall the hum of subdued conversation ceased until as we halted upon\nthe platform, or Throne of Righteousness, the silence of death\nenveloped the ten thousand spectators.\n\nThe judges were seated in a great circle about the periphery of the\ncircular platform.  We were assigned seats with our backs toward a\nsmall platform in the exact centre of the larger one.  This placed us\nfacing the judges and the audience.  Upon the smaller platform each\nwould take his place while his case was being heard.\n\nZat Arras himself sat in the golden chair of the presiding magistrate.\nAs we were seated and our guards retired to the foot of the stairway\nleading to the platform, he arose and called my name.\n\n\"John Carter,\" he cried, \"take your place upon the Pedestal of Truth to\nbe judged impartially according to your acts and here to know the\nreward you have earned thereby.\" Then turning to and fro toward the\naudience he narrated the acts upon the value of which my reward was to\nbe determined.\n\n\"Know you, O judges and people of Helium,\" he said, \"that John Carter,\none time Prince of Helium, has returned by his own statement from the\nValley Dor and even from the Temple of Issus itself.  That, in the\npresence of many men of Helium he has blasphemed against the Sacred\nIss, and against the Valley Dor, and the Lost Sea of Korus, and the\nHoly Therns themselves, and even against Issus, Goddess of Death, and\nof Life Eternal.  And know you further by witness of thine own eyes\nthat see him here now upon the Pedestal of Truth that he has indeed\nreturned from these sacred precincts in the face of our ancient\ncustoms, and in violation of the sanctity of our ancient religion.\n\n\"He who be once dead may not live again.  He who attempts it must be\nmade dead for ever.  Judges, your duty lies plain before you--here can\nbe no testimony in contravention of truth.  What reward shall be meted\nto John Carter in accordance with the acts he has committed?\"\n\n\"Death!\" shouted one of the judges.\n\nAnd then a man sprang to his feet in the audience, and raising his hand\non high, cried: \"Justice!  Justice!  Justice!\" It was Kantos Kan, and\nas all eyes turned toward him he leaped past the Zodangan soldiery and\nsprang upon the platform.\n\n\"What manner of justice be this?\" he cried to Zat Arras.  \"The\ndefendant has not been heard, nor has he had an opportunity to call\nothers in his behalf.  In the name of the people of Helium I demand\nfair and impartial treatment for the Prince of Helium.\"\n\nA great cry arose from the audience then: \"Justice!  Justice!\nJustice!\" and Zat Arras dared not deny them.\n\n\"Speak, then,\" he snarled, turning to me; \"but blaspheme not against\nthe things that are sacred upon Barsoom.\"\n\n\"Men of Helium,\" I cried, turning to the spectators, and speaking over\nthe heads of my judges, \"how can John Carter expect justice from the\nmen of Zodanga?  He cannot nor does he ask it.  It is to the men of\nHelium that he states his case; nor does he appeal for mercy to any.\nIt is not in his own cause that he speaks now--it is in thine.  In the\ncause of your wives and daughters, and of wives and daughters yet\nunborn.  It is to save them from the unthinkably atrocious indignities\nthat I have seen heaped upon the fair women of Barsoom in the place men\ncall the Temple of Issus.  It is to save them from the sucking embrace\nof the plant men, from the fangs of the great white apes of Dor, from\nthe cruel lust of the Holy Therns, from all that the cold, dead Iss\ncarries them to from homes of love and life and happiness.\n\n\"Sits there no man here who does not know the history of John Carter.\nHow he came among you from another world and rose from a prisoner among\nthe green men, through torture and persecution, to a place high among\nthe highest of Barsoom.  Nor ever did you know John Carter to lie in\nhis own behalf, or to say aught that might harm the people of Barsoom,\nor to speak lightly of the strange religion which he respected without\nunderstanding.\n\n\"There be no man here, or elsewhere upon Barsoom to-day who does not\nowe his life directly to a single act of mine, in which I sacrificed\nmyself and the happiness of my Princess that you might live.  And so,\nmen of Helium, I think that I have the right to demand that I be heard,\nthat I be believed, and that you let me serve you and save you from the\nfalse hereafter of Dor and Issus as I saved you from the real death\nthat other day.\n\n\"It is to you of Helium that I speak now.  When I am done let the men\nof Zodanga have their will with me.  Zat Arras has taken my sword from\nme, so the men of Zodanga no longer fear me.  Will you listen?\"\n\n\"Speak, John Carter, Prince of Helium,\" cried a great noble from the\naudience, and the multitude echoed his permission, until the building\nrocked with the noise of their demonstration.\n\nZat Arras knew better than to interfere with such a sentiment as was\nexpressed that day in the Temple of Reward, and so for two hours I\ntalked with the people of Helium.\n\nBut when I had finished, Zat Arras arose and, turning to the judges,\nsaid in a low tone: \"My nobles, you have heard John Carter's plea;\nevery opportunity has been given him to prove his innocence if he be\nnot guilty; but instead he has but utilized the time in further\nblasphemy.  What, gentlemen, is your verdict?\"\n\n\"Death to the blasphemer!\" cried one, springing to his feet, and in an\ninstant the entire thirty-one judges were on their feet with upraised\nswords in token of the unanimity of their verdict.\n\nIf the people did not hear Zat Arras' charge, they certainly did hear\nthe verdict of the tribunal.  A sullen murmur rose louder and louder\nabout the packed coliseum, and then Kantos Kan, who had not left the\nplatform since first he had taken his place near me, raised his hand\nfor silence.  When he could be heard he spoke to the people in a cool\nand level voice.\n\n\"You have heard the fate that the men of Zodanga would mete to Helium's\nnoblest hero.  It may be the duty of the men of Helium to accept the\nverdict as final.  Let each man act according to his own heart.  Here\nis the answer of Kantos Kan, head of the navy of Helium, to Zat Arras\nand his judges,\" and with that he unbuckled his scabbard and threw his\nsword at my feet.\n\nIn an instant soldiers and citizens, officers and nobles were crowding\npast the soldiers of Zodanga and forcing their way to the Throne of\nRighteousness.  A hundred men surged up on the platform, and a hundred\nblades rattled and clanked to the floor at my feet.  Zat Arras and his\nofficers were furious, but they were helpless.  One by one I raised the\nswords to my lips and buckled them again upon their owners.\n\n\"Come,\" said Kantos Kan, \"we will escort John Carter and his party to\nhis own palace,\" and they formed about us and started toward the stairs\nleading to the Aisle of Hope.\n\n\"Stop!\" cried Zat Arras.  \"Soldiers of Helium, let no prisoner leave\nthe Throne of Righteousness.\"\n\nThe soldiery from Zodanga were the only organized body of Heliumetic\ntroops within the temple, so Zat Arras was confident that his orders\nwould be obeyed, but I do not think that he looked for the opposition\nthat was raised the moment the soldiers advanced toward the throne.\n\nFrom every quarter of the coliseum swords flashed and men rushed\nthreateningly upon the Zodangans.  Some one raised a cry: \"Tardos Mors\nis dead--a thousand years to John Carter, Jeddak of Helium.\" As I heard\nthat and saw the ugly attitude of the men of Helium toward the soldiers\nof Zat Arras, I knew that only a miracle could avert a clash that would\nend in civil war.\n\n\"Hold!\" I cried, leaping to the Pedestal of Truth once more.  \"Let no\nman move till I am done.  A single sword thrust here to-day may plunge\nHelium into a bitter and bloody war the results of which none can\nforesee.  It will turn brother against brother and father against son.\nNo man's life is worth that sacrifice.  Rather would I submit to the\nbiased judgment of Zat Arras than be the cause of civil strife in\nHelium.\n\n\"Let us each give in a point to the other, and let this entire matter\nrest until Tardos Mors returns, or Mors Kajak, his son.  If neither be\nback at the end of a year a second trial may be held--the thing has a\nprecedent.\"  And then turning to Zat Arras, I said in a low voice:\n\"Unless you be a bigger fool than I take you to be, you will grasp the\nchance I am offering you ere it is too late.  Once that multitude of\nswords below is drawn against your soldiery no man upon Barsoom--not\neven Tardos Mors himself--can avert the consequences.  What say you?\nSpeak quickly.\"\n\nThe Jed of Zodangan Helium raised his voice to the angry sea beneath us.\n\n\"Stay your hands, men of Helium,\" he shouted, his voice trembling with\nrage.  \"The sentence of the court is passed, but the day of retribution\nhas not been set.  I, Zat Arras, Jed of Zodanga, appreciating the royal\nconnections of the prisoner and his past services to Helium and\nBarsoom, grant a respite of one year, or until the return of Mors\nKajak, or Tardos Mors to Helium.  Disperse quietly to your houses.  Go.\"\n\nNo one moved.  Instead, they stood in tense silence with their eyes\nfastened upon me, as though waiting for a signal to attack.\n\n\"Clear the temple,\" commanded Zat Arras, in a low tone to one of his\nofficers.\n\nFearing the result of an attempt to carry out this order by force, I\nstepped to the edge of the platform and, pointing toward the main\nentrance, bid them pass out.  As one man they turned at my request and\nfiled, silent and threatening, past the soldiers of Zat Arras, Jed of\nZodanga, who stood scowling in impotent rage.\n\nKantos Kan with the others who had sworn allegiance to me still stood\nupon the Throne of Righteousness with me.\n\n\"Come,\" said Kantos Kan to me, \"we will escort you to your palace, my\nPrince.  Come, Carthoris and Xodar.  Come, Tars Tarkas.\"  And with a\nhaughty sneer for Zat Arras upon his handsome lips, he turned and\nstrode to the throne steps and up the Aisle of Hope.  We four and the\nhundred loyal ones followed behind him, nor was a hand raised to stay\nus, though glowering eyes followed our triumphal march through the\ntemple.\n\nIn the avenues we found a press of people, but they opened a pathway\nfor us, and many were the swords that were flung at my feet as I passed\nthrough the city of Helium toward my palace upon the outskirts.  Here\nmy old slaves fell upon their knees and kissed my hands as I greeted\nthem.  They cared not where I had been.  It was enough that I had\nreturned to them.\n\n\"Ah, master,\" cried one, \"if our divine Princess were but here this\nwould be a day indeed.\"\n\nTears came to my eyes, so that I was forced to turn away that I might\nhide my emotions.  Carthoris wept openly as the slaves pressed about\nhim with expressions of affection, and words of sorrow for our common\nloss.  It was now that Tars Tarkas for the first time learned that his\ndaughter, Sola, had accompanied Dejah Thoris upon the last long\npilgrimage.  I had not had the heart to tell him what Kantos Kan had\ntold me.  With the stoicism of the green Martian he showed no sign of\nsuffering, yet I knew that his grief was as poignant as my own.  In\nmarked contrast to his kind, he had in well-developed form the kindlier\nhuman characteristics of love, friendship, and charity.\n\nIt was a sad and sombre party that sat at the feast of welcome in the\ngreat dining hall of the palace of the Prince of Helium that day.  We\nwere over a hundred strong, not counting the members of my little\ncourt, for Dejah Thoris and I had maintained a household consistent\nwith our royal rank.\n\nThe board, according to red Martian custom, was triangular, for there\nwere three in our family.  Carthoris and I presided in the centre of\nour sides of the table--midway of the third side Dejah Thoris'\nhigh-backed, carven chair stood vacant except for her gorgeous wedding\ntrappings and jewels which were draped upon it.  Behind stood a slave\nas in the days when his mistress had occupied her place at the board,\nready to do her bidding.  It was the way upon Barsoom, so I endured the\nanguish of it, though it wrung my heart to see that silent chair where\nshould have been my laughing and vivacious Princess keeping the great\nhall ringing with her merry gaiety.\n\nAt my right sat Kantos Kan, while to the right of Dejah Thoris' empty\nplace Tars Tarkas sat in a huge chair before a raised section of the\nboard which years ago I had had constructed to meet the requirements of\nhis mighty bulk.  The place of honour at a Martian board is always at\nthe hostess's right, and this place was ever reserved by Dejah Thoris\nfor the great Thark upon the occasions that he was in Helium.\n\nHor Vastus sat in the seat of honour upon Carthoris' side of the table.\nThere was little general conversation.  It was a quiet and saddened\nparty.  The loss of Dejah Thoris was still fresh in the minds of all,\nand to this was added fear for the safety of Tardos Mors and Mors\nKajak, as well as doubt and uncertainty as to the fate of Helium,\nshould it prove true that she was permanently deprived of her great\nJeddak.\n\nSuddenly our attention was attracted by the sound of distant shouting,\nas of many people raising their voices at once, but whether in anger or\nrejoicing, we could not tell.  Nearer and nearer came the tumult.  A\nslave rushed into the dining hall to cry that a great concourse of\npeople was swarming through the palace gates.  A second burst upon the\nheels of the first alternately laughing and shrieking as a madman.\n\n\"Dejah Thoris is found!\" he cried.  \"A messenger from Dejah Thoris!\"\n\nI waited to hear no more.  The great windows of the dining hall\noverlooked the avenue leading to the main gates--they were upon the\nopposite side of the hall from me with the table intervening.  I did\nnot waste time in circling the great board--with a single leap I\ncleared table and diners and sprang upon the balcony beyond.  Thirty\nfeet below lay the scarlet sward of the lawn and beyond were many\npeople crowding about a great thoat which bore a rider headed toward\nthe palace.  I vaulted to the ground below and ran swiftly toward the\nadvancing party.\n\nAs I came near to them I saw that the figure on the thoat was Sola.\n\n\"Where is the Princess of Helium?\" I cried.\n\nThe green girl slid from her mighty mount and ran toward me.\n\n\"O my Prince!  My Prince!\" she cried.  \"She is gone for ever.  Even now\nshe may be a captive upon the lesser moon.  