"Warlord of Mars\n\n\nBy\n\nEdgar Rice Burroughs\n\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n  On the River Iss\n  Under the Mountains\n  The Temple of the Sun\n  The Secret Tower\n  On the Kaolian Road\n  A Hero in Kaol\n  New Allies\n  Through the Carrion Caves\n  With the Yellow Men\n  In Durance\n  The Pity of Plenty\n  \"Follow the Rope!\"\n  The Magnet Switch\n  The Tide of Battle\n  Rewards\n  The New Ruler\n\n\n\n\n\nON THE RIVER ISS\n\n\nIn the shadows of the forest that flanks the crimson plain by the\nside of the Lost Sea of Korus in the Valley Dor, beneath the hurtling\nmoons of Mars, speeding their meteoric way close above the bosom of\nthe dying planet, I crept stealthily along the trail of a shadowy\nform that hugged the darker places with a persistency that proclaimed\nthe sinister nature of its errand.\n\nFor six long Martian months I had haunted the vicinity of the\nhateful Temple of the Sun, within whose slow-revolving shaft, far\nbeneath the surface of Mars, my princess lay entombed--but whether\nalive or dead I knew not.  Had Phaidor's slim blade found that\nbeloved heart?  Time only would reveal the truth.\n\nSix hundred and eighty-seven Martian days must come and go before\nthe cell's door would again come opposite the tunnel's end where\nlast I had seen my ever-beautiful Dejah Thoris.\n\nHalf of them had passed, or would on the morrow, yet vivid in my\nmemory, obliterating every event that had come before or after,\nthere remained the last scene before the gust of smoke blinded my\neyes and the narrow slit that had given me sight of the interior\nof her cell closed between me and the Princess of Helium for a long\nMartian year.\n\nAs if it were yesterday, I still saw the beautiful face of Phaidor,\ndaughter of Matai Shang, distorted with jealous rage and hatred as\nshe sprang forward with raised dagger upon the woman I loved.\n\nI saw the red girl, Thuvia of Ptarth, leap forward to prevent the\nhideous deed.\n\nThe smoke from the burning temple had come then to blot out the\ntragedy, but in my ears rang the single shriek as the knife fell.\nThen silence, and when the smoke had cleared, the revolving temple\nhad shut off all sight or sound from the chamber in which the three\nbeautiful women were imprisoned.\n\nMuch there had been to occupy my attention since that terrible moment;\nbut never for an instant had the memory of the thing faded, and\nall the time that I could spare from the numerous duties that had\ndevolved upon me in the reconstruction of the government of the\nFirst Born since our victorious fleet and land forces had overwhelmed\nthem, had been spent close to the grim shaft that held the mother\nof my boy, Carthoris of Helium.\n\nThe race of blacks that for ages had worshiped Issus, the false\ndeity of Mars, had been left in a state of chaos by my revealment\nof her as naught more than a wicked old woman.  In their rage they\nhad torn her to pieces.\n\nFrom the high pinnacle of their egotism the First Born had been\nplunged to the depths of humiliation.  Their deity was gone, and\nwith her the whole false fabric of their religion.  Their vaunted\nnavy had fallen in defeat before the superior ships and fighting\nmen of the red men of Helium.\n\nFierce green warriors from the ocher sea bottoms of outer Mars had\nridden their wild thoats across the sacred gardens of the Temple\nof Issus, and Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, fiercest of them all,\nhad sat upon the throne of Issus and ruled the First Born while\nthe allies were deciding the conquered nation's fate.\n\nAlmost unanimous was the request that I ascend the ancient throne\nof the black men, even the First Born themselves concurring in it;\nbut I would have none of it.  My heart could never be with the race\nthat had heaped indignities upon my princess and my son.\n\nAt my suggestion Xodar became Jeddak of the First Born.  He had\nbeen a dator, or prince, until Issus had degraded him, so that his\nfitness for the high office bestowed was unquestioned.\n\nThe peace of the Valley Dor thus assured, the green warriors dispersed\nto their desolate sea bottoms, while we of Helium returned to our\nown country.  Here again was a throne offered me, since no word\nhad been received from the missing Jeddak of Helium, Tardos Mors,\ngrandfather of Dejah Thoris, or his son, Mors Kajak, Jed of Helium,\nher father.\n\nOver a year had elapsed since they had set out to explore the northern\nhemisphere in search of Carthoris, and at last their disheartened\npeople had accepted as truth the vague rumors of their death that\nhad filtered in from the frozen region of the pole.\n\nOnce again I refused a throne, for I would not believe that the\nmighty Tardos Mors, or his no less redoubtable son, was dead.\n\n\"Let one of their own blood rule you until they return,\" I said\nto the assembled nobles of Helium, as I addressed them from the\nPedestal of Truth beside the Throne of Righteousness in the Temple\nof Reward, from the very spot where I had stood a year before when\nZat Arras pronounced the sentence of death upon me.\n\nAs I spoke I stepped forward and laid my hand upon the shoulder of\nCarthoris where he stood in the front rank of the circle of nobles\nabout me.\n\nAs one, the nobles and the people lifted their voices in a long\ncheer of approbation.  Ten thousand swords sprang on high from as\nmany scabbards, and the glorious fighting men of ancient Helium\nhailed Carthoris Jeddak of Helium.\n\nHis tenure of office was to be for life or until his great-grandfather,\nor grandfather, should return.  Having thus satisfactorily arranged\nthis important duty for Helium, I started the following day for\nthe Valley Dor that I might remain close to the Temple of the Sun\nuntil the fateful day that should see the opening of the prison\ncell where my lost love lay buried.\n\nHor Vastus and Kantos Kan, with my other noble lieutenants, I left\nwith Carthoris at Helium, that he might have the benefit of their\nwisdom, bravery, and loyalty in the performance of the arduous\nduties which had devolved upon him.  Only Woola, my Martian hound,\naccompanied me.\n\nAt my heels tonight the faithful beast moved softly in my tracks.\nAs large as a Shetland pony, with hideous head and frightful fangs,\nhe was indeed an awesome spectacle, as he crept after me on his\nten short, muscular legs; but to me he was the embodiment of love\nand loyalty.\n\nThe figure ahead was that of the black dator of the First Born,\nThurid, whose undying enmity I had earned that time I laid him low\nwith my bare hands in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus, and\nbound him with his own harness before the noble men and women who\nhad but a moment before been extolling his prowess.\n\nLike many of his fellows, he had apparently accepted the new order\nof things with good grace, and had sworn fealty to Xodar, his new\nruler; but I knew that he hated me, and I was sure that in his heart\nhe envied and hated Xodar, so I had kept a watch upon his comings\nand goings, to the end that of late I had become convinced that he\nwas occupied with some manner of intrigue.\n\nSeveral times I had observed him leaving the walled city of the\nFirst Born after dark, taking his way out into the cruel and horrible\nValley Dor, where no honest business could lead any man.\n\nTonight he moved quickly along the edge of the forest until well\nbeyond sight or sound of the city, then he turned across the crimson\nsward toward the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus.\n\nThe rays of the nearer moon, swinging low across the valley, touched\nhis jewel-incrusted harness with a thousand changing lights and\nglanced from the glossy ebony of his smooth hide.  Twice he turned\nhis head back toward the forest, after the manner of one who is upon\nan evil errand, though he must have felt quite safe from pursuit.\n\nI did not dare follow him there beneath the moonlight, since it\nbest suited my plans not to interrupt his--I wished him to reach\nhis destination unsuspecting, that I might learn just where that\ndestination lay and the business that awaited the night prowler\nthere.\n\nSo it was that I remained hidden until after Thurid had disappeared\nover the edge of the steep bank beside the sea a quarter of a mile\naway.  Then, with Woola following, I hastened across the open after\nthe black dator.\n\nThe quiet of the tomb lay upon the mysterious valley of death,\ncrouching deep in its warm nest within the sunken area at the south\npole of the dying planet.  In the far distance the Golden Cliffs\nraised their mighty barrier faces far into the starlit heavens,\nthe precious metals and scintillating jewels that composed them\nsparkling in the brilliant light of Mars's two gorgeous moons.\n\nAt my back was the forest, pruned and trimmed like the sward to\nparklike symmetry by the browsing of the ghoulish plant men.\n\nBefore me lay the Lost Sea of Korus, while farther on I caught the\nshimmering ribbon of Iss, the River of Mystery, where it wound out\nfrom beneath the Golden Cliffs to empty into Korus, to which for\ncountless ages had been borne the deluded and unhappy Martians of\nthe outer world upon the voluntary pilgrimage to this false heaven.\n\nThe plant men, with their blood-sucking hands, and the monstrous\nwhite apes that make Dor hideous by day, were hidden in their lairs\nfor the night.\n\nThere was no longer a Holy Thern upon the balcony in the Golden\nCliffs above the Iss to summon them with weird cry to the victims\nfloating down to their maws upon the cold, broad bosom of ancient\nIss.\n\nThe navies of Helium and the First Born had cleared the fortresses\nand the temples of the therns when they had refused to surrender and\naccept the new order of things that had swept their false religion\nfrom long-suffering Mars.\n\nIn a few isolated countries they still retained their age-old power;\nbut Matai Shang, their hekkador, Father of Therns, had been driven\nfrom his temple.  Strenuous had been our endeavors to capture\nhim; but with a few of the faithful he had escaped, and was in\nhiding--where we knew not.\n\nAs I came cautiously to the edge of the low cliff overlooking the\nLost Sea of Korus I saw Thurid pushing out upon the bosom of the\nshimmering water in a small skiff--one of those strangely wrought craft\nof unthinkable age which the Holy Therns, with their organization\nof priests and lesser therns, were wont to distribute along the\nbanks of the Iss, that the long journey of their victims might be\nfacilitated.\n\nDrawn up on the beach below me were a score of similar boats, each\nwith its long pole, at one end of which was a pike, at the other\na paddle.  Thurid was hugging the shore, and as he passed out of\nsight round a near-by promontory I shoved one of the boats into\nthe water and, calling Woola into it, pushed out from shore.\n\nThe pursuit of Thurid carried me along the edge of the sea toward\nthe mouth of the Iss.  The farther moon lay close to the horizon,\ncasting a dense shadow beneath the cliffs that fringed the water.\nThuria, the nearer moon, had set, nor would it rise again for near\nfour hours, so that I was ensured concealing darkness for that\nlength of time at least.\n\nOn and on went the black warrior.  Now he was opposite the mouth\nof the Iss.  Without an instant's hesitation he turned up the grim\nriver, paddling hard against the strong current.\n\nAfter him came Woola and I, closer now, for the man was too intent\nupon forcing his craft up the river to have any eyes for what might\nbe transpiring behind him.  He hugged the shore where the current\nwas less strong.\n\nPresently he came to the dark cavernous portal in the face of the\nGolden Cliffs, through which the river poured.  On into the Stygian\ndarkness beyond he urged his craft.\n\nIt seemed hopeless to attempt to follow him here where I could not\nsee my hand before my face, and I was almost on the point of giving\nup the pursuit and drifting back to the mouth of the river, there\nto await his return, when a sudden bend showed a faint luminosity\nahead.\n\nMy quarry was plainly visible again, and in the increasing light\nfrom the phosphorescent rock that lay embedded in great patches\nin the roughly arched roof of the cavern I had no difficulty in\nfollowing him.\n\nIt was my first trip upon the bosom of Iss, and the things I saw\nthere will live forever in my memory.\n\nTerrible as they were, they could not have commenced to approximate\nthe horrible conditions which must have obtained before Tars Tarkas,\nthe great green warrior, Xodar, the black dator, and I brought\nthe light of truth to the outer world and stopped the mad rush of\nmillions upon the voluntary pilgrimage to what they believed would\nend in a beautiful valley of peace and happiness and love.\n\nEven now the low islands which dotted the broad stream were choked\nwith the skeletons and half devoured carcasses of those who, through\nfear or a sudden awakening to the truth, had halted almost at the\ncompletion of their journey.\n\nIn the awful stench of these frightful charnel isles haggard maniacs\nscreamed and gibbered and fought among the torn remnants of their\ngrisly feasts; while on those which contained but clean-picked\nbones they battled with one another, the weaker furnishing sustenance\nfor the stronger; or with clawlike hands clutched at the bloated\nbodies that drifted down with the current.\n\nThurid paid not the slightest attention to the screaming things\nthat either menaced or pleaded with him as the mood directed\nthem--evidently he was familiar with the horrid sights that\nsurrounded him.  He continued up the river for perhaps a mile; and\nthen, crossing over to the left bank, drew his craft up on a low\nledge that lay almost on a level with the water.\n\nI dared not follow across the stream, for he most surely would have\nseen me.  Instead I stopped close to the opposite wall beneath an\noverhanging mass of rock that cast a dense shadow beneath it.  Here\nI could watch Thurid without danger of discovery.\n\nThe black was standing upon the ledge beside his boat, looking up\nthe river, as though he were awaiting one whom he expected from\nthat direction.\n\nAs I lay there beneath the dark rocks I noticed that a strong\ncurrent seemed to flow directly toward the center of the river, so\nthat it was difficult to hold my craft in its position.  I edged\nfarther into the shadow that I might find a hold upon the bank;\nbut, though I proceeded several yards, I touched nothing; and\nthen, finding that I would soon reach a point from where I could\nno longer see the black man, I was compelled to remain where I was,\nholding my position as best I could by paddling strongly against\nthe current which flowed from beneath the rocky mass behind me.\n\nI could not imagine what might cause this strong lateral flow, for\nthe main channel of the river was plainly visible to me from where\nI sat, and I could see the rippling junction of it and the mysterious\ncurrent which had aroused my curiosity.\n\nWhile I was still speculating upon the phenomenon, my attention\nwas suddenly riveted upon Thurid, who had raised both palms forward\nabove his head in the universal salute of Martians, and a moment\nlater his \"Kaor!\" the Barsoomian word of greeting, came in low but\ndistinct tones.\n\nI turned my eyes up the river in the direction that his were bent,\nand presently there came within my limited range of vision a long\nboat, in which were six men.  Five were at the paddles, while the\nsixth sat in the seat of honor.\n\nThe white skins, the flowing yellow wigs which covered their bald\npates, and the gorgeous diadems set in circlets of gold about their\nheads marked them as Holy Therns.\n\nAs they drew up beside the ledge upon which Thurid awaited them,\nhe in the bow of the boat arose to step ashore, and then I saw that\nit was none other than Matai Shang, Father of Therns.\n\nThe evident cordiality with which the two men exchanged greetings\nfilled me with wonder, for the black and white men of Barsoom were\nhereditary enemies--nor ever before had I known of two meeting\nother than in battle.\n\nEvidently the reverses that had recently overtaken both peoples had\nresulted in an alliance between these two individuals--at least\nagainst the common enemy--and now I saw why Thurid had come so\noften out into the Valley Dor by night, and that the nature of his\nconspiring might be such as to strike very close to me or to my\nfriends.\n\nI wished that I might have found a point closer to the two men\nfrom which to have heard their conversation; but it was out of the\nquestion now to attempt to cross the river, and so I lay quietly\nwatching them, who would have given so much to have known how close\nI lay to them, and how easily they might have overcome and killed\nme with their superior force.\n\nSeveral times Thurid pointed across the river in my direction, but\nthat his gestures had any reference to me I did not for a moment\nbelieve.  Presently he and Matai Shang entered the latter's boat,\nwhich turned out into the river and, swinging round, forged steadily\nacross in my direction.\n\nAs they advanced I moved my boat farther and farther in beneath the\noverhanging wall, but at last it became evident that their craft\nwas holding the same course.  The five paddlers sent the larger\nboat ahead at a speed that taxed my energies to equal.\n\nEvery instant I expected to feel my prow crash against solid rock.\nThe light from the river was no longer visible, but ahead I saw\nthe faint tinge of a distant radiance, and still the water before\nme was open.\n\nAt last the truth dawned upon me--I was following a subterranean\nriver which emptied into the Iss at the very point where I had\nhidden.\n\nThe rowers were now quite close to me.  The noise of their\nown paddles drowned the sound of mine, but in another instant the\ngrowing light ahead would reveal me to them.\n\nThere was no time to be lost.  Whatever action I was to take must\nbe taken at once.  Swinging the prow of my boat toward the right,\nI sought the river's rocky side, and there I lay while Matai Shang\nand Thurid approached up the center of the stream, which was much\nnarrower than the Iss.\n\nAs they came nearer I heard the voices of Thurid and the Father of\nTherns raised in argument.\n\n\"I tell you, Thern,\" the black dator was saying, \"that I wish only\nvengeance upon John Carter, Prince of Helium.  I am leading you\ninto no trap.  What could I gain by betraying you to those who have\nruined my nation and my house?\"\n\n\"Let us stop here a moment that I may hear your plans,\" replied the\nhekkador, \"and then we may proceed with a better understanding of\nour duties and obligations.\"\n\nTo the rowers he issued the command that brought their boat in\ntoward the bank not a dozen paces beyond the spot where I lay.\n\nHad they pulled in below me they must surely have seen me against\nthe faint glow of light ahead, but from where they finally came to\nrest I was as secure from detection as though miles separated us.\n\nThe few words I had already overheard whetted my curiosity, and I\nwas anxious to learn what manner of vengeance Thurid was planning\nagainst me.  Nor had I long to wait.  I listened intently.\n\n\"There are no obligations, Father of Therns,\" continued the First\nBorn.  \"Thurid, Dator of Issus, has no price.  When the thing has\nbeen accomplished I shall be glad if you will see to it that I am\nwell received, as is befitting my ancient lineage and noble rank,\nat some court that is yet loyal to thy ancient faith, for I cannot\nreturn to the Valley Dor or elsewhere within the power of the Prince\nof Helium; but even that I do not demand--it shall be as your own\ndesire in the matter directs.\"\n\n\"It shall be as you wish, Dator,\" replied Matai Shang; \"nor is that\nall--power and riches shall be yours if you restore my daughter,\nPhaidor, to me, and place within my power Dejah Thoris, Princess\nof Helium.\n\n\"Ah,\" he continued with a malicious snarl, \"but the Earth man shall\nsuffer for the indignities he has put upon the holy of holies, nor\nshall any vileness be too vile to inflict upon his princess.  Would\nthat it were in my power to force him to witness the humiliation\nand degradation of the red woman.\"\n\n\"You shall have your way with her before another day has passed,\nMatai Shang,\" said Thurid, \"if you but say the word.\"\n\n\"I have heard of the Temple of the Sun, Dator,\" replied Matai Shang,\n\"but never have I heard that its prisoners could be released before\nthe allotted year of their incarceration had elapsed.  How, then,\nmay you accomplish the impossible?\"\n\n\"Access may be had to any cell of the temple at any time,\" replied\nThurid.  \"Only Issus knew this; nor was it ever Issus' way to\ndivulge more of her secrets than were necessary.  By chance, after\nher death, I came upon an ancient plan of the temple, and there I\nfound, plainly writ, the most minute directions for reaching the\ncells at any time.\n\n\"And more I learned--that many men had gone thither for Issus in the\npast, always on errands of death and torture to the prisoners; but\nthose who thus learned the secret way were wont to die mysteriously\nimmediately they had returned and made their reports to cruel\nIssus.\"\n\n\"Let us proceed, then,\" said Matai Shang at last.  \"I must trust\nyou, yet at the same time you must trust me, for we are six to your\none.\"\n\n\"I do not fear,\" replied Thurid, \"nor need you.  Our hatred of\nthe common enemy is sufficient bond to insure our loyalty to each\nother, and after we have defiled the Princess of Helium there will\nbe still greater reason for the maintenance of our allegiance--unless\nI greatly mistake the temper of her lord.\"\n\nMatai Shang spoke to the paddlers.  The boat moved on up the\ntributary.\n\nIt was with difficulty that I restrained myself from rushing upon\nthem and slaying the two vile plotters; but quickly I saw the mad\nrashness of such an act, which would cut down the only man who could\nlead the way to Dejah Thoris' prison before the long Martian year\nhad swung its interminable circle.\n\nIf he should lead Matai Shang to that hallowed spot, then, too,\nshould he lead John Carter, Prince of Helium.\n\nWith silent paddle I swung slowly into the wake of the larger craft.\n\n\n\n\nUNDER THE MOUNTAINS\n\n\nAs we advanced up the river which winds beneath the Golden Cliffs\nout of the bowels of the Mountains of Otz to mingle its dark waters\nwith the grim and mysterious Iss the faint glow which had appeared\nbefore us grew gradually into an all-enveloping radiance.\n\nThe river widened until it presented the aspect of a large lake\nwhose vaulted dome, lighted by glowing phosphorescent rock, was\nsplashed with the vivid rays of the diamond, the sapphire, the ruby,\nand the countless, nameless jewels of Barsoom which lay incrusted\nin the virgin gold which forms the major portion of these magnificent\ncliffs.\n\nBeyond the lighted chamber of the lake was darkness--what lay behind\nthe darkness I could not even guess.\n\nTo have followed the thern boat across the gleaming water would\nhave been to invite instant detection, and so, though I was loath\nto permit Thurid to pass even for an instant beyond my sight, I\nwas forced to wait in the shadows until the other boat had passed\nfrom my sight at the far extremity of the lake.\n\nThen I paddled out upon the brilliant surface in the direction they\nhad taken.\n\nWhen, after what seemed an eternity, I reached the shadows at the\nupper end of the lake I found that the river issued from a low\naperture, to pass beneath which it was necessary that I compel\nWoola to lie flat in the boat, and I, myself, must need bend double\nbefore the low roof cleared my head.\n\nImmediately the roof rose again upon the other side, but no longer was\nthe way brilliantly lighted.  Instead only a feeble glow emanated\nfrom small and scattered patches of phosphorescent rock in wall\nand roof.\n\nDirectly before me the river ran into this smaller chamber through\nthree separate arched openings.\n\nThurid and the therns were nowhere to be seen--into which of the\ndark holes had they disappeared?  There was no means by which I\nmight know, and so I chose the center opening as being as likely\nto lead me in the right direction as another.\n\nHere the way was through utter darkness.  The stream was narrow--so\nnarrow that in the blackness I was constantly bumping first one\nrock wall and then another as the river wound hither and thither\nalong its flinty bed.\n\nFar ahead I presently heard a deep and sullen roar which increased\nin volume as I advanced, and then broke upon my ears with all the\nintensity of its mad fury as I swung round a sharp curve into a\ndimly lighted stretch of water.\n\nDirectly before me the river thundered down from above in a mighty\nwaterfall that filled the narrow gorge from side to side, rising\nfar above me several hundred feet--as magnificent a spectacle as\nI ever had seen.\n\nBut the roar--the awful, deafening roar of those tumbling waters\npenned in the rocky, subterranean vault!  Had the fall not entirely\nblocked my further passage and shown me that I had followed the\nwrong course I believe that I should have fled anyway before the\nmaddening tumult.\n\nThurid and the therns could not have come this way.  By stumbling\nupon the wrong course I had lost the trail, and they had gained so\nmuch ahead of me that now I might not be able to find them before\nit was too late, if, in fact, I could find them at all.\n\nIt had taken several hours to force my way up to the falls against\nthe strong current, and other hours would be required for the\ndescent, although the pace would be much swifter.\n\nWith a sigh I turned the prow of my craft down stream, and with\nmighty strokes hastened with reckless speed through the dark and\ntortuous channel until once again I came to the chamber into which\nflowed the three branches of the river.\n\nTwo unexplored channels still remained from which to choose; nor\nwas there any means by which I could judge which was the more likely\nto lead me to the plotters.\n\nNever in my life, that I can recall, have I suffered such an agony\nof indecision.  So much depended upon a correct choice; so much\ndepended upon haste.\n\nThe hours that I had already lost might seal the fate of the\nincomparable Dejah Thoris were she not already dead--to sacrifice\nother hours, and maybe days in a fruitless exploration of another\nblind lead would unquestionably prove fatal.\n\nSeveral times I essayed the right-hand entrance only to turn back\nas though warned by some strange intuitive sense that this was not\nthe way.  At last, convinced by the oft-recurring phenomenon, I\ncast my all upon the left-hand archway; yet it was with a lingering\ndoubt that I turned a parting look at the sullen waters which\nrolled, dark and forbidding, from beneath the grim, low archway on\nthe right.\n\nAnd as I looked there came bobbing out upon the current from the\nStygian darkness of the interior the shell of one of the great,\nsucculent fruits of the sorapus tree.\n\nI could scarce restrain a shout of elation as this silent, insensate\nmessenger floated past me, on toward the Iss and Korus, for it told\nme that journeying Martians were above me on that very stream.\n\nThey had eaten of this marvelous fruit which nature concentrates\nwithin the hard shell of the sorapus nut, and having eaten had\ncast the husk overboard.  It could have come from no others than\nthe party I sought.\n\nQuickly I abandoned all thought of the left-hand passage, and a\nmoment later had turned into the right.  The stream soon widened,\nand recurring areas of phosphorescent rock lighted my way.\n\nI made good time, but was convinced that I was nearly a day behind\nthose I was tracking.  Neither Woola nor I had eaten since the\nprevious day, but in so far as he was concerned it mattered but\nlittle, since practically all the animals of the dead sea bottoms\nof Mars are able to go for incredible periods without nourishment.\n\nNor did I suffer.  The water of the river was sweet and cold, for\nit was unpolluted by decaying bodies--like the Iss--and as for\nfood, why the mere thought that I was nearing my beloved princess\nraised me above every material want.\n\nAs I proceeded, the river became narrower and the current swift\nand turbulent--so swift in fact that it was with difficulty that\nI forced my craft upward at all.  I could not have been making to\nexceed a hundred yards an hour when, at a bend, I was confronted\nby a series of rapids through which the river foamed and boiled at\na terrific rate.\n\nMy heart sank within me.  The sorapus nutshell had proved a false\nprophet, and, after all, my intuition had been correct--it was the\nleft-hand channel that I should have followed.\n\nHad I been a woman I should have wept.  At my right was a great,\nslow-moving eddy that circled far beneath the cliff's overhanging\nside, and to rest my tired muscles before turning back I let my\nboat drift into its embrace.\n\nI was almost prostrated by disappointment.  It would mean another\nhalf-day's loss of time to retrace my way and take the only passage\nthat yet remained unexplored.  What hellish fate had led me to\nselect from three possible avenues the two that were wrong?\n\nAs the lazy current of the eddy carried me slowly about the periphery\nof the watery circle my boat twice touched the rocky side of the\nriver in the dark recess beneath the cliff.  A third time it struck,\ngently as it had before, but the contact resulted in a different\nsound--the sound of wood scraping upon wood.\n\nIn an instant I was on the alert, for there could be no wood\nwithin that buried river that had not been man brought.  Almost\ncoincidentally with my first apprehension of the noise, my hand shot\nout across the boat's side, and a second later I felt my fingers\ngripping the gunwale of another craft.\n\nAs though turned to stone I sat in tense and rigid silence, straining\nmy eyes into the utter darkness before me in an effort to discover\nif the boat were occupied.\n\nIt was entirely possible that there might be men on board it\nwho were still ignorant of my presence, for the boat was scraping\ngently against the rocks upon one side, so that the gentle touch\nof my boat upon the other easily could have gone unnoticed.\n\nPeer as I would I could not penetrate the darkness, and then I\nlistened intently for the sound of breathing near me; but except\nfor the noise of the rapids, the soft scraping of the boats, and the\nlapping of the water at their sides I could distinguish no sound.\nAs usual, I thought rapidly.\n\nA rope lay coiled in the bottom of my own craft.  Very softly I\ngathered it up, and making one end fast to the bronze ring in the\nprow I stepped gingerly into the boat beside me.  In one hand I\ngrasped the rope, in the other my keen long-sword.\n\nFor a full minute, perhaps, I stood motionless after entering the\nstrange craft.  It had rocked a trifle beneath my weight, but it\nhad been the scraping of its side against the side of my own boat\nthat had seemed most likely to alarm its occupants, if there were\nany.\n\nBut there was no answering sound, and a moment later I had felt\nfrom stem to stern and found the boat deserted.\n\nGroping with my hands along the face of the rocks to which the\ncraft was moored, I discovered a narrow ledge which I knew must be\nthe avenue taken by those who had come before me.  That they could\nbe none other than Thurid and his party I was convinced by the size\nand build of the boat I had found.\n\nCalling to Woola to follow me I stepped out upon the ledge.  The\ngreat, savage brute, agile as a cat, crept after me.\n\nAs he passed through the boat that had been occupied by Thurid and\nthe therns he emitted a single low growl, and when he came beside\nme upon the ledge and my hand rested upon his neck I felt his short\nmane bristling with anger.  I think he sensed telepathically the\nrecent presence of an enemy, for I had made no effort to impart to\nhim the nature of our quest or the status of those we tracked.\n\nThis omission I now made haste to correct, and, after the manner\nof green Martians with their beasts, I let him know partially by\nthe weird and uncanny telepathy of Barsoom and partly by word of\nmouth that we were upon the trail of those who had recently occupied\nthe boat through which we had just passed.\n\nA soft purr, like that of a great cat, indicated that Woola\nunderstood, and then, with a word to him to follow, I turned to\nthe right along the ledge, but scarcely had I done so than I felt\nhis mighty fangs tugging at my leathern harness.\n\nAs I turned to discover the cause of his act he continued to pull\nme steadily in the opposite direction, nor would he desist until\nI had turned about and indicated that I would follow him voluntarily.\n\nNever had I known him to be in error in a matter of tracking, so\nit was with a feeling of entire security that I moved cautiously in\nthe huge beast's wake.  Through Cimmerian darkness he moved along\nthe narrow ledge beside the boiling rapids.\n\nAs we advanced, the way led from beneath the overhanging cliffs\nout into a dim light, and then it was that I saw that the trail\nhad been cut from the living rock, and that it ran up along the\nriver's side beyond the rapids.\n\nFor hours we followed the dark and gloomy river farther and farther\ninto the bowels of Mars.  From the direction and distance I knew\nthat we must be well beneath the Valley Dor, and possibly beneath\nthe Sea of Omean as well--it could not be much farther now to the\nTemple of the Sun.\n\nEven as my mind framed the thought, Woola halted suddenly before a\nnarrow, arched doorway in the cliff by the trail's side.  Quickly\nhe crouched back away from the entrance, at the same time turning\nhis eyes toward me.\n\nWords could not have more plainly told me that danger of some sort\nlay near by, and so I pressed quietly forward to his side, and\npassing him looked into the aperture at our right.\n\nBefore me was a fair-sized chamber that, from its appointments, I\nknew must have at one time been a guardroom.  There were racks for\nweapons, and slightly raised platforms for the sleeping silks and\nfurs of the warriors, but now its only occupants were two of the\ntherns who had been of the party with Thurid and Matai Shang.\n\nThe men were in earnest conversation, and from their tones it was\napparent that they were entirely unaware that they had listeners.