The black pirates of\nBarsoom have stolen her.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nSOLA'S STORY\n\n\nOnce within the palace, I drew Sola to the dining hall, and, when she\nhad greeted her father after the formal manner of the green men, she\ntold the story of the pilgrimage and capture of Dejah Thoris.\n\n\"Seven days ago, after her audience with Zat Arras, Dejah Thoris\nattempted to slip from the palace in the dead of night.  Although I had\nnot heard the outcome of her interview with Zat Arras I knew that\nsomething had occurred then to cause her the keenest mental agony, and\nwhen I discovered her creeping from the palace I did not need to be\ntold her destination.\n\n\"Hastily arousing a dozen of her most faithful guards, I explained my\nfears to them, and as one they enlisted with me to follow our beloved\nPrincess in her wanderings, even to the Sacred Iss and the Valley Dor.\nWe came upon her but a short distance from the palace.  With her was\nfaithful Woola the hound, but none other.  When we overtook her she\nfeigned anger, and ordered us back to the palace, but for once we\ndisobeyed her, and when she found that we would not let her go upon the\nlast long pilgrimage alone, she wept and embraced us, and together we\nwent out into the night toward the south.\n\n\"The following day we came upon a herd of small thoats, and thereafter\nwe were mounted and made good time.  We travelled very fast and very\nfar due south until the morning of the fifth day we sighted a great\nfleet of battleships sailing north.  They saw us before we could seek\nshelter, and soon we were surrounded by a horde of black men.  The\nPrincess's guard fought nobly to the end, but they were soon overcome\nand slain.  Only Dejah Thoris and I were spared.\n\n\"When she realized that she was in the clutches of the black pirates,\nshe attempted to take her own life, but one of the blacks tore her\ndagger from her, and then they bound us both so that we could not use\nour hands.\n\n\"The fleet continued north after capturing us.  There were about twenty\nlarge battleships in all, besides a number of small swift cruisers.\nThat evening one of the smaller cruisers that had been far in advance\nof the fleet returned with a prisoner--a young red woman whom they had\npicked up in a range of hills under the very noses, they said, of a\nfleet of three red Martian battleships.\n\n\"From scraps of conversation which we overheard it was evident that the\nblack pirates were searching for a party of fugitives that had escaped\nthem several days prior.  That they considered the capture of the young\nwoman important was evident from the long and earnest interview the\ncommander of the fleet held with her when she was brought to him.\nLater she was bound and placed in the compartment with Dejah Thoris and\nmyself.\n\n\"The new captive was a very beautiful girl.  She told Dejah Thoris that\nmany years ago she had taken the voluntary pilgrimage from the court of\nher father, the Jeddak of Ptarth.  She was Thuvia, the Princess of\nPtarth.  And then she asked Dejah Thoris who she might be, and when she\nheard she fell upon her knees and kissed Dejah Thoris' fettered hands,\nand told her that that very morning she had been with John Carter,\nPrince of Helium, and Carthoris, her son.\n\n\"Dejah Thoris could not believe her at first, but finally when the girl\nhad narrated all the strange adventures that had befallen her since she\nhad met John Carter, and told her of the things John Carter, and\nCarthoris, and Xodar had narrated of their adventures in the Land of\nthe First Born, Dejah Thoris knew that it could be none other than the\nPrince of Helium; 'For who,' she said, 'upon all Barsoom other than\nJohn Carter could have done the deeds you tell of.' And when Thuvia\ntold Dejah Thoris of her love for John Carter, and his loyalty and\ndevotion to the Princess of his choice, Dejah Thoris broke down and\nwept--cursing Zat Arras and the cruel fate that had driven her from\nHelium but a few brief days before the return of her beloved lord.\n\n\"'I do not blame you for loving him, Thuvia,' she said; 'and that your\naffection for him is pure and sincere I can well believe from the\ncandour of your avowal of it to me.'\n\n\"The fleet continued north nearly to Helium, but last night they\nevidently realized that John Carter had indeed escaped them and so they\nturned toward the south once more.  Shortly thereafter a guard entered\nour compartment and dragged me to the deck.\n\n\"'There is no place in the Land of the First Born for a green one,' he\nsaid, and with that he gave me a terrific shove that carried me\ntoppling from the deck of the battleship.  Evidently this seemed to him\nthe easiest way of ridding the vessel of my presence and killing me at\nthe same time.\n\n\"But a kind fate intervened, and by a miracle I escaped with but slight\nbruises.  The ship was moving slowly at the time, and as I lunged\noverboard into the darkness beneath I shuddered at the awful plunge I\nthought awaited me, for all day the fleet had sailed thousands of feet\nabove the ground; but to my utter surprise I struck upon a soft mass of\nvegetation not twenty feet from the deck of the ship.  In fact, the\nkeel of the vessel must have been grazing the surface of the ground at\nthe time.\n\n\"I lay all night where I had fallen and the next morning brought an\nexplanation of the fortunate coincidence that had saved me from a\nterrible death.  As the sun rose I saw a vast panorama of sea bottom\nand distant hills lying far below me.  I was upon the highest peak of a\nlofty range.  The fleet in the darkness of the preceding night had\nbarely grazed the crest of the hills, and in the brief span that they\nhovered close to the surface the black guard had pitched me, as he\nsupposed, to my death.\n\n\"A few miles west of me was a great waterway.  When I reached it I\nfound to my delight that it belonged to Helium.  Here a thoat was\nprocured for me--the rest you know.\"\n\nFor many minutes none spoke.  Dejah Thoris in the clutches of the First\nBorn!  I shuddered at the thought, but of a sudden the old fire of\nunconquerable self-confidence surged through me.  I sprang to my feet,\nand with back-thrown shoulders and upraised sword took a solemn vow to\nreach, rescue, and revenge my Princess.\n\nA hundred swords leaped from a hundred scabbards, and a hundred\nfighting-men sprang to the table-top and pledged me their lives and\nfortunes to the expedition.  Already my plans were formulated.  I\nthanked each loyal friend, and leaving Carthoris to entertain them,\nwithdrew to my own audience chamber with Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas,\nXodar, and Hor Vastus.\n\nHere we discussed the details of our expedition until long after dark.\nXodar was positive that Issus would choose both Dejah Thoris and Thuvia\nto serve her for a year.\n\n\"For that length of time at least they will be comparatively safe,\" he\nsaid, \"and we will at least know where to look for them.\"\n\nIn the matter of equipping a fleet to enter Omean the details were left\nto Kantos Kan and Xodar.  The former agreed to take such vessels as we\nrequired into dock as rapidly as possible, where Xodar would direct\ntheir equipment with water propellers.\n\nFor many years the black had been in charge of the refitting of\ncaptured battleships that they might navigate Omean, and so was\nfamiliar with the construction of the propellers, housings, and the\nauxiliary gearing required.\n\nIt was estimated that it would require six months to complete our\npreparations in view of the fact that the utmost secrecy must be\nmaintained to keep the project from the ears of Zat Arras.  Kantos Kan\nwas confident now that the man's ambitions were fully aroused and that\nnothing short of the title of Jeddak of Helium would satisfy him.\n\n\"I doubt,\" he said, \"if he would even welcome Dejah Thoris' return, for\nit would mean another nearer the throne than he.  With you and\nCarthoris out of the way there would be little to prevent him from\nassuming the title of Jeddak, and you may rest assured that so long as\nhe is supreme here there is no safety for either of you.\"\n\n\"There is a way,\" cried Hor Vastus, \"to thwart him effectually and for\never.\"\n\n\"What?\" I asked.\n\nHe smiled.\n\n\"I shall whisper it here, but some day I shall stand upon the dome of\nthe Temple of Reward and shout it to cheering multitudes below.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" asked Kantos Kan.\n\n\"John Carter, Jeddak of Helium,\" said Hor Vastus in a low voice.\n\nThe eyes of my companions lighted, and grim smiles of pleasure and\nanticipation overspread their faces, as each eye turned toward me\nquestioningly.  But I shook my head.\n\n\"No, my friends,\" I said, smiling, \"I thank you, but it cannot be.  Not\nyet, at least.  When we know that Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak are gone\nto return no more; if I be here, then I shall join you all to see that\nthe people of Helium are permitted to choose fairly their next Jeddak.\nWhom they choose may count upon the loyalty of my sword, nor shall I\nseek the honour for myself.  Until then Tardos Mors is Jeddak of\nHelium, and Zat Arras is his representative.\"\n\n\"As you will, John Carter,\" said Hor Vastus, \"but--What was that?\" he\nwhispered, pointing toward the window overlooking the gardens.\n\nThe words were scarce out of his mouth ere he had sprung to the balcony\nwithout.\n\n\"There he goes!\" he cried excitedly.  \"The guards!  Below there!  The\nguards!\"\n\nWe were close behind him, and all saw the figure of a man run quickly\nacross a little piece of sward and disappear in the shrubbery beyond.\n\n\"He was on the balcony when I first saw him,\" cried Hor Vastus.\n\"Quick!  Let us follow him!\"\n\nTogether we ran to the gardens, but even though we scoured the grounds\nwith the entire guard for hours, no trace could we find of the night\nmarauder.\n\n\"What do you make of it, Kantos Kan?\" asked Tars Tarkas.\n\n\"A spy sent by Zat Arras,\" he replied.  \"It was ever his way.\"\n\n\"He will have something interesting to report to his master then,\"\nlaughed Hor Vastus.\n\n\"I hope he heard only our references to a new Jeddak,\" I said.  \"If he\noverheard our plans to rescue Dejah Thoris, it will mean civil war, for\nhe will attempt to thwart us, and in that I will not be thwarted.\nThere would I turn against Tardos Mors himself, were it necessary.  If\nit throws all Helium into a bloody conflict, I shall go on with these\nplans to save my Princess.  Nothing shall stay me now short of death,\nand should I die, my friends, will you take oath to prosecute the\nsearch for her and bring her back in safety to her grandfather's court?\"\n\nUpon the hilt of his sword each of them swore to do as I had asked.\n\nIt was agreed that the battleships that were to be remodelled should be\nordered to Hastor, another Heliumetic city, far to the south-west.\nKantos Kan thought that the docks there, in addition to their regular\nwork, would accommodate at least six battleships at a time.  As he was\ncommander-in-chief of the navy, it would be a simple matter for him to\norder the vessels there as they could be handled, and thereafter keep\nthe remodelled fleet in remote parts of the empire until we should be\nready to assemble it for the dash upon Omean.\n\nIt was late that night before our conference broke up, but each man\nthere had his particular duties outlined, and the details of the entire\nplan had been mapped out.\n\nKantos Kan and Xodar were to attend to the remodelling of the ships.\nTars Tarkas was to get into communication with Thark and learn the\nsentiments of his people toward his return from Dor.  If favourable, he\nwas to repair immediately to Thark and devote his time to the\nassembling of a great horde of green warriors whom it was our plan to\nsend in transports directly to the Valley Dor and the Temple of Issus,\nwhile the fleet entered Omean and destroyed the vessels of the First\nBorn.\n\nUpon Hor Vastus devolved the delicate mission of organising a secret\nforce of fighting-men sworn to follow John Carter wherever he might\nlead.  As we estimated that it would require over a million men to man\nthe thousand great battleships we intended to use on Omean and the\ntransports for the green men as well as the ships that were to convoy\nthe transports, it was no trifling job that Hor Vastus had before him.\n\nAfter they had left I bid Carthoris good-night, for I was very tired,\nand going to my own apartments, bathed and lay down upon my sleeping\nsilks and furs for the first good night's sleep I had had an\nopportunity to look forward to since I had returned to Barsoom.  But\neven now I was to be disappointed.\n\nHow long I slept I do not know.  When I awoke suddenly it was to find a\nhalf-dozen powerful men upon me, a gag already in my mouth, and a\nmoment later my arms and legs securely bound.  So quickly had they\nworked and to such good purpose, that I was utterly beyond the power to\nresist them by the time I was fully awake.\n\nNever a word spoke they, and the gag effectually prevented me speaking.\nSilently they lifted me and bore me toward the door of my chamber.  As\nthey passed the window through which the farther moon was casting its\nbrilliant beams, I saw that each of the party had his face swathed in\nlayers of silk--I could not recognize one of them.\n\nWhen they had come into the corridor with me, they turned toward a\nsecret panel in the wall which led to the passage that terminated in\nthe pits beneath the palace.  That any knew of this panel outside my\nown household, I was doubtful.  Yet the leader of the band did not\nhesitate a moment.  He stepped directly to the panel, touched the\nconcealed button, and as the door swung open he stood aside while his\ncompanions entered with me.  Then he closed the panel behind him and\nfollowed us.\n\nDown through the passageways to the pits we went.  The leader rapped\nupon it with the hilt of his sword--three quick, sharp blows, a pause,\nthen three more, another pause, and then two.  A second later the wall\nswung in, and I was pushed within a brilliantly lighted chamber in\nwhich sat three richly trapped men.\n\nOne of them turned toward me with a sardonic smile upon his thin, cruel\nlips--it was Zat Arras.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nBLACK DESPAIR\n\n\n\"Ah,\" said Zat Arras, \"to what kindly circumstance am I indebted for\nthe pleasure of this unexpected visit from the Prince of Helium?