\n\n\"I tell you,\" one of them was saying, \"I do not trust the black\none.  There was no necessity for leaving us here to guard the way.\nAgainst what, pray, should we guard this long-forgotten, abysmal\npath?  It was but a ruse to divide our numbers.\n\n\"He will have Matai Shang leave others elsewhere on some pretext or\nother, and then at last he will fall upon us with his confederates\nand slay us all.\"\n\n\"I believe you, Lakor,\" replied the other, \"there can never be\naught else than deadly hatred between thern and First Born.  And\nwhat think you of the ridiculous matter of the light?  'Let the\nlight shine with the intensity of three radium units for fifty\ntals, and for one xat let it shine with the intensity of one radium\nunit, and then for twenty-five tals with nine units.'  Those were\nhis very words, and to think that wise old Matai Shang should listen\nto such foolishness.\"\n\n\"Indeed, it is silly,\" replied Lakor.  \"It will open nothing other\nthan the way to a quick death for us all.  He had to make some\nanswer when Matai Shang asked him flatly what he should do when he\ncame to the Temple of the Sun, and so he made his answer quickly\nfrom his imagination--I would wager a hekkador's diadem that he\ncould not now repeat it himself.\"\n\n\"Let us not remain here longer, Lakor,\" spoke the other thern.\n\"Perchance if we hasten after them we may come in time to rescue\nMatai Shang, and wreak our own vengeance upon the black dator.\nWhat say you?\"\n\n\"Never in a long life,\" answered Lakor, \"have I disobeyed a single\ncommand of the Father of Therns.  I shall stay here until I rot if\nhe does not return to bid me elsewhere.\"\n\nLakor's companion shook his head.\n\n\"You are my superior,\" he said; \"I cannot do other than you sanction,\nthough I still believe that we are foolish to remain.\"\n\nI, too, thought that they were foolish to remain, for I saw from\nWoola's actions that the trail led through the room where the two\ntherns held guard.  I had no reason to harbor any considerable love\nfor this race of self-deified demons, yet I would have passed them\nby were it possible without molesting them.\n\nIt was worth trying anyway, for a fight might delay us considerably,\nor even put an end entirely to my search--better men than I have\ngone down before fighters of meaner ability than that possessed by\nthe fierce thern warriors.\n\nSignaling Woola to heel I stepped suddenly into the room before the\ntwo men.  At sight of me their long-swords flashed from the harness\nat their sides, but I raised my hand in a gesture of restraint.\n\n\"I seek Thurid, the black dator,\" I said.  \"My quarrel is with him,\nnot with you.  Let me pass then in peace, for if I mistake not he\nis as much your enemy as mine, and you can have no cause to protect\nhim.\"\n\nThey lowered their swords and Lakor spoke.\n\n\"I know not whom you may be, with the white skin of a thern and\nthe black hair of a red man; but were it only Thurid whose safety\nwere at stake you might pass, and welcome, in so far as we be\nconcerned.\n\n\"Tell us who you be, and what mission calls you to this unknown\nworld beneath the Valley Dor, then maybe we can see our way to let\nyou pass upon the errand which we should like to undertake would\nour orders permit.\"\n\nI was surprised that neither of them had recognized me, for I\nthought that I was quite sufficiently well known either by personal\nexperience or reputation to every thern upon Barsoom as to make my\nidentity immediately apparent in any part of the planet.  In fact,\nI was the only white man upon Mars whose hair was black and whose\neyes were gray, with the exception of my son, Carthoris.\n\nTo reveal my identity might be to precipitate an attack, for every\nthern upon Barsoom knew that to me they owed the fall of their\nage-old spiritual supremacy.  On the other hand my reputation as\na fighting man might be sufficient to pass me by these two were\ntheir livers not of the right complexion to welcome a battle to\nthe death.\n\nTo be quite candid I did not attempt to delude myself with any such\nsophistry, since I knew well that upon war-like Mars there are few\ncowards, and that every man, whether prince, priest, or peasant,\nglories in deadly strife.  And so I gripped my long-sword the\ntighter as I replied to Lakor.\n\n\"I believe that you will see the wisdom of permitting me to pass\nunmolested,\" I said, \"for it would avail you nothing to die uselessly\nin the rocky bowels of Barsoom merely to protect a hereditary enemy,\nsuch as Thurid, Dator of the First Born.\n\n\"That you shall die should you elect to oppose me is evidenced by\nthe moldering corpses of all the many great Barsoomian warriors\nwho have gone down beneath this blade--I am John Carter, Prince of\nHelium.\"\n\nFor a moment that name seemed to paralyze the two men; but only\nfor a moment, and then the younger of them, with a vile name upon\nhis lips, rushed toward me with ready sword.\n\nHe had been standing a little behind his companion, Lakor, during\nour parley, and now, ere he could engage me, the older man grasped\nhis harness and drew him back.\n\n\"Hold!\" commanded Lakor.  \"There will be plenty of time to fight if\nwe find it wise to fight at all.  There be good reasons why every\nthern upon Barsoom should yearn to spill the blood of the blasphemer,\nthe sacrilegist; but let us mix wisdom with our righteous hate.\nThe Prince of Helium is bound upon an errand which we ourselves,\nbut a moment since, were wishing that we might undertake.\n\n\"Let him go then and slay the black.  When he returns we shall still\nbe here to bar his way to the outer world, and thus we shall have\nrid ourselves of two enemies, nor have incurred the displeasure of\nthe Father of Therns.\"\n\nAs he spoke I could not but note the crafty glint in his evil\neyes, and while I saw the apparent logic of his reasoning I felt,\nsubconsciously perhaps, that his words did but veil some sinister\nintent.  The other thern turned toward him in evident surprise, but\nwhen Lakor had whispered a few brief words into his ear he, too,\ndrew back and nodded acquiescence to his superior's suggestion.\n\n\"Proceed, John Carter,\" said Lakor; \"but know that if Thurid does\nnot lay you low there will be those awaiting your return who will\nsee that you never pass again into the sunlight of the upper world.\nGo!\"\n\nDuring our conversation Woola had been growling and bristling\nclose to my side.  Occasionally he would look up into my face with\na low, pleading whine, as though begging for the word that would\nsend him headlong at the bare throats before him.  He, too, sensed\nthe villainy behind the smooth words.\n\nBeyond the therns several doorways opened off the guardroom, and\ntoward the one upon the extreme right Lakor motioned.\n\n\"That way leads to Thurid,\" he said.\n\nBut when I would have called Woola to follow me there the beast\nwhined and held back, and at last ran quickly to the first opening\nat the left, where he stood emitting his coughing bark, as though\nurging me to follow him upon the right way.\n\nI turned a questioning look upon Lakor.\n\n\"The brute is seldom wrong,\" I said, \"and while I do not doubt your\nsuperior knowledge, Thern, I think that I shall do well to listen\nto the voice of instinct that is backed by love and loyalty.\"\n\nAs I spoke I smiled grimly that he might know without words that\nI distrusted him.\n\n\"As you will,\" the fellow replied with a shrug.  \"In the end it\nshall be all the same.\"\n\nI turned and followed Woola into the left-hand passage, and though\nmy back was toward my enemies, my ears were on the alert; yet\nI heard no sound of pursuit.  The passageway was dimly lighted by\noccasional radium bulbs, the universal lighting medium of Barsoom.\n\nThese same lamps may have been doing continuous duty in these\nsubterranean chambers for ages, since they require no attention\nand are so compounded that they give off but the minutest of their\nsubstance in the generation of years of luminosity.\n\nWe had proceeded for but a short distance when we commenced to pass\nthe mouths of diverging corridors, but not once did Woola hesitate.\nIt was at the opening to one of these corridors upon my right that\nI presently heard a sound that spoke more plainly to John Carter,\nfighting man, than could the words of my mother tongue--it was the\nclank of metal--the metal of a warrior's harness--and it came from\na little distance up the corridor upon my right.\n\nWoola heard it, too, and like a flash he had wheeled and stood\nfacing the threatened danger, his mane all abristle and all his\nrows of glistening fangs bared by snarling, backdrawn lips.  With\na gesture I silenced him, and together we drew aside into another\ncorridor a few paces farther on.\n\nHere we waited; nor did we have long to wait, for presently we saw\nthe shadows of two men fall upon the floor of the main corridor\nathwart the doorway of our hiding place.  Very cautiously they\nwere moving now--the accidental clank that had alarmed me was not\nrepeated.\n\nPresently they came opposite our station; nor was I surprised to\nsee that the two were Lakor and his companion of the guardroom.\n\nThey walked very softly, and in the right hand of each gleamed a\nkeen long-sword.  They halted quite close to the entrance of our\nretreat, whispering to each other.\n\n\"Can it be that we have distanced them already?\" said Lakor.\n\n\"Either that or the beast has led the man upon a wrong trail,\"\nreplied the other, \"for the way which we took is by far the shorter\nto this point--for him who knows it.  John Carter would have found\nit a short road to death had he taken it as you suggested to him.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Lakor, \"no amount of fighting ability would have saved\nhim from the pivoted flagstone.  He surely would have stepped upon\nit, and by now, if the pit beneath it has a bottom, which Thurid\ndenies, he should have been rapidly approaching it.  Curses on that\ncalot of his that warned him toward the safer avenue!\"\n\n\"There be other dangers ahead of him, though,\" spoke Lakor's fellow,\n\"which he may not so easily escape--should he succeed in escaping\nour two good swords.  Consider, for example, what chance he will\nhave, coming unexpectedly into the chamber of--\"\n\nI would have given much to have heard the balance of that conversation\nthat I might have been warned of the perils that lay ahead, but\nfate intervened, and just at the very instant of all other instants\nthat I would not have elected to do it, I sneezed.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TEMPLE OF THE SUN\n\n\nThere was nothing for it now other than to fight; nor did I have\nany advantage as I sprang, sword in hand, into the corridor before\nthe two therns, for my untimely sneeze had warned them of my presence\nand they were ready for me.\n\nThere were no words, for they would have been a waste of breath.\nThe very presence of the two proclaimed their treachery.  That\nthey were following to fall upon me unawares was all too plain,\nand they, of course, must have known that I understood their plan.\n\nIn an instant I was engaged with both, and though I loathe the very\nname of thern, I must in all fairness admit that they are mighty\nswordsmen; and these two were no exception, unless it were that\nthey were even more skilled and fearless than the average among\ntheir race.\n\nWhile it lasted it was indeed as joyous a conflict as I ever had\nexperienced.  Twice at least I saved my breast from the mortal\nthrust of piercing steel only by the wondrous agility with which\nmy earthly muscles endow me under the conditions of lesser gravity\nand air pressure upon Mars.\n\nYet even so I came near to tasting death that day in the gloomy\ncorridor beneath Mars's southern pole, for Lakor played a trick\nupon me that in all my experience of fighting upon two planets I\nnever before had witnessed the like of.\n\nThe other thern was engaging me at the time, and I was forcing\nhim back--touching him here and there with my point until he was\nbleeding from a dozen wounds, yet not being able to penetrate his\nmarvelous guard to reach a vulnerable spot for the brief instant\nthat would have been sufficient to send him to his ancestors.\n\nIt was then that Lakor quickly unslung a belt from his harness,\nand as I stepped back to parry a wicked thrust he lashed one end\nof it about my left ankle so that it wound there for an instant,\nwhile he jerked suddenly upon the other end, throwing me heavily\nupon my back.\n\nThen, like leaping panthers, they were upon me; but they\nhad reckoned without Woola, and before ever a blade touched me, a\nroaring embodiment of a thousand demons hurtled above my prostrate\nform and my loyal Martian calot was upon them.\n\nImagine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs armed with mighty\ntalons and an enormous froglike mouth splitting his head from ear\nto ear, exposing three rows of long, white tusks.  Then endow this\ncreature of your imagination with the agility and ferocity of a\nhalf-starved Bengal tiger and the strength of a span of bulls, and\nyou will have some faint conception of Woola in action.\n\nBefore I could call him off he had crushed Lakor into a jelly with\na single blow of one mighty paw, and had literally torn the other\nthern to ribbons; yet when I spoke to him sharply he cowed sheepishly\nas though he had done a thing to deserve censure and chastisement.\n\nNever had I had the heart to punish Woola during the long years\nthat had passed since that first day upon Mars when the green jed\nof the Tharks had placed him on guard over me, and I had won his\nlove and loyalty from the cruel and loveless masters of his former\nlife, yet I believe he would have submitted to any cruelty that I\nmight have inflicted upon him, so wondrous was his affection for\nme.\n\nThe diadem in the center of the circlet of gold upon the brow of\nLakor proclaimed him a Holy Thern, while his companion, not thus\nadorned, was a lesser thern, though from his harness I gleaned that\nhe had reached the Ninth Cycle, which is but one below that of the\nHoly Therns.\n\nAs I stood for a moment looking at the gruesome havoc Woola had\nwrought, there recurred to me the memory of that other occasion\nupon which I had masqueraded in the wig, diadem, and harness of\nSator Throg, the Holy Thern whom Thuvia of Ptarth had slain, and now\nit occurred to me that it might prove of worth to utilize Lakor's\ntrappings for the same purpose.\n\nA moment later I had torn his yellow wig from his bald pate and\ntransferred it and the circlet, as well as all his harness, to my\nown person.\n\nWoola did not approve of the metamorphosis.  He sniffed at me and\ngrowled ominously, but when I spoke to him and patted his huge head\nhe at length became reconciled to the change, and at my command\ntrotted off along the corridor in the direction we had been going\nwhen our progress had been interrupted by the therns.\n\nWe moved cautiously now, warned by the fragment of conversation\nI had overheard.  I kept abreast of Woola that we might have the\nbenefit of all our eyes for what might appear suddenly ahead to\nmenace us, and well it was that we were forewarned.\n\nAt the bottom of a flight of narrow steps the corridor turned sharply\nback upon itself, immediately making another turn in the original\ndirection, so that at that point it formed a perfect letter S,\nthe top leg of which debouched suddenly into a large chamber, illy\nlighted, and the floor of which was completely covered by venomous\nsnakes and loathsome reptiles.\n\nTo have attempted to cross that floor would have been to court\ninstant death, and for a moment I was almost completely discouraged.\nThen it occurred to me that Thurid and Matai Shang with their party\nmust have crossed it, and so there was a way.\n\nHad it not been for the fortunate accident by which I overheard\neven so small a portion of the therns' conversation we should\nhave blundered at least a step or two into that wriggling mass of\ndestruction, and a single step would have been all-sufficient to\nhave sealed our doom.\n\nThese were the only reptiles I had ever seen upon Barsoom, but I\nknew from their similarity to the fossilized remains of supposedly\nextinct species I had seen in the museums of Helium that they\ncomprised many of the known prehistoric reptilian genera, as well\nas others undiscovered.\n\nA more hideous aggregation of monsters had never before assailed my\nvision.  It would be futile to attempt to describe them to Earth\nmen, since substance is the only thing which they possess in\ncommon with any creature of the past or present with which you are\nfamiliar--even their venom is of an unearthly virulence that, by\ncomparison, would make the cobra de capello seem quite as harmless\nas an angleworm.\n\nAs they spied me there was a concerted rush by those nearest the\nentrance where we stood, but a line of radium bulbs inset along the\nthreshold of their chamber brought them to a sudden halt--evidently\nthey dared not cross that line of light.\n\nI had been quite sure that they would not venture beyond the room\nin which I had discovered them, though I had not guessed at what\ndeterred them.  The simple fact that we had found no reptiles in\nthe corridor through which we had just come was sufficient assurance\nthat they did not venture there.\n\nI drew Woola out of harm's way, and then began a careful survey\nof as much of the Chamber of Reptiles as I could see from where\nI stood.  As my eyes became accustomed to the dim light of its\ninterior I gradually made out a low gallery at the far end of the\napartment from which opened several exits.\n\nComing as close to the threshold as I dared, I followed this\ngallery with my eyes, discovering that it circled the room as far\nas I could see.  Then I glanced above me along the upper edge of\nthe entrance to which we had come, and there, to my delight, I saw\nan end of the gallery not a foot above my head.  In an instant I\nhad leaped to it and called Woola after me.\n\nHere there were no reptiles--the way was clear to the opposite side\nof the hideous chamber--and a moment later Woola and I dropped down\nto safety in the corridor beyond.\n\nNot ten minutes later we came into a vast circular apartment\nof white marble, the walls of which were inlaid with gold in the\nstrange hieroglyphics of the First Born.\n\nFrom the high dome of this mighty apartment a huge circular column\nextended to the floor, and as I watched I saw that it slowly\nrevolved.\n\nI had reached the base of the Temple of the Sun!\n\nSomewhere above me lay Dejah Thoris, and with her were Phaidor,\ndaughter of Matai Shang, and Thuvia of Ptarth.  But how to reach\nthem, now that I had found the only vulnerable spot in their mighty\nprison, was still a baffling riddle.\n\nSlowly I circled the great shaft, looking for a means of ingress.\nPart way around I found a tiny radium flash torch, and as I examined\nit in mild curiosity as to its presence there in this almost\ninaccessible and unknown spot, I came suddenly upon the insignia\nof the house of Thurid jewel-inset in its metal case.\n\nI am upon the right trail, I thought, as I slipped the bauble into\nthe pocket-pouch which hung from my harness.  Then I continued\nmy search for the entrance, which I knew must be somewhere about;\nnor had I long to search, for almost immediately thereafter I came\nupon a small door so cunningly inlaid in the shaft's base that it\nmight have passed unnoticed by a less keen or careful observer.\n\nThere was the door that would lead me within the prison, but where\nwas the means to open it?  No button or lock were visible.  Again\nand again I went carefully over every square inch of its surface,\nbut the most that I could find was a tiny pinhole a little above\nand to the right of the door's center--a pinhole that seemed only\nan accident of manufacture or an imperfection of material.\n\nInto this minute aperture I attempted to peer, but whether it was\nbut a fraction of an inch deep or passed completely through the door\nI could not tell--at least no light showed beyond it.  I put my ear\nto it next and listened, but again my efforts brought negligible\nresults.\n\nDuring these experiments Woola had been standing at my side gazing\nintently at the door, and as my glance fell upon him it occurred\nto me to test the correctness of my hypothesis, that this portal\nhad been the means of ingress to the temple used by Thurid, the\nblack dator, and Matai Shang, Father of Therns.\n\nTurning away abruptly, I called to him to follow me.  For a moment\nhe hesitated, and then leaped after me, whining and tugging at my\nharness to draw me back.  I walked on, however, some distance from\nthe door before I let him have his way, that I might see precisely\nwhat he would do.  Then I permitted him to lead me wherever he\nwould.\n\nStraight back to that baffling portal he dragged me, again taking\nup his position facing the blank stone, gazing straight at its\nshining surface.  For an hour I worked to solve the mystery of the\ncombination that would open the way before me.\n\nCarefully I recalled every circumstance of my pursuit of Thurid,\nand my conclusion was identical with my original belief--that Thurid\nhad come this way without other assistance than his own knowledge\nand passed through the door that barred my progress, unaided from\nwithin.  But how had he accomplished it?\n\nI recalled the incident of the Chamber of Mystery in the Golden\nCliffs that time I had freed Thuvia of Ptarth from the dungeon of\nthe therns, and she had taken a slender, needle-like key from the\nkeyring of her dead jailer to open the door leading back into the\nChamber of Mystery where Tars Tarkas fought for his life with the\ngreat banths.  Such a tiny keyhole as now defied me had opened the\nway to the intricate lock in that other door.\n\nHastily I dumped the contents of my pocket-pouch upon the ground\nbefore me.  Could I but find a slender bit of steel I might yet\nfashion a key that would give me ingress to the temple prison.\n\nAs I examined the heterogeneous collection of odds and ends that\nis always to be found in the pocket-pouch of a Martian warrior my\nhand fell upon the emblazoned radium flash torch of the black dator.\n\nAs I was about to lay the thing aside as of no value in my present\npredicament my eyes chanced upon a few strange characters roughly\nand freshly scratched upon the soft gold of the case.\n\nCasual curiosity prompted me to decipher them, but what I read\ncarried no immediate meaning to my mind.  There were three sets of\ncharacters, one below another:\n\n                         3 |--| 50 T\n                         1 |--|  1 X\n                         9 |--| 25 T\n\n\nFor only an instant my curiosity was piqued, and then I replaced\nthe torch in my pocket-pouch, but my fingers had not unclasped\nfrom it when there rushed to my memory the recollection of the\nconversation between Lakor and his companion when the lesser thern\nhad quoted the words of Thurid and scoffed at them:  \"And what\nthink you of the ridiculous matter of the light?  Let the light\nshine with the intensity of three radium units for fifty tals\"--ah,\nthere was the first line of characters upon the torch's metal\ncase--3--50 T; \"and for one xat let it shine with the intensity\nof one radium unit\"--there was the second line; \"and then for\ntwenty-five tals with nine units.\"\n\nThe formula was complete; but--what did it mean?\n\nI thought I knew, and, seizing a powerful magnifying glass from the\nlitter of my pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a careful examination\nof the marble immediately about the pinhole in the door.  I could\nhave cried aloud in exultation when my scrutiny disclosed the almost\ninvisible incrustation of particles of carbonized electrons which\nare thrown off by these Martian torches.\n\nIt was evident that for countless ages radium torches had been\napplied to this pinhole, and for what purpose there could be but\na single answer--the mechanism of the lock was actuated by light\nrays; and I, John Carter, Prince of Helium, held the combination\nin my hand--scratched by the hand of my enemy upon his own torch\ncase.\n\nIn a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomian\nchronometer--a delicate instrument that records the tals and xats\nand zodes of Martian time, presenting them to view beneath a strong\ncrystal much after the manner of an earthly odometer.\n\nTiming my operations carefully, I held the torch to the small aperture\nin the door, regulating the intensity of the light by means of the\nthumb-lever upon the side of the case.\n\nFor fifty tals I let three units of light shine full in the pinhole,\nthen one unit for one xat, and for twenty-five tals nine units.\nThose last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-five seconds\nof my life.  Would the lock click at the end of those seemingly\ninterminable intervals of time?\n\nTwenty-three!  Twenty-four!  Twenty-five!\n\nI shut off the light with a snap.  For seven tals I waited--there\nhad been no appreciable effect upon the lock's mechanism.  Could\nit be that my theory was entirely wrong?\n\nHold!  Had the nervous strain resulted in a hallucination, or did\nthe door really move?  Slowly the solid stone sank noiselessly back\ninto the wall--there was no hallucination here.\n\nBack and back it slid for ten feet until it had disclosed at its\nright a narrow doorway leading into a dark and narrow corridor that\nparalleled the outer wall.  Scarcely was the entrance uncovered\nthan Woola and I had leaped through--then the door slipped quietly\nback into place.\n\nDown the corridor at some distance I saw the faint reflection of\na light, and toward this we made our way.  At the point where the\nlight shone was a sharp turn, and a little distance beyond this a\nbrilliantly lighted chamber.\n\nHere we discovered a spiral stairway leading up from the center of\nthe circular room.\n\nImmediately I knew that we had reached the center of the base of\nthe Temple of the Sun--the spiral runway led upward past the inner\nwalls of the prison cells.  Somewhere above me was Dejah Thoris,\nunless Thurid and Matai Shang had already succeeded in stealing\nher.\n\nWe had scarcely started up the runway when Woola suddenly displayed\nthe wildest excitement.  He leaped back and forth, snapping at my\nlegs and harness, until I thought that he was mad, and finally when\nI pushed him from me and started once more to ascend he grasped my\nsword arm between his jaws and dragged me back.\n\nNo amount of scolding or cuffing would suffice to make him release\nme, and I was entirely at the mercy of his brute strength unless\nI cared to use my dagger upon him with my left hand; but, mad or\nno, I had not the heart to run the sharp blade into that faithful\nbody.\n\nDown into the chamber he dragged me, and across it to the side\nopposite that at which we had entered.  Here was another doorway\nleading into a corridor which ran directly down a steep incline.\nWithout a moment's hesitation Woola jerked me along this rocky\npassage.\n\nPresently he stopped and released me, standing between me and the\nway we had come, looking up into my face as though to ask if I would\nnow follow him voluntarily or if he must still resort to force.\n\nLooking ruefully at the marks of his great teeth upon my bare arm\nI decided to do as he seemed to wish me to do.  After all, his strange\ninstinct might be more dependable than my faulty human judgment.\n\nAnd well it was that I had been forced to follow him.  But a\nshort distance from the circular chamber we came suddenly into a\nbrilliantly lighted labyrinth of crystal glass partitioned passages.\n\nAt first I thought it was one vast, unbroken chamber, so clear and\ntransparent were the walls of the winding corridors, but after I\nhad nearly brained myself a couple of times by attempting to pass\nthrough solid vitreous walls I went more carefully.\n\nWe had proceeded but a few yards along the corridor that had given\nus entrance to this strange maze when Woola gave mouth to a most\nfrightful roar, at the same time dashing against the clear partition\nat our left.\n\nThe resounding echoes of that fearsome cry were still reverberating\nthrough the subterranean chambers when I saw the thing that had\nstartled it from the faithful beast.\n\nFar in the distance, dimly through the many thicknesses of intervening\ncrystal, as in a haze that made them seem unreal and ghostly, I\ndiscerned the figures of eight people--three females and five men.\n\nAt the same instant, evidently startled by Woola's fierce cry, they\nhalted and looked about.  Then, of a sudden, one of them, a woman,\nheld her arms out toward me, and even at that great distance I could\nsee that her lips moved--it was Dejah Thoris, my ever beautiful\nand ever youthful Princess of Helium.\n\nWith her were Thuvia of Ptarth, Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang,\nand Thurid, and the Father of Therns, and the three lesser therns\nthat had accompanied them.\n\nThurid shook his fist at me, and then two of the therns grasped\nDejah Thoris and Thuvia roughly by their arms and hurried them on.\nA moment later they had disappeared into a stone corridor beyond\nthe labyrinth of glass.\n\nThey say that love is blind; but so great a love as that of Dejah\nThoris that knew me even beneath the thern disguise I wore and across\nthe misty vista of that crystal maze must indeed be far from blind.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECRET TOWER\n\n\nI have no stomach to narrate the monotonous events of the tedious\ndays that Woola and I spent ferreting our way across the labyrinth\nof glass, through the dark and devious ways beyond that led beneath\nthe Valley Dor and Golden Cliffs to emerge at last upon the flank\nof the Otz Mountains just above the Valley of Lost Souls--that\npitiful purgatory peopled by the poor unfortunates who dare not\ncontinue their abandoned pilgrimage to Dor, or return to the various\nlands of the outer world from whence they came.\n\nHere the trail of Dejah Thoris' abductors led along the mountains'\nbase, across steep and rugged ravines, by the side of appalling\nprecipices, and sometimes out into the valley, where we found\nfighting aplenty with the members of the various tribes that make\nup the population of this vale of hopelessness.\n\nBut through it all we came at last to where the way led up a narrow\ngorge that grew steeper and more impracticable at every step until\nbefore us loomed a mighty fortress buried beneath the side of an\noverhanging cliff.\n\nHere was the secret hiding place of Matai Shang, Father of Therns.\nHere, surrounded by a handful of the faithful, the hekkador of\nthe ancient faith, who had once been served by millions of vassals\nand dependents, dispensed the spiritual words among the half dozen\nnations of Barsoom that still clung tenaciously to their false and\ndiscredited religion.\n\nDarkness was just falling as we came in sight of the seemingly\nimpregnable walls of this mountain stronghold, and lest we be seen\nI drew back with Woola behind a jutting granite promontory, into\na clump of the hardy, purple scrub that thrives upon the barren\nsides of Otz.\n\nHere we lay until the quick transition from daylight to darkness\nhad passed.  Then I crept out to approach the fortress walls in\nsearch of a way within.\n\nEither through carelessness or over-confidence in the supposed\ninaccessibility of their hiding place, the triple-barred gate stood\najar.  Beyond were a handful of guards, laughing and talking over\none of their incomprehensible Barsoomian games.\n\nI saw that none of the guardsmen had been of the party that\naccompanied Thurid and Matai Shang; and so, relying entirely upon\nmy disguise, I walked boldly through the gateway and up to the\nthern guard.\n\nThe men stopped their game and looked up at me, but there was no\nsign of suspicion.  Similarly they looked at Woola, growling at my\nheel.\n\n\"Kaor!\" I said in true Martian greeting, and the warriors arose and\nsaluted me.  \"I have but just found my way hither from the Golden\nCliffs,\" I continued, \"and seek audience with the hekkador, Matai\nShang, Father of Therns.  Where may he be found?\"\n\n\"Follow me,\" said one of the guard, and, turning, led me across\nthe outer courtyard toward a second buttressed wall.\n\nWhy the apparent ease with which I seemingly deceived them did\nnot rouse my suspicions I know not, unless it was that my mind was\nstill so full of that fleeting glimpse of my beloved princess that\nthere was room in it for naught else.  Be that as it may, the fact\nis that I marched buoyantly behind my guide straight into the jaws\nof death.\n\nAfterward I learned that thern spies had been aware of my coming\nfor hours before I reached the hidden fortress.\n\nThe gate had been purposely left ajar to tempt me on.  The guards\nhad been schooled well in their part of the conspiracy; and I,\nmore like a schoolboy than a seasoned warrior, ran headlong into\nthe trap.\n\nAt the far side of the outer court a narrow door let into the\nangle made by one of the buttresses with the wall.  Here my guide\nproduced a key and opened the way within; then, stepping back, he\nmotioned me to enter.\n\n\"Matai Shang is in the temple court beyond,\" he said; and as Woola\nand I passed through, the fellow closed the door quickly upon us.\n\nThe nasty laugh that came to my ears through the heavy planking of\nthe door after the lock clicked was my first intimation that all\nwas not as it should be.\n\nI found myself in a small, circular chamber within the buttress.\nBefore me a door opened, presumably, upon the inner court beyond.\nFor a moment I hesitated, all my suspicions now suddenly, though\ntardily, aroused; then, with a shrug of my shoulders, I opened the\ndoor and stepped out into the glare of torches that lighted the\ninner court.\n\nDirectly opposite me a massive tower rose to a height of three\nhundred feet.  It was of the strangely beautiful modern Barsoomian\nstyle of architecture, its entire surface hand carved in bold\nrelief with intricate and fanciful designs.  Thirty feet above\nthe courtyard and overlooking it was a broad balcony, and there,\nindeed, was Matai Shang, and with him were Thurid and Phaidor,\nThuvia, and Dejah Thoris--the last two heavily ironed.  A handful\nof thern warriors stood just behind the little party.\n\nAs I entered the enclosure the eyes of those in the balcony were\nfull upon me.