\"\n\nWhile he was speaking, one of my guards had removed the gag from my\nmouth, but I made no reply to Zat Arras: simply standing there in\nsilence with level gaze fixed upon the Jed of Zodanga.  And I doubt not\nthat my expression was coloured by the contempt I felt for the man.\n\nThe eyes of those within the chamber were fixed first upon me and then\nupon Zat Arras, until finally a flush of anger crept slowly over his\nface.\n\n\"You may go,\" he said to those who had brought me, and when only his\ntwo companions and ourselves were left in the chamber, he spoke to me\nagain in a voice of ice--very slowly and deliberately, with many\npauses, as though he would choose his words cautiously.\n\n\"John Carter,\" he said, \"by the edict of custom, by the law of our\nreligion, and by the verdict of an impartial court, you are condemned\nto die.  The people cannot save you--I alone may accomplish that.  You\nare absolutely in my power to do with as I wish--I may kill you, or I\nmay free you, and should I elect to kill you, none would be the wiser.\n\n\"Should you go free in Helium for a year, in accordance with the\nconditions of your reprieve, there is little fear that the people would\never insist upon the execution of the sentence imposed upon you.\n\n\"You may go free within two minutes, upon one condition.  Tardos Mors\nwill never return to Helium.  Neither will Mors Kajak, nor Dejah\nThoris.  Helium must select a new Jeddak within the year.  Zat Arras\nwould be Jeddak of Helium.  Say that you will espouse my cause.  This\nis the price of your freedom.  I am done.\"\n\nI knew it was within the scope of Zat Arras' cruel heart to destroy me,\nand if I were dead I could see little reason to doubt that he might\neasily become Jeddak of Helium.  Free, I could prosecute the search for\nDejah Thoris.  Were I dead, my brave comrades might not be able to\ncarry out our plans.  So, by refusing to accede to his request, it was\nquite probable that not only would I not prevent him from becoming\nJeddak of Helium, but that I would be the means of sealing Dejah\nThoris' fate--of consigning her, through my refusal, to the horrors of\nthe arena of Issus.\n\nFor a moment I was perplexed, but for a moment only.  The proud\ndaughter of a thousand Jeddaks would choose death to a dishonorable\nalliance such as this, nor could John Carter do less for Helium than\nhis Princess would do.\n\nThen I turned to Zat Arras.\n\n\"There can be no alliance,\" I said, \"between a traitor to Helium and a\nprince of the House of Tardos Mors.  I do not believe, Zat Arras, that\nthe great Jeddak is dead.\"\n\nZat Arras shrugged his shoulders.\n\n\"It will not be long, John Carter,\" he said, \"that your opinions will\nbe of interest even to yourself, so make the best of them while you\ncan.  Zat Arras will permit you in due time to reflect further upon the\nmagnanimous offer he has made you.  Into the silence and darkness of\nthe pits you will enter upon your reflection this night with the\nknowledge that should you fail within a reasonable time to agree to the\nalternative which has been offered you, never shall you emerge from the\ndarkness and the silence again.  Nor shall you know at what minute the\nhand will reach out through the darkness and the silence with the keen\ndagger that shall rob you of your last chance to win again the warmth\nand the freedom and joyousness of the outer world.\"\n\nZat Arras clapped his hands as he ceased speaking.  The guards returned.\n\nZat Arras waved his hand in my direction.\n\n\"To the pits,\" he said.  That was all.  Four men accompanied me from\nthe chamber, and with a radium hand-light to illumine the way, escorted\nme through seemingly interminable tunnels, down, ever down beneath the\ncity of Helium.\n\nAt length they halted within a fair-sized chamber.  There were rings\nset in the rocky walls.  To them chains were fastened, and at the ends\nof many of the chains were human skeletons.  One of these they kicked\naside, and, unlocking the huge padlock that had held a chain about what\nhad once been a human ankle, they snapped the iron band about my own\nleg.  Then they left me, taking the light with them.\n\nUtter darkness prevailed.  For a few minutes I could hear the clanking\nof accoutrements, but even this grew fainter and fainter, until at last\nthe silence was as complete as the darkness.  I was alone with my\ngruesome companions--with the bones of dead men whose fate was likely\nbut the index of my own.\n\nHow long I stood listening in the darkness I do not know, but the\nsilence was unbroken, and at last I sunk to the hard floor of my\nprison, where, leaning my head against the stony wall, I slept.\n\nIt must have been several hours later that I awakened to find a young\nman standing before me.  In one hand he bore a light, in the other a\nreceptacle containing a gruel-like mixture--the common prison fare of\nBarsoom.\n\n\"Zat Arras sends you greetings,\" said the young man, \"and commands me\nto inform you that though he is fully advised of the plot to make you\nJeddak of Helium, he is, however, not inclined to withdraw the offer\nwhich he has made you.  To gain your freedom you have but to request me\nto advise Zat Arras that you accept the terms of his proposition.\"\n\nI but shook my head.  The youth said no more, and, after placing the\nfood upon the floor at my side, returned up the corridor, taking the\nlight with him.\n\nTwice a day for many days this youth came to my cell with food, and\never the same greetings from Zat Arras.  For a long time I tried to\nengage him in conversation upon other matters, but he would not talk,\nand so, at length, I desisted.\n\nFor months I sought to devise methods to inform Carthoris of my\nwhereabouts.  For months I scraped and scraped upon a single link of\nthe massive chain which held me, hoping eventually to wear it through,\nthat I might follow the youth back through the winding tunnels to a\npoint where I could make a break for liberty.\n\nI was beside myself with anxiety for knowledge of the progress of the\nexpedition which was to rescue Dejah Thoris.  I felt that Carthoris\nwould not let the matter drop, were he free to act, but in so far as I\nknew, he also might be a prisoner in Zat Arras' pits.\n\nThat Zat Arras' spy had overheard our conversation relative to the\nselection of a new Jeddak, I knew, and scarcely a half-dozen minutes\nprior we had discussed the details of the plan to rescue Dejah Thoris.\nThe chances were that that matter, too, was well known to him.\nCarthoris, Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Hor Vastus, and Xodar might even\nnow be the victims of Zat Arras' assassins, or else his prisoners.\n\nI determined to make at least one more effort to learn something, and\nto this end I adopted strategy when next the youth came to my cell.  I\nhad noticed that he was a handsome fellow, about the size and age of\nCarthoris.  And I had also noticed that his shabby trappings but illy\ncomported with his dignified and noble bearing.\n\nIt was with these observations as a basis that I opened my negotiations\nwith him upon his next subsequent visit.\n\n\"You have been very kind to me during my imprisonment here,\" I said to\nhim, \"and as I feel that I have at best but a very short time to live,\nI wish, ere it is too late, to furnish substantial testimony of my\nappreciation of all that you have done to render my imprisonment\nbearable.\n\n\"Promptly you have brought my food each day, seeing that it was pure\nand of sufficient quantity.  Never by word or deed have you attempted\nto take advantage of my defenceless condition to insult or torture me.\nYou have been uniformly courteous and considerate--it is this more than\nany other thing which prompts my feeling of gratitude and my desire to\ngive you some slight token of it.\n\n\"In the guard-room of my palace are many fine trappings.  Go thou there\nand select the harness which most pleases you--it shall be yours.  All\nI ask is that you wear it, that I may know that my wish has been\nrealized.  Tell me that you will do it.\"\n\nThe boy's eyes had lighted with pleasure as I spoke, and I saw him\nglance from his rusty trappings to the magnificence of my own.  For a\nmoment he stood in thought before he spoke, and for that moment my\nheart fairly ceased beating--so much for me there was which hung upon\nthe substance of his answer.\n\n\"And I went to the palace of the Prince of Helium with any such demand,\nthey would laugh at me and, into the bargain, would more than likely\nthrow me headforemost into the avenue.  No, it cannot be, though I\nthank you for the offer.  Why, if Zat Arras even dreamed that I\ncontemplated such a thing he would have my heart cut out of me.\"\n\n\"There can be no harm in it, my boy,\" I urged.  \"By night you may go to\nmy palace with a note from me to Carthoris, my son.  You may read the\nnote before you deliver it, that you may know that it contains nothing\nharmful to Zat Arras.  My son will be discreet, and so none but us\nthree need know.  It is very simple, and such a harmless act that it\ncould be condemned by no one.\"\n\nAgain he stood silently in deep thought.\n\n\"And there is a jewelled short-sword which I took from the body of a\nnorthern Jeddak.  When you get the harness, see that Carthoris gives\nyou that also.  With it and the harness which you may select there will\nbe no more handsomely accoutred warrior in all Zodanga.\n\n\"Bring writing materials when you come next to my cell, and within a\nfew hours we shall see you garbed in a style befitting your birth and\ncarriage.\"\n\nStill in thought, and without speaking, he turned and left me.  I could\nnot guess what his decision might be, and for hours I sat fretting over\nthe outcome of the matter.\n\nIf he accepted a message to Carthoris it would mean to me that\nCarthoris still lived and was free.  If the youth returned wearing the\nharness and the sword, I would know that Carthoris had received my note\nand that he knew that I still lived.  That the bearer of the note was a\nZodangan would be sufficient to explain to Carthoris that I was a\nprisoner of Zat Arras.\n\nIt was with feelings of excited expectancy which I could scarce hide\nthat I heard the youth's approach upon the occasion of his next regular\nvisit.  I did not speak beyond my accustomed greeting of him.  As he\nplaced the food upon the floor by my side he also deposited writing\nmaterials at the same time.\n\nMy heart fairly bounded for joy.  I had won my point.  For a moment I\nlooked at the materials in feigned surprise, but soon I permitted an\nexpression of dawning comprehension to come into my face, and then,\npicking them up, I penned a brief order to Carthoris to deliver to\nParthak a harness of his selection and the short-sword which I\ndescribed.  That was all.  But it meant everything to me and to\nCarthoris.\n\nI laid the note open upon the floor.  Parthak picked it up and, without\na word, left me.\n\nAs nearly as I could estimate, I had at this time been in the pits for\nthree hundred days.  If anything was to be done to save Dejah Thoris it\nmust be done quickly, for, were she not already dead, her end must soon\ncome, since those whom Issus chose lived but a single year.\n\nThe next time I heard approaching footsteps I could scarce await to see\nif Parthak wore the harness and the sword, but judge, if you can, my\nchagrin and disappointment when I saw that he who bore my food was not\nParthak.\n\n\"What has become of Parthak?\" I asked, but the fellow would not answer,\nand as soon as he had deposited my food, turned and retraced his steps\nto the world above.\n\nDays came and went, and still my new jailer continued his duties, nor\nwould he ever speak a word to me, either in reply to the simplest\nquestion or of his own initiative.\n\nI could only speculate on the cause of Parthak's removal, but that it\nwas connected in some way directly with the note I had given him was\nmost apparent to me.  After all my rejoicing, I was no better off than\nbefore, for now I did not even know that Carthoris lived, for if\nParthak had wished to raise himself in the estimation of Zat Arras he\nwould have permitted me to go on precisely as I did, so that he could\ncarry my note to his master, in proof of his own loyalty and devotion.\n\nThirty days had passed since I had given the youth the note.  Three\nhundred and thirty days had passed since my incarceration.  As closely\nas I could figure, there remained a bare thirty days ere Dejah Thoris\nwould be ordered to the arena for the rites of Issus.\n\nAs the terrible picture forced itself vividly across my imagination, I\nburied my face in my arms, and only with the greatest difficulty was it\nthat I repressed the tears that welled to my eyes despite my every\neffort.  To think of that beautiful creature torn and rended by the\ncruel fangs of the hideous white apes!  It was unthinkable.  Such a\nhorrid fact could not be; and yet my reason told me that within thirty\ndays my incomparable Princess would be fought over in the arena of the\nFirst Born by those very wild beasts; that her bleeding corpse would be\ndragged through the dirt and the dust, until at last a part of it would\nbe rescued to be served as food upon the tables of the black nobles.\n\nI think that I should have gone crazy but for the sound of my\napproaching jailer.  It distracted my attention from the terrible\nthoughts that had been occupying my entire mind.  Now a new and grim\ndetermination came to me.  I would make one super-human effort to\nescape.  Kill my jailer by a ruse, and trust to fate to lead me to the\nouter world in safety.\n\nWith the thought came instant action.  I threw myself upon the floor of\nmy cell close by the wall, in a strained and distorted posture, as\nthough I were dead after a struggle or convulsions.  When he should\nstoop over me I had but to grasp his throat with one hand and strike\nhim a terrific blow with the slack of my chain, which I gripped firmly\nin my right hand for the purpose.\n\nNearer and nearer came the doomed man.  Now I heard him halt before me.\nThere was a muttered exclamation, and then a step as he came to my\nside.  I felt him kneel beside me.  My grip tightened upon the chain.\nHe leaned close to me.  I must open my eyes to find his throat, grasp\nit, and strike one mighty final blow all at the same instant.\n\nThe thing worked just as I had planned.  So brief was the interval\nbetween the opening of my eyes and the fall of the chain that I could\nnot check it, though in that minute interval I recognized the face so\nclose to mine as that of my son, Carthoris.\n\nGod!  