\n\nAn ugly smile distorted the cruel lips of Matai Shang.  Thurid\nhurled a taunt at me and placed a familiar hand upon the shoulder\nof my princess.  Like a tigress she turned upon him, striking the\nbeast a heavy blow with the manacles upon her wrist.\n\nHe would have struck back had not Matai Shang interfered, and then\nI saw that the two men were not over-friendly; for the manner of\nthe thern was arrogant and domineering as he made it plain to the\nFirst Born that the Princess of Helium was the personal property\nof the Father of Therns.  And Thurid's bearing toward the ancient\nhekkador savored not at all of liking or respect.\n\nWhen the altercation in the balcony had subsided Matai Shang turned\nagain to me.\n\n\"Earth man,\" he cried, \"you have earned a more ignoble death than\nnow lies within our weakened power to inflict upon you; but that the\ndeath you die tonight may be doubly bitter, know you that when you\nhave passed, your widow becomes the wife of Matai Shang, Hekkador\nof the Holy Therns, for a Martian year.\n\n\"At the end of that time, as you know, she shall be discarded,\nas is the law among us, but not, as is usual, to lead a quiet and\nhonored life as high priestess of some hallowed shrine.  Instead,\nDejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, shall become the plaything of\nmy lieutenants--perhaps of thy most hated enemy, Thurid, the black\ndator.\"\n\nAs he ceased speaking he awaited in silence evidently for some\noutbreak of rage upon my part--something that would have added to\nthe spice of his revenge.  But I did not give him the satisfaction\nthat he craved.\n\nInstead, I did the one thing of all others that might rouse his\nanger and increase his hatred of me; for I knew that if I died\nDejah Thoris, too, would find a way to die before they could heap\nfurther tortures or indignities upon her.\n\nOf all the holy of holies which the thern venerates and worships\nnone is more revered than the yellow wig which covers his bald pate,\nand next thereto comes the circlet of gold and the great diadem,\nwhose scintillant rays mark the attainment of the Tenth Cycle.\n\nAnd, knowing this, I removed the wig and circlet from my head,\ntossing them carelessly upon the flagging of the court.  Then I\nwiped my feet upon the yellow tresses; and as a groan of rage arose\nfrom the balcony I spat full upon the holy diadem.\n\nMatai Shang went livid with anger, but upon the lips of Thurid I\ncould see a grim smile of amusement, for to him these things were\nnot holy; so, lest he should derive too much amusement from my\nact, I cried:  \"And thus did I with the holies of Issus, Goddess\nof Life Eternal, ere I threw Issus herself to the mob that once\nhad worshiped her, to be torn to pieces in her own temple.\"\n\nThat put an end to Thurid's grinning, for he had been high in the\nfavor of Issus.\n\n\"Let us have an end to this blaspheming!\" he cried, turning to the\nFather of Therns.\n\nMatai Shang rose and, leaning over the edge of the balcony, gave\nvoice to the weird call that I had heard from the lips of the\npriests upon the tiny balcony upon the face of the Golden Cliffs\noverlooking the Valley Dor, when, in times past, they called\nthe fearsome white apes and the hideous plant men to the feast of\nvictims floating down the broad bosom of the mysterious Iss toward\nthe silian-infested waters of the Lost Sea of Korus.  \"Let loose\nthe death!\" he cried, and immediately a dozen doors in the base of\nthe tower swung open, and a dozen grim and terrible banths sprang\ninto the arena.\n\nThis was not the first time that I had faced the ferocious Barsoomian\nlion, but never had I been pitted, single-handed, against a full\ndozen of them.  Even with the assistance of the fierce Woola, there\ncould be but a single outcome to so unequal a struggle.\n\nFor a moment the beasts hesitated beneath the brilliant glare\nof the torches; but presently their eyes, becoming accustomed to\nthe light, fell upon Woola and me, and with bristling manes and\ndeep-throated roars they advanced, lashing their tawny sides with\ntheir powerful tails.\n\nIn the brief interval of life that was left me I shot a last,\nparting glance toward my Dejah Thoris.  Her beautiful face was set\nin an expression of horror; and as my eyes met hers she extended\nboth arms toward me as, struggling with the guards who now held\nher, she endeavored to cast herself from the balcony into the pit\nbeneath, that she might share my death with me.  Then, as the banths\nwere about to close upon me, she turned and buried her dear face\nin her arms.\n\nSuddenly my attention was drawn toward Thuvia of Ptarth.  The\nbeautiful girl was leaning far over the edge of the balcony, her\neyes bright with excitement.\n\nIn another instant the banths would be upon me, but I could not\nforce my gaze from the features of the red girl, for I knew that\nher expression meant anything but the enjoyment of the grim tragedy\nthat would so soon be enacted below her; there was some deeper,\nhidden meaning which I sought to solve.\n\nFor an instant I thought of relying on my earthly muscles and\nagility to escape the banths and reach the balcony, which I could\neasily have done, but I could not bring myself to desert the\nfaithful Woola and leave him to die alone beneath the cruel fangs\nof the hungry banths; that is not the way upon Barsoom, nor was it\never the way of John Carter.\n\nThen the secret of Thuvia's excitement became apparent as from her\nlips there issued the purring sound I had heard once before; that\ntime that, within the Golden Cliffs, she called the fierce banths\nabout her and led them as a shepherdess might lead her flock of\nmeek and harmless sheep.\n\nAt the first note of that soothing sound the banths halted in their\ntracks, and every fierce head went high as the beasts sought the\norigin of the familiar call.  Presently they discovered the red\ngirl in the balcony above them, and, turning, roared out their\nrecognition and their greeting.\n\nGuards sprang to drag Thuvia away, but ere they had succeeded she\nhad hurled a volley of commands at the listening brutes, and as\none they turned and marched back into their dens.\n\n\"You need not fear them now, John Carter!\" cried Thuvia, before\nthey could silence her.  \"Those banths will never harm you now,\nnor Woola, either.\"\n\nIt was all I cared to know.  There was naught to keep me from that\nbalcony now, and with a long, running leap I sprang far aloft until\nmy hands grasped its lowest sill.\n\nIn an instant all was wild confusion.  Matai Shang shrank back.\nThurid sprang forward with drawn sword to cut me down.\n\nAgain Dejah Thoris wielded her heavy irons and fought him back.\nThen Matai Shang grasped her about the waist and dragged her away\nthrough a door leading within the tower.\n\nFor an instant Thurid hesitated, and then, as though fearing that\nthe Father of Therns would escape him with the Princess of Helium,\nhe, too, dashed from the balcony in their wake.\n\nPhaidor alone retained her presence of mind.  Two of the guards she\nordered to bear away Thuvia of Ptarth; the others she commanded to\nremain and prevent me from following.  Then she turned toward me.\n\n\"John Carter,\" she cried, \"for the last time I offer you the love\nof Phaidor, daughter of the Holy Hekkador.  Accept and your princess\nshall be returned to the court of her grandfather, and you shall\nlive in peace and happiness.  Refuse and the fate that my father\nhas threatened shall fall upon Dejah Thoris.\n\n\"You cannot save her now, for by this time they have reached a\nplace where even you may not follow.  Refuse and naught can save\nyou; for, though the way to the last stronghold of the Holy Therns\nwas made easy for you, the way hence hath been made impossible.\nWhat say you?\"\n\n\"You knew my answer, Phaidor,\" I replied, \"before ever you spoke.\nMake way,\" I cried to the guards, \"for John Carter, Prince of\nHelium, would pass!\"\n\nWith that I leaped over the low baluster that surrounded the balcony,\nand with drawn long-sword faced my enemies.\n\nThere were three of them; but Phaidor must have guessed what the\noutcome of the battle would be, for she turned and fled from the\nbalcony the moment she saw that I would have none of her proposition.\n\nThe three guardsmen did not wait for my attack.  Instead, they\nrushed me--the three of them simultaneously; and it was that which\ngave me an advantage, for they fouled one another in the narrow\nprecincts of the balcony, so that the foremost of them stumbled\nfull upon my blade at the first onslaught.\n\nThe red stain upon my point roused to its full the old blood-lust\nof the fighting man that has ever been so strong within my breast,\nso that my blade flew through the air with a swiftness and deadly\naccuracy that threw the two remaining therns into wild despair.\n\nWhen at last the sharp steel found the heart of one of them the\nother turned to flee, and, guessing that his steps would lead him\nalong the way taken by those I sought, I let him keep ever far\nenough ahead to think that he was safely escaping my sword.\n\nThrough several inner chambers he raced until he came to a spiral\nrunway.  Up this he dashed, I in close pursuit.  At the upper end\nwe came out into a small chamber, the walls of which were blank\nexcept for a single window overlooking the slopes of Otz and the\nValley of Lost Souls beyond.\n\nHere the fellow tore frantically at what appeared to be but a\npiece of the blank wall opposite the single window.  In an instant\nI guessed that it was a secret exit from the room, and so I paused\nthat he might have an opportunity to negotiate it, for I cared\nnothing to take the life of this poor servitor--all I craved was\na clear road in pursuit of Dejah Thoris, my long-lost princess.\n\nBut, try as he would, the panel would yield neither to cunning nor\nforce, so that eventually he gave it up and turned to face me.\n\n\"Go thy way, Thern,\" I said to him, pointing toward the entrance\nto the runway up which we had but just come.  \"I have no quarrel\nwith you, nor do I crave your life.  Go!\"\n\nFor answer he sprang upon me with his sword, and so suddenly, at\nthat, that I was like to have gone down before his first rush.  So\nthere was nothing for it but to give him what he sought, and that\nas quickly as might be, that I might not be delayed too long in\nthis chamber while Matai Shang and Thurid made way with Dejah Thoris\nand Thuvia of Ptarth.\n\nThe fellow was a clever swordsman--resourceful and extremely\ntricky.  In fact, he seemed never to have heard that there existed\nsuch a thing as a code of honor, for he repeatedly outraged a dozen\nBarsoomian fighting customs that an honorable man would rather die\nthan ignore.\n\nHe even went so far as to snatch his holy wig from his head and\nthrow it in my face, so as to blind me for a moment while he thrust\nat my unprotected breast.\n\nWhen he thrust, however, I was not there, for I had fought with\ntherns before; and while none had ever resorted to precisely that\nsame expedient, I knew them to be the least honorable and most\ntreacherous fighters upon Mars, and so was ever on the alert for\nsome new and devilish subterfuge when I was engaged with one of\ntheir race.\n\nBut at length he overdid the thing; for, drawing his shortsword,\nhe hurled it, javelinwise, at my body, at the same instant rushing\nupon me with his long-sword.  A single sweeping circle of my own\nblade caught the flying weapon and hurled it clattering against\nthe far wall, and then, as I sidestepped my antagonist's impetuous\nrush, I let him have my point full in the stomach as he hurtled\nby.\n\nClear to the hilt my weapon passed through his body, and with a\nfrightful shriek he sank to the floor, dead.\n\nHalting only for the brief instant that was required to wrench\nmy sword from the carcass of my late antagonist, I sprang across\nthe chamber to the blank wall beyond, through which the thern had\nattempted to pass.  Here I sought for the secret of its lock, but\nall to no avail.\n\nIn despair I tried to force the thing, but the cold, unyielding\nstone might well have laughed at my futile, puny endeavors.  In fact,\nI could have sworn that I caught the faint suggestion of taunting\nlaughter from beyond the baffling panel.\n\nIn disgust I desisted from my useless efforts and stepped to the\nchamber's single window.\n\nThe slopes of Otz and the distant Valley of Lost Souls held nothing\nto compel my interest then; but, towering far above me, the tower's\ncarved wall riveted my keenest attention.\n\nSomewhere within that massive pile was Dejah Thoris.  Above me I\ncould see windows.  There, possibly, lay the only way by which I\ncould reach her.  The risk was great, but not too great when the\nfate of a world's most wondrous woman was at stake.\n\nI glanced below.  A hundred feet beneath lay jagged granite boulders\nat the brink of a frightful chasm upon which the tower abutted; and\nif not upon the boulders, then at the chasm's bottom, lay death,\nshould a foot slip but once, or clutching fingers loose their hold\nfor the fraction of an instant.\n\nBut there was no other way and with a shrug, which I must admit\nwas half shudder, I stepped to the window's outer sill and began\nmy perilous ascent.\n\nTo my dismay I found that, unlike the ornamentation upon most\nHeliumetic structures, the edges of the carvings were quite generally\nrounded, so that at best my every hold was most precarious.\n\nFifty feet above me commenced a series of projecting cylindrical\nstones some six inches in diameter.  These apparently circled the\ntower at six-foot intervals, in bands six feet apart; and as each\nstone cylinder protruded some four or five inches beyond the surface\nof the other ornamentation, they presented a comparatively easy\nmode of ascent could I but reach them.\n\nLaboriously I climbed toward them by way of some windows which\nlay below them, for I hoped that I might find ingress to the tower\nthrough one of these, and thence an easier avenue along which to\nprosecute my search.\n\nAt times so slight was my hold upon the rounded surfaces of the\ncarving's edges that a sneeze, a cough, or even a slight gust of\nwind would have dislodged me and sent me hurtling to the depths\nbelow.\n\nBut finally I reached a point where my fingers could just clutch\nthe sill of the lowest window, and I was on the point of breathing\na sigh of relief when the sound of voices came to me from above\nthrough the open window.\n\n\"He can never solve the secret of that lock.\"  The voice was Matai\nShang's.  \"Let us proceed to the hangar above that we may be far\nto the south before he finds another way--should that be possible.\"\n\n\"All things seem possible to that vile calot,\" replied another\nvoice, which I recognized as Thurid's.\n\n\"Then let us haste,\" said Matai Shang.  \"But to be doubly sure, I\nwill leave two who shall patrol this runway.  Later they may follow\nus upon another flier--overtaking us at Kaol.\"\n\nMy upstretched fingers never reached the window's sill.  At the\nfirst sound of the voices I drew back my hand and clung there to\nmy perilous perch, flattened against the perpendicular wall, scarce\ndaring to breathe.\n\nWhat a horrible position, indeed, in which to be discovered by\nThurid!  He had but to lean from the window to push me with his\nsword's point into eternity.\n\nPresently the sound of the voices became fainter, and once again\nI took up my hazardous ascent, now more difficult, since more\ncircuitous, for I must climb so as to avoid the windows.\n\nMatai Shang's reference to the hangar and the fliers indicated\nthat my destination lay nothing short of the roof of the tower,\nand toward this seemingly distant goal I set my face.\n\nThe most difficult and dangerous part of the journey was accomplished\nat last, and it was with relief that I felt my fingers close about\nthe lowest of the stone cylinders.\n\nIt is true that these projections were too far apart to make the\nbalance of the ascent anything of a sinecure, but I at least had\nalways within my reach a point of safety to which I might cling in\ncase of accident.\n\nSome ten feet below the roof, the wall inclined slightly inward\npossibly a foot in the last ten feet, and here the climbing was\nindeed immeasurably easier, so that my fingers soon clutched the\neaves.\n\nAs I drew my eyes above the level of the tower's top I saw a flier\nall but ready to rise.\n\nUpon her deck were Matai Shang, Phaidor, Dejah Thoris, Thuvia of\nPtarth, and a few thern warriors, while near her was Thurid in the\nact of clambering aboard.\n\nHe was not ten paces from me, facing in the opposite direction;\nand what cruel freak of fate should have caused him to turn about\njust as my eyes topped the roof's edge I may not even guess.\n\nBut turn he did; and when his eyes met mine his wicked face lighted\nwith a malignant smile as he leaped toward me, where I was hastening\nto scramble to the secure footing of the roof.\n\nDejah Thoris must have seen me at the same instant, for she screamed\na useless warning just as Thurid's foot, swinging in a mighty kick,\nlanded full in my face.\n\nLike a felled ox, I reeled and tumbled backward over the tower's\nside.\n\n\n\n\nON THE KAOLIAN ROAD\n\n\nIf there be a fate that is sometimes cruel to me, there surely is\na kind and merciful Providence which watches over me.\n\nAs I toppled from the tower into the horrid abyss below I counted\nmyself already dead; and Thurid must have done likewise, for he\nevidently did not even trouble himself to look after me, but must\nhave turned and mounted the waiting flier at once.\n\nTen feet only I fell, and then a loop of my tough, leathern harness\ncaught upon one of the cylindrical stone projections in the tower's\nsurface--and held.  Even when I had ceased to fall I could not\nbelieve the miracle that had preserved me from instant death, and\nfor a moment I hung there, cold sweat exuding from every pore of\nmy body.\n\nBut when at last I had worked myself back to a firm position\nI hesitated to ascend, since I could not know that Thurid was not\nstill awaiting me above.\n\nPresently, however, there came to my ears the whirring of the\npropellers of a flier, and as each moment the sound grew fainter\nI realized that the party had proceeded toward the south without\nassuring themselves as to my fate.\n\nCautiously I retraced my way to the roof, and I must admit that\nit was with no pleasant sensation that I raised my eyes once more\nabove its edge; but, to my relief, there was no one in sight, and\na moment later I stood safely upon its broad surface.\n\nTo reach the hangar and drag forth the only other flier which it\ncontained was the work of but an instant; and just as the two thern\nwarriors whom Matai Shang had left to prevent this very contingency\nemerged upon the roof from the tower's interior, I rose above them\nwith a taunting laugh.\n\nThen I dived rapidly to the inner court where I had last seen Woola,\nand to my immense relief found the faithful beast still there.\n\nThe twelve great banths lay in the doorways of their lairs, eyeing\nhim and growling ominously, but they had not disobeyed Thuvia's\ninjunction; and I thanked the fate that had made her their keeper\nwithin the Golden Cliffs, and endowed her with the kind and\nsympathetic nature that had won the loyalty and affection of these\nfierce beasts for her.\n\nWoola leaped in frantic joy when he discovered me; and as the flier\ntouched the pavement of the court for a brief instant he bounded\nto the deck beside me, and in the bearlike manifestation of his\nexuberant happiness all but caused me to wreck the vessel against\nthe courtyard's rocky wall.\n\nAmid the angry shouting of thern guardsmen we rose high above the\nlast fortress of the Holy Therns, and then raced straight toward\nthe northeast and Kaol, the destination which I had heard from the\nlips of Matai Shang.\n\nFar ahead, a tiny speck in the distance, I made out another flier\nlate in the afternoon.  It could be none other than that which bore\nmy lost love and my enemies.\n\nI had gained considerably on the craft by night; and then, knowing\nthat they must have sighted me and would show no lights after\ndark, I set my destination compass upon her--that wonderful little\nMartian mechanism which, once attuned to the object of destination,\npoints away toward it, irrespective of every change in its location.\n\nAll that night we raced through the Barsoomian void, passing over\nlow hills and dead sea bottoms; above long-deserted cities and\npopulous centers of red Martian habitation upon the ribbon-like\nlines of cultivated land which border the globe-encircling waterways,\nwhich Earth men call the canals of Mars.\n\nDawn showed that I had gained appreciably upon the flier ahead of\nme.  It was a larger craft than mine, and not so swift; but even\nso, it had covered an immense distance since the flight began.\n\nThe change in vegetation below showed me that we were rapidly\nnearing the equator.  I was now near enough to my quarry to have\nused my bow gun; but, though I could see that Dejah Thoris was not\non deck, I feared to fire upon the craft which bore her.\n\nThurid was deterred by no such scruples; and though it must have\nbeen difficult for him to believe that it was really I who followed\nthem, he could not very well doubt the witness of his own eyes;\nand so he trained their stern gun upon me with his own hands, and\nan instant later an explosive radium projectile whizzed perilously\nclose above my deck.\n\nThe black's next shot was more accurate, striking my flier full\nupon the prow and exploding with the instant of contact, ripping\nwide open the bow buoyancy tanks and disabling the engine.\n\nSo quickly did my bow drop after the shot that I scarce had time\nto lash Woola to the deck and buckle my own harness to a gunwale\nring before the craft was hanging stern up and making her last long\ndrop to ground.\n\nHer stern buoyancy tanks prevented her dropping with great rapidity;\nbut Thurid was firing rapidly now in an attempt to burst these\nalso, that I might be dashed to death in the swift fall that would\ninstantly follow a successful shot.\n\nShot after shot tore past or into us, but by a miracle neither\nWoola nor I was hit, nor were the after tanks punctured.  This\ngood fortune could not last indefinitely, and, assured that Thurid\nwould not again leave me alive, I awaited the bursting of the next\nshell that hit; and then, throwing my hands above my head, I let go\nmy hold and crumpled, limp and inert, dangling in my harness like\na corpse.\n\nThe ruse worked, and Thurid fired no more at us.  Presently I heard\nthe diminishing sound of whirring propellers and realized that\nagain I was safe.\n\nSlowly the stricken flier sank to the ground, and when I had freed\nmyself and Woola from the entangling wreckage I found that we were\nupon the verge of a natural forest--so rare a thing upon the bosom\nof dying Mars that, outside of the forest in the Valley Dor beside\nthe Lost Sea of Korus, I never before had seen its like upon the\nplanet.\n\nFrom books and travelers I had learned something of the little-known\nland of Kaol, which lies along the equator almost halfway round\nthe planet to the east of Helium.\n\nIt comprises a sunken area of extreme tropical heat, and is inhabited\nby a nation of red men varying but little in manners, customs, and\nappearance from the balance of the red men of Barsoom.\n\nI knew that they were among those of the outer world who still\nclung tenaciously to the discredited religion of the Holy Therns,\nand that Matai Shang would find a ready welcome and safe refuge\namong them; while John Carter could look for nothing better than\nan ignoble death at their hands.\n\nThe isolation of the Kaolians is rendered almost complete by the\nfact that no waterway connects their land with that of any other\nnation, nor have they any need of a waterway since the low, swampy\nland which comprises the entire area of their domain self-waters\ntheir abundant tropical crops.\n\nFor great distances in all directions rugged hills and arid\nstretches of dead sea bottom discourage intercourse with them, and\nsince there is practically no such thing as foreign commerce upon\nwarlike Barsoom, where each nation is sufficient to itself, really\nlittle has been known relative to the court of the Jeddak of Kaol\nand the numerous strange, but interesting, people over whom he\nrules.\n\nOccasional hunting parties have traveled to this out-of-the-way\ncorner of the globe, but the hostility of the natives has usually\nbrought disaster upon them, so that even the sport of hunting the\nstrange and savage creatures which haunt the jungle fastnesses of\nKaol has of later years proved insufficient lure even to the most\nintrepid warriors.\n\nIt was upon the verge of the land of the Kaols that I now knew\nmyself to be, but in what direction to search for Dejah Thoris, or\nhow far into the heart of the great forest I might have to penetrate\nI had not the faintest idea.\n\nBut not so Woola.\n\nScarcely had I disentangled him than he raised his head high in air\nand commenced circling about at the edge of the forest.  Presently\nhe halted, and, turning to see if I were following, set off straight\ninto the maze of trees in the direction we had been going before\nThurid's shot had put an end to our flier.\n\nAs best I could, I stumbled after him down a steep declivity\nbeginning at the forest's edge.\n\nImmense trees reared their mighty heads far above us, their broad\nfronds completely shutting off the slightest glimpse of the sky.\nIt was easy to see why the Kaolians needed no navy; their cities,\nhidden in the midst of this towering forest, must be entirely\ninvisible from above, nor could a landing be made by any but the\nsmallest fliers, and then only with the greatest risk of accident.\n\nHow Thurid and Matai Shang were to land I could not imagine, though\nlater I was to learn that to the level of the forest top there rises\nin each city of Kaol a slender watchtower which guards the Kaolians\nby day and by night against the secret approach of a hostile fleet.\nTo one of these the hekkador of the Holy Therns had no difficulty\nin approaching, and by its means the party was safely lowered to\nthe ground.\n\nAs Woola and I approached the bottom of the declivity the ground\nbecame soft and mushy, so that it was with the greatest difficulty\nthat we made any headway whatever.\n\nSlender purple grasses topped with red and yellow fern-like fronds\ngrew rankly all about us to the height of several feet above my\nhead.\n\nMyriad creepers hung festooned in graceful loops from tree to tree,\nand among them were several varieties of the Martian \"man-flower,\"\nwhose blooms have eyes and hands with which to see and seize the\ninsects which form their diet.\n\nThe repulsive calot tree was, too, much in evidence.  It is a\ncarnivorous plant of about the bigness of a large sage-brush such\nas dots our western plains.  Each branch ends in a set of strong\njaws, which have been known to drag down and devour large and\nformidable beasts of prey.\n\nBoth Woola and I had several narrow escapes from these greedy,\narboreous monsters.\n\nOccasional areas of firm sod gave us intervals of rest from the\narduous labor of traversing this gorgeous, twilight swamp, and it\nwas upon one of these that I finally decided to make camp for the\nnight which my chronometer warned me would soon be upon us.\n\nMany varieties of fruit grew in abundance about us; and as Martian\ncalots are omnivorous, Woola had no difficulty in making a square\nmeal after I had brought down the viands for him.  Then, having\neaten, too, I lay down with my back to that of my faithful hound,\nand dropped into a deep and dreamless sleep.\n\nThe forest was shrouded in impenetrable darkness when a low growl\nfrom Woola awakened me.  All about us I could hear the stealthy\nmovement of great, padded feet, and now and then the wicked gleam\nof green eyes upon us.  Arising, I drew my long-sword and waited.\n\nSuddenly a deep-toned, horrid roar burst from some savage throat\nalmost at my side.  What a fool I had been not to have found safer\nlodgings for myself and Woola among the branches of one of the\ncountless trees that surrounded us!\n\nBy daylight it would have been comparatively easy to have hoisted\nWoola aloft in one manner or another, but now it was too late.  There\nwas nothing for it but to stand our ground and take our medicine,\nthough, from the hideous racket which now assailed our ears, and\nfor which that first roar had seemed to be the signal, I judged\nthat we must be in the midst of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of\nthe fierce, man-eating denizens of the Kaolian jungle.\n\nAll the balance of the night they kept up their infernal din, but\nwhy they did not attack us I could not guess, nor am I sure to this\nday, unless it is that none of them ever venture upon the patches\nof scarlet sward which dot the swamp.\n\nWhen morning broke they were still there, walking about as in\na circle, but always just beyond the edge of the sward.  A more\nterrifying aggregation of fierce and blood-thirsty monsters it\nwould be difficult to imagine.\n\nSingly and in pairs they commenced wandering off into the jungle\nshortly after sunrise, and when the last of them had departed Woola\nand I resumed our journey.\n\nOccasionally we caught glimpses of horrid beasts all during the\nday; but, fortunately, we were never far from a sward island, and\nwhen they saw us their pursuit always ended at the verge of the\nsolid sod.\n\nToward noon we stumbled upon a well-constructed road running\nin the general direction we had been pursuing.  Everything about\nthis highway marked it as the work of skilled engineers, and I was\nconfident, from the indications of antiquity which it bore, as well\nas from the very evident signs of its being still in everyday use,\nthat it must lead to one of the principal cities of Kaol.\n\nJust as we entered it from one side a huge monster emerged from\nthe jungle upon the other, and at sight of us charged madly in our\ndirection.\n\nImagine, if you can, a bald-faced hornet of your earthly experience\ngrown to the size of a prize Hereford bull, and you will have some\nfaint conception of the ferocious appearance and awesome formidability\nof the winged monster that bore down upon me.\n\nFrightful jaws in front and mighty, poisoned sting behind made my\nrelatively puny long-sword seem a pitiful weapon of defense indeed.\nNor could I hope to escape the lightning-like movements or hide\nfrom those myriad facet eyes which covered three-fourths of the\nhideous head, permitting the creature to see in all directions at\none and the same time.\n\nEven my powerful and ferocious Woola was as helpless as a kitten\nbefore that frightful thing.  But to flee were useless, even had\nit ever been to my liking to turn my back upon a danger; so I stood\nmy ground, Woola snarling at my side, my only hope to die as I had\nalways lived--fighting.\n\nThe creature was upon us now, and at the instant there seemed to\nme a single slight chance for victory.  If I could but remove the\nterrible menace of certain death hidden in the poison sacs that\nfed the sting the struggle would be less unequal.\n\nAt the thought I called to Woola to leap upon the creature's head\nand hang there, and as his mighty jaws closed upon that fiendish\nface, and glistening fangs buried themselves in the bone and\ncartilage and lower part of one of the huge eyes, I dived beneath\nthe great body as the creature rose, dragging Woola from the ground,\nthat it might bring its sting beneath and pierce the body of the\nthing hanging to its head.\n\nTo put myself in the path of that poison-laden lance was to court\ninstant death, but it was the only way; and as the thing shot\nlightning-like toward me I swung my long-sword in a terrific cut\nthat severed the deadly member close to the gorgeously marked body.\n\nThen, like a battering-ram, one of the powerful hind legs caught\nme full in the chest and hurled me, half stunned and wholly winded,\nclear across the broad highway and into the underbrush of the jungle\nthat fringes it.\n\nFortunately, I passed between the boles of trees; had I struck one\nof them I should have been badly injured, if not killed, so swiftly\nhad I been catapulted by that enormous hind leg.\n\nDazed though I was, I stumbled to my feet and staggered back to\nWoola's assistance, to find his savage antagonist circling ten feet\nabove the ground, beating madly at the clinging calot with all six\npowerful legs.\n\nEven during my sudden flight through the air I had not once released\nmy grip upon my long-sword, and now I ran beneath the two battling\nmonsters, jabbing the winged terror repeatedly with its sharp point.\n\nThe thing might easily have risen out of my reach, but evidently it\nknew as little concerning retreat in the face of danger as either\nWoola or I, for it dropped quickly toward me, and before I could\nescape had grasped my shoulder between its powerful jaws.\n\nTime and again the now useless stub of its giant sting struck futilely\nagainst my body, but the blows alone were almost as effective as\nthe kick of a horse; so that when I say futilely, I refer only to\nthe natural function of the disabled member--eventually the thing\nwould have hammered me to a pulp.  Nor was it far from accomplishing\nthis when an interruption occurred that put an end forever to its\nhostilities.\n\nFrom where I hung a few feet above the road I could see along the\nhighway a few hundred yards to where it turned toward the east,\nand just as I had about given up all hope of escaping the perilous\nposition in which I now was I saw a red warrior come into view from\naround the bend.\n\nHe was mounted on a splendid thoat, one of the smaller species used\nby red men, and in his hand was a wondrous long, light lance.\n\nHis mount was walking sedately when I first perceived them, but the\ninstant that the red man's eyes fell upon us a word to the thoat\nbrought the animal at full charge down upon us.  The long lance\nof the warrior dipped toward us, and as thoat and rider hurtled\nbeneath, the point passed through the body of our antagonist.\n\nWith a convulsive shudder the thing stiffened, the jaws relaxed,\ndropping me to the ground, and then, careening once in mid air,\nthe creature plunged headforemost to the road, full upon Woola,\nwho still clung tenaciously to its gory head.