What cruel and malign fate had worked to such a frightful end!\nWhat devious chain of circumstances had led my boy to my side at this\none particular minute of our lives when I could strike him down and\nkill him, in ignorance of his identity!  A benign though tardy\nProvidence blurred my vision and my mind as I sank into unconsciousness\nacross the lifeless body of my only son.\n\nWhen I regained consciousness it was to feel a cool, firm hand pressed\nupon my forehead.  For an instant I did not open my eyes.  I was\nendeavouring to gather the loose ends of many thoughts and memories\nwhich flitted elusively through my tired and overwrought brain.\n\nAt length came the cruel recollection of the thing that I had done in\nmy last conscious act, and then I dared not to open my eyes for fear of\nwhat I should see lying beside me.  I wondered who it could be who\nministered to me.  Carthoris must have had a companion whom I had not\nseen.  Well, I must face the inevitable some time, so why not now, and\nwith a sigh I opened my eyes.\n\nLeaning over me was Carthoris, a great bruise upon his forehead where\nthe chain had struck, but alive, thank God, alive!  There was no one\nwith him.  Reaching out my arms, I took my boy within them, and if ever\nthere arose from any planet a fervent prayer of gratitude, it was there\nbeneath the crust of dying Mars as I thanked the Eternal Mystery for my\nson's life.\n\nThe brief instant in which I had seen and recognized Carthoris before\nthe chain fell must have been ample to check the force of the blow.  He\ntold me that he had lain unconscious for a time--how long he did not\nknow.\n\n\"How came you here at all?\" I asked, mystified that he had found me\nwithout a guide.\n\n\"It was by your wit in apprising me of your existence and imprisonment\nthrough the youth, Parthak.  Until he came for his harness and his\nsword, we had thought you dead.  When I had read your note I did as you\nhad bid, giving Parthak his choice of the harnesses in the guardroom,\nand later bringing the jewelled short-sword to him; but the minute that\nI had fulfilled the promise you evidently had made him, my obligation\nto him ceased.  Then I commenced to question him, but he would give me\nno information as to your whereabouts.  He was intensely loyal to Zat\nArras.\n\n\"Finally I gave him a fair choice between freedom and the pits beneath\nthe palace--the price of freedom to be full information as to where you\nwere imprisoned and directions which would lead us to you; but still he\nmaintained his stubborn partisanship.  Despairing, I had him removed to\nthe pits, where he still is.\n\n\"No threats of torture or death, no bribes, however fabulous, would\nmove him.  His only reply to all our importunities was that whenever\nParthak died, were it to-morrow or a thousand years hence, no man could\ntruly say, 'A traitor is gone to his deserts.'\n\n\"Finally, Xodar, who is a fiend for subtle craftiness, evolved a plan\nwhereby we might worm the information from him.  And so I caused Hor\nVastus to be harnessed in the metal of a Zodangan soldier and chained\nin Parthak's cell beside him.  For fifteen days the noble Hor Vastus\nhas languished in the darkness of the pits, but not in vain.  Little by\nlittle he won the confidence and friendship of the Zodangan, until only\nto-day Parthak, thinking that he was speaking not only to a countryman,\nbut to a dear friend, revealed to Hor Vastus the exact cell in which\nyou lay.\n\n\"It took me but a short time to locate the plans of the pits of Helium\namong the official papers.  To come to you, though, was a trifle more\ndifficult matter.  As you know, while all the pits beneath the city are\nconnected, there are but single entrances from those beneath each\nsection and its neighbour, and that at the upper level just underneath\nthe ground.\n\n\"Of course, these openings which lead from contiguous pits to those\nbeneath government buildings are always guarded, and so, while I easily\ncame to the entrance to the pits beneath the palace which Zat Arras is\noccupying, I found there a Zodangan soldier on guard.  There I left him\nwhen I had gone by, but his soul was no longer with him.\n\n\"And here I am, just in time to be nearly killed by you,\" he ended,\nlaughing.\n\nAs he talked Carthoris had been working at the lock which held my\nfetters, and now, with an exclamation of pleasure, he dropped the end\nof the chain to the floor, and I stood up once more, freed from the\ngalling irons I had chafed in for almost a year.\n\nHe had brought a long-sword and a dagger for me, and thus armed we set\nout upon the return journey to my palace.\n\nAt the point where we left the pits of Zat Arras we found the body of\nthe guard Carthoris had slain.  It had not yet been discovered, and, in\norder to still further delay search and mystify the jed's people, we\ncarried the body with us for a short distance, hiding it in a tiny cell\noff the main corridor of the pits beneath an adjoining estate.\n\nSome half-hour later we came to the pits beneath our own palace, and\nsoon thereafter emerged into the audience chamber itself, where we\nfound Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Hor Vastus, and Xodar awaiting us most\nimpatiently.\n\nNo time was lost in fruitless recounting of my imprisonment.  What I\ndesired to know was how well the plans we had laid nearly a year ago\nhad been carried out.\n\n\"It has taken much longer than we had expected,\" replied Kantos Kan.\n\"The fact that we were compelled to maintain utter secrecy has\nhandicapped us terribly.  Zat Arras' spies are everywhere.  Yet, to the\nbest of my knowledge, no word of our real plans has reached the\nvillain's ear.\n\n\"To-night there lies about the great docks at Hastor a fleet of a\nthousand of the mightiest battleships that ever sailed above Barsoom,\nand each equipped to navigate the air of Omean and the waters of Omean\nitself.  Upon each battleship there are five ten-man cruisers, and ten\nfive-man scouts, and a hundred one-man scouts; in all, one hundred and\nsixteen thousand craft fitted with both air and water propellers.\n\n\"At Thark lie the transports for the green warriors of Tars Tarkas,\nnine hundred large troopships, and with them their convoys.  Seven days\nago all was in readiness, but we waited in the hope that by so doing\nyour rescue might be encompassed in time for you to command the\nexpedition.  It is well we waited, my Prince.\"\n\n\"How is it, Tars Tarkas,\" I asked, \"that the men of Thark take not the\naccustomed action against one who returns from the bosom of Iss?\"\n\n\"They sent a council of fifty chieftains to talk with me here,\" replied\nthe Thark.  \"We are a just people, and when I had told them the entire\nstory they were as one man in agreeing that their action toward me\nwould be guided by the action of Helium toward John Carter.  In the\nmeantime, at their request, I was to resume my throne as Jeddak of\nThark, that I might negotiate with neighboring hordes for warriors to\ncompose the land forces of the expedition.  I have done that which I\nagreed.  Two hundred and fifty thousand fighting men, gathered from the\nice cap at the north to the ice cap at the south, and representing a\nthousand different communities, from a hundred wild and warlike hordes,\nfill the great city of Thark to-night.  They are ready to sail for the\nLand of the First Born when I give the word and fight there until I bid\nthem stop.  All they ask is the loot they take and transportation to\ntheir own territories when the fighting and the looting are over.  I am\ndone.\"\n\n\"And thou, Hor Vastus,\" I asked, \"what has been thy success?\"\n\n\"A million veteran fighting-men from Helium's thin waterways man the\nbattleships, the transports, and the convoys,\" he replied.  \"Each is\nsworn to loyalty and secrecy, nor were enough recruited from a single\ndistrict to cause suspicion.\"\n\n\"Good!\" I cried.  \"Each has done his duty, and now, Kantos Kan, may we\nnot repair at once to Hastor and get under way before to-morrow's sun?\"\n\n\"We should lose no time, Prince,\" replied Kantos Kan.  \"Already the\npeople of Hastor are questioning the purpose of so great a fleet fully\nmanned with fighting-men.  I wonder much that word of it has not before\nreached Zat Arras.  A cruiser awaits above at your own dock; let us\nleave at--\" A fusillade of shots from the palace gardens just without\ncut short his further words.\n\nTogether we rushed to the balcony in time to see a dozen members of my\npalace guard disappear in the shadows of some distant shrubbery as in\npursuit of one who fled.  Directly beneath us upon the scarlet sward a\nhandful of guardsmen were stooping above a still and prostrate form.\n\nWhile we watched they lifted the figure in their arms and at my command\nbore it to the audience chamber where we had been in council.  When\nthey stretched the body at our feet we saw that it was that of a red\nman in the prime of life--his metal was plain, such as common soldiers\nwear, or those who wish to conceal their identity.\n\n\"Another of Zat Arras' spies,\" said Hor Vastus.\n\n\"So it would seem,\" I replied, and then to the guard: \"You may remove\nthe body.\"\n\n\"Wait!\" said Xodar.  \"If you will, Prince, ask that a cloth and a\nlittle thoat oil be brought.\"\n\nI nodded to one of the soldiers, who left the chamber, returning\npresently with the things that Xodar had requested.  The black kneeled\nbeside the body and, dipping a corner of the cloth in the thoat oil,\nrubbed for a moment on the dead face before him. Then he turned to me\nwith a smile, pointing to his work.  I looked and saw that where Xodar\nhad applied the thoat oil the face was white, as white as mine, and\nthen Xodar seized the black hair of the corpse and with a sudden wrench\ntore it all away, revealing a hairless pate beneath.\n\nGuardsmen and nobles pressed close about the silent witness upon the\nmarble floor.  Many were the exclamations of astonishment and\nquestioning wonder as Xodar's acts confirmed the suspicion which he had\nheld.\n\n\"A thern!\" whispered Tars Tarkas.\n\n\"Worse than that, I fear,\" replied Xodar.  \"But let us see.\"\n\nWith that he drew his dagger and cut open a locked pouch which had\ndangled from the thern's harness, and from it he brought forth a\ncirclet of gold set with a large gem--it was the mate to that which I\nhad taken from Sator Throg.\n\n\"He was a Holy Thern,\" said Xodar.  \"Fortunate indeed it is for us that\nhe did not escape.\"\n\nThe officer of the guard entered the chamber at this juncture.\n\n\"My Prince,\" he said, \"I have to report that this fellow's companion\nescaped us.  I think that it was with the connivance of one or more of\nthe men at the gate.  I have ordered them all under arrest.\"\n\nXodar handed him the thoat oil and cloth.\n\n\"With this you may discover the spy among you,\" he said.\n\nI at once ordered a secret search within the city, for every Martian\nnoble maintains a secret service of his own.\n\nA half-hour later the officer of the guard came again to report.  This\ntime it was to confirm our worst fears--half the guards at the gate\nthat night had been therns disguised as red men.\n\n\"Come!\" I cried.  \"We must lose no time.  On to Hastor at once.  Should\nthe therns attempt to check us at the southern verge of the ice cap it\nmay result in the wrecking of all our plans and the total destruction\nof the expedition.\"\n\nTen minutes later we were speeding through the night toward Hastor,\nprepared to strike the first blow for the preservation of Dejah Thoris.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nTHE AIR BATTLE\n\n\nTwo hours after leaving my palace at Helium, or about midnight, Kantos\nKan, Xodar, and I arrived at Hastor.  Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Hor\nVastus had gone directly to Thark upon another cruiser.\n\nThe transports were to get under way immediately and move slowly south.\nThe fleet of battleships would overtake them on the morning of the\nsecond day.\n\nAt Hastor we found all in readiness, and so perfectly had Kantos Kan\nplanned every detail of the campaign that within ten minutes of our\narrival the first of the fleet had soared aloft from its dock, and\nthereafter, at the rate of one a second, the great ships floated\ngracefully out into the night to form a long, thin line which stretched\nfor miles toward the south.\n\nIt was not until after we had entered the cabin of Kantos Kan that I\nthought to ask the date, for up to now I was not positive how long I\nhad lain in the pits of Zat Arras.  When Kantos Kan told me, I realized\nwith a pang of dismay that I had misreckoned the time while I lay in\nthe utter darkness of my cell.  Three hundred and sixty-five days had\npassed--it was too late to save Dejah Thoris.\n\nThe expedition was no longer one of rescue but of revenge.  I did not\nremind Kantos Kan of the terrible fact that ere we could hope to enter\nthe Temple of Issus, the Princess of Helium would be no more.  In so\nfar as I knew she might be already dead, for I did not know the exact\ndate on which she first viewed Issus.\n\nWhat now the value of burdening my friends with my added personal\nsorrows--they had shared quite enough of them with me in the past.\nHereafter I would keep my grief to myself, and so I said nothing to any\nother of the fact that we were too late.  The expedition could yet do\nmuch if it could but teach the people of Barsoom the facts of the cruel\ndeception that had been worked upon them for countless ages, and thus\nsave thousands each year from the horrid fate that awaited them at the\nconclusion of the voluntary pilgrimage.\n\nIf it could open to the red men the fair Valley Dor it would have\naccomplished much, and in the Land of Lost Souls between the Mountains\nof Otz and the ice barrier were many broad acres that needed no\nirrigation to bear rich harvests.\n\nHere at the bottom of a dying world was the only naturally productive\narea upon its surface.  Here alone were dews and rains, here alone was\nan open sea, here was water in plenty; and all this was but the\nstamping ground of fierce brutes and from its beauteous and fertile\nexpanse the wicked remnants of two once mighty races barred all the\nother millions of Barsoom.  Could I but succeed in once breaking down\nthe barrier of religious superstition which had kept the red races from\nthis El Dorado it would be a fitting memorial to the immortal virtues\nof my Princess--I should have again served Barsoom and Dejah Thoris'\nmartyrdom would not have been in vain.