\n\nBy the time I had regained my feet the red man had turned and ridden\nback to us.  Woola, finding his enemy inert and lifeless, released\nhis hold at my command and wriggled from beneath the body that had\ncovered him, and together we faced the warrior looking down upon\nus.\n\nI started to thank the stranger for his timely assistance, but he\ncut me off peremptorily.\n\n\"Who are you,\" he asked, \"who dare enter the land of Kaol and hunt\nin the royal forest of the jeddak?\"\n\nThen, as he noted my white skin through the coating of grime and\nblood that covered me, his eyes went wide and in an altered tone\nhe whispered:  \"Can it be that you are a Holy Thern?\"\n\nI might have deceived the fellow for a time, as I had deceived\nothers, but I had cast away the yellow wig and the holy diadem in\nthe presence of Matai Shang, and I knew that it would not be long\nere my new acquaintance discovered that I was no thern at all.\n\n\"I am not a thern,\" I replied, and then, flinging caution to the\nwinds, I said:  \"I am John Carter, Prince of Helium, whose name\nmay not be entirely unknown to you.\"\n\nIf his eyes had gone wide when he thought that I was a Holy Thern,\nthey fairly popped now that he knew that I was John Carter.  I\ngrasped my long-sword more firmly as I spoke the words which I was\nsure would precipitate an attack, but to my surprise they precipitated\nnothing of the kind.\n\n\"John Carter, Prince of Helium,\" he repeated slowly, as though he\ncould not quite grasp the truth of the statement.  \"John Carter,\nthe mightiest warrior of Barsoom!\"\n\nAnd then he dismounted and placed his hand upon my shoulder after\nthe manner of most friendly greeting upon Mars.\n\n\"It is my duty, and it should be my pleasure, to kill you, John\nCarter,\" he said, \"but always in my heart of hearts have I admired\nyour prowess and believed in your sincerity the while I have\nquestioned and disbelieved the therns and their religion.\n\n\"It would mean my instant death were my heresy to be suspected in\nthe court of Kulan Tith, but if I may serve you, Prince, you have\nbut to command Torkar Bar, Dwar of the Kaolian Road.\"\n\nTruth and honesty were writ large upon the warrior's noble countenance,\nso that I could not but have trusted him, enemy though he should\nhave been.  His title of Captain of the Kaolian Road explained\nhis timely presence in the heart of the savage forest, for every\nhighway upon Barsoom is patrolled by doughty warriors of the noble\nclass, nor is there any service more honorable than this lonely\nand dangerous duty in the less frequented sections of the domains\nof the red men of Barsoom.\n\n\"Torkar Bar has already placed a great debt of gratitude upon my\nshoulders,\" I replied, pointing to the carcass of the creature from\nwhose heart he was dragging his long spear.\n\nThe red man smiled.\n\n\"It was fortunate that I came when I did,\" he said.  \"Only this\npoisoned spear pricking the very heart of a sith can kill it quickly\nenough to save its prey.  In this section of Kaol we are all armed\nwith a long sith spear, whose point is smeared with the poison of\nthe creature it is intended to kill; no other virus acts so quickly\nupon the beast as its own.\n\n\"Look,\" he continued, drawing his dagger and making an incision\nin the carcass a foot above the root of the sting, from which he\npresently drew forth two sacs, each of which held fully a gallon\nof the deadly liquid.\n\n\"Thus we maintain our supply, though were it not for certain commercial\nuses to which the virus is put, it would scarcely be necessary to\nadd to our present store, since the sith is almost extinct.\n\n\"Only occasionally do we now run upon one.  Of old, however, Kaol\nwas overrun with the frightful monsters that often came in herds\nof twenty or thirty, darting down from above into our cities and\ncarrying away women, children, and even warriors.\"\n\nAs he spoke I had been wondering just how much I might safely tell\nthis man of the mission which brought me to his land, but his next\nwords anticipated the broaching of the subject on my part, and\nrendered me thankful that I had not spoken too soon.\n\n\"And now as to yourself, John Carter,\" he said, \"I shall not ask\nyour business here, nor do I wish to hear it.  I have eyes and ears\nand ordinary intelligence, and yesterday morning I saw the party\nthat came to the city of Kaol from the north in a small flier.  But\none thing I ask of you, and that is: the word of John Carter that\nhe contemplates no overt act against either the nation of Kaol or\nits jeddak.\"\n\n\"You may have my word as to that, Torkar Bar,\" I replied.\n\n\"My way leads along the Kaolian road, away from the city of Kaol,\"\nhe continued.  \"I have seen no one--John Carter least of all.  Nor\nhave you seen Torkar Bar, nor ever heard of him.  You understand?\"\n\n\"Perfectly,\" I replied.\n\nHe laid his hand upon my shoulder.\n\n\"This road leads directly into the city of Kaol,\" he said.  \"I wish\nyou fortune,\" and vaulting to the back of his thoat he trotted away\nwithout even a backward glance.\n\nIt was after dark when Woola and I spied through the mighty forest\nthe great wall which surrounds the city of Kaol.\n\nWe had traversed the entire way without mishap or adventure, and\nthough the few we had met had eyed the great calot wonderingly,\nnone had pierced the red pigment with which I had smoothly smeared\nevery square inch of my body.\n\nBut to traverse the surrounding country, and to enter the guarded\ncity of Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, were two very different things.\nNo man enters a Martian city without giving a very detailed and\nsatisfactory account of himself, nor did I delude myself with the\nbelief that I could for a moment impose upon the acumen of the\nofficers of the guard to whom I should be taken the moment I applied\nat any one of the gates.\n\nMy only hope seemed to lie in entering the city surreptitiously\nunder cover of the darkness, and once in, trust to my own wits to\nhide myself in some crowded quarter where detection would be less\nliable to occur.\n\nWith this idea in view I circled the great wall, keeping within the\nfringe of the forest, which is cut away for a short distance from\nthe wall all about the city, that no enemy may utilize the trees\nas a means of ingress.\n\nSeveral times I attempted to scale the barrier at different points,\nbut not even my earthly muscles could overcome that cleverly\nconstructed rampart.  To a height of thirty feet the face of the\nwall slanted outward, and then for almost an equal distance it was\nperpendicular, above which it slanted in again for some fifteen\nfeet to the crest.\n\nAnd smooth!  Polished glass could not be more so.  Finally I had\nto admit that at last I had discovered a Barsoomian fortification\nwhich I could not negotiate.\n\nDiscouraged, I withdrew into the forest beside a broad highway which\nentered the city from the east, and with Woola beside me lay down\nto sleep.\n\n\n\n\nA HERO IN KAOL\n\n\nIt was daylight when I was awakened by the sound of stealthy movement\nnear by.\n\nAs I opened my eyes Woola, too, moved and, coming up to his haunches,\nstared through the intervening brush toward the road, each hair\nupon his neck stiffly erect.\n\nAt first I could see nothing, but presently I caught a glimpse of\na bit of smooth and glossy green moving among the scarlet and purple\nand yellow of the vegetation.\n\nMotioning Woola to remain quietly where he was, I crept forward to\ninvestigate, and from behind the bole of a great tree I saw a long\nline of the hideous green warriors of the dead sea bottoms hiding\nin the dense jungle beside the road.\n\nAs far as I could see, the silent line of destruction and death\nstretched away from the city of Kaol.  There could be but one\nexplanation.  The green men were expecting an exodus of a body of\nred troops from the nearest city gate, and they were lying there\nin ambush to leap upon them.\n\nI owed no fealty to the Jeddak of Kaol, but he was of the same race\nof noble red men as my own princess, and I would not stand supinely\nby and see his warriors butchered by the cruel and heartless demons\nof the waste places of Barsoom.\n\nCautiously I retraced my steps to where I had left Woola, and warning\nhim to silence, signaled him to follow me.  Making a considerable\ndetour to avoid the chance of falling into the hands of the green\nmen, I came at last to the great wall.\n\nA hundred yards to my right was the gate from which the troops\nwere evidently expected to issue, but to reach it I must pass the\nflank of the green warriors within easy sight of them, and, fearing\nthat my plan to warn the Kaolians might thus be thwarted, I decided\nupon hastening toward the left, where another gate a mile away\nwould give me ingress to the city.\n\nI knew that the word I brought would prove a splendid passport to\nKaol, and I must admit that my caution was due more to my ardent\ndesire to make my way into the city than to avoid a brush with the\ngreen men.  As much as I enjoy a fight, I cannot always indulge\nmyself, and just now I had more weighty matters to occupy my time\nthan spilling the blood of strange warriors.\n\nCould I but win beyond the city's wall, there might be opportunity\nin the confusion and excitement which were sure to follow my\nannouncement of an invading force of green warriors to find my way\nwithin the palace of the jeddak, where I was sure Matai Shang and\nhis party would be quartered.\n\nBut scarcely had I taken a hundred steps in the direction of the\nfarther gate when the sound of marching troops, the clank of metal,\nand the squealing of thoats just within the city apprised me of the\nfact that the Kaolians were already moving toward the other gate.\n\nThere was no time to be lost.  In another moment the gate would be\nopened and the head of the column pass out upon the death-bordered\nhighway.\n\nTurning back toward the fateful gate, I ran rapidly along the edge\nof the clearing, taking the ground in the mighty leaps that had\nfirst made me famous upon Barsoom.  Thirty, fifty, a hundred feet\nat a bound are nothing for the muscles of an athletic Earth man\nupon Mars.\n\nAs I passed the flank of the waiting green men they saw my eyes\nturned upon them, and in an instant, knowing that all secrecy was\nat an end, those nearest me sprang to their feet in an effort to\ncut me off before I could reach the gate.\n\nAt the same instant the mighty portal swung wide and the head of\nthe Kaolian column emerged.  A dozen green warriors had succeeded\nin reaching a point between me and the gate, but they had but little\nidea who it was they had elected to detain.\n\nI did not slacken my speed an iota as I dashed among them, and as\nthey fell before my blade I could not but recall the happy memory\nof those other battles when Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, mightiest\nof Martian green men, had stood shoulder to shoulder with me through\nlong, hot Martian days, as together we hewed down our enemies until\nthe pile of corpses about us rose higher than a tall man's head.\n\nWhen several pressed me too closely, there before the carved gateway\nof Kaol, I leaped above their heads, and fashioning my tactics\nafter those of the hideous plant men of Dor, struck down upon my\nenemies' heads as I passed above them.\n\nFrom the city the red warriors were rushing toward us, and from\nthe jungle the savage horde of green men were coming to meet them.\nIn a moment I was in the very center of as fierce and bloody a\nbattle as I had ever passed through.\n\nThese Kaolians are most noble fighters, nor are the green men of\nthe equator one whit less warlike than their cold, cruel cousins of\nthe temperate zone.  There were many times when either side might\nhave withdrawn without dishonor and thus ended hostilities, but\nfrom the mad abandon with which each invariably renewed hostilities\nI soon came to believe that what need not have been more than a\ntrifling skirmish would end only with the complete extermination\nof one force or the other.\n\nWith the joy of battle once roused within me, I took keen delight\nin the fray, and that my fighting was noted by the Kaolians was\noften evidenced by the shouts of applause directed at me.\n\nIf I sometimes seem to take too great pride in my fighting ability, it\nmust be remembered that fighting is my vocation.  If your vocation\nbe shoeing horses, or painting pictures, and you can do one or\nthe other better than your fellows, then you are a fool if you are\nnot proud of your ability.  And so I am very proud that upon two\nplanets no greater fighter has ever lived than John Carter, Prince\nof Helium.\n\nAnd I outdid myself that day to impress the fact upon the natives\nof Kaol, for I wished to win a way into their hearts--and their\ncity.  Nor was I to be disappointed in my desire.\n\nAll day we fought, until the road was red with blood and clogged\nwith corpses.  Back and forth along the slippery highway the tide\nof battle surged, but never once was the gateway to Kaol really in\ndanger.\n\nThere were breathing spells when I had a chance to converse with\nthe red men beside whom I fought, and once the jeddak, Kulan Tith\nhimself, laid his hand upon my shoulder and asked my name.\n\n\"I am Dotar Sojat,\" I replied, recalling a name given me by the\nTharks many years before, from the surnames of the first two of\ntheir warriors I had killed, which is the custom among them.\n\n\"You are a mighty warrior, Dotar Sojat,\" he replied, \"and when\nthis day is done I shall speak with you again in the great audience\nchamber.\"\n\nAnd then the fight surged upon us once more and we were separated,\nbut my heart's desire was attained, and it was with renewed vigor\nand a joyous soul that I laid about me with my long-sword until\nthe last of the green men had had enough and had withdrawn toward\ntheir distant sea bottom.\n\nNot until the battle was over did I learn why the red troops had\nsallied forth that day.  It seemed that Kulan Tith was expecting\na visit from a mighty jeddak of the north--a powerful and the only\nally of the Kaolians, and it had been his wish to meet his guest\na full day's journey from Kaol.\n\nBut now the march of the welcoming host was delayed until the\nfollowing morning, when the troops again set out from Kaol.  I had\nnot been bidden to the presence of Kulan Tith after the battle,\nbut he had sent an officer to find me and escort me to comfortable\nquarters in that part of the palace set aside for the officers of\nthe royal guard.\n\nThere, with Woola, I had spent a comfortable night, and rose much\nrefreshed after the arduous labors of the past few days.  Woola\nhad fought with me through the battle of the previous day, true to\nthe instincts and training of a Martian war dog, great numbers of\nwhich are often to be found with the savage green hordes of the\ndead sea bottoms.\n\nNeither of us had come through the conflict unscathed, but the\nmarvelous, healing salves of Barsoom had sufficed, overnight, to\nmake us as good as new.\n\nI breakfasted with a number of the Kaolian officers, whom I found\nas courteous and delightful hosts as even the nobles of Helium, who\nare renowned for their ease of manners and excellence of breeding.\nThe meal was scarcely concluded when a messenger arrived from Kulan\nTith summoning me before him.\n\nAs I entered the royal presence the jeddak rose, and stepping from\nthe dais which supported his magnificent throne, came forward to\nmeet me--a mark of distinction that is seldom accorded to other\nthan a visiting ruler.\n\n\"Kaor, Dotar Sojat!\" he greeted me.  \"I have summoned you to receive\nthe grateful thanks of the people of Kaol, for had it not been for\nyour heroic bravery in daring fate to warn us of the ambuscade we\nmust surely have fallen into the well-laid trap.  Tell me more of\nyourself--from what country you come, and what errand brings you\nto the court of Kulan Tith.\"\n\n\"I am from Hastor,\" I said, for in truth I had a small palace in\nthat southern city which lies within the far-flung dominions of\nthe Heliumetic nation.\n\n\"My presence in the land of Kaol is partly due to accident, my\nflier being wrecked upon the southern fringe of your great forest.\nIt was while seeking entrance to the city of Kaol that I discovered\nthe green horde lying in wait for your troops.\"\n\nIf Kulan Tith wondered what business brought me in a flier to the\nvery edge of his domain he was good enough not to press me further\nfor an explanation, which I should indeed have had difficulty in\nrendering.\n\nDuring my audience with the jeddak another party entered the\nchamber from behind me, so that I did not see their faces until\nKulan Tith stepped past me to greet them, commanding me to follow\nand be presented.\n\nAs I turned toward them it was with difficulty that I controlled\nmy features, for there, listening to Kulan Tith's eulogistic words\nconcerning me, stood my arch-enemies, Matai Shang and Thurid.\n\n\"Holy Hekkador of the Holy Therns,\" the jeddak was saying, \"shower\nthy blessings upon Dotar Sojat, the valorous stranger from distant\nHastor, whose wondrous heroism and marvelous ferocity saved the\nday for Kaol yesterday.\"\n\nMatai Shang stepped forward and laid his hand upon my shoulder.\nNo slightest indication that he recognized me showed upon his\ncountenance--my disguise was evidently complete.\n\nHe spoke kindly to me and then presented me to Thurid.  The black,\ntoo, was evidently entirely deceived.  Then Kulan Tith regaled\nthem, much to my amusement, with details of my achievements upon\nthe field of battle.\n\nThe thing that seemed to have impressed him most was my remarkable\nagility, and time and again he described the wondrous way in which\nI had leaped completely over an antagonist, cleaving his skull wide\nopen with my long-sword as I passed above him.\n\nI thought that I saw Thurid's eyes widen a bit during the narrative,\nand several times I surprised him gazing intently into my face\nthrough narrowed lids.  Was he commencing to suspect?  And then\nKulan Tith told of the savage calot that fought beside me, and\nafter that I saw suspicion in the eyes of Matai Shang--or did I\nbut imagine it?\n\nAt the close of the audience Kulan Tith announced that he would\nhave me accompany him upon the way to meet his royal guest, and\nas I departed with an officer who was to procure proper trappings\nand a suitable mount for me, both Matai Shang and Thurid seemed most\nsincere in professing their pleasure at having had an opportunity\nto know me.  It was with a sigh of relief that I quitted the chamber,\nconvinced that nothing more than a guilty conscience had prompted\nmy belief that either of my enemies suspected my true identity.\n\nA half-hour later I rode out of the city gate with the column that\naccompanied Kulan Tith upon the way to meet his friend and ally.\nThough my eyes and ears had been wide open during my audience with\nthe jeddak and my various passages through the palace, I had seen\nor heard nothing of Dejah Thoris or Thuvia of Ptarth.  That they\nmust be somewhere within the great rambling edifice I was positive,\nand I should have given much to have found a way to remain behind\nduring Kulan Tith's absence, that I might search for them.\n\nToward noon we came in touch with the head of the column we had\nset out to meet.\n\nIt was a gorgeous train that accompanied the visiting jeddak, and\nfor miles it stretched along the wide, white road to Kaol.  Mounted\ntroops, their trappings of jewel and metal-incrusted leather\nglistening in the sunlight, formed the vanguard of the body, and\nthen came a thousand gorgeous chariots drawn by huge zitidars.\n\nThese low, commodious wagons moved two abreast, and on either side\nof them marched solid ranks of mounted warriors, for in the chariots\nwere the women and children of the royal court.  Upon the back\nof each monster zitidar rode a Martian youth, and the whole scene\ncarried me back to my first days upon Barsoom, now twenty-two years\nin the past, when I had first beheld the gorgeous spectacle of a\ncaravan of the green horde of Tharks.\n\nNever before today had I seen zitidars in the service of red men.\nThese brutes are huge mastodonian animals that tower to an immense\nheight even beside the giant green men and their giant thoats;\nbut when compared to the relatively small red man and his breed\nof thoats they assume Brobdingnagian proportions that are truly\nappalling.\n\nThe beasts were hung with jeweled trappings and saddlepads of gay\nsilk, embroidered in fanciful designs with strings of diamonds,\npearls, rubies, emeralds, and the countless unnamed jewels of Mars,\nwhile from each chariot rose a dozen standards from which streamers,\nflags, and pennons fluttered in the breeze.\n\nJust in front of the chariots the visiting jeddak rode alone upon\na pure white thoat--another unusual sight upon Barsoom--and after\nthem came interminable ranks of mounted spearmen, riflemen, and\nswordsmen.  It was indeed a most imposing sight.\n\nExcept for the clanking of accouterments and the occasional squeal\nof an angry thoat or the low guttural of a zitidar, the passage of\nthe cavalcade was almost noiseless, for neither thoat nor zitidar\nis a hoofed animal, and the broad tires of the chariots are of an\nelastic composition, which gives forth no sound.\n\nNow and then the gay laughter of a woman or the chatter of children\ncould be heard, for the red Martians are a social, pleasure-loving\npeople--in direct antithesis to the cold and morbid race of green\nmen.\n\nThe forms and ceremonials connected with the meeting of the two\njeddaks consumed an hour, and then we turned and retraced our way\ntoward the city of Kaol, which the head of the column reached just\nbefore dark, though it must have been nearly morning before the\nrear guard passed through the gateway.\n\nFortunately, I was well up toward the head of the column, and after\nthe great banquet, which I attended with the officers of the royal\nguard, I was free to seek repose.  There was so much activity and\nbustle about the palace all during the night with the constant\narrival of the noble officers of the visiting jeddak's retinue\nthat I dared not attempt to prosecute a search for Dejah Thoris,\nand so, as soon as it was seemly for me to do so, I returned to my\nquarters.\n\nAs I passed along the corridors between the banquet hall and the\napartments that had been allotted me, I had a sudden feeling that\nI was under surveillance, and, turning quickly in my tracks, caught\na glimpse of a figure which darted into an open doorway the instant\nI wheeled about.\n\nThough I ran quickly back to the spot where the shadower had\ndisappeared I could find no trace of him, yet in the brief glimpse\nthat I had caught I could have sworn that I had seen a white face\nsurmounted by a mass of yellow hair.\n\nThe incident gave me considerable food for speculation, since if I\nwere right in the conclusion induced by the cursory glimpse I had\nhad of the spy, then Matai Shang and Thurid must suspect my identity,\nand if that were true not even the service I had rendered Kulan\nTith could save me from his religious fanaticism.\n\nBut never did vague conjecture or fruitless fears for the future\nlie with sufficient weight upon my mind to keep me from my rest,\nand so tonight I threw myself upon my sleeping silks and furs and\npassed at once into dreamless slumber.\n\nCalots are not permitted within the walls of the palace proper,\nand so I had had to relegate poor Woola to quarters in the stables\nwhere the royal thoats are kept.  He had comfortable, even luxurious\napartments, but I would have given much to have had him with me;\nand if he had been, the thing which happened that night would not\nhave come to pass.\n\nI could not have slept over a quarter of an hour when I was suddenly\nawakened by the passing of some cold and clammy thing across my\nforehead.  Instantly I sprang to my feet, clutching in the direction I\nthought the presence lay.  For an instant my hand touched against\nhuman flesh, and then, as I lunged headforemost through the\ndarkness to seize my nocturnal visitor, my foot became entangled\nin my sleeping silks and I fell sprawling to the floor.\n\nBy the time I had resumed my feet and found the button which\ncontrolled the light my caller had disappeared.  Careful search of\nthe room revealed nothing to explain either the identity or business\nof the person who had thus secretly sought me in the dead of night.\n\nThat the purpose might be theft I could not believe, since thieves\nare practically unknown upon Barsoom.  Assassination, however, is\nrampant, but even this could not have been the motive of my stealthy\nfriend, for he might easily have killed me had he desired.\n\nI had about given up fruitless conjecture and was on the point\nof returning to sleep when a dozen Kaolian guardsmen entered my\napartment.  The officer in charge was one of my genial hosts of\nthe morning, but now upon his face was no sign of friendship.\n\n\"Kulan Tith commands your presence before him,\" he said.  \"Come!\"\n\n\n\n\nNEW ALLIES\n\n\nSurrounded by guardsmen I marched back along the corridors of the\npalace of Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, to the great audience chamber\nin the center of the massive structure.\n\nAs I entered the brilliantly lighted apartment, filled with the\nnobles of Kaol and the officers of the visiting jeddak, all eyes\nwere turned upon me.  Upon the great dais at the end of the chamber\nstood three thrones, upon which sat Kulan Tith and his two guests,\nMatai Shang, and the visiting jeddak.\n\nUp the broad center aisle we marched beneath deadly silence, and\nat the foot of the thrones we halted.\n\n\"Prefer thy charge,\" said Kulan Tith, turning to one who stood\namong the nobles at his right; and then Thurid, the black dator of\nthe First Born, stepped forward and faced me.\n\n\"Most noble Jeddak,\" he said, addressing Kulan Tith, \"from the first\nI suspected this stranger within thy palace.  Your description of\nhis fiendish prowess tallied with that of the arch-enemy of truth\nupon Barsoom.\n\n\"But that there might be no mistake I despatched a priest of your\nown holy cult to make the test that should pierce his disguise and\nreveal the truth.  Behold the result!\" and Thurid pointed a rigid\nfinger at my forehead.\n\nAll eyes followed the direction of that accusing digit--I alone\nseemed at a loss to guess what fatal sign rested upon my brow.\n\nThe officer beside me guessed my perplexity; and as the brows of\nKulan Tith darkened in a menacing scowl as his eyes rested upon\nme, the noble drew a small mirror from his pocket-pouch and held\nit before my face.\n\nOne glance at the reflection it gave back to me was sufficient.\n\nFrom my forehead the hand of the sneaking thern had reached out\nthrough the concealing darkness of my bed-chamber and wiped away a\npatch of the disguising red pigment as broad as my palm.  Beneath\nshowed the tanned texture of my own white skin.\n\nFor a moment Thurid ceased speaking, to enhance, I suspect, the\ndramatic effect of his disclosure.  Then he resumed.\n\n\"Here, O Kulan Tith,\" he cried, \"is he who has desecrated the temples of\nthe Gods of Mars, who has violated the persons of the Holy Therns\nthemselves and turned a world against its age-old religion.  Before\nyou, in your power, Jeddak of Kaol, Defender of the Holies, stands\nJohn Carter, Prince of Helium!\"\n\nKulan Tith looked toward Matai Shang as though for corroboration\nof these charges.  The Holy Thern nodded his head.\n\n\"It is indeed the arch-blasphemer,\" he said.  \"Even now he has\nfollowed me to the very heart of thy palace, Kulan Tith, for the\nsole purpose of assassinating me.  He--\"\n\n\"He lies!\" I cried.  \"Kulan Tith, listen that you may know the\ntruth.  Listen while I tell you why John Carter has followed Matai\nShang to the heart of thy palace.  Listen to me as well as to them,\nand then judge if my acts be not more in accord with true Barsoomian\nchivalry and honor than those of these revengeful devotees of the\nspurious creeds from whose cruel bonds I have freed your planet.\"\n\n\"Silence!\" roared the jeddak, leaping to his feet and laying his\nhand upon the hilt of his sword.  \"Silence, blasphemer!  Kulan Tith\nneed not permit the air of his audience chamber to be defiled by\nthe heresies that issue from your polluted throat to judge you.\n\n\"You stand already self-condemned.  It but remains to determine\nthe manner of your death.  Even the service that you rendered the\narms of Kaol shall avail you naught; it was but a base subterfuge\nwhereby you might win your way into my favor and reach the side\nof this holy man whose life you craved.  To the pits with him!\" he\nconcluded, addressing the officer of my guard.\n\nHere was a pretty pass, indeed!  What chance had I against a whole\nnation?  What hope for me of mercy at the hands of the fanatical\nKulan Tith with such advisers as Matai Shang and Thurid.  The black\ngrinned malevolently in my face.\n\n\"You shall not escape this time, Earth man,\" he taunted.\n\nThe guards closed toward me.  A red haze blurred my vision.  The\nfighting blood of my Virginian sires coursed hot through my veins.\nThe lust of battle in all its mad fury was upon me.\n\nWith a leap I was beside Thurid, and ere the devilish smirk had\nfaded from his handsome face I had caught him full upon the mouth\nwith my clenched fist; and as the good, old American blow landed,\nthe black dator shot back a dozen feet, to crumple in a heap at\nthe foot of Kulan Tith's throne, spitting blood and teeth from his\nhurt mouth.\n\nThen I drew my sword and swung round, on guard, to face a nation.\n\nIn an instant the guardsmen were upon me, but before a blow had\nbeen struck a mighty voice rose above the din of shouting warriors,\nand a giant figure leaped from the dais beside Kulan Tith and, with\ndrawn long-sword, threw himself between me and my adversaries.\n\nIt was the visiting jeddak.\n\n\"Hold!\" he cried.  \"If you value my friendship, Kulan Tith, and the\nage-old peace that has existed between our peoples, call off your\nswordsmen; for wherever or against whomsoever fights John Carter,\nPrince of Helium, there beside him and to the death fights Thuvan\nDihn, Jeddak of Ptarth.\"\n\nThe shouting ceased and the menacing points were lowered as a\nthousand eyes turned first toward Thuvan Dihn in surprise and then\ntoward Kulan Tith in question.  At first the Jeddak of Kaol went\nwhite in rage, but before he spoke he had mastered himself, so\nthat his tone was calm and even as befitted intercourse between\ntwo great jeddaks.\n\n\"Thuvan Dihn,\" he said slowly, \"must have great provocation thus\nto desecrate the ancient customs which inspire the deportment of\na guest within the palace of his host.  Lest I, too, should forget\nmyself as has my royal friend, I should prefer to remain silent\nuntil the Jeddak of Ptarth has won from me applause for his action\nby relating the causes which provoked it.\"\n\nI could see that the Jeddak of Ptarth was of half a mind to throw\nhis metal in Kulan Tith's face, but he controlled himself even as\nwell as had his host.\n\n\"None knows better than Thuvan Dihn,\" he said, \"the laws which govern\nthe acts of men in the domains of their neighbors; but Thuvan Dihn\nowes allegiance to a higher law than these--the law of gratitude.\nNor to any man upon Barsoom does he owe a greater debt of gratitude\nthan to John Carter, Prince of Helium.\n\n\"Years ago, Kulan Tith,\" he continued, \"upon the occasion of your\nlast visit to me, you were greatly taken with the charms and graces\nof my only daughter, Thuvia.  You saw how I adored her, and later\nyou learned that, inspired by some unfathomable whim, she had\ntaken the last, long, voluntary pilgrimage upon the cold bosom of\nthe mysterious Iss, leaving me desolate.\n\n\"Some months ago I first heard of the expedition which John Carter\nhad led against Issus and the Holy Therns.  Faint rumors of the\natrocities reported to have been committed by the therns upon those\nwho for countless ages have floated down the mighty Iss came to my\nears.\n\n\"I heard that thousands of prisoners had been released, few of\nwhom dared to return to their own countries owing to the mandate of\nterrible death which rests against all who return from the Valley\nDor.\n\n\"For a time I could not believe the heresies which I heard, and\nI prayed that my daughter Thuvia might have died before she ever\ncommitted the sacrilege of returning to the outer world.  But then\nmy father's love asserted itself, and I vowed that I would prefer\neternal damnation to further separation from her if she could be\nfound.\n\n\"So I sent emissaries to Helium, and to the court of Xodar, Jeddak\nof the First Born, and to him who now rules those of the thern\nnation that have renounced their religion; and from each and all\nI heard the same story of unspeakable cruelties and atrocities\nperpetrated upon the poor defenseless victims of their religion by\nthe Holy Therns.\n\n\"Many there were who had seen or known my daughter, and from therns\nwho had been close to Matai Shang I learned of the indignities that\nhe personally heaped upon her; and I was glad when I came here to\nfind that Matai Shang was also your guest, for I should have sought\nhim out had it taken a lifetime.\n\n\"More, too, I heard, and that of the chivalrous kindness that John\nCarter had accorded my daughter.  They told me how he fought for\nher and rescued her, and how he spurned escape from the savage\nWarhoons of the south, sending her to safety upon his own thoat\nand remaining upon foot to meet the green warriors.\n\n\"Can you wonder, Kulan Tith, that I am willing to jeopardize\nmy life, the peace of my nation, or even your friendship, which I\nprize more than aught else, to champion the Prince of Helium?\"\n\nFor a moment Kulan Tith was silent.  I could see by the expression\nof his face that he was sore perplexed.  Then he spoke.\n\n\"Thuvan Dihn,\" he said, and his tone was friendly though sad,\n\"who am I to judge my fellow-man?  In my eyes the Father of Therns\nis still holy, and the religion which he teaches the only true\nreligion, but were I faced by the same problem that has vexed you\nI doubt not that I should feel and act precisely as you have.\n\n\"In so far as the Prince of Helium is concerned I may act, but between\nyou and Matai Shang my only office can be one of conciliation.  The\nPrince of Helium shall be escorted in safety to the boundary of\nmy domain ere the sun has set again, where he shall be free to go\nwhither he will; but upon pain of death must he never again enter\nthe land of Kaol.\n\n\"If there be a quarrel between you and the Father of Therns, I\nneed not ask that the settlement of it be deferred until both have\npassed beyond the limits of my power.  Are you satisfied, Thuvan\nDihn?\"\n\nThe Jeddak of Ptarth nodded his assent, but the ugly scowl that he\nbent upon Matai Shang harbored ill for that pasty-faced godling.\n\n\"The Prince of Helium is far from satisfied,\" I cried, breaking\nrudely in upon the beginnings of peace, for I had no stomach for\npeace at the price that had been named.\n\n\"I have escaped death in a dozen forms to follow Matai Shang and\novertake him, and I do not intend to be led, like a decrepit thoat\nto the slaughter, from the goal that I have won by the prowess of\nmy sword arm and the might of my muscles.\n\n\"Nor will Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth, be satisfied when he has\nheard me through.  Do you know why I have followed Matai Shang and\nThurid, the black dator, from the forests of the Valley Dor across\nhalf a world through almost insurmountable difficulties?\n\n\"Think you that John Carter, Prince of Helium, would stoop to\nassassination?  Can Kulan Tith be such a fool as to believe that\nlie, whispered in his ear by the Holy Thern or Dator Thurid?\n\n\"I do not follow Matai Shang to kill him, though the God of mine\nown planet knows that my hands itch to be at his throat.  I follow\nhim, Thuvan Dihn, because with him are two prisoners--my wife, Dejah\nThoris, Princess of Helium, and your daughter, Thuvia of Ptarth.\n\n\"Now think you that I shall permit myself to be led beyond the\nwalls of Kaol unless the mother of my son accompanies me, and thy\ndaughter be restored?\"\n\nThuvan Dihn turned upon Kulan Tith.  Rage flamed in his keen eyes;\nbut by the masterfulness of his self-control he kept his tones\nlevel as he spoke.\n\n\"Knew you this thing, Kulan Tith?\" he asked.  \"Knew you that my\ndaughter lay a prisoner in your palace?\"\n\n\"He could not know it,\" interrupted Matai Shang, white with what\nI am sure was more fear than rage.  \"He could not know it, for it\nis a lie.\"\n\nI would have had his life for that upon the spot, but even as I\nsprang toward him Thuvan Dihn laid a heavy hand upon my shoulder.\n\n\"Wait,\" he said to me, and then to Kulan Tith.  \"It is not a lie.\nThis much have I learned of the Prince of Helium--he does not lie.\nAnswer me, Kulan Tith--I have asked you a question.\"\n\n\"Three women came with the Father of Therns,\" replied Kulan Tith.\n\"Phaidor, his daughter, and two who were reported to be her slaves.\nIf these be Thuvia of Ptarth and Dejah Thoris of Helium I did not\nknow it--I have seen neither.  But if they be, then shall they be\nreturned to you on the morrow.\"\n\nAs he spoke he looked straight at Matai Shang, not as a devotee\nshould look at a high priest, but as a ruler of men looks at one\nto whom he issues a command.\n\nIt must have been plain to the Father of Therns, as it was to me,\nthat the recent disclosures of his true character had done much\nalready to weaken the faith of Kulan Tith, and that it would require\nbut little more to turn the powerful jeddak into an avowed enemy;\nbut so strong are the seeds of superstition that even the great\nKaolian still hesitated to cut the final strand that bound him to\nhis ancient religion.\n\nMatai Shang was wise enough to seem to accept the mandate of his\nfollower, and promised to bring the two slave women to the audience\nchamber on the morrow.\n\n\"It is almost morning now,\" he said, \"and I should dislike to break\nin upon the slumber of my daughter, or I would have them fetched\nat once that you might see that the Prince of Helium is mistaken,\"\nand he emphasized the last word in an effort to affront me so\nsubtlely that I could not take open offense.\n\nI was about to object to any delay, and demand that the Princess\nof Helium be brought to me forthwith, when Thuvan Dihn made such\ninsistence seem unnecessary.\n\n\"I should like to see my daughter at once,\" he said, \"but if Kulan\nTith will give me his assurance that none will be permitted to\nleave the palace this night, and that no harm shall befall either\nDejah Thoris or Thuvia of Ptarth between now and the moment they\nare brought into our presence in this chamber at daylight I shall\nnot insist.\"\n\n\"None shall leave the palace tonight,\" replied the Jeddak of Kaol,\n\"and Matai Shang will give us assurance that no harm will come to\nthe two women?\"\n\nThe thern assented with a nod.  A few moments later Kulan Tith\nindicated that the audience was at an end, and at Thuvan Dihn's\ninvitation I accompanied the Jeddak of Ptarth to his own apartments,\nwhere we sat until daylight, while he listened to the account of\nmy experiences upon his planet and to all that had befallen his\ndaughter during the time that we had been together.\n\nI found the father of Thuvia a man after my own heart, and that\nnight saw the beginning of a friendship which has grown until it\nis second only to that which obtains between Tars Tarkas, the green\nJeddak of Thark, and myself.\n\nThe first burst of Mars's sudden dawn brought messengers from Kulan\nTith, summoning us to the audience chamber where Thuvan Dihn was\nto receive his daughter after years of separation, and I was to\nbe reunited with the glorious daughter of Helium after an almost\nunbroken separation of twelve years.\n\nMy heart pounded within my bosom until I looked about me in\nembarrassment, so sure was I that all within the room must hear.\nMy arms ached to enfold once more the divine form of her whose\neternal youth and undying beauty were but outward manifestations\nof a perfect soul.\n\nAt last the messenger despatched to fetch Matai Shang returned.  I\ncraned my neck to catch the first glimpse of those who should be\nfollowing, but the messenger was alone.\n\nHalting before the throne he addressed his jeddak in a voice that\nwas plainly audible to all within the chamber.\n\n\"O Kulan Tith, Mightiest of Jeddaks,\" he cried, after the fashion\nof the court, \"your messenger returns alone, for when he reached\nthe apartments of the Father of Therns he found them empty, as were\nthose occupied by his suite.\"\n\nKulan Tith went white.\n\nA low groan burst from the lips of Thuvan Dihn who stood next me,\nnot having ascended the throne which awaited him beside his host.\nFor a moment the silence of death reigned in the great audience\nchamber of Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol.  It was he who broke the\nspell.\n\nRising from his throne he stepped down from the dais to the side\nof Thuvan Dihn.  Tears dimmed his eyes as he placed both his hands\nupon the shoulders of his friend.\n\n\"O Thuvan Dihn,\" he cried, \"that this should have happened in the\npalace of thy best friend!  With my own hands would I have wrung\nthe neck of Matai Shang had I guessed what was in his foul heart.\nLast night my life-long faith was weakened--this morning it has\nbeen shattered; but too late, too late.\n\n\"To wrest your daughter and the wife of this royal warrior from the\nclutches of these archfiends you have but to command the resources\nof a mighty nation, for all Kaol is at your disposal.  What may be\ndone?  Say the word!\"\n\n\"First,\" I suggested, \"let us find those of your people who\nbe responsible for the escape of Matai Shang and his followers.\nWithout assistance on the part of the palace guard this thing could\nnot have come to pass.  Seek the guilty, and from them force an\nexplanation of the manner of their going and the direction they\nhave taken.\"\n\nBefore Kulan Tith could issue the commands that would initiate the\ninvestigation a handsome young officer stepped forward and addressed\nhis jeddak.\n\n\"O Kulan Tith, Mightiest of Jeddaks,\" he said, \"I alone be responsible\nfor this grievous error.  Last night it was I who commanded the\npalace guard.  I was on duty in other parts of the palace during the\naudience of the early morning, and knew nothing of what transpired\nthen, so that when the Father of Therns summoned me and explained\nthat it was your wish that his party be hastened from the city\nbecause of the presence here of a deadly enemy who sought the Holy\nHekkador's life I did only what a lifetime of training has taught\nme was the proper thing to do--I obeyed him whom I believed to be\nthe ruler of us all, mightier even than thou, mightiest of jeddaks.\n\n\"Let the consequences and the punishment fall on me alone, for I\nalone am guilty.  Those others of the palace guard who assisted in\nthe flight did so under my instructions.\"\n\nKulan Tith looked first at me and then at Thuvan Dihn, as though\nto ask our judgment upon the man, but the error was so evidently\nexcusable that neither of us had any mind to see the young officer\nsuffer for a mistake that any might readily have made.\n\n\"How left they,\" asked Thuvan Dihn, \"and what direction did they\ntake?\"\n\n\"They left as they came,\" replied the officer, \"upon their own\nflier.  For some time after they had departed I watched the vessel's\nlights, which vanished finally due north.\"\n\n\"Where north could Matai Shang find an asylum?\" asked Thuvan Dihn\nof Kulan Tith.\n\nFor some moments the Jeddak of Kaol stood with bowed head, apparently\ndeep in thought.  Then a sudden light brightened his countenance.\n\n\"I have it!\" he cried.  \"Only yesterday Matai Shang let drop a hint\nof his destination, telling me of a race of people unlike ourselves\nwho dwell far to the north.  They, he said, had always been known\nto the Holy Therns and were devout and faithful followers of the\nancient cult.  Among them would he find a perpetual haven of refuge,\nwhere no 'lying heretics' might seek him out.  It is there that\nMatai Shang has gone.\"\n\n\"And in all Kaol there be no flier wherein to follow,\" I cried.\n\n\"Nor nearer than Ptarth,\" replied Thuvan Dihn.\n\n\"Wait!\" I exclaimed, \"beyond the southern fringe of this great\nforest lies the wreck of the thern flier which brought me that far\nupon my way.  If you will loan me men to fetch it, and artificers\nto assist me, I can repair it in two days, Kulan Tith.\"\n\nI had been more than half suspicious of the seeming sincerity of\nthe Kaolian jeddak's sudden apostasy, but the alacrity with which\nhe embraced my suggestion, and the despatch with which a force of\nofficers and men were placed at my disposal entirely removed the\nlast vestige of my doubts.\n\nTwo days later the flier rested upon the top of the watchtower,\nready to depart.  Thuvan Dihn and Kulan Tith had offered me the\nentire resources of two nations--millions of fighting men were at\nmy disposal; but my flier could hold but one other than myself and\nWoola.\n\nAs I stepped aboard her, Thuvan Dihn took his place beside me.  I\ncast a look of questioning surprise upon him.  He turned to the\nhighest of his own officers who had accompanied him to Kaol.\n\n\"To you I entrust the return of my retinue to Ptarth,\" he said.\n\"There my son rules ably in my absence.  The Prince of Helium shall\nnot go alone into the land of his enemies.  I have spoken.  Farewell!\"\n\n\n\n\nTHROUGH THE CARRION CAVES\n\n\nStraight toward the north, day and night, our destination compass\nled us after the fleeing flier upon which it had remained set since\nI first attuned it after leaving the thern fortress.\n\nEarly in the second night we noticed the air becoming perceptibly\ncolder, and from the distance we had come from the equator were\nassured that we were rapidly approaching the north arctic region.\n\nMy knowledge of the efforts that had been made by countless\nexpeditions to explore that unknown land bade me to caution, for\nnever had flier returned who had passed to any considerable distance\nbeyond the mighty ice-barrier that fringes the southern hem of the\nfrigid zone.\n\nWhat became of them none knew--only that they passed forever out\nof the sight of man into that grim and mysterious country of the\npole.\n\nThe distance from the barrier to the pole was no more than a swift\nflier should cover in a few hours, and so it was assumed that some\nfrightful catastrophe awaited those who reached the \"forbidden land,\"\nas it had come to be called by the Martians of the outer world.\n\nThus it was that I went more slowly as we approached the barrier,\nfor it was my intention to move cautiously by day over the ice-pack\nthat I might discover, before I had run into a trap, if there\nreally lay an inhabited country at the north pole, for there only\ncould I imagine a spot where Matai Shang might feel secure from\nJohn Carter, Prince of Helium.\n\nWe were flying at a snail's pace but a few feet above the\nground--literally feeling our way along through the darkness, for\nboth moons had set, and the night was black with the clouds that\nare to be found only at Mars's two extremities.\n\nSuddenly a towering wall of white rose directly in our path, and\nthough I threw the helm hard over, and reversed our engine, I was\ntoo late to avoid collision. With a sickening crash we struck the\nhigh looming obstacle three-quarters on.\n\nThe flier reeled half over; the engine stopped; as one, the patched\nbuoyancy tanks burst, and we plunged, headforemost, to the ground\ntwenty feet beneath.\n\nFortunately none of us was injured, and when we had disentangled\nourselves from the wreckage, and the lesser moon had burst again from\nbelow the horizon, we found that we were at the foot of a mighty\nice-barrier, from which outcropped great patches of the granite\nhills which hold it from encroaching farther toward the south.\n\nWhat fate!  With the journey all but completed to be thus wrecked\nupon the wrong side of that precipitous and unscalable wall of rock\nand ice!\n\nI looked at Thuvan Dihn.  He but shook his head dejectedly.\n\nThe balance of the night we spent shivering in our inadequate\nsleeping silks and furs upon the snow that lies at the foot of the\nice-barrier.\n\nWith daylight my battered spirits regained something of their\naccustomed hopefulness, though I must admit that there was little\nenough for them to feed upon.\n\n\"What shall we do?\" asked Thuvan Dihn.  \"How may we pass that which\nis impassable?\"\n\n\"First we must disprove its impassability,\" I replied.  \"Nor shall\nI admit that it is impassable before I have followed its entire\ncircle and stand again upon this spot, defeated.  The sooner we\nstart, the better, for I see no other way, and it will take us more\nthan a month to travel the weary, frigid miles that lie before us.\"\n\nFor five days of cold and suffering and privation we traversed the\nrough and frozen way which lies at the foot of the ice-barrier.\nFierce, fur-bearing creatures attacked us by daylight and by dark.\nNever for a moment were we safe from the sudden charge of some huge\ndemon of the north.\n\nThe apt was our most consistent and dangerous foe.\n\nIt is a huge, white-furred creature with six limbs, four of which,\nshort and heavy, carry it swiftly over the snow and ice; while the\nother two, growing forward from its shoulders on either side of\nits long, powerful neck, terminate in white, hairless hands, with\nwhich it seizes and holds its prey.\n\nIts head and mouth are more similar in appearance to those of a\nhippopotamus than to any other earthly animal, except that from\nthe sides of the lower jawbone two mighty horns curve slightly\ndownward toward the front.\n\nIts two huge eyes inspired my greatest curiosity.  They extend in\ntwo vast, oval patches from the center of the top of the cranium\ndown either side of the head to below the roots of the horns, so\nthat these weapons really grow out from the lower part of the eyes,\nwhich are composed of several thousand ocelli each.\n\nThis eye structure seemed remarkable in a beast whose haunts were\nupon a glaring field of ice and snow, and though I found upon\nminute examination of several that we killed that each ocellus is\nfurnished with its own lid, and that the animal can at will close\nas many of the facets of his huge eyes as he chooses, yet I was\npositive that nature had thus equipped him because much of his life\nwas to be spent in dark, subterranean recesses.\n\nShortly after this we came upon the hugest apt that we had seen.\nThe creature stood fully eight feet at the shoulder, and was so\nsleek and clean and glossy that I could have sworn that he had but\nrecently been groomed.\n\nHe stood head-on eyeing us as we approached him, for we had found\nit a waste of time to attempt to escape the perpetual bestial rage\nwhich seems to possess these demon creatures, who rove the dismal\nnorth attacking every living thing that comes within the scope of\ntheir far-seeing eyes.\n\nEven when their bellies are full and they can eat no more, they\nkill purely for the pleasure which they derive from taking life,\nand so when this particular apt failed to charge us, and instead\nwheeled and trotted away as we neared him, I should have been greatly\nsurprised had I not chanced to glimpse the sheen of a golden collar\nabout its neck.\n\nThuvan Dihn saw it, too, and it carried the same message of hope\nto us both.  Only man could have placed that collar there, and as\nno race of Martians of which we knew aught ever had attempted to\ndomesticate the ferocious apt, he must belong to a people of the\nnorth of whose very existence we were ignorant--possibly to the\nfabled yellow men of Barsoom; that once powerful race which was\nsupposed to be extinct, though sometimes, by theorists, thought\nstill to exist in the frozen north.\n\nSimultaneously we started upon the trail of the great beast.\nWoola was quickly made to understand our desires, so that it was\nunnecessary to attempt to keep in sight of the animal whose swift\nflight over the rough ground soon put him beyond our vision.\n\nFor the better part of two hours the trail paralleled the barrier,\nand then suddenly turned toward it through the roughest and seemingly\nmost impassable country I ever had beheld.\n\nEnormous granite boulders blocked the way on every hand; deep rifts\nin the ice threatened to engulf us at the least misstep; and from\nthe north a slight breeze wafted to our nostrils an unspeakable\nstench that almost choked us.\n\nFor another two hours we were occupied in traversing a few hundred\nyards to the foot of the barrier.\n\nThen, turning about the corner of a wall-like outcropping of granite,\nwe came upon a smooth area of two or three acres before the base\nof the towering pile of ice and rock that had baffled us for days,\nand before us beheld the dark and cavernous mouth of a cave.\n\nFrom this repelling portal the horrid stench was emanating, and\nas Thuvan Dihn espied the place he halted with an exclamation of\nprofound astonishment.\n\n\"By all my ancestors!\" he ejaculated.  \"That I should have lived to\nwitness the reality of the fabled Carrion Caves!  If these indeed\nbe they, we have found a way beyond the ice-barrier.\n\n\"The ancient chronicles of the first historians of Barsoom--so\nancient that we have for ages considered them mythology--record\nthe passing of the yellow men from the ravages of the green hordes\nthat overran Barsoom as the drying up of the great oceans drove\nthe dominant races from their strongholds.\n\n\"They tell of the wanderings of the remnants of this once powerful\nrace, harassed at every step, until at last they found a way through\nthe ice-barrier of the north to a fertile valley at the pole.\n\n\"At the opening to the subterranean passage that led to their haven\nof refuge a mighty battle was fought in which the yellow men were\nvictorious, and within the caves that gave ingress to their new\nhome they piled the bodies of the dead, both yellow and green, that\nthe stench might warn away their enemies from further pursuit.\n\n\"And ever since that long-gone day have the dead of this fabled\nland been carried to the Carrion Caves, that in death and decay they\nmight serve their country and warn away invading enemies.  Here,\ntoo, is brought, so the fable runs, all the waste stuff of the\nnation--everything that is subject to rot, and that can add to the\nfoul stench that assails our nostrils.\n\n\"And death lurks at every step among rotting dead, for here the fierce\napts lair, adding to the putrid accumulation with the fragments of\ntheir own prey which they cannot devour.  It is a horrid avenue to\nour goal, but it is the only one.\"\n\n\"You are sure, then, that we have found the way to the land of the\nyellow men?\" I cried.\n\n\"As sure as may be,\" he replied; \"having only ancient legend to\nsupport my belief.  But see how closely, so far, each detail tallies\nwith the world-old story of the hegira of the yellow race.  Yes,\nI am sure that we have discovered the way to their ancient hiding\nplace.\"\n\n\"If it be true, and let us pray that such may be the case,\" I said,\n\"then here may we solve the mystery of the disappearance of Tardos\nMors, Jeddak of Helium, and Mors Kajak, his son, for no other spot\nupon Barsoom has remained unexplored by the many expeditions and\nthe countless spies that have been searching for them for nearly\ntwo years.  The last word that came from them was that they sought\nCarthoris, my own brave son, beyond the ice-barrier.\"\n\nAs we talked we had been approaching the entrance to the cave, and\nas we crossed the threshold I ceased to wonder that the ancient\ngreen enemies of the yellow men had been halted by the horrors of\nthat awful way.\n\nThe bones of dead men lay man high upon the broad floor of the first\ncave, and over all was a putrid mush of decaying flesh, through\nwhich the apts had beaten a hideous trail toward the entrance to\nthe second cave beyond.\n\nThe roof of this first apartment was low, like all that we traversed\nsubsequently, so that the foul odors were confined and condensed\nto such an extent that they seemed to possess tangible substance.\nOne was almost tempted to draw his short-sword and hew his way\nthrough in search of pure air beyond.\n\n\"Can man breathe this polluted air and live?\" asked Thuvan Dihn,\nchoking.\n\n\"Not for long, I imagine,\" I replied; \"so let us make haste.  I\nwill go first, and you bring up the rear, with Woola between.\nCome,\" and with the words I dashed forward, across the fetid mass\nof putrefaction.\n\nIt was not until we had passed through seven caves of different sizes\nand varying but little in the power and quality of their stenches\nthat we met with any physical opposition.  Then, within the eighth\ncave, we came upon a lair of apts.\n\nA full score of the mighty beasts were disposed about the chamber.\nSome were sleeping, while others tore at the fresh-killed carcasses\nof new-brought prey, or fought among themselves in their love-making.\n\nHere in the dim light of their subterranean home the value of\ntheir great eyes was apparent, for these inner caves are shrouded\nin perpetual gloom that is but little less than utter darkness.\n\nTo attempt to pass through the midst of that fierce herd seemed,\neven to me, the height of folly, and so I proposed to Thuvan Dihn\nthat he return to the outer world with Woola, that the two might\nfind their way to civilization and come again with a sufficient\nforce to overcome not only the apts, but any further obstacles that\nmight lie between us and our goal.\n\n\"In the meantime,\" I continued, \"I may discover some means of\nwinning my way alone to the land of the yellow men, but if I am\nunsuccessful one life only will have been sacrificed.  Should we\nall go on and perish, there will be none to guide a succoring party\nto Dejah Thoris and your daughter.\"\n\n\"I shall not return and leave you here alone, John Carter,\" replied\nThuvan Dihn.  \"Whether you go on to victory or death, the Jeddak\nof Ptarth remains at your side.  I have spoken.\"\n\nI knew from his tone that it were useless to attempt to argue the\nquestion, and so I compromised by sending Woola back with a hastily\npenned note enclosed in a small metal case and fastened about\nhis neck.  I commanded the faithful creature to seek Carthoris at\nHelium, and though half a world and countless dangers lay between\nI knew that if the thing could be done Woola would do it.\n\nEquipped as he was by nature with marvelous speed and endurance,\nand with frightful ferocity that made him a match for any single\nenemy of the way, his keen intelligence and wondrous instinct\nshould easily furnish all else that was needed for the successful\naccomplishment of his mission.\n\nIt was with evident reluctance that the great beast turned to leave\nme in compliance with my command, and ere he had gone I could not\nresist the inclination to throw my arms about his great neck in a\nparting hug.  He rubbed his cheek against mine in a final caress,\nand a moment later was speeding through the Carrion Caves toward\nthe outer world.\n\nIn my note to Carthoris I had given explicit directions for locating\nthe Carrion Caves, impressing upon him the necessity for making\nentrance to the country beyond through this avenue, and not to attempt\nunder any circumstances to cross the ice-barrier with a fleet.  I\ntold him that what lay beyond the eighth cave I could not even\nguess; but I was sure that somewhere upon the other side of the\nice-barrier his mother lay in the power of Matai Shang, and that\npossibly his grandfather and great-grandfather as well, if they\nlived.\n\nFurther, I advised him to call upon Kulan Tith and the son of\nThuvan Dihn for warriors and ships that the expedition might be\nsufficiently strong to insure success at the first blow.\n\n\"And,\" I concluded, \"if there be time bring Tars Tarkas with you,\nfor if I live until you reach me I can think of few greater pleasures\nthan to fight once more, shoulder to shoulder, with my old friend.\"\n\nWhen Woola had left us Thuvan Dihn and I, hiding in the seventh\ncave, discussed and discarded many plans for crossing the eighth\nchamber.  From where we stood we saw that the fighting among the\napts was growing less, and that many that had been feeding had\nceased and lain down to sleep.\n\nPresently it became apparent that in a short time all the ferocious\nmonsters might be peacefully slumbering, and thus a hazardous\nopportunity be presented to us to cross through their lair.\n\nOne by one the remaining brutes stretched themselves upon the\nbubbling decomposition that covered the mass of bones upon the\nfloor of their den, until but a single apt remained awake.  This\nhuge fellow roamed restlessly about, nosing among his companions\nand the abhorrent litter of the cave.\n\nOccasionally he would stop to peer intently toward first one of\nthe exits from the chamber and then the other.  His whole demeanor\nwas as of one who acts as sentry.\n\nWe were at last forced to the belief that he would not sleep\nwhile the other occupants of the lair slept, and so cast about in\nour minds for some scheme whereby we might trick him.  Finally I\nsuggested a plan to Thuvan Dihn, and as it seemed as good as any\nthat we had discussed we decided to put it to the test.\n\nTo this end Thuvan Dihn placed himself close against the cave's\nwall, beside the entrance to the eighth chamber, while I deliberately\nshowed myself to the guardian apt as he looked toward our retreat.\nThen I sprang to the opposite side of the entrance, flattening my\nbody close to the wall.\n\nWithout a sound the great beast moved rapidly toward the seventh\ncave to see what manner of intruder had thus rashly penetrated so\nfar within the precincts of his habitation.\n\nAs he poked his head through the narrow aperture that connects the\ntwo caves a heavy long-sword was awaiting him upon either hand,\nand before he had an opportunity to emit even a single growl his\nsevered head rolled at our feet.\n\nQuickly we glanced into the eighth chamber--not an apt had moved.\nCrawling over the carcass of the huge beast that blocked the doorway\nThuvan Dihn and I cautiously entered the forbidding and dangerous\nden.\n\nLike snails we wound our silent and careful way among the huge,\nrecumbent forms.  The only sound above our breathing was the sucking\nnoise of our feet as we lifted them from the ooze of decaying flesh\nthrough which we crept.\n\nHalfway across the chamber and one of the mighty beasts directly\nbefore me moved restlessly at the very instant that my foot was\npoised above his head, over which I must step.\n\nBreathlessly I waited, balancing upon one foot, for I did not dare\nmove a muscle.  In my right hand was my keen short-sword, the point\nhovering an inch above the thick fur beneath which beat the savage\nheart.\n\nFinally the apt relaxed, sighing, as with the passing of a bad dream,\nand resumed the regular respiration of deep slumber.  I planted my\nraised foot beyond the fierce head and an instant later had stepped\nover the beast.\n\nThuvan Dihn followed directly after me, and another moment found\nus at the further door, undetected.\n\nThe Carrion Caves consist of a series of twenty-seven connecting\nchambers, and present the appearance of having been eroded by\nrunning water in some far-gone age when a mighty river found its\nway to the south through this single breach in the barrier of rock\nand ice that hems the country of the pole.\n\nThuvan Dihn and I traversed the remaining nineteen caverns without\nadventure or mishap.\n\nWe were afterward to learn that but once a month is it possible to\nfind all the apts of the Carrion Caves in a single chamber.\n\nAt other times they roam singly or in pairs in and out of the\ncaves, so that it would have been practically impossible for two\nmen to have passed through the entire twenty-seven chambers without\nencountering an apt in nearly every one of them.  Once a month\nthey sleep for a full day, and it was our good fortune to stumble\nby accident upon one of these occasions.\n\nBeyond the last cave we emerged into a desolate country of snow\nand ice, but found a well-marked trail leading north.  The way was\nboulder-strewn, as had been that south of the barrier, so that we\ncould see but a short distance ahead of us at any time.\n\nAfter a couple of hours we passed round a huge boulder to come to\na steep declivity leading down into a valley.\n\nDirectly before us we saw a half dozen men--fierce, black-bearded\nfellows, with skins the color of a ripe lemon.\n\n\"The yellow men of Barsoom!\" ejaculated Thuvan Dihn, as though\neven now that he saw them he found it scarce possible to believe\nthat the very race we expected to find hidden in this remote and\ninaccessible land did really exist.\n\nWe withdrew behind an adjacent boulder to watch the actions of\nthe little party, which stood huddled at the foot of another huge\nrock, their backs toward us.\n\nOne of them was peering round the edge of the granite mass as though\nwatching one who approached from the opposite side.\n\nPresently the object of his scrutiny came within the range of my\nvision and I saw that it was another yellow man.  All were clothed\nin magnificent furs--the six in the black and yellow striped hide\nof the orluk, while he who approached alone was resplendent in the\npure white skin of an apt.\n\nThe yellow men were armed with two swords, and a short javelin\nwas slung across the back of each, while from their left arms hung\ncuplike shields no larger than a dinner plate, the concave sides\nof which turned outward toward an antagonist.\n\nThey seemed puny and futile implements of safety against an even\nordinary swordsman, but I was later to see the purpose of them and\nwith what wondrous dexterity the yellow men manipulate them.\n\nOne of the swords which each of the warriors carried caught\nmy immediate attention.  I call it a sword, but really it was a\nsharp-edged blade with a complete hook at the far end.\n\nThe other sword was of about the same length as the hooked instrument,\nand somewhere between that of my long-sword and my short-sword.\nIt was straight and two-edged.  In addition to the weapons I have\nenumerated each man carried a dagger in his harness.\n\nAs the white-furred one approached, the six grasped their swords\nmore firmly--the hooked instrument in the left hand, the straight\nsword in the right, while above the left wrist the small shield\nwas held rigid upon a metal bracelet.\n\nAs the lone warrior came opposite them the six rushed out upon him\nwith fiendish yells that resembled nothing more closely than the\nsavage war cry of the Apaches of the South-west.\n\nInstantly the attacked drew both his swords, and as the six fell\nupon him I witnessed as pretty fighting as one might care to see.\n\nWith their sharp hooks the combatants attempted to take hold of\nan adversary, but like lightning the cupshaped shield would spring\nbefore the darting weapon and into its hollow the hook would plunge.\n\nOnce the lone warrior caught an antagonist in the side with his\nhook, and drawing him close ran his sword through him.\n\nBut the odds were too unequal, and, though he who fought alone was\nby far the best and bravest of them all, I saw that it was but a\nquestion of time before the remaining five would find an opening\nthrough his marvelous guard and bring him down.\n\nNow my sympathies have ever been with the weaker side of an argument,\nand though I knew nothing of the cause of the trouble I could not\nstand idly by and see a brave man butchered by superior numbers.\n\nAs a matter of fact I presume I gave little attention to seeking an\nexcuse, for I love a good fight too well to need any other reason\nfor joining in when one is afoot.\n\nSo it was that before Thuvan Dihn knew what I was about he saw me\nstanding by the side of the white-clad yellow man, battling like\nmad with his five adversaries.\n\n\n\n\nWITH THE YELLOW MEN\n\n\nThuvan Dihn was not long in joining me; and, though we found the\nhooked weapon a strange and savage thing with which to deal, the\nthree of us soon despatched the five black-bearded warriors who\nopposed us.\n\nWhen the battle was over our new acquaintance turned to me, and\nremoving the shield from his wrist, held it out.  I did not know\nthe significance of his act, but judged that it was but a form of\nexpressing his gratitude to me.\n\nI afterward learned that it symbolized the offering of a man's life\nin return for some great favor done him; and my act of refusing,\nwhich I had immediately done, was what was expected of me.