\n\nOn the morning of the second day we raised the great fleet of\ntransports and their consorts at the first flood of dawn, and soon were\nnear enough to exchange signals.  I may mention here that\nradio-aerograms are seldom if ever used in war time, or for the\ntransmission of secret dispatches at any time, for as often as one\nnation discovers a new cipher, or invents a new instrument for wireless\npurposes its neighbours bend every effort until they are able to\nintercept and translate the messages.  For so long a time has this gone\non that practically every possibility of wireless communication has\nbeen exhausted and no nation dares transmit dispatches of importance in\nthis way.\n\nTars Tarkas reported all well with the transports.  The battleships\npassed through to take an advanced position, and the combined fleets\nmoved slowly over the ice cap, hugging the surface closely to prevent\ndetection by the therns whose land we were approaching.\n\nFar in advance of all a thin line of one-man air scouts protected us\nfrom surprise, and on either side they flanked us, while a smaller\nnumber brought up the rear some twenty miles behind the transports.  In\nthis formation we had progressed toward the entrance to Omean for\nseveral hours when one of our scouts returned from the front to report\nthat the cone-like summit of the entrance was in sight.  At almost the\nsame instant another scout from the left flank came racing toward the\nflagship.\n\nHis very speed bespoke the importance of his information.  Kantos Kan\nand I awaited him upon the little forward deck which corresponds with\nthe bridge of earthly battleships.  Scarcely had his tiny flier come to\nrest upon the broad landing-deck of the flagship ere he was bounding up\nthe stairway to the deck where we stood.\n\n\"A great fleet of battleships south-south-east, my Prince,\" he cried.\n\"There must be several thousands and they are bearing down directly\nupon us.\"\n\n\"The thern spies were not in the palace of John Carter for nothing,\"\nsaid Kantos Kan to me.  \"Your orders, Prince.\"\n\n\"Dispatch ten battleships to guard the entrance to Omean, with orders\nto let no hostile enter or leave the shaft.  That will bottle up the\ngreat fleet of the First Born.\n\n\"Form the balance of the battleships into a great V with the apex\npointing directly south-south-east.  Order the transports, surrounded\nby their convoys, to follow closely in the wake of the battleships\nuntil the point of the V has entered the enemies' line, then the V must\nopen outward at the apex, the battleships of each leg engage the enemy\nfiercely and drive him back to form a lane through his line into which\nthe transports with their convoys must race at top speed that they may\ngain a position above the temples and gardens of the therns.\n\n\"Here let them land and teach the Holy Therns such a lesson in\nferocious warfare as they will not forget for countless ages.  It had\nnot been my intention to be distracted from the main issue of the\ncampaign, but we must settle this attack with the therns once and for\nall, or there will be no peace for us while our fleet remains near Dor,\nand our chances of ever returning to the outer world will be greatly\nminimized.\"\n\nKantos Kan saluted and turned to deliver my instructions to his waiting\naides.  In an incredibly short space of time the formation of the\nbattleships changed in accordance with my commands, the ten that were\nto guard the way to Omean were speeding toward their destination, and\nthe troopships and convoys were closing up in preparation for the spurt\nthrough the lane.\n\nThe order of full speed ahead was given, the fleet sprang through the\nair like coursing greyhounds, and in another moment the ships of the\nenemy were in full view.  They formed a ragged line as far as the eye\ncould reach in either direction and about three ships deep.  So sudden\nwas our onslaught that they had no time to prepare for it.  It was as\nunexpected as lightning from a clear sky.\n\nEvery phase of my plan worked splendidly.  Our huge ships mowed their\nway entirely through the line of thern battlecraft; then the V opened\nup and a broad lane appeared through which the transports leaped toward\nthe temples of the therns which could now be plainly seen glistening in\nthe sunlight.  By the time the therns had rallied from the attack a\nhundred thousand green warriors were already pouring through their\ncourts and gardens, while a hundred and fifty thousand others leaned\nfrom low swinging transports to direct their almost uncanny\nmarksmanship upon the thern soldiery that manned the ramparts, or\nattempted to defend the temples.\n\nNow the two great fleets closed in a titanic struggle far above the\nfiendish din of battle in the gorgeous gardens of the therns.  Slowly\nthe two lines of Helium's battleships joined their ends, and then\ncommenced the circling within the line of the enemy which is so marked\na characteristic of Barsoomian naval warfare.\n\nAround and around in each other's tracks moved the ships under Kantos\nKan, until at length they formed nearly a perfect circle.  By this time\nthey were moving at high speed so that they presented a difficult\ntarget for the enemy.  Broadside after broadside they delivered as each\nvessel came in line with the ships of the therns.  The latter attempted\nto rush in and break up the formation, but it was like stopping a buzz\nsaw with the bare hand.\n\nFrom my position on the deck beside Kantos Kan I saw ship after ship of\nthe enemy take the awful, sickening dive which proclaims its total\ndestruction.  Slowly we manoeuvered our circle of death until we hung\nabove the gardens where our green warriors were engaged.  The order was\npassed down for them to embark.  Then they rose slowly to a position\nwithin the centre of the circle.\n\nIn the meantime the therns' fire had practically ceased.  They had had\nenough of us and were only too glad to let us go on our way in peace.\nBut our escape was not to be encompassed with such ease, for scarcely\nhad we gotten under way once more in the direction of the entrance to\nOmean than we saw far to the north a great black line topping the\nhorizon.  It could be nothing other than a fleet of war.\n\nWhose or whither bound, we could not even conjecture.  When they had\ncome close enough to make us out at all, Kantos Kan's operator received\na radio-aerogram, which he immediately handed to my companion.  He read\nthe thing and handed it to me.\n\n\"Kantos Kan:\" it read.  \"Surrender, in the name of the Jeddak of\nHelium, for you cannot escape,\" and it was signed, \"Zat Arras.\"\n\nThe therns must have caught and translated the message almost as soon\nas did we, for they immediately renewed hostilities when they realized\nthat we were soon to be set upon by other enemies.\n\nBefore Zat Arras had approached near enough to fire a shot we were\nagain hotly engaged with the thern fleet, and as soon as he drew near\nhe too commenced to pour a terrific fusillade of heavy shot into us.\nShip after ship reeled and staggered into uselessness beneath the\npitiless fire that we were undergoing.\n\nThe thing could not last much longer.  I ordered the transports to\ndescend again into the gardens of the therns.\n\n\"Wreak your vengeance to the utmost,\" was my message to the green\nallies, \"for by night there will be none left to avenge your wrongs.\"\n\nPresently I saw the ten battleships that had been ordered to hold the\nshaft of Omean.  They were returning at full speed, firing their stern\nbatteries almost continuously.  There could be but one explanation.\nThey were being pursued by another hostile fleet.  Well, the situation\ncould be no worse.  The expedition already was doomed.  No man that had\nembarked upon it would return across that dreary ice cap.  How I wished\nthat I might face Zat Arras with my longsword for just an instant\nbefore I died!  It was he who had caused our failure.\n\nAs I watched the oncoming ten I saw their pursuers race swiftly into\nsight.  It was another great fleet; for a moment I could not believe my\neyes, but finally I was forced to admit that the most fatal calamity\nhad overtaken the expedition, for the fleet I saw was none other than\nthe fleet of the First Born, that should have been safely bottled up in\nOmean.  What a series of misfortunes and disasters!  What awful fate\nhovered over me, that I should have been so terribly thwarted at every\nangle of my search for my lost love!  Could it be possible that the\ncurse of Issus was upon me!  That there was, indeed, some malign\ndivinity in that hideous carcass!  I would not believe it, and,\nthrowing back my shoulders, I ran to the deck below to join my men in\nrepelling boarders from one of the thern craft that had grappled us\nbroadside.  In the wild lust of hand-to-hand combat my old dauntless\nhopefulness returned.  And as thern after thern went down beneath my\nblade, I could almost feel that we should win success in the end, even\nfrom apparent failure.\n\nMy presence among the men so greatly inspirited them that they fell\nupon the luckless whites with such terrible ferocity that within a few\nmoments we had turned the tables upon them and a second later as we\nswarmed their own decks I had the satisfaction of seeing their\ncommander take the long leap from the bows of his vessel in token of\nsurrender and defeat.\n\nThen I joined Kantos Kan.  He had been watching what had taken place on\nthe deck below, and it seemed to have given him a new thought.\nImmediately he passed an order to one of his officers, and presently\nthe colours of the Prince of Helium broke from every point of the\nflagship.  A great cheer arose from the men of our own ship, a cheer\nthat was taken up by every other vessel of our expedition as they in\nturn broke my colours from their upper works.\n\nThen Kantos Kan sprang his coup.  A signal legible to every sailor of\nall the fleets engaged in that fierce struggle was strung aloft upon\nthe flagship.\n\n\"Men of Helium for the Prince of Helium against all his enemies,\" it\nread.  Presently my colours broke from one of Zat Arras' ships.  Then\nfrom another and another.  On some we could see fierce battles waging\nbetween the Zodangan soldiery and the Heliumetic crews, but eventually\nthe colours of the Prince of Helium floated above every ship that had\nfollowed Zat Arras upon our trail--only his flagship flew them not.\n\nZat Arras had brought five thousand ships.  The sky was black with the\nthree enormous fleets.  It was Helium against the field now, and the\nfight had settled to countless individual duels.  There could be little\nor no manoeuvering of fleets in that crowded, fire-split sky.\n\nZat Arras' flagship was close to my own.  I could see the thin features\nof the man from where I stood.  His Zodangan crew was pouring broadside\nafter broadside into us and we were returning their fire with equal\nferocity.  Closer and closer came the two vessels until but a few yards\nintervened.  Grapplers and boarders lined the contiguous rails of each.\nWe were preparing for the death struggle with our hated enemy.\n\nThere was but a yard between the two mighty ships as the first\ngrappling irons were hurled.  I rushed to the deck to be with my men as\nthey boarded.  Just as the vessels came together with a slight shock, I\nforced my way through the lines and was the first to spring to the deck\nof Zat Arras' ship.  After me poured a yelling, cheering, cursing\nthrong of Helium's best fighting-men.  Nothing could withstand them in\nthe fever of battle lust which enthralled them.\n\nDown went the Zodangans before that surging tide of war, and as my men\ncleared the lower decks I sprang to the forward deck where stood Zat\nArras.\n\n\"You are my prisoner, Zat Arras,\" I cried.  \"Yield and you shall have\nquarter.\"\n\nFor a moment I could not tell whether he contemplated acceding to my\ndemand or facing me with drawn sword.  For an instant he stood\nhesitating, and then throwing down his arms he turned and rushed to the\nopposite side of the deck.  Before I could overtake him he had sprung\nto the rail and hurled himself headforemost into the awful depths below.\n\nAnd thus came Zat Arras, Jed of Zodanga, to his end.\n\nOn and on went that strange battle.  The therns and blacks had not\ncombined against us.  Wherever thern ship met ship of the First Born\nwas a battle royal, and in this I thought I saw our salvation.\nWherever messages could be passed between us that could not be\nintercepted by our enemies I passed the word that all our vessels were\nto withdraw from the fight as rapidly as possible, taking a position to\nthe west and south of the combatants.  I also sent an air scout to the\nfighting green men in the gardens below to re-embark, and to the\ntransports to join us.\n\nMy commanders were further instructed that when engaged with an enemy\nto draw him as rapidly as possible toward a ship of his hereditary\nfoeman, and by careful manoeuvring to force the two to engage, thus\nleaving himself free to withdraw.  This stratagem worked to\nperfection, and just before the sun went down I had the satisfaction of\nseeing all that was left of my once mighty fleet gathered nearly twenty\nmiles southwest of the still terrific battle between the blacks and\nwhites.\n\nI now transferred Xodar to another battleship and sent him with all the\ntransports and five thousand battleships directly overhead to the\nTemple of Issus.  Carthoris and I, with Kantos Kan, took the remaining\nships and headed for the entrance to Omean.\n\nOur plan now was to attempt to make a combined assault upon Issus at\ndawn of the following day.  Tars Tarkas with his green warriors and Hor\nVastus with the red men, guided by Xodar, were to land within the\ngarden of Issus or the surrounding plains; while Carthoris, Kantos Kan,\nand I were to lead our smaller force from the sea of Omean through the\npits beneath the temple, which Carthoris knew so well.\n\nI now learned for the first time the cause of my ten ships' retreat\nfrom the mouth of the shaft.  It seemed that when they had come upon\nthe shaft the navy of the First Born were already issuing from its\nmouth.  Fully twenty vessels had emerged, and though they gave battle\nimmediately in an effort to stem the tide that rolled from the black\npit, the odds against them were too great and they were forced to flee.\n\nWith great caution we approached the shaft, under cover of darkness.\nAt a distance of several miles I caused the fleet to be halted, and\nfrom there Carthoris went ahead alone upon a one-man flier to\nreconnoitre.  