\n\n\"Then accept from Talu, Prince of Marentina,\" said the yellow man,\n\"this token of my gratitude,\" and reaching beneath one of his wide\nsleeves he withdrew a bracelet and placed it upon my arm.  He then\nwent through the same ceremony with Thuvan Dihn.\n\nNext he asked our names, and from what land we hailed.  He seemed\nquite familiar with the geography of the outerworld, and when I\nsaid I was from Helium he raised his brows.\n\n\"Ah,\" he said, \"you seek your ruler and his company?\"\n\n\"Know you of them?\" I asked.\n\n\"But little more than that they were captured by my uncle, Salensus\nOll, Jeddak of Jeddaks, Ruler of Okar, land of the yellow men of\nBarsoom.  As to their fate I know nothing, for I am at war with my\nuncle, who would crush my power in the principality of Marentina.\n\n\"These from whom you have just saved me are warriors he has sent\nout to find and slay me, for they know that often I come alone to\nhunt and kill the sacred apt which Salensus Oll so much reveres.\nIt is partly because I hate his religion that Salensus Oll hates\nme; but mostly does he fear my growing power and the great faction\nwhich has arisen throughout Okar that would be glad to see me ruler\nof Okar and Jeddak of Jeddaks in his place.\n\n\"He is a cruel and tyrannous master whom all hate, and were it not\nfor the great fear they have of him I could raise an army overnight\nthat would wipe out the few that might remain loyal to him.  My\nown people are faithful to me, and the little valley of Marentina\nhas paid no tribute to the court of Salensus Oll for a year.\n\n\"Nor can he force us, for a dozen men may hold the narrow way to\nMarentina against a million.  But now, as to thine own affairs.\nHow may I aid you?  My palace is at your disposal, if you wish to\nhonor me by coming to Marentina.\"\n\n\"When our work is done we shall be glad to accept your invitation,\"\nI replied.  \"But now you can assist us most by directing us to the\ncourt of Salensus Oll, and suggesting some means by which we may\ngain admission to the city and the palace, or whatever other place\nwe find our friends to be confined.\"\n\nTalu gazed ruefully at our smooth faces and at Thuvan Dihn's red\nskin and my white one.\n\n\"First you must come to Marentina,\" he said, \"for a great change\nmust be wrought in your appearance before you can hope to enter\nany city in Okar.  You must have yellow faces and black beards,\nand your apparel and trappings must be those least likely to arouse\nsuspicion.  In my palace is one who can make you appear as truly\nyellow men as does Salensus Oll himself.\"\n\nHis counsel seemed wise; and as there was apparently no other way\nto insure a successful entry to Kadabra, the capital city of Okar,\nwe set out with Talu, Prince of Marentina, for his little, rock-bound\ncountry.\n\nThe way was over some of the worst traveling I have ever seen, and\nI do not wonder that in this land where there are neither thoats\nnor fliers that Marentina is in little fear of invasion; but at\nlast we reached our destination, the first view of which I had from\na slight elevation a half-mile from the city.\n\nNestled in a deep valley lay a city of Martian concrete, whose\nevery street and plaza and open space was roofed with glass.  All\nabout lay snow and ice, but there was none upon the rounded,\ndomelike, crystal covering that enveloped the whole city.\n\nThen I saw how these people combated the rigors of the arctic, and\nlived in luxury and comfort in the midst of a land of perpetual\nice.  Their cities were veritable hothouses, and when I had come\nwithin this one my respect and admiration for the scientific and\nengineering skill of this buried nation was unbounded.\n\nThe moment we entered the city Talu threw off his outer garments\nof fur, as did we, and I saw that his apparel differed but little\nfrom that of the red races of Barsoom.  Except for his leathern\nharness, covered thick with jewels and metal, he was naked, nor could\none have comfortably worn apparel in that warm and humid atmosphere.\n\nFor three days we remained the guests of Prince Talu, and during\nthat time he showered upon us every attention and courtesy within\nhis power.  He showed us all that was of interest in his great\ncity.\n\nThe Marentina atmosphere plant will maintain life indefinitely in\nthe cities of the north pole after all life upon the balance of\ndying Mars is extinct through the failure of the air supply, should\nthe great central plant again cease functioning as it did upon that\nmemorable occasion that gave me the opportunity of restoring life\nand happiness to the strange world that I had already learned to\nlove so well.\n\nHe showed us the heating system that stores the sun's rays in great\nreservoirs beneath the city, and how little is necessary to maintain\nthe perpetual summer heat of the glorious garden spot within this\narctic paradise.\n\nBroad avenues of sod sewn with the seed of the ocher vegetation\nof the dead sea bottoms carried the noiseless traffic of light and\nairy ground fliers that are the only form of artificial transportation\nused north of the gigantic ice-barrier.\n\nThe broad tires of these unique fliers are but rubber-like gas bags\nfilled with the eighth Barsoomian ray, or ray of propulsion--that\nremarkable discovery of the Martians that has made possible the\ngreat fleets of mighty airships that render the red man of the\nouter world supreme.  It is this ray which propels the inherent\nor reflected light of the planet off into space, and when confined\ngives to the Martian craft their airy buoyancy.\n\nThe ground fliers of Marentina contain just sufficient buoyancy in\ntheir automobile-like wheels to give the cars traction for steering\npurposes; and though the hind wheels are geared to the engine, and\naid in driving the machine, the bulk of this work is carried by a\nsmall propeller at the stern.\n\nI know of no more delightful sensation than that of riding in one\nof these luxuriously appointed cars which skim, light and airy as\nfeathers, along the soft, mossy avenues of Marentina.  They move\nwith absolute noiselessness between borders of crimson sward and\nbeneath arching trees gorgeous with the wondrous blooms that mark\nso many of the highly cultivated varieties of Barsoomian vegetation.\n\nBy the end of the third day the court barber--I can think of no\nother earthly appellation by which to describe him--had wrought\nso remarkable a transformation in both Thuvan Dihn and myself that\nour own wives would never have known us.  Our skins were of the\nsame lemon color as his own, and great, black beards and mustaches\nhad been deftly affixed to our smooth faces.  The trappings of\nwarriors of Okar aided in the deception; and for wear beyond the\nhothouse cities we each had suits of the black- and yellow-striped\norluk.\n\nTalu gave us careful directions for the journey to Kadabra, the\ncapital city of the Okar nation, which is the racial name of the\nyellow men.  This good friend even accompanied us part way, and\nthen, promising to aid us in any way that he found possible, bade\nus adieu.\n\nOn parting he slipped upon my finger a curiously wrought ring set\nwith a dead-black, lusterless stone, which appeared more like a\nbit of bituminous coal than the priceless Barsoomian gem which in\nreality it is.\n\n\"There had been but three others cut from the mother stone,\" he\nsaid, \"which is in my possession.  These three are worn by nobles\nhigh in my confidence, all of whom have been sent on secret missions\nto the court of Salensus Oll.\n\n\"Should you come within fifty feet of any of these three you will\nfeel a rapid, pricking sensation in the finger upon which you wear\nthis ring.  He who wears one of its mates will experience the same\nfeeling; it is caused by an electrical action that takes place the\nmoment two of these gems cut from the same mother stone come within\nthe radius of each other's power.  By it you will know that a friend\nis at hand upon whom you may depend for assistance in time of need.\n\n\"Should another wearer of one of these gems call upon you for aid\ndo not deny him, and should death threaten you swallow the ring\nrather than let it fall into the hands of enemies.  Guard it with\nyour life, John Carter, for some day it may mean more than life to\nyou.\"\n\nWith this parting admonition our good friend turned back toward\nMarentina, and we set our faces in the direction of the city of\nKadabra and the court of Salensus Oll, Jeddak of Jeddaks.\n\nThat very evening we came within sight of the walled and glass-roofed\ncity of Kadabra.  It lies in a low depression near the pole,\nsurrounded by rocky, snow-clad hills.  From the pass through which\nwe entered the valley we had a splendid view of this great city of\nthe north.  Its crystal domes sparkled in the brilliant sunlight\ngleaming above the frost-covered outer wall that circles the entire\none hundred miles of its circumference.\n\nAt regular intervals great gates give entrance to the city; but\neven at the distance from which we looked upon the massive pile\nwe could see that all were closed, and, in accordance with Talu's\nsuggestion, we deferred attempting to enter the city until the\nfollowing morning.\n\nAs he had said, we found numerous caves in the hillsides about\nus, and into one of these we crept for the night.  Our warm orluk\nskins kept us perfectly comfortable, and it was only after a\nmost refreshing sleep that we awoke shortly after daylight on the\nfollowing morning.\n\nAlready the city was astir, and from several of the gates we saw\nparties of yellow men emerging.  Following closely each detail\nof the instructions given us by our good friend of Marentina, we\nremained concealed for several hours until one party of some half\ndozen warriors had passed along the trail below our hiding place\nand entered the hills by way of the pass along which we had come\nthe previous evening.\n\nAfter giving them time to get well out of sight of our cave, Thuvan\nDihn and I crept out and followed them, overtaking them when they\nwere well into the hills.\n\nWhen we had come almost to them I called aloud to their leader, when\nthe whole party halted and turned toward us.  The crucial test had\ncome.  Could we but deceive these men the rest would be comparatively\neasy.\n\n\"Kaor!\" I cried as I came closer to them.\n\n\"Kaor!\" responded the officer in charge of the party.\n\n\"We be from Illall,\" I continued, giving the name of the most remote\ncity of Okar, which has little or no intercourse with Kadabra.\n\"Only yesterday we arrived, and this morning the captain of the\ngate told us that you were setting out to hunt orluks, which is\na sport we do not find in our own neighborhood.  We have hastened\nafter you to pray that you allow us to accompany you.\"\n\nThe officer was entirely deceived, and graciously permitted us to\ngo with them for the day.  The chance guess that they were bound\nupon an orluk hunt proved correct, and Talu had said that the\nchances were ten to one that such would be the mission of any party\nleaving Kadabra by the pass through which we entered the valley,\nsince that way leads directly to the vast plains frequented by this\nelephantine beast of prey.\n\nIn so far as the hunt was concerned, the day was a failure, for\nwe did not see a single orluk; but this proved more than fortunate\nfor us, since the yellow men were so chagrined by their misfortune\nthat they would not enter the city by the same gate by which they\nhad left it in the morning, as it seemed that they had made great\nboasts to the captain of that gate about their skill at this\ndangerous sport.\n\nWe, therefore, approached Kadabra at a point several miles from\nthat at which the party had quitted it in the morning, and so were\nrelieved of the danger of embarrassing questions and explanations\non the part of the gate captain, whom we had said had directed us\nto this particular hunting party.\n\nWe had come quite close to the city when my attention was attracted\ntoward a tall, black shaft that reared its head several hundred\nfeet into the air from what appeared to be a tangled mass of junk\nor wreckage, now partially snow-covered.\n\nI did not dare venture an inquiry for fear of arousing suspicion\nby evident ignorance of something which as a yellow man I should\nhave known; but before we reached the city gate I was to learn the\npurpose of that grim shaft and the meaning of the mighty accumulation\nbeneath it.\n\nWe had come almost to the gate when one of the party called to\nhis fellows, at the same time pointing toward the distant southern\nhorizon.  Following the direction he indicated, my eyes descried\nthe hull of a large flier approaching rapidly from above the crest\nof the encircling hills.\n\n\"Still other fools who would solve the mysteries of the forbidden\nnorth,\" said the officer, half to himself.  \"Will they never cease\ntheir fatal curiosity?\"\n\n\"Let us hope not,\" answered one of the warriors, \"for then what\nshould we do for slaves and sport?\"\n\n\"True; but what stupid beasts they are to continue to come to a\nregion from whence none of them ever has returned.\"\n\n\"Let us tarry and watch the end of this one,\" suggested one of the\nmen.\n\nThe officer looked toward the city.\n\n\"The watch has seen him,\" he said; \"we may remain, for we may be\nneeded.\"\n\nI looked toward the city and saw several hundred warriors issuing\nfrom the nearest gate.  They moved leisurely, as though there were\nno need for haste--nor was there, as I was presently to learn.\n\nThen I turned my eyes once more toward the flier.  She was moving\nrapidly toward the city, and when she had come close enough I was\nsurprised to see that her propellers were idle.\n\nStraight for that grim shaft she bore.  At the last minute I saw\nthe great blades move to reverse her, yet on she came as though\ndrawn by some mighty, irresistible power.\n\nIntense excitement prevailed upon her deck, where men were running\nhither and thither, manning the guns and preparing to launch the\nsmall, one-man fliers, a fleet of which is part of the equipment\nof every Martian war vessel.  Closer and closer to the black shaft\nthe ship sped.  In another instant she must strike, and then I saw\nthe familiar signal flown that sends the lesser boats in a great\nflock from the deck of the mother ship.\n\nInstantly a hundred tiny fliers rose from her deck, like a swarm of\nhuge dragon flies; but scarcely were they clear of the battleship\nthan the nose of each turned toward the shaft, and they, too, rushed\non at frightful speed toward the same now seemingly inevitable end\nthat menaced the larger vessel.\n\nA moment later the collision came.  Men were hurled in every\ndirection from the ship's deck, while she, bent and crumpled, took\nthe last, long plunge to the scrap-heap at the shaft's base.\n\nWith her fell a shower of her own tiny fliers, for each of them\nhad come in violent collision with the solid shaft.\n\nI noticed that the wrecked fliers scraped down the shaft's side,\nand that their fall was not as rapid as might have been expected;\nand then suddenly the secret of the shaft burst upon me, and with\nit an explanation of the cause that prevented a flier that passed\ntoo far across the ice-barrier ever returning.\n\nThe shaft was a mighty magnet, and when once a vessel came within\nthe radius of its powerful attraction for the aluminum steel that\nenters so largely into the construction of all Barsoomian craft,\nno power on earth could prevent such an end as we had just witnessed.\n\nI afterward learned that the shaft rests directly over the magnetic\npole of Mars, but whether this adds in any way to its incalculable\npower of attraction I do not know.  I am a fighting man, not a\nscientist.\n\nHere, at last, was an explanation of the long absence of Tardos Mors\nand Mors Kajak.  These valiant and intrepid warriors had dared the\nmysteries and dangers of the frozen north to search for Carthoris,\nwhose long absence had bowed in grief the head of his beautiful\nmother, Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.\n\nThe moment that the last of the fliers came to rest at the base of\nthe shaft the black-bearded, yellow warriors swarmed over the mass\nof wreckage upon which they lay, making prisoners of those who were\nuninjured and occasionally despatching with a sword-thrust one of\nthe wounded who seemed prone to resent their taunts and insults.\n\nA few of the uninjured red men battled bravely against their cruel\nfoes, but for the most part they seemed too overwhelmed by the\nhorror of the catastrophe that had befallen them to do more than\nsubmit supinely to the golden chains with which they were manacled.\n\nWhen the last of the prisoners had been confined, the party\nreturned to the city, at the gate of which we met a pack of fierce,\ngold-collared apts, each of which marched between two warriors,\nwho held them with strong chains of the same metal as their collars.\n\nJust beyond the gate the attendants loosened the whole terrible\nherd, and as they bounded off toward the grim, black shaft I did\nnot need to ask to know their mission.  Had there not been those\nwithin the cruel city of Kadabra who needed succor far worse than\nthe poor unfortunate dead and dying out there in the cold upon the\nbent and broken carcasses of a thousand fliers I could not have\nrestrained my desire to hasten back and do battle with those horrid\ncreatures that had been despatched to rend and devour them.\n\nAs it was I could but follow the yellow warriors, with bowed head,\nand give thanks for the chance that had given Thuvan Dihn and me\nsuch easy ingress to the capital of Salensus Oll.\n\nOnce within the gates, we had no difficulty in eluding our friends\nof the morning, and presently found ourselves in a Martian hostelry.\n\n\n\n\nIN DURANCE\n\n\nThe public houses of Barsoom, I have found, vary but little.  There\nis no privacy for other than married couples.\n\nMen without their wives are escorted to a large chamber, the floor\nof which is usually of white marble or heavy glass, kept scrupulously\nclean.  Here are many small, raised platforms for the guest's sleeping\nsilks and furs, and if he have none of his own clean, fresh ones\nare furnished at a nominal charge.\n\nOnce a man's belongings have been deposited upon one of these\nplatforms he is a guest of the house, and that platform his own\nuntil he leaves.  No one will disturb or molest his belongings, as\nthere are no thieves upon Mars.\n\nAs assassination is the one thing to be feared, the proprietors\nof the hostelries furnish armed guards, who pace back and forth\nthrough the sleeping-rooms day and night.  The number of guards and\ngorgeousness of their trappings quite usually denote the status of\nthe hotel.\n\nNo meals are served in these houses, but generally a public eating\nplace adjoins them.  Baths are connected with the sleeping chambers,\nand each guest is required to bathe daily or depart from the hotel.\n\nUsually on a second or third floor there is a large sleeping-room\nfor single women guests, but its appointments do not vary materially\nfrom the chamber occupied by men.  The guards who watch the women\nremain in the corridor outside the sleeping chamber, while female\nslaves pace back and forth among the sleepers within, ready to\nnotify the warriors should their presence be required.\n\nI was surprised to note that all the guards with the hotel at which\nwe stopped were red men, and on inquiring of one of them I learned\nthat they were slaves purchased by the proprietors of the hotels from\nthe government.  The man whose post was past my sleeping platform\nhad been commander of the navy of a great Martian nation; but fate\nhad carried his flagship across the ice-barrier within the radius\nof power of the magnetic shaft, and now for many tedious years he\nhad been a slave of the yellow men.\n\nHe told me that princes, jeds, and even jeddaks of the outer\nworld, were among the menials who served the yellow race; but when\nI asked him if he had heard of the fate of Mors Kajak or Tardos Mors\nhe shook his head, saying that he never had heard of their being\nprisoners here, though he was very familiar with the reputations\nand fame they bore in the outer world.\n\nNeither had he heard any rumor of the coming of the Father of Therns\nand the black dator of the First Born, but he hastened to explain\nthat he knew little of what took place within the palace.  I could\nsee that he wondered not a little that a yellow man should be so\ninquisitive about certain red prisoners from beyond the ice-barrier,\nand that I should be so ignorant of customs and conditions among\nmy own race.\n\nIn fact, I had forgotten my disguise upon discovering a red man\npacing before my sleeping platform; but his growing expression of\nsurprise warned me in time, for I had no mind to reveal my identity\nto any unless some good could come of it, and I did not see how\nthis poor fellow could serve me yet, though I had it in my mind\nthat later I might be the means of serving him and all the other\nthousands of prisoners who do the bidding of their stern masters\nin Kadabra.\n\nThuvan Dihn and I discussed our plans as we sat together among our\nsleeping silks and furs that night in the midst of the hundreds\nof yellow men who occupied the apartment with us.  We spoke in low\nwhispers, but, as that is only what courtesy demands in a public\nsleeping place, we roused no suspicion.\n\nAt last, determining that all must be but idle speculation until\nafter we had had a chance to explore the city and attempt to put\ninto execution the plan Talu had suggested, we bade each other good\nnight and turned to sleep.\n\nAfter breakfasting the following morning we set out to see Kadabra,\nand as, through the generosity of the prince of Marentina, we were\nwell supplied with the funds current in Okar we purchased a handsome\nground flier.  Having learned to drive them while in Marentina, we\nspent a delightful and profitable day exploring the city, and late\nin the afternoon at the hour Talu told us we would find government\nofficials in their offices, we stopped before a magnificent building\non the plaza opposite the royal grounds and the palace.\n\nHere we walked boldly in past the armed guard at the door, to be\nmet by a red slave within who asked our wishes.\n\n\"Tell Sorav, your master, that two warriors from Illall wish to\ntake service in the palace guard,\" I said.\n\nSorav, Talu had told us, was the commander of the forces of the\npalace, and as men from the further cities of Okar--and especially\nIllall--were less likely to be tainted with the germ of intrigue\nwhich had for years infected the household of Salensus Oll, he was\nsure that we would be welcomed and few questions asked us.\n\nHe had primed us with such general information as he thought would\nbe necessary for us to pass muster before Sorav, after which we would\nhave to undergo a further examination before Salensus Oll that he\nmight determine our physical fitness and our ability as warriors.\n\nThe little experience we had had with the strange hooked sword of\nthe yellow man and his cuplike shield made it seem rather unlikely\nthat either of us could pass this final test, but there was the\nchance that we might be quartered in the palace of Salensus Oll\nfor several days after being accepted by Sorav before the Jeddak\nof Jeddaks would find time to put us to the final test.\n\nAfter a wait of several minutes in an ante-chamber we were summoned\ninto the private office of Sorav, where we were courteously greeted\nby this ferocious-appearing, black-bearded officer.  He asked us\nour names and stations in our own city, and having received replies\nthat were evidently satisfactory to him, he put certain questions\nto us that Talu had foreseen and prepared us for.\n\nThe interview could not have lasted over ten minutes when Sorav\nsummoned an aid whom he instructed to record us properly, and then\nescort us to the quarters in the palace which are set aside for\naspirants to membership in the palace guard.\n\nThe aid took us to his own office first, where he measured and\nweighed and photographed us simultaneously with a machine ingeniously\ndevised for that purpose, five copies being instantly reproduced in\nfive different offices of the government, two of which are located\nin other cities miles distant.  Then he led us through the palace\ngrounds to the main guardroom of the palace, there turning us over\nto the officer in charge.\n\nThis individual again questioned us briefly, and finally despatched\na soldier to guide us to our quarters.  These we found located upon\nthe second floor of the palace in a semi-detached tower at the rear\nof the edifice.\n\nWhen we asked our guide why we were quartered so far from the\nguardroom he replied that the custom of the older members of the\nguard of picking quarrels with aspirants to try their metal had\nresulted in so many deaths that it was found difficult to maintain\nthe guard at its full strength while this custom prevailed.  Salensus\nOll had, therefore, set apart these quarters for aspirants, and here\nthey were securely locked against the danger of attack by members\nof the guard.\n\nThis unwelcome information put a sudden check to all our well-laid\nplans, for it meant that we should virtually be prisoners in the\npalace of Salensus Oll until the time that he should see fit to\ngive us the final examination for efficiency.\n\nAs it was this interval upon which we had banked to accomplish\nso much in our search for Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of Ptarth, our\nchagrin was unbounded when we heard the great lock click behind our\nguide as he had quitted us after ushering us into the chambers we\nwere to occupy.\n\nWith a wry face I turned to Thuvan Dihn.  My companion but shook\nhis head disconsolately and walked to one of the windows upon the\nfar side of the apartment.\n\nScarcely had he gazed beyond them than he called to me in a tone\nof suppressed excitement and surprise.  In an instant I was by his\nside.\n\n\"Look!\" said Thuvan Dihn, pointing toward the courtyard below.\n\nAs my eyes followed the direction indicated I saw two women pacing\nback and forth in an enclosed garden.\n\nAt the same moment I recognized them--they were Dejah Thoris and\nThuvia of Ptarth!\n\nThere were they whom I had trailed from one pole to another, the\nlength of a world.  Only ten feet of space and a few metal bars\nseparated me from them.\n\nWith a cry I attracted their attention, and as Dejah Thoris looked\nup full into my eyes I made the sign of love that the men of Barsoom\nmake to their women.\n\nTo my astonishment and horror her head went high, and as a look\nof utter contempt touched her finely chiseled features she turned\nher back full upon me.  My body is covered with the scars of a\nthousand conflicts, but never in all my long life have I suffered\nsuch anguish from a wound, for this time the steel of a woman's\nlook had entered my heart.\n\nWith a groan I turned away and buried my face in my arms.  I\nheard Thuvan Dihn call aloud to Thuvia, but an instant later his\nexclamation of surprise betokened that he, too, had been repulsed\nby his own daughter.\n\n\"They will not even listen,\" he cried to me.  \"They have put their\nhands over their ears and walked to the farther end of the garden.\nEver heard you of such mad work, John Carter?  The two must be\nbewitched.\"\n\nPresently I mustered the courage to return to the window, for\neven though she spurned me I loved her, and could not keep my eyes\nfrom feasting upon her divine face and figure, but when she saw me\nlooking she again turned away.\n\nI was at my wit's end to account for her strange actions, and that\nThuvia, too, had turned against her father seemed incredible.  Could\nit be that my incomparable princess still clung to the hideous faith\nfrom which I had rescued her world?  Could it be that she looked\nupon me with loathing and contempt because I had returned from the\nValley Dor, or because I had desecrated the temples and persons of\nthe Holy Therns?\n\nTo naught else could I ascribe her strange deportment, yet it seemed\nfar from possible that such could be the case, for the love of\nDejah Thoris for John Carter had been a great and wondrous love--far\nabove racial distinctions, creed, or religion.\n\nAs I gazed ruefully at the back of her haughty, royal head a gate\nat the opposite end of the garden opened and a man entered.  As he\ndid so he turned and slipped something into the hand of the yellow\nguardsman beyond the gate, nor was the distance too great that I\nmight not see that money had passed between them.\n\nInstantly I knew that this newcomer had bribed his way within the\ngarden.  Then he turned in the direction of the two women, and\nI saw that he was none other than Thurid, the black dator of the\nFirst Born.\n\nHe approached quite close to them before he spoke, and as they turned\nat the sound of his voice I saw Dejah Thoris shrink from him.\n\nThere was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her\nand spoke again.  I could not hear his words, but her answer came\nclearly.\n\n\"The granddaughter of Tardos Mors can always die,\" she said, \"but\nshe could never live at the price you name.\"\n\nThen I saw the black scoundrel go upon his knees beside her, fairly\ngroveling in the dirt, pleading with her.  Only part of what he said\ncame to me, for though he was evidently laboring under the stress\nof passion and excitement, it was equally apparent that he did not\ndare raise his voice for fear of detection.\n\n\"I would save you from Matai Shang,\" I heard him say.  \"You know\nthe fate that awaits you at his hands.  Would you not choose me\nrather than the other?\"\n\n\"I would choose neither,\" replied Dejah Thoris, \"even were I free\nto choose, as you know well I am not.\"\n\n\"You ARE free!\" he cried.  \"John Carter, Prince of Helium, is dead.\"\n\n\"I know better than that; but even were he dead, and I must needs\nchoose another mate, it should be a plant man or a great white\nape in preference to either Matai Shang or you, black calot,\" she\nanswered with a sneer of contempt.\n\nOf a sudden the vicious beast lost all control of himself, as with\na vile oath he leaped at the slender woman, gripping her tender\nthroat in his brute clutch.  Thuvia screamed and sprang to aid her\nfellow-prisoner, and at the same instant I, too, went mad, and\ntearing at the bars that spanned my window I ripped them from their\nsockets as they had been but copper wire.\n\nHurling myself through the aperture I reached the garden, but a\nhundred feet from where the black was choking the life from my Dejah\nThoris, and with a single great bound I was upon him.  I spoke no\nword as I tore his defiling fingers from that beautiful throat,\nnor did I utter a sound as I hurled him twenty feet from me.\n\nFoaming with rage, Thurid regained his feet and charged me like a\nmad bull.\n\n\"Yellow man,\" he shrieked, \"you knew not upon whom you had laid\nyour vile hands, but ere I am done with you, you will know well\nwhat it means to offend the person of a First Born.\"\n\nThen he was upon me, reaching for my throat, and precisely as I had\ndone that day in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus I did here\nin the garden of the palace of Salensus Oll.  I ducked beneath his\noutstretched arms, and as he lunged past me I planted a terrific\nright upon the side of his jaw.\n\nJust as he had done upon that other occasion he did now.  Like a\ntop he spun round, his knees gave beneath him, and he crumpled to\nthe ground at my feet.  Then I heard a voice behind me.\n\nIt was the deep voice of authority that marks the ruler of men,\nand when I turned to face the resplendent figure of a giant yellow\nman I did not need to ask to know that it was Salensus Oll.  At\nhis right stood Matai Shang, and behind them a score of guardsmen.\n\n\"Who are you,\" he cried, \"and what means this intrusion within the\nprecincts of the women's garden?  I do not recall your face.  How\ncame you here?\"\n\nBut for his last words I should have forgotten my disguise entirely\nand told him outright that I was John Carter, Prince of Helium;\nbut his question recalled me to myself.  I pointed to the dislodged\nbars of the window above.\n\n\"I am an aspirant to membership in the palace guard,\" I said, \"and\nfrom yonder window in the tower where I was confined awaiting the\nfinal test for fitness I saw this brute attack the--this woman.  I\ncould not stand idly by, O Jeddak, and see this thing done within\nthe very palace grounds, and yet feel that I was fit to serve and\nguard your royal person.\"\n\nI had evidently made an impression upon the ruler of Okar by my\nfair words, and when he had turned to Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of\nPtarth, and both had corroborated my statements it began to look\npretty dark for Thurid.\n\nI saw the ugly gleam in Matai Shang's evil eyes as Dejah Thoris\nnarrated all that had passed between Thurid and herself, and when\nshe came to that part which dealt with my interference with the\ndator of the First Born her gratitude was quite apparent, though\nI could see by her eyes that something puzzled her strangely.\n\nI did not wonder at her attitude toward me while others were present;\nbut that she should have denied me while she and Thuvia were the\nonly occupants of the garden still cut me sorely.\n\nAs the examination proceeded I cast a glance at Thurid and startled\nhim looking wide-eyed and wonderingly at me, and then of a sudden\nhe laughed full in my face.\n\nA moment later Salensus Oll turned toward the black.\n\n\"What have you to say in explanation of these charges?\" he asked\nin a deep and terrible voice.  \"Dare you aspire to one whom the\nFather of Therns has chosen--one who might even be a fit mate for\nthe Jeddak of Jeddaks himself?\"\n\nAnd then the black-bearded tyrant turned and cast a sudden greedy\nlook upon Dejah Thoris, as though with the words a new thought and\na new desire had sprung up within his mind and breast.\n\nThurid had been about to reply and, with a malicious grin upon his\nface, was pointing an accusing finger at me, when Salensus Oll's\nwords and the expression of his face cut him short.\n\nA cunning look crept into his eyes, and I knew from the expression\nof his face that his next words were not the ones he had intended\nto speak.\n\n\"O Mightiest of Jeddaks,\" he said, \"the man and the women do not\nspeak the truth.  The fellow had come into the garden to assist\nthem to escape.  I was beyond and overheard their conversation,\nand when I entered, the woman screamed and the man sprang upon me\nand would have killed me.\n\n\"What know you of this man?  He is a stranger to you, and I dare\nsay that you will find him an enemy and a spy.  Let him be put on\ntrial, Salensus Oll, rather than your friend and guest, Thurid,\nDator of the First Born.\"\n\nSalensus Oll looked puzzled.  He turned again and looked upon Dejah\nThoris, and then Thurid stepped quite close to him and whispered\nsomething in his ear--what, I know not.\n\nPresently the yellow ruler turned to one of his officers.\n\n\"See that this man be securely confined until we have time to go\ndeeper into this affair,\" he commanded, \"and as bars alone seem\ninadequate to restrain him, let chains be added.\"\n\nThen he turned and left the garden, taking Dejah Thoris with him--his\nhand upon her shoulder.  Thurid and Matai Shang went also, and as\nthey reached the gateway the black turned and laughed again aloud\nin my face.\n\nWhat could be the meaning of his sudden change toward me?  Could\nhe suspect my true identity?  It must be that, and the thing that\nhad betrayed me was the trick and blow that had laid him low for\nthe second time.\n\nAs the guards dragged me away my heart was very sad and bitter\nindeed, for now to the two relentless enemies that had hounded her\nfor so long another and a more powerful one had been added, for\nI would have been but a fool had I not recognized the sudden love\nfor Dejah Thoris that had just been born in the terrible breast of\nSalensus Oll, Jeddak of Jeddaks, ruler of Okar.\n\n\n\n\nTHE PIT OF PLENTY\n\n\nI did not languish long within the prison of Salensus Oll.  During\nthe short time that I lay there, fettered with chains of gold, I\noften wondered as to the fate of Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth.\n\nMy brave companion had followed me into the garden as I attacked\nThurid, and when Salensus Oll had left with Dejah Thoris and the\nothers, leaving Thuvia of Ptarth behind, he, too, had remained\nin the garden with his daughter, apparently unnoticed, for he was\nappareled similarly to the guards.\n\nThe last I had seen of him he stood waiting for the warriors who\nescorted me to close the gate behind them, that he might be alone\nwith Thuvia.  Could it be possible that they had escaped?  I doubted\nit, and yet with all my heart I hoped that it might be true.\n\nThe third day of my incarceration brought a dozen warriors to escort\nme to the audience chamber, where Salensus Oll himself was to try\nme.  A great number of nobles crowded the room, and among them I\nsaw Thurid, but Matai Shang was not there.\n\nDejah Thoris, as radiantly beautiful as ever, sat upon a small throne\nbeside Salensus Oll.  The expression of sad hopelessness upon her\ndear face cut deep into my heart.\n\nHer position beside the Jeddak of Jeddaks boded ill for her and me,\nand on the instant that I saw her there, there sprang to my mind\nthe firm intention never to leave that chamber alive if I must\nleave her in the clutches of this powerful tyrant.\n\nI had killed better men than Salensus Oll, and killed them with my\nbare hands, and now I swore to myself that I should kill him if I\nfound that the only way to save the Princess of Helium.  That it\nwould mean almost instant death for me I cared not, except that\nit would remove me from further efforts in behalf of Dejah Thoris,\nand for this reason alone I would have chosen another way, for\neven though I should kill Salensus Oll that act would not restore\nmy beloved wife to her own people.  I determined to wait the final\noutcome of the trial, that I might learn all that I could of the\nOkarian ruler's intentions, and then act accordingly.\n\nScarcely had I come before him than Salensus Oll summoned Thurid\nalso.\n\n\"Dator Thurid,\" he said, \"you have made a strange request of me;\nbut, in accordance with your wishes and your promise that it will\nresult only to my interests, I have decided to accede.\n\n\"You tell me that a certain announcement will be the means of\nconvicting this prisoner and, at the same time, open the way to\nthe gratification of my dearest wish.\"\n\nThurid nodded.\n\n\"Then shall I make the announcement here before all my nobles,\"\ncontinued Salensus Oll.  \"For a year no queen has sat upon the\nthrone beside me, and now it suits me to take to wife one who is\nreputed the most beautiful woman upon Barsoom.  A statement which\nnone may truthfully deny.\n\n\"Nobles of Okar, unsheathe your swords and do homage to Dejah Thoris,\nPrincess of Helium and future Queen of Okar, for at the end of the\nallotted ten days she shall become the wife of Salensus Oll.\"\n\nAs the nobles drew their blades and lifted them on high, in\naccordance with the ancient custom of Okar when a jeddak announces\nhis intention to wed, Dejah Thoris sprang to her feet and, raising\nher hand aloft, cried in a loud voice that they desist.\n\n\"I may not be the wife of Salensus Oll,\" she pleaded, \"for already I\nbe a wife and mother.  John Carter, Prince of Helium, still lives.\nI know it to be true, for I overheard Matai Shang tell his daughter\nPhaidor that he had seen him in Kaor, at the court of Kulan Tith,\nJeddak.  A jeddak does not wed a married woman, nor will Salensus\nOll thus violate the bonds of matrimony.\"\n\nSalensus Oll turned upon Thurid with an ugly look.\n\n\"Is this the surprise you held in store for me?\" he cried.  \"You\nassured me that no obstacle which might not be easily overcome stood\nbetween me and this woman, and now I find that the one insuperable\nobstacle intervenes.  What mean you, man?  What have you to say?\"\n\n\"And should I deliver John Carter into your hands, Salensus Oll,\nwould you not feel that I had more than satisfied the promise that\nI made you?\" answered Thurid.\n\n\"Talk not like a fool,\" cried the enraged jeddak.  \"I am no child\nto be thus played with.\"\n\n\"I am talking only as a man who knows,\" replied Thurid.  \"Knows\nthat he can do all that he claims.\"\n\n\"Then turn John Carter over to me within ten days or yourself\nsuffer the end that I should mete out to him were he in my power!\"\nsnapped the Jeddak of Jeddaks, with an ugly scowl.\n\n\"You need not wait ten days, Salensus Oll,\" replied Thurid; and\nthen, turning suddenly upon me as he extended a pointing finger,\nhe cried:  \"There stands John Carter, Prince of Helium!\"\n\n\"Fool!\" shrieked Salensus Oll.  \"Fool!  John Carter is a white\nman.  This fellow be as yellow as myself.  John Carter's face is\nsmooth--Matai Shang has described him to me.  This prisoner has\na beard and mustache as large and black as any in Okar.  Quick,\nguardsmen, to the pits with the black maniac who wishes to throw\nhis life away for a poor joke upon your ruler!\"\n\n\"Hold!\" cried Thurid, and springing forward before I could guess\nhis intention, he had grasped my beard and ripped the whole false\nfabric from my face and head, revealing my smooth, tanned skin\nbeneath and my close-cropped black hair.\n\nInstantly pandemonium reigned in the audience chamber of Salensus\nOll.  Warriors pressed forward with drawn blades, thinking that I\nmight be contemplating the assassination of the Jeddak of Jeddaks;\nwhile others, out of curiosity to see one whose name was familiar\nfrom pole to pole, crowded behind their fellows.\n\nAs my identity was revealed I saw Dejah Thoris spring to her\nfeet--amazement writ large upon her face--and then through that\njam of armed men she forced her way before any could prevent.  A\nmoment only and she was before me with outstretched arms and eyes\nfilled with the light of her great love.\n\n\"John Carter!  John Carter!\" she cried as I folded her to my breast,\nand then of a sudden I knew why she had denied me in the garden\nbeneath the tower.\n\nWhat a fool I had been!  Expecting that she would penetrate the\nmarvelous disguise that had been wrought for me by the barber of\nMarentina!  She had not known me, that was all; and when she saw\nthe sign of love from a stranger she was offended and righteously\nindignant.  Indeed, but I had been a fool.\n\n\"And it was you,\" she cried, \"who spoke to me from the tower!  How\ncould I dream that my beloved Virginian lay behind that fierce\nbeard and that yellow skin?\"\n\nShe had been wont to call me her Virginian as a term of endearment,\nfor she knew that I loved the sound of that beautiful name, made a\nthousand times more beautiful and hallowed by her dear lips, and as\nI heard it again after all those long years my eyes became dimmed\nwith tears and my voice choked with emotion.\n\nBut an instant did I crush that dear form to me ere Salensus Oll,\ntrembling with rage and jealousy, shouldered his way to us.\n\n\"Seize the man,\" he cried to his warriors, and a hundred ruthless\nhands tore us apart.\n\nWell it was for the nobles of the court of Okar that John Carter\nhad been disarmed.  As it was, a dozen of them felt the weight of\nmy clenched fists, and I had fought my way half up the steps before\nthe throne to which Salensus Oll had carried Dejah Thoris ere ever\nthey could stop me.\n\nThen I went down, fighting, beneath a half-hundred warriors; but\nbefore they had battered me into unconsciousness I heard that from\nthe lips of Dejah Thoris that made all my suffering well worth\nwhile.\n\nStanding there beside the great tyrant, who clutched her by the\narm, she pointed to where I fought alone against such awful odds.\n\n\"Think you, Salensus Oll, that the wife of such as he is,\" she\ncried, \"would ever dishonor his memory, were he a thousand times\ndead, by mating with a lesser mortal?  Lives there upon any world\nsuch another as John Carter, Prince of Helium?  Lives there another\nman who could fight his way back and forth across a warlike planet,\nfacing savage beasts and hordes of savage men, for the love of a\nwoman?\n\n\"I, Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, am his.  He fought for me\nand won me.  If you be a brave man you will honor the bravery that\nis his, and you will not kill him.  Make him a slave if you will,\nSalensus Oll; but spare his life.  I would rather be a slave with\nsuch as he than be Queen of Okar.\"\n\n\"Neither slave nor queen dictates to Salensus Oll,\" replied the\nJeddak of Jeddaks.  \"John Carter shall die a natural death in the\nPit of Plenty, and the day he dies Dejah Thoris shall become my\nqueen.\"\n\nI did not hear her reply, for it was then that a blow upon my\nhead brought unconsciousness, and when I recovered my senses only\na handful of guardsmen remained in the audience chamber with me.\nAs I opened my eyes they goaded me with the points of their swords\nand bade me rise.\n\nThen they led me through long corridors to a court far toward the\ncenter of the palace.\n\nIn the center of the court was a deep pit, near the edge of which\nstood half a dozen other guardsmen, awaiting me.  One of them\ncarried a long rope in his hands, which he commenced to make ready\nas we approached.\n\nWe had come to within fifty feet of these men when I felt a sudden\nstrange and rapid pricking sensation in one of my fingers.\n\nFor a moment I was nonplused by the odd feeling, and then there\ncame to me recollection of that which in the stress of my adventure\nI had entirely forgotten--the gift ring of Prince Talu of Marentina.\n\nInstantly I looked toward the group we were nearing, at the same\ntime raising my left hand to my forehead, that the ring might be\nvisible to one who sought it.  Simultaneously one of the waiting\nwarriors raised his left hand, ostensibly to brush back his hair,\nand upon one of his fingers I saw the duplicate of my own ring.\n\nA quick look of intelligence passed between us, after which I kept\nmy eyes turned away from the warrior and did not look at him again,\nfor fear that I might arouse the suspicion of the Okarians.  When\nwe reached the edge of the pit I saw that it was very deep, and\npresently I realized I was soon to judge just how far it extended\nbelow the surface of the court, for he who held the rope passed it\nabout my body in such a way that it could be released from above\nat any time; and then, as all the warriors grasped it, he pushed\nme forward, and I fell into the yawning abyss.\n\nAfter the first jerk as I reached the end of the rope that had\nbeen paid out to let me fall below the pit's edge they lowered me\nquickly but smoothly.  The moment before the plunge, while two or\nthree of the men had been assisting in adjusting the rope about\nme, one of them had brought his mouth close to my cheek, and in\nthe brief interval before I was cast into the forbidding hole he\nbreathed a single word into my ear:\n\n\"Courage!\"\n\nThe pit, which my imagination had pictured as bottomless, proved\nto be not more than a hundred feet in depth; but as its walls were\nsmoothly polished it might as well have been a thousand feet, for\nI could never hope to escape without outside assistance.\n\nFor a day I was left in darkness; and then, quite suddenly, a\nbrilliant light illumined my strange cell.  I was reasonably hungry\nand thirsty by this time, not having tasted food or drink since\nthe day prior to my incarceration.\n\nTo my amazement I found the sides of the pit, that I had thought\nsmooth, lined with shelves, upon which were the most delicious\nviands and liquid refreshments that Okar afforded.\n\nWith an exclamation of delight I sprang forward to partake of\nsome of the welcome food, but ere ever I reached it the light was\nextinguished, and, though I groped my way about the chamber, my\nhands came in contact with nothing beside the smooth, hard wall\nthat I had felt on my first examination of my prison.\n\nImmediately the pangs of hunger and thirst began to assail me.\nWhere before I had had but a mild craving for food and drink, I now\nactually suffered for want of it, and all because of the tantalizing\nsight that I had had of food almost within my grasp.\n\nOnce more darkness and silence enveloped me, a silence that was\nbroken only by a single mocking laugh.\n\nFor another day nothing occurred to break the monotony of my\nimprisonment or relieve the suffering superinduced by hunger and\nthirst.  Slowly the pangs became less keen, as suffering deadened\nthe activity of certain nerves; and then the light flashed on once\nagain, and before me stood an array of new and tempting dishes,\nwith great bottles of clear water and flagons of refreshing wine,\nupon the outside of which the cold sweat of condensation stood.\n\nAgain, with the hunger madness of a wild beast, I sprang forward\nto seize those tempting dishes; but, as before, the light went out\nand I came to a sudden stop against a hard wall.\n\nThen the mocking laugh rang out for a second time.\n\nThe Pit of Plenty!\n\nAh, what a cruel mind must have devised this exquisite, hellish\ntorture!  Day after day was the thing repeated, until I was on\nthe verge of madness; and then, as I had done in the pits of the\nWarhoons, I took a new, firm hold upon my reason and forced it back\ninto the channels of sanity.\n\nBy sheer will-power I regained control over my tottering mentality,\nand so successful was I that the next time that the light came I\nsat quite still and looked indifferently at the fresh and tempting\nfood almost within my reach.  Glad I was that I had done so, for\nit gave me an opportunity to solve the seeming mystery of those\nvanishing banquets.\n\nAs I made no move to reach the food, the torturers left the light\nturned on in the hope that at last I could refrain no longer from\ngiving them the delicious thrill of enjoyment that my former futile\nefforts to obtain it had caused.\n\nAnd as I sat scrutinizing the laden shelves I presently saw how\nthe thing was accomplished, and so simple was it that I wondered I\nhad not guessed it before.  The wall of my prison was of clearest\nglass--behind the glass were the tantalizing viands.\n\nAfter nearly an hour the light went out, but this time there was\nno mocking laughter--at least not upon the part of my tormentors;\nbut I, to be at quits with them, gave a low laugh that none might\nmistake for the cackle of a maniac.\n\nNine days passed, and I was weak from hunger and thirst, but no\nlonger suffering--I was past that.  Then, down through the darkness\nabove, a little parcel fell to the floor at my side.\n\nIndifferently I groped for it, thinking it but some new invention\nof my jailers to add to my sufferings.\n\nAt last I found it--a tiny package wrapped in paper, at the end of\na strong and slender cord.  As I opened it a few lozenges fell to\nthe floor.  As I gathered them up, feeling of them and smelling\nof them, I discovered that they were tablets of concentrated food\nsuch as are quite common in all parts of Barsoom.\n\nPoison! I thought.\n\nWell, what of it?  Why not end my misery now rather than drag out\na few more wretched days in this dark pit?  Slowly I raised one of\nthe little pellets to my lips.\n\n\"Good-bye, my Dejah Thoris!\" I breathed.  \"I have lived for you\nand fought for you, and now my next dearest wish is to be realized,\nfor I shall die for you,\" and, taking the morsel in my mouth, I\ndevoured it.\n\nOne by one I ate them all, nor ever did anything taste better than\nthose tiny bits of nourishment, within which I knew must lie the\nseeds of death--possibly of some hideous, torturing death.\n\nAs I sat quietly upon the floor of my prison, waiting for the end,\nmy fingers by accident came in contact with the bit of paper in\nwhich the things had been wrapped; and as I idly played with it,\nmy mind roaming far back into the past, that I might live again for\na few brief moments before I died some of the many happy moments\nof a long and happy life, I became aware of strange protuberances\nupon the smooth surface of the parchment-like substance in my hands.\n\nFor a time they carried no special significance to my mind--I merely\nwas mildly wondrous that they were there; but at last they seemed\nto take form, and then I realized that there was but a single line\nof them, like writing.\n\nNow, more interestedly, my fingers traced and retraced them.  There\nwere four separate and distinct combinations of raised lines.  Could\nit be that these were four words, and that they were intended to\ncarry a message to me?\n\nThe more I thought of it the more excited I became, until my fingers\nraced madly back and forth over those bewildering little hills and\nvalleys upon that bit of paper.\n\nBut I could make nothing of them, and at last I decided that my very\nhaste was preventing me from solving the mystery.  Then I took it\nmore slowly.  Again and again my forefinger traced the first of\nthose four combinations.\n\nMartian writing is rather difficult to explain to an Earth man--it\nis something of a cross between shorthand and picture-writing, and\nis an entirely different language from the spoken language of Mars.\n\nUpon Barsoom there is but a single oral language.\n\nIt is spoken today by every race and nation, just as it was at\nthe beginning of human life upon Barsoom.  It has grown with the\ngrowth of the planet's learning and scientific achievements, but\nso ingenious a thing it is that new words to express new thoughts\nor describe new conditions or discoveries form themselves--no other\nword could explain the thing that a new word is required for other\nthan the word that naturally falls to it, and so, no matter how far\nremoved two nations or races, their spoken languages are identical.\n\nNot so their written languages, however.  No two nations have the\nsame written language, and often cities of the same nation have a\nwritten language that differs greatly from that of the nation to\nwhich they belong.\n\nThus it was that the signs upon the paper, if in reality they were\nwords, baffled me for some time; but at last I made out the first\none.\n\nIt was \"courage,\" and it was written in the letters of Marentina.\n\nCourage!\n\nThat was the word the yellow guardsman had whispered in my ear as\nI stood upon the verge of the Pit of Plenty.\n\nThe message must be from him, and he I knew was a friend.\n\nWith renewed hope I bent my every energy to the deciphering of the\nbalance of the message, and at last success rewarded my endeavor--I\nhad read the four words:\n\n\"Courage!  Follow the rope.\"\n\n\n\n\n\"FOLLOW THE ROPE\"\n\n\nWhat could it mean?\n\n\"Follow the rope.\"  What rope?\n\nPresently I recalled the cord that had been attached to the parcel\nwhen it fell at my side, and after a little groping my hand came in\ncontact with it again.  It depended from above, and when I pulled\nupon it I discovered that it was rigidly fastened, possibly at the\npit's mouth.\n\nUpon examination I found that the cord, though small, was amply\nable to sustain the weight of several men.  Then I made another\ndiscovery--there was a second message knotted in the rope at about\nthe height of my head.  This I deciphered more easily, now that\nthe key was mine.\n\n\"Bring the rope with you.  Beyond the knots lies danger.\"\n\nThat was all there was to this message.  It was evidently hastily\nformed--an afterthought.\n\nI did not pause longer than to learn the contents of the second\nmessage, and, though I was none too sure of the meaning of the\nfinal admonition, \"Beyond the knots lies danger,\" yet I was sure\nthat here before me lay an avenue of escape, and that the sooner\nI took advantage of it the more likely was I to win to liberty.\n\nAt least, I could be but little worse off than I had been in the\nPit of Plenty.\n\nI was to find, however, ere I was well out of that damnable hole\nthat I might have been very much worse off had I been compelled to\nremain there another two minutes.\n\nIt had taken me about that length of time to ascend some fifty feet\nabove the bottom when a noise above attracted my attention.  To my\nchagrin I saw that the covering of the pit was being removed far\nabove me, and in the light of the courtyard beyond I saw a number\nof yellow warriors.\n\nCould it be that I was laboriously working my way into some new\ntrap?  Were the messages spurious, after all?  And then, just as\nmy hope and courage had ebbed to their lowest, I saw two things.\n\nOne was the body of a huge, struggling, snarling apt being lowered\nover the side of the pit toward me, and the other was an aperture\nin the side of the shaft--an aperture larger than a man's body,\ninto which my rope led.\n\nJust as I scrambled into the dark hole before me the apt passed\nme, reaching out with his mighty hands to clutch me, and snapping,\ngrowling, and roaring in a most frightful manner.\n\nPlainly now I saw the end for which Salensus Oll had destined me.\nAfter first torturing me with starvation he had caused this fierce\nbeast to be lowered into my prison to finish the work that the\njeddak's hellish imagination had conceived.\n\nAnd then another truth flashed upon me--I had lived nine days of\nthe allotted ten which must intervene before Salensus Oll could\nmake Dejah Thoris his queen.  The purpose of the apt was to insure\nmy death before the tenth day.\n\nI almost laughed aloud as I thought how Salensus Oll's measure of\nsafety was to aid in defeating the very end he sought, for when\nthey discovered that the apt was alone in the Pit of Plenty they\ncould not know but that he had completely devoured me, and so no\nsuspicion of my escape would cause a search to be made for me.\n\nCoiling the rope that had carried me thus far upon my strange\njourney, I sought for the other end, but found that as I followed\nit forward it extended always before me.  So this was the meaning\nof the words:  \"Follow the rope.\"\n\nThe tunnel through which I crawled was low and dark.  I had followed\nit for several hundred yards when I felt a knot beneath my fingers.\n\"Beyond the knots lies danger.\"\n\nNow I went with the utmost caution, and a moment later a sharp turn\nin the tunnel brought me to an opening into a large, brilliantly\nlighted chamber.\n\nThe trend of the tunnel I had been traversing had been slightly\nupward, and from this I judged that the chamber into which I now\nfound myself looking must be either on the first floor of the palace\nor directly beneath the first floor.\n\nUpon the opposite wall were many strange instruments and devices,\nand in the center of the room stood a long table, at which two men\nwere seated in earnest conversation.\n\nHe who faced me was a yellow man--a little, wizened-up, pasty-faced\nold fellow with great eyes that showed the white round the entire\ncircumference of the iris.\n\nHis companion was a black man, and I did not need to see his face\nto know that it was Thurid, for there was no other of the First\nBorn north of the ice-barrier.\n\nThurid was speaking as I came within hearing of the men's voices.\n\n\"Solan,\" he was saying, \"there is no risk and the reward is great.\nYou know that you hate Salensus Oll and that nothing would please\nyou more than to thwart him in some cherished plan.  There be\nnothing that he more cherishes today than the idea of wedding the\nbeautiful Princess of Helium; but I, too, want her, and with your\nhelp I may win her.\n\n\"You need not more than step from this room for an instant when\nI give you the signal.  I will do the rest, and then, when I am\ngone, you may come and throw the great switch back into its place,\nand all will be as before.  I need but an hour's start to be safe\nbeyond the devilish power that you control in this hidden chamber\nbeneath the palace of your master.  See how easy,\" and with the\nwords the black dator rose from his seat and, crossing the room,\nlaid his hand upon a large, burnished lever that protruded from\nthe opposite wall.\n\n\"No! No!\" cried the little old man, springing after him, with a wild\nshriek.  \"Not that one!  Not that one!  That controls the sunray\ntanks, and should you pull it too far down, all Kadabra would be\nconsumed by heat before I could replace it.  Come away!  Come away!\nYou know not with what mighty powers you play.  This is the lever\nthat you seek.  Note well the symbol inlaid in white upon its ebon\nsurface.\"\n\nThurid approached and examined the handle of the lever.\n\n\"Ah, a magnet,\" he said.  \"I will remember.  It is settled then I\ntake it,\" he continued.\n\nThe old man hesitated.  A look of combined greed and apprehension\noverspread his none too beautiful features.\n\n\"Double the figure,\" he said.  \"Even that were all too small an amount\nfor the service you ask.  Why, I risk my life by even entertaining\nyou here within the forbidden precincts of my station.  Should\nSalensus Oll learn of it he would have me thrown to the apts before\nthe day was done.\"\n\n\"He dare not do that, and you know it full well, Solan,\" contradicted\nthe black.  \"Too great a power of life and death you hold over the\npeople of Kadabra for Salensus Oll ever to risk threatening you\nwith death.  Before ever his minions could lay their hands upon you,\nyou might seize this very lever from which you have just warned me\nand wipe out the entire city.\"\n\n\"And myself into the bargain,\" said Solan, with a shudder.\n\n\"But if you were to die, anyway, you would find the nerve to do\nit,\" replied Thurid.\n\n\"Yes,\" muttered Solan, \"I have often thought upon that very thing.\nWell, First Born, is your red princess worth the price I ask for\nmy services, or will you go without her and see her in the arms of\nSalensus Oll tomorrow night?\"\n\n\"Take your price, yellow man,\" replied Thurid, with an oath.  \"Half\nnow and the balance when you have fulfilled your contract.\"\n\nWith that the dator threw a well-filled money-pouch upon the table.\n\nSolan opened the pouch and with trembling fingers counted its contents.\nHis weird eyes assumed a greedy expression, and his unkempt beard\nand mustache twitched with the muscles of his mouth and chin.  It\nwas quite evident from his very mannerism that Thurid had keenly\nguessed the man's weakness--even the clawlike, clutching movement\nof the fingers betokened the avariciousness of the miser.\n\nHaving satisfied himself that the amount was correct, Solan replaced\nthe money in the pouch and rose from the table.\n\n\"Now,\" he said, \"are you quite sure that you know the way to your\ndestination?  You must travel quickly to cover the ground to the\ncave and from thence beyond the Great Power, all within a brief\nhour, for no more dare I spare you.\"\n\n\"Let me repeat it to you,\" said Thurid, \"that you may see if I be\nletter-perfect.\"\n\n\"Proceed,\" replied Solan.\n\n\"Through yonder door,\" he commenced, pointing to a door at the far\nend of the apartment, \"I follow a corridor, passing three diverging\ncorridors upon my right; then into the fourth right-hand corridor\nstraight to where three corridors meet; here again I follow to the\nright, hugging the left wall closely to avoid the pit.\n\n\"At the end of this corridor I shall come to a spiral runway, which\nI must follow down instead of up; after that the way is along but\na single branchless corridor.  Am I right?\"\n\n\"Quite right, Dator,\" answered Solan; \"and now begone.  Already\nhave you tempted fate too long within this forbidden place.\"\n\n\"Tonight, or tomorrow, then, you may expect the signal,\" said\nThurid, rising to go.\n\n\"Tonight, or tomorrow,\" repeated Solan, and as the door closed\nbehind his guest the old man continued to mutter as he turned back\nto the table, where he again dumped the contents of the money-pouch,\nrunning his fingers through the heap of shining metal; piling the\ncoins into little towers; counting, recounting, and fondling the\nwealth the while he muttered on and on in a crooning undertone.\n\nPresently his fingers ceased their play; his eyes popped wider\nthan ever as they fastened upon the door through which Thurid\nhad disappeared.  The croon changed to a querulous muttering, and\nfinally to an ugly growl.\n\nThen the old man rose from the table, shaking his fist at the closed\ndoor.  Now he raised his voice, and his words came distinctly.\n\n\"Fool!\" he muttered.  \"Think you that for your happiness Solan will\ngive up his life?  If you escaped, Salensus Oll would know that\nonly through my connivance could you have succeeded.  Then would\nhe send for me.  What would you have me do?  Reduce the city and\nmyself to ashes?  No, fool, there is a better way--a better way\nfor Solan to keep thy money and be revenged upon Salensus Oll.\"\n\nHe laughed in a nasty, cackling note.\n\n\"Poor fool!  You may throw the great switch that will give you\nthe freedom of the air of Okar, and then, in fatuous security, go\non with thy red princess to the freedom of--death.  When you have\npassed beyond this chamber in your flight, what can prevent Solan\nreplacing the switch as it was before your vile hand touched it?\nNothing; and then the Guardian of the North will claim you and\nyour woman, and Salensus Oll, when he sees your dead bodies, will\nnever dream that the hand of Solan had aught to do with the thing.\"\n\nThen his voice dropped once more into mutterings that I could not\ntranslate, but I had heard enough to cause me to guess a great deal\nmore, and I thanked the kind Providence that had led me to this\nchamber at a time so filled with importance to Dejah Thoris and\nmyself as this.\n\nBut how to pass the old man now!  The cord, almost invisible upon\nthe floor, stretched straight across the apartment to a door upon\nthe far side.\n\nThere was no other way of which I knew, nor could I afford to\nignore the advice to \"follow the rope.\"  I must cross this room,\nbut however I should accomplish it undetected with that old man in\nthe very center of it baffled me.\n\nOf course I might have sprung in upon him and with my bare hands\nsilenced him forever, but I had heard enough to convince me that\nwith him alive the knowledge that I had gained might serve me at\nsome future moment, while should I kill him and another be stationed\nin his place Thurid would not come hither with Dejah Thoris, as\nwas quite evidently his intention.\n\nAs I stood in the dark shadow of the tunnel's end racking my brain\nfor a feasible plan the while I watched, catlike, the old man's\nevery move, he took up the money-pouch and crossed to one end of\nthe apartment, where, bending to his knees, he fumbled with a panel\nin the wall.\n\nInstantly I guessed that here was the hiding place in which he\nhoarded his wealth, and while he bent there, his back toward me,\nI entered the chamber upon tiptoe, and with the utmost stealth\nessayed to reach the opposite side before he should complete his\ntask and turn again toward the room's center.\n\nScarcely thirty steps, all told, must I take, and yet it seemed to\nmy overwrought imagination that that farther wall was miles away;\nbut at last I reached it, nor once had I taken my eyes from the\nback of the old miser's head.\n\nHe did not turn until my hand was upon the button that controlled\nthe door through which my way led, and then he turned away from me\nas I passed through and gently closed the door.\n\nFor an instant I paused, my ear close to the panel, to learn if he\nhad suspected aught, but as no sound of pursuit came from within\nI wheeled and made my way along the new corridor, following the\nrope, which I coiled and brought with me as I advanced.\n\nBut a short distance farther on I came to the rope's end at a point\nwhere five corridors met.  What was I to do?  Which way should I\nturn?  I was nonplused.\n\nA careful examination of the end of the rope revealed the fact that\nit had been cleanly cut with some sharp instrument.  This fact and\nthe words that had cautioned me that danger lay beyond the KNOTS\nconvinced me that the rope had been severed since my friend had\nplaced it as my guide, for I had but passed a single knot, whereas\nthere had evidently been two or more in the entire length of the\ncord.\n\nNow, indeed, was I in a pretty fix, for neither did I know which\navenue to follow nor when danger lay directly in my path; but there\nwas nothing else to be done than follow one of the corridors, for\nI could gain nothing by remaining where I was.\n\nSo I chose the central opening, and passed on into its gloomy depths\nwith a prayer upon my lips.\n\nThe floor of the tunnel rose rapidly as I advanced, and a moment\nlater the way came to an abrupt end before a heavy door.\n\nI could hear nothing beyond, and, with my accustomed rashness, pushed\nthe portal wide to step into a room filled with yellow warriors.\n\nThe first to see me opened his eyes wide in astonishment, and at\nthe same instant I felt the tingling sensation in my finger that\ndenoted the presence of a friend of the ring.