In perhaps half an hour he returned to report that there\nwas no sign of a patrol boat or of the enemy in any form, and so we\nmoved swiftly and noiselessly forward once more toward Omean.\n\nAt the mouth of the shaft we stopped again for a moment for all the\nvessels to reach their previously appointed stations, then with the\nflagship I dropped quickly into the black depths, while one by one the\nother vessels followed me in quick succession.\n\nWe had decided to stake all on the chance that we would be able to\nreach the temple by the subterranean way and so we left no guard of\nvessels at the shaft's mouth.  Nor would it have profited us any to\nhave done so, for we did not have sufficient force all told to have\nwithstood the vast navy of the First Born had they returned to engage\nus.\n\nFor the safety of our entrance upon Omean we depended largely upon the\nvery boldness of it, believing that it would be some little time before\nthe First Born on guard there would realize that it was an enemy and\nnot their own returning fleet that was entering the vault of the buried\nsea.\n\nAnd such proved to be the case.  In fact, four hundred of my fleet of\nfive hundred rested safely upon the bosom of Omean before the first\nshot was fired.  The battle was short and hot, but there could have\nbeen but one outcome, for the First Born in the carelessness of fancied\nsecurity had left but a handful of ancient and obsolete hulks to guard\ntheir mighty harbour.\n\nIt was at Carthoris' suggestion that we landed our prisoners under\nguard upon a couple of the larger islands, and then towed the ships of\nthe First Born to the shaft, where we managed to wedge a number of them\nsecurely in the interior of the great well.  Then we turned on the\nbuoyance rays in the balance of them and let them rise by themselves to\nfurther block the passage to Omean as they came into contact with the\nvessels already lodged there.\n\nWe now felt that it would be some time at least before the returning\nFirst Born could reach the surface of Omean, and that we would have\nample opportunity to make for the subterranean passages which lead to\nIssus.  One of the first steps I took was to hasten personally with a\ngood-sized force to the island of the submarine, which I took without\nresistance on the part of the small guard there.\n\nI found the submarine in its pool, and at once placed a strong guard\nupon it and the island, where I remained to wait the coming of\nCarthoris and the others.\n\nAmong the prisoners was Yersted, commander of the submarine.  He\nrecognized me from the three trips that I had taken with him during my\ncaptivity among the First Born.\n\n\"How does it seem,\" I asked him, \"to have the tables turned?  To be\nprisoner of your erstwhile captive?\"\n\nHe smiled, a very grim smile pregnant with hidden meaning.\n\n\"It will not be for long, John Carter,\" he replied.  \"We have been\nexpecting you and we are prepared.\"\n\n\"So it would appear,\" I answered, \"for you were all ready to become my\nprisoners with scarce a blow struck on either side.\"\n\n\"The fleet must have missed you,\" he said, \"but it will return to\nOmean, and then that will be a very different matter--for John Carter.\"\n\n\"I do not know that the fleet has missed me as yet,\" I said, but of\ncourse he did not grasp my meaning, and only looked puzzled.\n\n\"Many prisoners travel to Issus in your grim craft, Yersted?\" I asked.\n\n\"Very many,\" he assented.\n\n\"Might you remember one whom men called Dejah Thoris?\"\n\n\"Well, indeed, for her great beauty, and then, too, for the fact that\nshe was wife to the first mortal that ever escaped from Issus through\nall the countless ages of her godhood.  And the way that Issus\nremembers her best as the wife of one and the mother of another who\nraised their hands against the Goddess of Life Eternal.\"\n\nI shuddered for fear of the cowardly revenge that I knew Issus might\nhave taken upon the innocent Dejah Thoris for the sacrilege of her son\nand her husband.\n\n\"And where is Dejah Thoris now?\" I asked, knowing that he would say the\nwords I most dreaded, but yet I loved her so that I could not refrain\nfrom hearing even the worst about her fate so that it fell from the\nlips of one who had seen her but recently.  It was to me as though it\nbrought her closer to me.\n\n\"Yesterday the monthly rites of Issus were held,\" replied Yersted, \"and\nI saw her then sitting in her accustomed place at the foot of Issus.\"\n\n\"What,\" I cried, \"she is not dead, then?\"\n\n\"Why, no,\" replied the black, \"it has been no year since she gazed upon\nthe divine glory of the radiant face of--\"\n\n\"No year?\" I interrupted.\n\n\"Why, no,\" insisted Yersted.  \"It cannot have been upward of three\nhundred and seventy or eighty days.\"\n\nA great light burst upon me.  How stupid I had been!  I could scarcely\nretain an outward exhibition of my great joy.  Why had I forgotten the\ngreat difference in the length of Martian and Earthly years!  The ten\nEarth years I had spent upon Barsoom had encompassed but five years and\nninety-six days of Martian time, whose days are forty-one minutes\nlonger than ours, and whose years number six hundred and eighty-seven\ndays.\n\nI am in time!  I am in time!  The words surged through my brain again\nand again, until at last I must have voiced them audibly, for Yersted\nshook his head.\n\n\"In time to save your Princess?\" he asked, and then without waiting for\nmy reply, \"No, John Carter, Issus will not give up her own.  She knows\nthat you are coming, and ere ever a vandal foot is set within the\nprecincts of the Temple of Issus, if such a calamity should befall,\nDejah Thoris will be put away for ever from the last faint hope of\nrescue.\"\n\n\"You mean that she will be killed merely to thwart me?\" I asked.\n\n\"Not that, other than as a last resort,\" he replied.  \"Hast ever heard\nof the Temple of the Sun?  It is there that they will put her.  It lies\nfar within the inner court of the Temple of Issus, a little temple that\nraises a thin spire far above the spires and minarets of the great\ntemple that surrounds it.  Beneath it, in the ground, there lies the\nmain body of the temple consisting in six hundred and eighty-seven\ncircular chambers, one below another.  To each chamber a single\ncorridor leads through solid rock from the pits of Issus.\n\n\"As the entire Temple of the Sun revolves once with each revolution of\nBarsoom about the sun, but once each year does the entrance to each\nseparate chamber come opposite the mouth of the corridor which forms\nits only link to the world without.\n\n\"Here Issus puts those who displease her, but whom she does not care to\nexecute forthwith.  Or to punish a noble of the First Born she may\ncause him to be placed within a chamber of the Temple of the Sun for a\nyear.  Ofttimes she imprisons an executioner with the condemned, that\ndeath may come in a certain horrible form upon a given day, or again\nbut enough food is deposited in the chamber to sustain life but the\nnumber of days that Issus has allotted for mental anguish.\n\n\"Thus will Dejah Thoris die, and her fate will be sealed by the first\nalien foot that crosses the threshold of Issus.\"\n\nSo I was to be thwarted in the end, although I had performed the\nmiraculous and come within a few short moments of my divine Princess,\nyet was I as far from her as when I stood upon the banks of the Hudson\nforty-eight million miles away.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nTHROUGH FLOOD AND FLAME\n\n\nYersted's information convinced me that there was no time to be lost.\nI must reach the Temple of Issus secretly before the forces under Tars\nTarkas assaulted at dawn.  Once within its hated walls I was positive\nthat I could overcome the guards of Issus and bear away my Princess,\nfor at my back I would have a force ample for the occasion.\n\nNo sooner had Carthoris and the others joined me than we commenced the\ntransportation of our men through the submerged passage to the mouth of\nthe gangways which lead from the submarine pool at the temple end of\nthe watery tunnel to the pits of Issus.\n\nMany trips were required, but at last all stood safely together again\nat the beginning of the end of our quest.  Five thousand strong we\nwere, all seasoned fighting-men of the most warlike race of the red men\nof Barsoom.\n\nAs Carthoris alone knew the hidden ways of the tunnels we could not\ndivide the party and attack the temple at several points at once as\nwould have been most desirable, and so it was decided that he lead us\nall as quickly as possible to a point near the temple's centre.\n\nAs we were about to leave the pool and enter the corridor, an officer\ncalled my attention to the waters upon which the submarine floated.  At\nfirst they seemed to be merely agitated as from the movement of some\ngreat body beneath the surface, and I at once conjectured that another\nsubmarine was rising to the surface in pursuit of us; but presently it\nbecame apparent that the level of the waters was rising, not with\nextreme rapidity, but very surely, and that soon they would overflow\nthe sides of the pool and submerge the floor of the chamber.\n\nFor a moment I did not fully grasp the terrible import of the slowly\nrising water.  It was Carthoris who realized the full meaning of the\nthing--its cause and the reason for it.\n\n\"Haste!\" he cried.  \"If we delay, we all are lost.  The pumps of Omean\nhave been stopped.  They would drown us like rats in a trap.  We must\nreach the upper levels of the pits in advance of the flood or we shall\nnever reach them.  Come.\"\n\n\"Lead the way, Carthoris,\" I cried.  \"We will follow.\"\n\nAt my command, the youth leaped into one of the corridors, and in\ncolumn of twos the soldiers followed him in good order, each company\nentering the corridor only at the command of its dwar, or captain.\n\nBefore the last company filed from the chamber the water was ankle\ndeep, and that the men were nervous was quite evident.  Entirely\nunaccustomed to water except in quantities sufficient for drinking and\nbathing purposes the red Martians instinctively shrank from it in such\nformidable depths and menacing activity.  That they were undaunted\nwhile it swirled and eddied about their ankles, spoke well for their\nbravery and their discipline.\n\nI was the last to leave the chamber of the submarine, and as I followed\nthe rear of the column toward the corridor, I moved through water to my\nknees.  The corridor, too, was flooded to the same depth, for its floor\nwas on a level with the floor of the chamber from which it led, nor was\nthere any perceptible rise for many yards.\n\nThe march of the troops through the corridor was as rapid as was\nconsistent with the number of men that moved through so narrow a\npassage, but it was not ample to permit us to gain appreciably on the\npursuing tide.  As the level of the passage rose, so, too, did the\nwaters rise until it soon became apparent to me, who brought up the\nrear, that they were gaining rapidly upon us.  I could understand the\nreason for this, as with the narrowing expanse of Omean as the waters\nrose toward the apex of its dome, the rapidity of its rise would\nincrease in inverse ratio to the ever-lessening space to be filled.\n\nLong ere the last of the column could hope to reach the upper pits\nwhich lay above the danger point I was convinced that the waters would\nsurge after us in overwhelming volume, and that fully half the\nexpedition would be snuffed out.\n\nAs I cast about for some means of saving as many as possible of the\ndoomed men, I saw a diverging corridor which seemed to rise at a steep\nangle at my right.  The waters were now swirling about my waist.  The\nmen directly before me were quickly becoming panic-stricken.  Something\nmust be done at once or they would rush forward upon their fellows in a\nmad stampede that would result in trampling down hundreds beneath the\nflood and eventually clogging the passage beyond any hope of retreat\nfor those in advance.\n\nRaising my voice to its utmost, I shouted my command to the dwars ahead\nof me.\n\n\"Call back the last twenty-five utans,\" I shouted.  \"Here seems a way\nof escape.  Turn back and follow me.\"\n\nMy orders were obeyed by nearer thirty utans, so that some three\nthousand men came about and hastened into the teeth of the flood to\nreach the corridor up which I directed them.\n\nAs the first dwar passed in with his utan I cautioned him to listen\nclosely for my commands, and under no circumstances to venture into the\nopen, or leave the pits for the temple proper until I should have come\nup with him, \"or you know that I died before I could reach you.\"\n\nThe officer saluted and left me.  The men filed rapidly past me and\nentered the diverging corridor which I hoped would lead to safety.  The\nwater rose breast high.  Men stumbled, floundered, and went down.  Many\nI grasped and set upon their feet again, but alone the work was greater\nthan I could cope with.  Soldiers were being swept beneath the boiling\ntorrent, never to rise.  At length the dwar of the 10th utan took a\nstand beside me.  He was a valorous soldier, Gur Tus by name, and\ntogether we kept the now thoroughly frightened troops in the semblance\nof order and rescued many that would have drowned otherwise.\n\nDjor Kantos, son of Kantos Kan, and a padwar of the fifth utan joined\nus when his utan reached the opening through which the men were\nfleeing.  Thereafter not a man was lost of all the hundreds that\nremained to pass from the main corridor to the branch.\n\nAs the last utan was filing past us the waters had risen until they\nsurged about our necks, but we clasped hands and stood our ground until\nthe last man had passed to the comparative safety of the new\npassageway.  Here we found an immediate and steep ascent, so that\nwithin a hundred yards we had reached a point above the waters.\n\nFor a few minutes we continued rapidly up the steep grade, which I\nhoped would soon bring us quickly to the upper pits that let into the\nTemple of Issus.  But I was to meet with a cruel disappointment.\n\nSuddenly I heard a cry of \"fire\" far ahead, followed almost at once by\ncries of terror and the loud commands of dwars and padwars who were\nevidently attempting to direct their men away from some grave danger.\nAt last the report came back to us.  \"They have fired the pits ahead.\"\n\"We are hemmed in by flames in front and flood behind.\" \"Help, John\nCarter; we are suffocating,\" and then there swept back upon us at the\nrear a wave of dense smoke that sent us, stumbling and blinded, into a\nchoking retreat.\n\nThere was naught to do other than seek a new avenue of escape.  The\nfire and smoke were to be feared a thousand times over the water, and\nso I seized upon the first gallery which led out of and up from the\nsuffocating smoke that was engulfing us.\n\nAgain I stood to one side while the soldiers hastened through on the\nnew way.  Some two thousand must have passed at a rapid run, when the\nstream ceased, but I was not sure that all had been rescued who had not\npassed the point of origin of the flames, and so to assure myself that\nno poor devil was left behind to die a horrible death, unsuccoured, I\nran quickly up the gallery in the direction of the flames which I could\nnow see burning with a dull glow far ahead.\n\nIt was hot and stifling work, but at last I reached a point where the\nfire lit up the corridor sufficiently for me to see that no soldier of\nHelium lay between me and the conflagration--what was in it or upon the\nfar side I could not know, nor could any man have passed through that\nseething hell of chemicals and lived to learn.\n\nHaving satisfied my sense of duty, I turned and ran rapidly back to the\ncorridor through which my men had passed.  To my horror, however, I\nfound that my retreat in this direction had been blocked--across the\nmouth of the corridor stood a massive steel grating that had evidently\nbeen lowered from its resting-place above for the purpose of\neffectually cutting off my escape.\n\nThat our principal movements were known to the First Born I could not\nhave doubted, in view of the attack of the fleet upon us the day\nbefore, nor could the stopping of the pumps of Omean at the\npsychological moment have been due to chance, nor the starting of a\nchemical combustion within the one corridor through which we were\nadvancing upon the Temple of Issus been due to aught than\nwell-calculated design.\n\nAnd now the dropping of the steel gate to pen me effectually between\nfire and flood seemed to indicate that invisible eyes were upon us at\nevery moment.  What chance had I, then, to rescue Dejah Thoris were I\nto be compelled to fight foes who never showed themselves.  A thousand\ntimes I berated myself for being drawn into such a trap as I might have\nknown these pits easily could be.  Now I saw that it would have been\nmuch better to have kept our force intact and made a concerted attack\nupon the temple from the valley side, trusting to chance and our great\nfighting ability to have overwhelmed the First Born and compelled the\nsafe delivery of Dejah Thoris to me.\n\nThe smoke from the fire was forcing me further and further back down\nthe corridor toward the waters which I could hear surging through the\ndarkness.  With my men had gone the last torch, nor was this corridor\nlighted by the radiance of phosphorescent rock as were those of the\nlower levels.  It was this fact that assured me that I was not far from\nthe upper pits which lie directly beneath the temple.\n\nFinally I felt the lapping waters about my feet.  The smoke was thick\nbehind me.  My suffering was intense.  There seemed but one thing to\ndo, and that to choose the easier death which confronted me, and so I\nmoved on down the corridor until the cold waters of Omean closed about\nme, and I swam on through utter blackness toward--what?\n\nThe instinct of self-preservation is strong even when one, unafraid and\nin the possession of his highest reasoning faculties, knows that\ndeath--positive and unalterable--lies just ahead.  And so I swam slowly\non, waiting for my head to touch the top of the corridor, which would\nmean that I had reached the limit of my flight and the point where I\nmust sink for ever to an unmarked grave.\n\nBut to my surprise I ran against a blank wall before I reached a point\nwhere the waters came to the roof of the corridor.  Could I be\nmistaken?  I felt around.  No, I had come to the main corridor, and\nstill there was a breathing space between the surface of the water and\nthe rocky ceiling above.  And then I turned up the main corridor in the\ndirection that Carthoris and the head of the column had passed a\nhalf-hour before.  On and on I swam, my heart growing lighter at every\nstroke, for I knew that I was approaching closer and closer to the\npoint where there would be no chance that the waters ahead could be\ndeeper than they were about me.  I was positive that I must soon feel\nthe solid floor beneath my feet again and that once more my chance\nwould come to reach the Temple of Issus and the side of the fair\nprisoner who languished there.\n\nBut even as hope was at its highest I felt the sudden shock of contact\nas my head struck the rocks above.  The worst, then, had come to me.  I\nhad reached one of those rare places where a Martian tunnel dips\nsuddenly to a lower level.  Somewhere beyond I knew that it rose again,\nbut of what value was that to me, since I did not know how great the\ndistance that it maintained a level entirely beneath the surface of the\nwater!\n\nThere was but a single forlorn hope, and I took it.  Filling my lungs\nwith air, I dived beneath the surface and swam through the inky, icy\nblackness on and on along the submerged gallery.  Time and time again I\nrose with upstretched hand, only to feel the disappointing rocks close\nabove me.\n\nNot for much longer would my lungs withstand the strain upon them.  I\nfelt that I must soon succumb, nor was there any retreating now that I\nhad gone this far.  I knew positively that I could never endure to\nretrace my path now to the point from which I had felt the waters close\nabove my head.  Death stared me in the face, nor ever can I recall a\ntime that I so distinctly felt the icy breath from his dead lips upon\nmy brow.\n\nOne more frantic effort I made with my fast ebbing strength.  Weakly I\nrose for the last time--my tortured lungs gasped for the breath that\nwould fill them with a strange and numbing element, but instead I felt\nthe revivifying breath of life-giving air surge through my starving\nnostrils into my dying lungs.  I was saved.\n\nA few more strokes brought me to a point where my feet touched the\nfloor, and soon thereafter I was above the water level entirely, and\nracing like mad along the corridor searching for the first doorway that\nwould lead me to Issus.  If I could not have Dejah Thoris again I was\nat least determined to avenge her death, nor would any life satisfy me\nother than that of the fiend incarnate who was the cause of such\nimmeasurable suffering upon Barsoom.\n\nSooner than I had expected I came to what appeared to me to be a sudden\nexit into the temple above.  It was at the right side of the corridor,\nwhich ran on, probably, to other entrances to the pile above.\n\nTo me one point was as good as another.  What knew I where any of them\nled!  And so without waiting to be again discovered and thwarted, I ran\nquickly up the short, steep incline and pushed open the doorway at its\nend.\n\nThe portal swung slowly in, and before it could be slammed against me I\nsprang into the chamber beyond.  Although not yet dawn, the room was\nbrilliantly lighted.  Its sole occupant lay prone upon a low couch at\nthe further side, apparently in sleep.  From the hangings and sumptuous\nfurniture of the room I judged it to be a living-room of some\npriestess, possibly of Issus herself.\n\nAt the thought the blood tingled through my veins.  What, indeed, if\nfortune had been kind enough to place the hideous creature alone and\nunguarded in my hands.  With her as hostage I could force acquiescence\nto my every demand.  Cautiously I approached the recumbent figure, on\nnoiseless feet.  Closer and closer I came to it, but I had crossed but\nlittle more than half the chamber when the figure stirred, and, as I\nsprang, rose and faced me.\n\nAt first an expression of terror overspread the features of the woman\nwho confronted me--then startled incredulity--hope--thanksgiving.\n\nMy heart pounded within my breast as I advanced toward her--tears came\nto my eyes--and the words that would have poured forth in a perfect\ntorrent choked in my throat as I opened my arms and took into them once\nmore the woman I loved--Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nVICTORY AND DEFEAT\n\n\n\"John Carter, John Carter,\" she sobbed, with her dear head upon my\nshoulder; \"even now I can scarce believe the witness of my own eyes.\nWhen the girl, Thuvia, told me that you had returned to Barsoom, I\nlistened, but I could not understand, for it seemed that such happiness\nwould be impossible for one who had suffered so in silent loneliness\nfor all these long years.  At last, when I realized that it was truth,\nand then came to know the awful place in which I was held prisoner, I\nlearned to doubt that even you could reach me here.\n\n\"As the days passed, and moon after moon went by without bringing even\nthe faintest rumour of you, I resigned myself to my fate.  And now that\nyou have come, scarce can I believe it.  For an hour I have heard the\nsounds of conflict within the palace.  I knew not what they meant, but\nI have hoped against hope that it might be the men of Helium headed by\nmy Prince.\n\n\"And tell me, what of Carthoris, our son?\"\n\n\"He was with me less than an hour since, Dejah Thoris,\" I replied.  \"It\nmust have been he whose men you have heard battling within the\nprecincts of the temple.\n\n\"Where is Issus?\" I asked suddenly.\n\nDejah Thoris shrugged her shoulders.\n\n\"She sent me under guard to this room just before the fighting began\nwithin the temple halls.  She said that she would send for me later.\nShe seemed very angry and somewhat fearful.  Never have I seen her act\nin so uncertain and almost terrified a manner.  Now I know that it must\nhave been because she had learned that John Carter, Prince of Helium,\nwas approaching to demand an accounting of her for the imprisonment of\nhis Princess.\"\n\nThe sounds of conflict, the clash of arms, the shouting and the\nhurrying of many feet came to us from various parts of the temple.  I\nknew that I was needed there, but I dared not leave Dejah Thoris, nor\ndared I take her with me into the turmoil and danger of battle.\n\nAt last I bethought me of the pits from which I had just emerged.  Why\nnot secrete her there until I could return and fetch her away in safety\nand for ever from this awful place.  I explained my plan to her.\n\nFor a moment she clung more closely to me.\n\n\"I cannot bear to be parted from you now, even for a moment, John\nCarter,\" she said.  \"I shudder at the thought of being alone again\nwhere that terrible creature might discover me.  You do not know her.\nNone can imagine her ferocious cruelty who has not witnessed her daily\nacts for over half a year.  It has taken me nearly all this time to\nrealize even the things that I have seen with my own eyes.\"\n\n\"I shall not leave you, then, my Princess,\" I replied.\n\nShe was silent for a moment, then she drew my face to hers and kissed\nme.\n\n\"Go, John Carter,\" she said.  \"Our son is there, and the soldiers of\nHelium, fighting for the Princess of Helium.  Where they are you should\nbe.  I must not think of myself now, but of them and of my husband's\nduty.  I may not stand in the way of that.  Hide me in the pits, and\ngo.\"\n\nI led her to the door through which I had entered the chamber from\nbelow.  There I pressed her dear form to me, and then, though it tore\nmy heart to do it, and filled me only with the blackest shadows of\nterrible foreboding, I guided her across the threshold, kissed her once\nagain, and closed the door upon her.\n\nWithout hesitating longer, I hurried from the chamber in the direction\nof the greatest tumult.  Scarce half a dozen chambers had I traversed\nbefore I came upon the theatre of a fierce struggle.  The blacks were\nmassed at the entrance to a great chamber where they were attempting to\nblock the further progress of a body of red men toward the inner sacred\nprecincts of the temple.\n\nComing from within as I did, I found myself behind the blacks, and,\nwithout waiting to even calculate their numbers or the foolhardiness of\nmy venture, I charged swiftly across the chamber and fell upon them\nfrom the rear with my keen long-sword.\n\nAs I struck the first blow I cried aloud, \"For Helium!\" And then I\nrained cut after cut upon the surprised warriors, while the reds\nwithout took heart at the sound of my voice, and with shouts of \"John\nCarter!  John Carter!\" redoubled their efforts so effectually that\nbefore the blacks could recover from their temporary demoralization\ntheir ranks were broken and the red men had burst into the chamber.\n\nThe fight within that room, had it had but a competent chronicler,\nwould go down in the annals of Barsoom as a historic memorial to the\ngrim ferocity of her warlike people.  Five hundred men fought there\nthat day, the black men against the red.  No man asked quarter or gave\nit.  As though by common assent they fought, as though to determine\nonce and for all their right to live, in accordance with the law of the\nsurvival of the fittest.\n\nI think we all knew that upon the outcome of this battle would hinge\nfor ever the relative positions of these two races upon Barsoom.  It\nwas a battle between the old and the new, but not for once did I\nquestion the outcome of it.  With Carthoris at my side I fought for the\nred men of Barsoom and for their total emancipation from the throttling\nbondage of a hideous superstition.\n\nBack and forth across the room we surged, until the floor was ankle\ndeep in blood, and dead men lay so thickly there that half the time we\nstood upon their bodies as we fought.  As we swung toward the great\nwindows which overlooked the gardens of Issus a sight met my gaze which\nsent a wave of exultation over me.\n\n\"Look!\" I cried.  \"Men of the First Born, look!\"\n\nFor an instant the fighting ceased, and with one accord every eye\nturned in the direction I had indicated, and the sight they saw was one\nno man of the First Born had ever imagined could be.\n\nAcross the gardens, from side to side, stood a wavering line of black\nwarriors, while beyond them and forcing them ever back was a great\nhorde of green warriors astride their mighty thoats.  And as we\nwatched, one, fiercer and more grimly terrible than his fellows, rode\nforward from the rear, and as he came he shouted some fierce command to\nhis terrible legion.\n\nIt was Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and as he couched his great\nforty-foot metal-shod lance we saw his warriors do likewise.  Then it\nwas that we interpreted his command.  Twenty yards now separated the\ngreen men from the black line.  Another word from the great Thark, and\nwith a wild and terrifying battle-cry the green warriors charged.  For\na moment the black line held, but only for a moment--then the fearsome\nbeasts that bore equally terrible riders passed completely through it.\n\nAfter them came utan upon utan of red men.  The green horde broke to\nsurround the temple.  The red men charged for the interior, and then we\nturned to continue our interrupted battle; but our foes had vanished.\n\nMy first thought was of Dejah Thoris.  Calling to Carthoris that I had\nfound his mother, I started on a run toward the chamber where I had\nleft her, with my boy close beside me.  After us came those of our\nlittle force who had survived the bloody conflict.\n\nThe moment I entered the room I saw that some one had been there since\nI had left.  A silk lay upon the floor.  It had not been there before.\nThere were also a dagger and several metal ornaments strewn about as\nthough torn from their wearer in a struggle.  But worst of all, the\ndoor leading to the pits where I had hidden my Princess was ajar.\n\nWith a bound I was before it, and, thrusting it open, rushed within.\nDejah Thoris had vanished.  I called her name aloud again and again,\nbut there was no response.  I think in that instant I hovered upon the\nverge of insanity.  I do not recall what I said or did, but I know that\nfor an instant I was seized with the rage of a maniac.\n\n\"Issus!\" I cried.  \"Issus!  Where is Issus?  Search the temple for her,\nbut let no man harm her but John Carter.  Carthoris, where are the\napartments of Issus?\"\n\n\"This way,\" cried the boy, and, without waiting to know that I had\nheard him, he dashed off at breakneck speed, further into the bowels of\nthe temple.  As fast as he went, however, I was still beside him,\nurging him on to greater speed.\n\nAt last we came to a great carved door, and through this Carthoris\ndashed, a foot ahead of me.  Within, we came upon such a scene as I had\nwitnessed within the temple once before--the throne of Issus, with the\nreclining slaves, and about it the ranks of soldiery.\n\nWe did not even give the men a chance to draw, so quickly were we upon\nthem.  With a single cut I struck down two in the front rank.  And then\nby the mere weight and momentum of my body, I rushed completely through\nthe two remaining ranks and sprang upon the dais beside the carved\nsorapus throne.\n\nThe repulsive creature, squatting there in terror, attempted to escape\nme and leap into a trap behind her.  But this time I was not to be\noutwitted by any such petty subterfuge.  Before she had half arisen I\nhad grasped her by the arm, and then, as I saw the guard starting to\nmake a concerted rush upon me from all sides, I whipped out my dagger\nand, holding it close to that vile breast, ordered them to halt.\n\n\"Back!\" I cried to them.  \"Back!  The first black foot that is planted\nupon this platform sends my dagger into Issus' heart.\"\n\nFor an instant they hesitated.  Then an officer ordered them back,\nwhile from the outer corridor there swept into the throne room at the\nheels of my little party of survivors a full thousand red men under\nKantos Kan, Hor Vastus, and Xodar.\n\n\"Where is Dejah Thoris?\" I cried to the thing within my hands.\n\nFor a moment her eyes roved wildly about the scene beneath her.  I\nthink that it took a moment for the true condition to make any\nimpression upon her--she could not at first realize that the temple had\nfallen before the assault of men of the outer world.  When she did,\nthere must have come, too, a terrible realization of what it meant to\nher--the loss of power--humiliation--the exposure of the fraud and\nimposture which she had for so long played upon her own people.\n\nThere was just one thing needed to complete the reality of the picture\nshe was seeing, and that was added by the highest noble of her\nrealm--the high priest of her religion--the prime minister of her\ngovernment.\n\n\"Issus, Goddess of Death, and of Life Eternal,\" he cried, \"arise in the\nmight of thy righteous wrath and with one single wave of thy omnipotent\nhand strike dead thy blasphemers!  Let not one escape.  Issus, thy\npeople depend upon thee.  Daughter of the Lesser Moon, thou only art\nall-powerful.  Thou only canst save thy people.  I am done.  We await\nthy will.  Strike!\"\n\nAnd then it was that she went mad.  A screaming, gibbering maniac\nwrithed in my grasp.  It bit and clawed and scratched in impotent fury.\nAnd then it laughed a weird and terrible laughter that froze the blood.\nThe slave girls upon the dais shrieked and cowered away.  And the thing\njumped at them and gnashed its teeth and then spat upon them from\nfrothing lips.  God, but it was a horrid sight.\n\nFinally, I shook the thing, hoping to recall it for a moment to\nrationality.\n\n\"Where is Dejah Thoris?\" I cried again.\n\nThe awful creature in my grasp mumbled inarticulately for a moment,\nthen a sudden gleam of cunning shot into those hideous, close-set eyes.\n\n\"Dejah Thoris?  Dejah Thoris?\" and then that shrill, unearthly laugh\npierced our ears once more.\n\n\"Yes, Dejah Thoris--I know.  And Thuvia, and Phaidor, daughter of Matai\nShang.  They each love John Carter.  Ha-ah!  but it is droll.  Together\nfor a year they will meditate within the Temple of the Sun, but ere the\nyear is quite gone there will be no more food for them.  Ho-oh! what\ndivine entertainment,\" and she licked the froth from her cruel lips.\n\"There will be no more food--except each other.  Ha-ah!  Ha-ah!\"\n\nThe horror of the suggestion nearly paralysed me.  To this awful fate\nthe creature within my power had condemned my Princess.  I trembled in\nthe ferocity of my rage.  As a terrier shakes a rat I shook Issus,\nGoddess of Life Eternal.\n\n\"Countermand your orders!\" I cried.  \"Recall the condemned.  Haste, or\nyou die!\"\n\n\"It is too late.  Ha-ah!  Ha-ah!\" and then she commenced her gibbering\nand shrieking again.\n\nAlmost of its own volition, my dagger flew up above that putrid heart.\nBut something stayed my hand, and I am now glad that it did.  It were a\nterrible thing to have struck down a woman with one's own hand.  But a\nfitter fate occurred to me for this false deity.\n\n\"First Born,\" I cried, turning to those who stood within the chamber,\n\"you have seen to-day the impotency of Issus--the gods are impotent.\nIssus is no god.  She is a cruel and wicked old woman, who has deceived\nand played upon you for ages.  Take her.  John Carter, Prince of\nHelium, would not contaminate his hand with her blood,\" and with that I\npushed the raving beast, whom a short half-hour before a whole world\nhad worshipped as divine, from the platform of her throne into the\nwaiting clutches of her betrayed and vengeful people.\n\nSpying Xodar among the officers of the red men, I called him to lead me\nquickly to the Temple of the Sun, and, without waiting to learn what\nfate the First Born would wreak upon their goddess, I rushed from the\nchamber with Xodar, Carthoris, Hor Vastus, Kantos Kan, and a score of\nother red nobles.\n\nThe black led us rapidly through the inner chambers of the temple,\nuntil we stood within the central court--a great circular space paved\nwith a transparent marble of exquisite whiteness.  Before us rose a\ngolden temple wrought in the most wondrous and fanciful designs, inlaid\nwith diamond, ruby, sapphire, turquoise, emerald, and the thousand\nnameless gems of Mars, which far transcend in loveliness and purity of\nray the most priceless stones of Earth.\n\n\"This way,\" cried Xodar, leading us toward the entrance to a tunnel\nwhich opened in the courtyard beside the temple.  Just as we were on\nthe point of descending we heard a deep-toned roar burst from the\nTemple of Issus, which we had but just quitted, and then a red man,\nDjor Kantos, padwar of the fifth utan, broke from a nearby gate, crying\nto us to return.\n\n\"The blacks have fired the temple,\" he cried.  \"In a thousand places it\nis burning now.  Haste to the outer gardens, or you are lost.\"\n\nAs he spoke we saw smoke pouring from a dozen windows looking out upon\nthe courtyard of the Temple of the Sun, and far above the highest\nminaret of Issus hung an ever-growing pall of smoke.\n\n\"Go back!  Go back!\" I cried to those who had accompanied me.  \"The\nway!  Xodar; point the way and leave me.  I shall reach my Princess\nyet.\"\n\n\"Follow me, John Carter,\" replied Xodar, and without waiting for my\nreply he dashed down into the tunnel at our feet.  At his heels I ran\ndown through a half-dozen tiers of galleries, until at last he led me\nalong a level floor at the end of which I discerned a lighted chamber.\n\nMassive bars blocked our further progress, but beyond I saw her--my\nincomparable Princess, and with her were Thuvia and Phaidor.  When she\nsaw me she rushed toward the bars that separated us.  Already the\nchamber had turned upon its slow way so far that but a portion of the\nopening in the temple wall was opposite the barred end of the corridor.\nSlowly the interval was closing.  In a short time there would be but a\ntiny crack, and then even that would be closed, and for a long\nBarsoomian year the chamber would slowly revolve until once more for a\nbrief day the aperture in its wall would pass the corridor's end.\n\nBut in the meantime what horrible things would go on within that\nchamber!\n\n\"Xodar!\" I cried.  \"Can no power stop this awful revolving thing?  Is\nthere none who holds the secret of these terrible bars?\"\n\n\"None, I fear, whom we could fetch in time, though I shall go and make\nthe attempt.  Wait for me here.\"\n\nAfter he had left I stood and talked with Dejah Thoris, and she\nstretched her dear hand through those cruel bars that I might hold it\nuntil the last moment.\n\nThuvia and Phaidor came close also, but when Thuvia saw that we would\nbe alone she withdrew to the further side of the chamber.  Not so the\ndaughter of Matai Shang.\n\n\"John Carter,\" she said, \"this be the last time that you shall see any\nof us.  Tell me that you love me, that I may die happy.\"\n\n\"I love only the Princess of Helium,\" I replied quietly.  \"I am sorry,\nPhaidor, but it is as I have told you from the beginning.\"\n\nShe bit her lip and turned away, but not before I saw the black and\nugly scowl she turned upon Dejah Thoris.  Thereafter she stood a little\nway apart, but not so far as I should have desired, for I had many\nlittle confidences to impart to my long-lost love.\n\nFor a few minutes we stood thus talking in low tones.  Ever smaller and\nsmaller grew the opening.  In a short time now it would be too small\neven to permit the slender form of my Princess to pass.  Oh, why did\nnot Xodar haste.  Above we could hear the faint echoes of a great\ntumult.  It was the multitude of black and red and green men fighting\ntheir way through the fire from the burning Temple of Issus.\n\nA draught from above brought the fumes of smoke to our nostrils.  As we\nstood waiting for Xodar the smoke became thicker and thicker.\nPresently we heard shouting at the far end of the corridor, and\nhurrying feet.\n\n\"Come back, John Carter, come back!\" cried a voice, \"even the pits are\nburning.\"\n\nIn a moment a dozen men broke through the now blinding smoke to my\nside.  There was Carthoris, and Kantos Kan, and Hor Vastus, and Xodar,\nwith a few more who had followed me to the temple court.\n\n\"There is no hope, John Carter,\" cried Xodar.  \"The keeper of the keys\nis dead and his keys are not upon his carcass.  Our only hope is to\nquench this conflagration and trust to fate that a year will find your\nPrincess alive and well.  I have brought sufficient food to last them.\nWhen this crack closes no smoke can reach them, and if we hasten to\nextinguish the flames I believe they will be safe.\"\n\n\"Go, then, yourself and take these others with you,\" I replied.  \"I\nshall remain here beside my Princess until a merciful death releases me\nfrom my anguish.  I care not to live.\"\n\nAs I spoke Xodar had been tossing a great number of tiny cans within\nthe prison cell.  The remaining crack was not over an inch in width a\nmoment later.  Dejah Thoris stood as close to it as she could,\nwhispering words of hope and courage to me, and urging me to save\nmyself.\n\nSuddenly beyond her I saw the beautiful face of Phaidor contorted into\nan expression of malign hatred.  As my eyes met hers she spoke.\n\n\"Think not, John Carter, that you may so lightly cast aside the love of\nPhaidor, daughter of Matai Shang.  Nor ever hope to hold thy Dejah\nThoris in thy arms again.  Wait you the long, long year; but know that\nwhen the waiting is over it shall be Phaidor's arms which shall welcome\nyou--not those of the Princess of Helium.  Behold, she dies!\"\n\nAnd as she finished speaking I saw her raise a dagger on high, and then\nI saw another figure.  It was Thuvia's.  As the dagger fell toward the\nunprotected breast of my love, Thuvia was almost between them.  A\nblinding gust of smoke blotted out the tragedy within that fearsome\ncell--a shriek rang out, a single shriek, as the dagger fell.\n\nThe smoke cleared away, but we stood gazing upon a blank wall.  The\nlast crevice had closed, and for a long year that hideous chamber would\nretain its secret from the eyes of men.\n\nThey urged me to leave.\n\n\"In a moment it will be too late,\" cried Xodar.  \"There is, in fact,\nbut a bare chance that we can come through to the outer garden alive\neven now.  I have ordered the pumps started, and in five minutes the\npits will be flooded.  If we would not drown like rats in a trap we\nmust hasten above and make a dash for safety through the burning\ntemple.\"\n\n\"Go,\" I urged them.  \"Let me die here beside my Princess--there is no\nhope or happiness elsewhere for me.  When they carry her dear body from\nthat terrible place a year hence let them find the body of her lord\nawaiting her.\"\n\nOf what happened after that I have only a confused recollection.  It\nseems as though I struggled with many men, and then that I was picked\nbodily from the ground and borne away.  I do not know.  I have never\nasked, nor has any other who was there that day intruded on my sorrow\nor recalled to my mind the occurrences which they know could but at\nbest reopen the terrible wound within my heart.\n\nAh!  If I could but know one thing, what a burden of suspense would be\nlifted from my shoulders!  But whether the assassin's dagger reached\none fair bosom or another, only time will divulge."