\n\nThen others saw me, and there was a concerted rush to lay hands upon\nme, for these were all members of the palace guard--men familiar\nwith my face.\n\nThe first to reach me was the wearer of the mate to my strange\nring, and as he came close he whispered:  \"Surrender to me!\" then\nin a loud voice shouted:  \"You are my prisoner, white man,\" and\nmenaced me with his two weapons.\n\nAnd so John Carter, Prince of Helium, meekly surrendered to a\nsingle antagonist.  The others now swarmed about us, asking many\nquestions, but I would not talk to them, and finally my captor\nannounced that he would lead me back to my cell.\n\nAn officer ordered several other warriors to accompany him, and a\nmoment later we were retracing the way I had just come.  My friend\nwalked close beside me, asking many silly questions about the\ncountry from which I had come, until finally his fellows paid no\nfurther attention to him or his gabbling.\n\nGradually, as he spoke, he lowered his voice, so that presently\nhe was able to converse with me in a low tone without attracting\nattention.  His ruse was a clever one, and showed that Talu had\nnot misjudged the man's fitness for the dangerous duty upon which\nhe was detailed.\n\nWhen he had fully assured himself that the other guardsmen were not\nlistening, he asked me why I had not followed the rope, and when\nI told him that it had ended at the five corridors he said that it\nmust have been cut by someone in need of a piece of rope, for he\nwas sure that \"the stupid Kadabrans would never have guessed its\npurpose.\"\n\nBefore we had reached the spot from which the five corridors diverge\nmy Marentinian friend had managed to drop to the rear of the little\ncolumn with me, and when we came in sight of the branching ways he\nwhispered:\n\n\"Run up the first upon the right.  It leads to the watchtower upon\nthe south wall.  I will direct the pursuit up the next corridor,\"\nand with that he gave me a great shove into the dark mouth of the\ntunnel, at the same time crying out in simulated pain and alarm as\nhe threw himself upon the floor as though I had felled him with a\nblow.\n\nFrom behind the voices of the excited guardsmen came reverberating\nalong the corridor, suddenly growing fainter as Talu's spy led them\nup the wrong passageway in fancied pursuit.\n\nAs I ran for my life through the dark galleries beneath the palace of\nSalensus Oll I must indeed have presented a remarkable appearance\nhad there been any to note it, for though death loomed large\nabout me, my face was split by a broad grin as I thought of the\nresourcefulness of the nameless hero of Marentina to whom I owed\nmy life.\n\nOf such stuff are the men of my beloved Helium, and when I meet\nanother of their kind, of whatever race or color, my heart goes\nout to him as it did now to my new friend who had risked his life\nfor me simply because I wore the mate to the ring his ruler had\nput upon his finger.\n\nThe corridor along which I ran led almost straight for a considerable\ndistance, terminating at the foot of a spiral runway, up which\nI proceeded to emerge presently into a circular chamber upon the\nfirst floor of a tower.\n\nIn this apartment a dozen red slaves were employed polishing or\nrepairing the weapons of the yellow men.  The walls of the room\nwere lined with racks in which were hundreds of straight and hooked\nswords, javelins, and daggers.  It was evidently an armory.  There\nwere but three warriors guarding the workers.\n\nMy eyes took in the entire scene at a glance.  Here were weapons\nin plenty!  Here were sinewy red warriors to wield them!\n\nAnd here now was John Carter, Prince of Helium, in need both of\nweapons and warriors!\n\nAs I stepped into the apartment, guards and prisoners saw me\nsimultaneously.\n\nClose to the entrance where I stood was a rack of straight swords,\nand as my hand closed upon the hilt of one of them my eyes fell\nupon the faces of two of the prisoners who worked side by side.\n\nOne of the guards started toward me.  \"Who are you?\" he demanded.\n\"What do you here?\"\n\n\"I come for Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, and his son, Mors Kajak,\"\nI cried, pointing to the two red prisoners, who had now sprung to\ntheir feet, wide-eyed in astonished recognition.\n\n\"Rise, red men!  Before we die let us leave a memorial in the palace\nof Okar's tyrant that will stand forever in the annals of Kadabra\nto the honor and glory of Helium,\" for I had seen that all the\nprisoners there were men of Tardos Mors's navy.\n\nThen the first guardsman was upon me and the fight was on, but\nscarce did we engage ere, to my horror, I saw that the red slaves\nwere shackled to the floor.\n\n\n\n\nTHE MAGNET SWITCH\n\n\nThe guardsmen paid not the slightest attention to their wards, for\nthe red men could not move over two feet from the great rings to\nwhich they were padlocked, though each had seized a weapon upon\nwhich he had been engaged when I entered the room, and stood ready\nto join me could they have but done so.\n\nThe yellow men devoted all their attention to me, nor were they\nlong in discovering that the three of them were none too many to\ndefend the armory against John Carter.  Would that I had had my own\ngood long-sword in my hand that day; but, as it was, I rendered a\nsatisfactory account of myself with the unfamiliar weapon of the\nyellow man.\n\nAt first I had a time of it dodging their villainous hook-swords,\nbut after a minute or two I had succeeded in wresting a second\nstraight sword from one of the racks along the wall, and thereafter,\nusing it to parry the hooks of my antagonists, I felt more evenly\nequipped.\n\nThe three of them were on me at once, and but for a lucky circumstance\nmy end might have come quickly.  The foremost guardsman made\na vicious lunge for my side with his hook after the three of them\nhad backed me against the wall, but as I sidestepped and raised my\narm his weapon but grazed my side, passing into a rack of javelins,\nwhere it became entangled.\n\nBefore he could release it I had run him through, and then, falling\nback upon the tactics that have saved me a hundred times in tight\npinches, I rushed the two remaining warriors, forcing them back\nwith a perfect torrent of cuts and thrusts, weaving my sword in\nand out about their guards until I had the fear of death upon them.\n\nThen one of them commenced calling for help, but it was too late\nto save them.\n\nThey were as putty in my hands now, and I backed them about the\narmory as I would until I had them where I wanted them--within reach\nof the swords of the shackled slaves.  In an instant both lay dead\nupon the floor.  But their cries had not been entirely fruitless,\nfor now I heard answering shouts and the footfalls of many men\nrunning and the clank of accouterments and the commands of officers.\n\n\"The door!  Quick, John Carter, bar the door!\" cried Tardos Mors.\n\nAlready the guard was in sight, charging across the open court that\nwas visible through the doorway.\n\nA dozen seconds would bring them into the tower.  A single leap\ncarried me to the heavy portal.  With a resounding bang I slammed\nit shut.\n\n\"The bar!\" shouted Tardos Mors.\n\nI tried to slip the huge fastening into place, but it defied my\nevery attempt.\n\n\"Raise it a little to release the catch,\" cried one of the red men.\n\nI could hear the yellow warriors leaping along the flagging just\nbeyond the door.  I raised the bar and shot it to the right just\nas the foremost of the guardsmen threw himself against the opposite\nside of the massive panels.\n\nThe barrier held--I had been in time, but by the fraction of a\nsecond only.\n\nNow I turned my attention to the prisoners.  To Tardos Mors I went\nfirst, asking where the keys might be which would unfasten their\nfetters.\n\n\"The officer of the guard has them,\" replied the Jeddak of Helium,\n\"and he is among those without who seek entrance.  You will have\nto force them.\"\n\nMost of the prisoners were already hacking at their bonds with the\nswords in their hands.  The yellow men were battering at the door\nwith javelins and axes.\n\nI turned my attention to the chains that held Tardos Mors.  Again\nand again I cut deep into the metal with my sharp blade, but ever\nfaster and faster fell the torrent of blows upon the portal.\n\nAt last a link parted beneath my efforts, and a moment later Tardos\nMors was free, though a few inches of trailing chain still dangled\nfrom his ankle.\n\nA splinter of wood falling inward from the door announced the\nheadway that our enemies were making toward us.\n\nThe mighty panels trembled and bent beneath the furious onslaught\nof the enraged yellow men.\n\nWhat with the battering upon the door and the hacking of the red\nmen at their chains the din within the armory was appalling.  No\nsooner was Tardos Mors free than he turned his attention to another\nof the prisoners, while I set to work to liberate Mors Kajak.\n\nWe must work fast if we would have all those fetters cut before\nthe door gave way.  Now a panel crashed inward upon the floor, and\nMors Kajak sprang to the opening to defend the way until we should\nhave time to release the others.\n\nWith javelins snatched from the wall he wrought havoc among the\nforemost of the Okarians while we battled with the insensate metal\nthat stood between our fellows and freedom.\n\nAt length all but one of the prisoners were freed, and then the door\nfell with a mighty crash before a hastily improvised battering-ram,\nand the yellow horde was upon us.\n\n\"To the upper chambers!\" shouted the red man who was still fettered\nto the floor.  \"To the upper chambers!  There you may defend the\ntower against all Kadabra.  Do not delay because of me, who could\npray for no better death than in the service of Tardos Mors and\nthe Prince of Helium.\"\n\nBut I would have sacrificed the life of every man of us rather\nthan desert a single red man, much less the lion-hearted hero who\nbegged us to leave him.\n\n\"Cut his chains,\" I cried to two of the red men, \"while the balance\nof us hold off the foe.\"\n\nThere were ten of us now to do battle with the Okarian guard, and I\nwarrant that that ancient watchtower never looked down upon a more\nhotly contested battle than took place that day within its own grim\nwalls.\n\nThe first inrushing wave of yellow warriors recoiled from the\nslashing blades of ten of Helium's veteran fighting men.  A dozen\nOkarian corpses blocked the doorway, but over the gruesome barrier\na score more of their fellows dashed, shouting their hoarse and\nhideous war-cry.\n\nUpon the bloody mound we met them, hand to hand, stabbing where\nthe quarters were too close to cut, thrusting when we could push\na foeman to arm's length; and mingled with the wild cry of the\nOkarian there rose and fell the glorious words:  \"For Helium!  For\nHelium!\" that for countless ages have spurred on the bravest of the\nbrave to those deeds of valor that have sent the fame of Helium's\nheroes broadcast throughout the length and breadth of a world.\n\nNow were the fetters struck from the last of the red men, and\nthirteen strong we met each new charge of the soldiers of Salensus\nOll.  Scarce one of us but bled from a score of wounds, yet none\nhad fallen.\n\nFrom without we saw hundreds of guardsmen pouring into the courtyard,\nand along the lower corridor from which I had found my way to the\narmory we could hear the clank of metal and the shouting of men.\n\nIn a moment we should be attacked from two sides, and with all\nour prowess we could not hope to withstand the unequal odds which\nwould thus divide our attention and our small numbers.\n\n\"To the upper chambers!\" cried Tardos Mors, and a moment later we\nfell back toward the runway that led to the floors above.\n\nHere another bloody battle was waged with the force of yellow men\nwho charged into the armory as we fell back from the doorway.  Here\nwe lost our first man, a noble fellow whom we could ill spare; but\nat length all had backed into the runway except myself, who remained\nto hold back the Okarians until the others were safe above.\n\nIn the mouth of the narrow spiral but a single warrior could attack\nme at a time, so that I had little difficulty in holding them all\nback for the brief moment that was necessary.  Then, backing slowly\nbefore them, I commenced the ascent of the spiral.\n\nAll the long way to the tower's top the guardsmen pressed me closely.\nWhen one went down before my sword another scrambled over the dead\nman to take his place; and thus, taking an awful toll with each\nfew feet gained, I came to the spacious glass-walled watchtower of\nKadabra.\n\nHere my companions clustered ready to take my place, and for a\nmoment's respite I stepped to one side while they held the enemy\noff.\n\nFrom the lofty perch a view could be had for miles in every direction.\nToward the south stretched the rugged, ice-clad waste to the edge\nof the mighty barrier.  Toward the east and west, and dimly toward\nthe north I descried other Okarian cities, while in the immediate\nforeground, just beyond the walls of Kadabra, the grim guardian\nshaft reared its somber head.\n\nThen I cast my eyes down into the streets of Kadabra, from which\na sudden tumult had arisen, and there I saw a battle raging, and\nbeyond the city's walls I saw armed men marching in great columns\ntoward a near-by gate.\n\nEagerly I pressed forward against the glass wall of the observatory,\nscarce daring to credit the testimony of my own  eyes.  But at\nlast I could doubt no longer, and with a shout of joy that rose\nstrangely in the midst of the cursing and groaning of the battling\nmen at the entrance to the chamber, I called to Tardos Mors.\n\nAs he joined me I pointed down into the streets of Kadabra and to\nthe advancing columns beyond, above which floated bravely in the\narctic air the flags and banners of Helium.\n\nAn instant later every red man in the lofty chamber had seen the\ninspiring sight, and such a shout of thanksgiving arose as I warrant\nnever before echoed through that age-old pile of stone.\n\nBut still we must fight on, for though our troops had entered\nKadabra, the city was yet far from capitulation, nor had the palace\nbeen even assaulted.  Turn and turn about we held the top of the\nrunway while the others feasted their eyes upon the sight of our\nvaliant countrymen battling far beneath us.\n\nNow they have rushed the palace gate!  Great battering-rams are\ndashed against its formidable surface.  Now they are repulsed by\na deadly shower of javelins from the wall's top!\n\nOnce again they charge, but a sortie by a large force of Okarians\nfrom an intersecting avenue crumples the head of the column, and\nthe men of Helium go down, fighting, beneath an overwhelming force.\n\nThe palace gate flies open and a force of the jeddak's own guard,\npicked men from the flower of the Okarian army, sallies forth\nto shatter the broken regiments.  For a moment it looks as though\nnothing could avert defeat, and then I see a noble figure upon\na mighty thoat--not the tiny thoat of the red man, but one of his\nhuge cousins of the dead sea bottoms.\n\nThe warrior hews his way to the front, and behind him rally the\ndisorganized soldiers of Helium.  As he raises his head aloft to\nfling a challenge at the men upon the palace walls I see his face,\nand my heart swells in pride and happiness as the red warriors leap\nto the side of their leader and win back the ground that they had\nbut just lost--the face of him upon the mighty thoat is the face\nof my son--Carthoris of Helium.\n\nAt his side fights a huge Martian war-hound, nor did I need a\nsecond look to know that it was Woola--my faithful Woola who had\nthus well performed his arduous task and brought the succoring\nlegions in the nick of time.\n\n\"In the nick of time?\"\n\nWho yet might say that they were not too late to save, but surely\nthey could avenge!  And such retribution as that unconquered army\nwould deal out to the hateful Okarians!  I sighed to think that I\nmight not be alive to witness it.\n\nAgain I turned to the windows.  The red men had not yet forced the\nouter palace wall, but they were fighting nobly against the best\nthat Okar afforded--valiant warriors who contested every inch of\nthe way.\n\nNow my attention was caught by a new element without the city wall--a\ngreat body of mounted warriors looming large above the red men.\nThey were the huge green allies of Helium--the savage hordes from\nthe dead sea bottoms of the far south.\n\nIn grim and terrible silence they sped on toward the gate, the\npadded hoofs of their frightful mounts giving forth no sound.  Into\nthe doomed city they charged, and as they wheeled across the wide\nplaza before the palace of the Jeddak of Jeddaks I saw, riding at\ntheir head, the mighty figure of their mighty leader--Tars Tarkas,\nJeddak of Thark.\n\nMy wish, then, was to be gratified, for I was to see my old friend\nbattling once again, and though not shoulder to shoulder with him,\nI, too, would be fighting in the same cause here in the high tower\nof Okar.\n\nNor did it seem that our foes would ever cease their stubborn\nattacks, for still they came, though the way to our chamber was\noften clogged with the bodies of their dead.  At times they would\npause long enough to drag back the impeding corpses, and then fresh\nwarriors would forge upward to taste the cup of death.\n\nI had been taking my turn with the others in defending the approach\nto our lofty retreat when Mors Kajak, who had been watching the\nbattle in the street below, called aloud in sudden excitement.\nThere was a note of apprehension in his voice that brought me to\nhis side the instant that I could turn my place over to another,\nand as I reached him he pointed far out across the waste of snow\nand ice toward the southern horizon.\n\n\"Alas!\" he cried, \"that I should be forced to witness cruel fate\nbetray them without power to warn or aid; but they be past either\nnow.\"\n\nAs I looked in the direction he indicated I saw the cause of his\nperturbation.  A mighty fleet of fliers was approaching majestically\ntoward Kadabra from the direction of the ice-barrier.  On and on\nthey came with ever increasing velocity.\n\n\"The grim shaft that they call the Guardian of the North is beckoning\nto them,\" said Mors Kajak sadly, \"just as it beckoned to Tardos\nMors and his great fleet; see where they lie, crumpled and broken,\na grim and terrible monument to the mighty force of destruction\nwhich naught can resist.\"\n\nI, too, saw; but something else I saw that Mors Kajak did not; in\nmy mind's eye I saw a buried chamber whose walls were lined with\nstrange instruments and devices.\n\nIn the center of the chamber was a long table, and before it sat a\nlittle, pop-eyed old man counting his money; but, plainest of all,\nI saw upon the wall a great switch with a small magnet inlaid within\nthe surface of its black handle.\n\nThen I glanced out at the fast-approaching fleet.  In five minutes\nthat mighty armada of the skies would be bent and worthless scrap,\nlying at the base of the shaft beyond the city's wall, and yellow\nhordes would be loosed from another gate to rush out upon the few\nsurvivors stumbling blindly down through the mass of wreckage;\nthen the apts would come.  I shuddered at the thought, for I could\nvividly picture the whole horrible scene.\n\nQuick have I always been to decide and act.  The impulse that moves\nme and the doing of the thing seem simultaneous; for if my mind\ngoes through the tedious formality of reasoning, it must be a\nsubconscious act of which I am not objectively aware.  Psychologists\ntell me that, as the subconscious does not reason, too close a\nscrutiny of my mental activities might prove anything but flattering;\nbut be that as it may, I have often won success while the thinker\nwould have been still at the endless task of comparing various\njudgments.\n\nAnd now celerity of action was the prime essential to the success\nof the thing that I had decided upon.\n\nGrasping my sword more firmly in my hand, I called to the red man\nat the opening to the runway to stand aside.\n\n\"Way for the Prince of Helium!\" I shouted; and before the astonished\nyellow man whose misfortune it was to be at the fighting end of\nthe line at that particular moment could gather his wits together\nmy sword had decapitated him, and I was rushing like a mad bull\ndown upon those behind him.\n\n\"Way for the Prince of Helium!\" I shouted as I cut a path through\nthe astonished guardsmen of Salensus Oll.\n\nHewing to right and left, I beat my way down that warrior-choked\nspiral until, near the bottom, those below, thinking that an army\nwas descending upon them, turned and fled.\n\nThe armory at the first floor was vacant when I entered it, the\nlast of the Okarians having fled into the courtyard, so none saw\nme continue down the spiral toward the corridor beneath.\n\nHere I ran as rapidly as my legs would carry me toward the five\ncorners, and there plunged into the passageway that led to the\nstation of the old miser.\n\nWithout the formality of a knock, I burst into the room.  There sat\nthe old man at his table; but as he saw me he sprang to his feet,\ndrawing his sword.\n\nWith scarce more than a glance toward him I leaped for the great\nswitch; but, quick as I was, that wiry old fellow was there before\nme.\n\nHow he did it I shall never know, nor does it seem credible that\nany Martian-born creature could approximate the marvelous speed of\nmy earthly muscles.\n\nLike a tiger he turned upon me, and I was quick to see why Solan\nhad been chosen for this important duty.\n\nNever in all my life have I seen such wondrous swordsmanship and\nsuch uncanny agility as that ancient bag of bones displayed.  He was\nin forty places at the same time, and before I had half a chance\nto awaken to my danger he was like to have made a monkey of me,\nand a dead monkey at that.\n\nIt is strange how new and unexpected conditions bring out unguessed\nability to meet them.\n\nThat day in the buried chamber beneath the palace of Salensus Oll\nI learned what swordsmanship meant, and to what heights of sword\nmastery I could achieve when pitted against such a wizard of the\nblade as Solan.\n\nFor a time he liked to have bested me; but presently the latent\npossibilities that must have been lying dormant within me for a\nlifetime came to the fore, and I fought as I had never dreamed a\nhuman being could fight.\n\nThat that duel-royal should have taken place in the dark recesses\nof a cellar, without a single appreciative eye to witness it has\nalways seemed to me almost a world calamity--at least from the\nviewpoint Barsoomian, where bloody strife is the first and greatest\nconsideration of individuals, nations, and races.\n\nI was fighting to reach the switch, Solan to prevent me; and, though\nwe stood not three feet from it, I could not win an inch toward\nit, for he forced me back an inch for the first five minutes of\nour battle.\n\nI knew that if I were to throw it in time to save the oncoming\nfleet it must be done in the next few seconds, and so I tried my\nold rushing tactics; but I might as well have rushed a brick wall\nfor all that Solan gave way.\n\nIn fact, I came near to impaling myself upon his point for my\npains; but right was on my side, and I think that that must give a\nman greater confidence than though he knew himself to be battling\nin a wicked cause.\n\nAt least, I did not want in confidence; and when I next rushed Solan\nit was to one side with implicit confidence that he must turn to\nmeet my new line of attack, and turn he did, so that now we fought\nwith our sides towards the coveted goal--the great switch stood\nwithin my reach upon my right hand.\n\nTo uncover my breast for an instant would have been to court sudden\ndeath, but I saw no other way than to chance it, if by so doing I\nmight rescue that oncoming, succoring fleet; and so, in the face\nof a wicked sword-thrust, I reached out my point and caught the\ngreat switch a sudden blow that released it from its seating.\n\nSo surprised and horrified was Solan that he forgot to finish his\nthrust; instead, he wheeled toward the switch with a loud shriek--a\nshriek which was his last, for before his hand could touch the\nlever it sought, my sword's point had passed through his heart.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TIDE OF BATTLE\n\n\nBut Solan's last loud cry had not been without effect, for a moment\nlater a dozen guardsmen burst into the chamber, though not before\nI had so bent and demolished the great switch that it could not be\nagain used to turn the powerful current into the mighty magnet of\ndestruction it controlled.\n\nThe result of the sudden coming of the guardsmen had been to compel\nme to seek seclusion in the first passageway that I could find,\nand that to my disappointment proved to be not the one with which\nI was familiar, but another upon its left.\n\nThey must have either heard or guessed which way I went, for I had\nproceeded but a short distance when I heard the sound of pursuit.\nI had no mind to stop and fight these men here when there was\nfighting aplenty elsewhere in the city of Kadabra--fighting that\ncould be of much more avail to me and mine than useless life-taking\nfar below the palace.\n\nBut the fellows were pressing me; and as I did not know the way at\nall, I soon saw that they would overtake me unless I found a place\nto conceal myself until they had passed, which would then give me\nan opportunity to return the way I had come and regain the tower,\nor possibly find a way to reach the city streets.\n\nThe passageway had risen rapidly since leaving the apartment of\nthe switch, and now ran level and well lighted straight into the\ndistance as far as I could see.  The moment that my pursuers reached\nthis straight stretch I would be in plain sight of them, with no\nchance to escape from the corridor undetected.\n\nPresently I saw a series of doors opening from either side of the\ncorridor, and as they all looked alike to me I tried the first\none that I reached.  It opened into a small chamber, luxuriously\nfurnished, and was evidently an ante-chamber off some office or\naudience chamber of the palace.\n\nOn the far side was a heavily curtained doorway beyond which I\nheard the hum of voices.  Instantly I crossed the small chamber,\nand, parting the curtains, looked within the larger apartment.\n\nBefore me were a party of perhaps fifty gorgeously clad nobles of\nthe court, standing before a throne upon which sat Salensus Oll.\nThe Jeddak of Jeddaks was addressing them.\n\n\"The allotted hour has come,\" he was saying as I entered the\napartment; \"and though the enemies of Okar be within her gates,\nnaught may stay the will of Salensus Oll.  The great ceremony must\nbe omitted that no single man may be kept from his place in the\ndefenses other than the fifty that custom demands shall witness\nthe creation of a new queen in Okar.\n\n\"In a moment the thing shall have been done and we may return to\nthe battle, while she who is now the Princess of Helium looks down\nfrom the queen's tower upon the annihilation of her former countrymen\nand witnesses the greatness which is her husband's.\"\n\nThen, turning to a courtier, he issued some command in a low voice.\n\nThe addressed hastened to a small door at the far end of the chamber\nand, swinging it wide, cried:  \"Way for Dejah Thoris, future Queen\nof Okar!\"\n\nImmediately two guardsmen appeared dragging the unwilling bride toward\nthe altar.  Her hands were still manacled behind her, evidently to\nprevent suicide.\n\nHer disheveled hair and panting bosom betokened that, chained though\nshe was, still had she fought against the thing that they would do\nto her.\n\nAt sight of her Salensus Oll rose and drew his sword, and the sword\nof each of the fifty nobles was raised on high to form an arch,\nbeneath which the poor, beautiful creature was dragged toward her\ndoom.\n\nA grim smile forced itself to my lips as I thought of the rude\nawakening that lay in store for the ruler of Okar, and my itching\nfingers fondled the hilt of my bloody sword.\n\nAs I watched the procession that moved slowly toward the throne--a\nprocession which consisted of but a handful of priests, who followed\nDejah Thoris and the two guardsmen--I caught a fleeting glimpse\nof a black face peering from behind the draperies that covered the\nwall back of the dais upon which stood Salensus Oll awaiting his\nbride.\n\nNow the guardsmen were forcing the Princess of Helium up the few\nsteps to the side of the tyrant of Okar, and I had no eyes and no\nthoughts for aught else.  A priest opened a book and, raising his\nhand, commenced to drone out a sing-song ritual.  Salensus Oll\nreached for the hand of his bride.\n\nI had intended waiting until some circumstance should give me a\nreasonable hope of success; for, even though the entire ceremony\nshould be completed, there could be no valid marriage while I\nlived.  What I was most concerned in, of course, was the rescuing\nof Dejah Thoris--I wished to take her from the palace of Salensus\nOll, if such a thing were possible; but whether it were accomplished\nbefore or after the mock marriage was a matter of secondary import.\n\nWhen, however, I saw the vile hand of Salensus Oll reach out for\nthe hand of my beloved princess I could restrain myself no longer,\nand before the nobles of Okar knew that aught had happened I had\nleaped through their thin line and was upon the dais beside Dejah\nThoris and Salensus Oll.\n\nWith the flat of my sword I struck down his polluting hand; and\ngrasping Dejah Thoris round the waist, I swung her behind me as,\nwith my back against the draperies of the dais, I faced the tyrant\nof the north and his roomful of noble warriors.\n\nThe Jeddak of Jeddaks was a great mountain of a man--a coarse,\nbrutal beast of a man--and as he towered above me there, his fierce\nblack whiskers and mustache bristling in rage, I can well imagine\nthat a less seasoned warrior might have trembled before him.\n\nWith a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whether\nSalensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; for\nwith Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman,\nand no man could have withstood me then.\n\nWith a single, low:  \"For the Princess of Helium!\" I ran my blade\nstraight through the rotten heart of Okar's rotten ruler, and before\nthe white, drawn faces of his nobles Salensus Oll rolled, grinning\nin horrible death, to the foot of the steps below his marriage\nthrone.\n\nFor a moment tense silence reigned in the nuptial-room.  Then the\nfifty nobles rushed upon me.  Furiously we fought, but the advantage\nwas mine, for I stood upon a raised platform above them, and I\nfought for the most glorious woman of a glorious race, and I fought\nfor a great love and for the mother of my boy.\n\nAnd from behind my shoulder, in the silvery cadence of that dear\nvoice, rose the brave battle anthem of Helium which the nation's\nwomen sing as their men march out to victory.\n\nThat alone was enough to inspire me to victory over even greater\nodds, and I verily believe that I should have bested the entire\nroomful of yellow warriors that day in the nuptial chamber of the\npalace at Kadabra had not interruption come to my aid.\n\nFast and furious was the fighting as the nobles of Salensus Oll\nsprang, time and again, up the steps before the throne only to fall\nback before a sword hand that seemed to have gained a new wizardry\nfrom its experience with the cunning Solan.\n\nTwo were pressing me so closely that I could not turn when I heard\na movement behind me, and noted that the sound of the battle anthem\nhad ceased.  Was Dejah Thoris preparing to take her place beside\nme?\n\nHeroic daughter of a heroic world!  It would not be unlike her to\nhave seized a sword and fought at my side, for, though the women\nof Mars are not trained in the arts of war, the spirit is theirs,\nand they have been known to do that very thing upon countless\noccasions.\n\nBut she did not come, and glad I was, for it would have doubled my\nburden in protecting her before I should have been able to force\nher back again out of harm's way.  She must be contemplating some\ncunning strategy, I thought, and so I fought on secure in the belief\nthat my divine princess stood close behind me.\n\nFor half an hour at least I must have fought there against the\nnobles of Okar ere ever a one placed a foot upon the dais where I\nstood, and then of a sudden all that remained of them formed below\nme for a last, mad, desperate charge; but even as they advanced\nthe door at the far end of the chamber swung wide and a wild-eyed\nmessenger sprang into the room.\n\n\"The Jeddak of Jeddaks!\" he cried.  \"Where is the Jeddak of Jeddaks?\nThe city has fallen before the hordes from beyond the barrier, and\nbut now the great gate of the palace itself has been forced and\nthe warriors of the south are pouring into its sacred precincts.\n\n\"Where is Salensus Oll?  He alone may revive the flagging courage\nof our warriors.  He alone may save the day for Okar.  Where is\nSalensus Oll?\"\n\nThe nobles stepped back from about the dead body of their ruler,\nand one of them pointed to the grinning corpse.\n\nThe messenger staggered back in horror as though from a blow in\nthe face.\n\n\"Then fly, nobles of Okar!\" he cried, \"for naught can save you.\nHark!  They come!\"\n\nAs he spoke we heard the deep roar of angry men from the corridor\nwithout, and the clank of metal and the clang of swords.\n\nWithout another glance toward me, who had stood a spectator of\nthe tragic scene, the nobles wheeled and fled from the apartment\nthrough another exit.\n\nAlmost immediately a force of yellow warriors appeared in the\ndoorway through which the messenger had come.  They were backing\ntoward the apartment, stubbornly resisting the advance of a handful\nof red men who faced them and forced them slowly but inevitably\nback.\n\nAbove the heads of the contestants I could see from my elevated\nstation upon the dais the face of my old friend Kantos Kan.  He was\nleading the little party that had won its way into the very heart\nof the palace of Salensus Oll.\n\nIn an instant I saw that by attacking the Okarians from the rear\nI could so quickly disorganize them that their further resistance\nwould be short-lived, and with this idea in mind I sprang from\nthe dais, casting a word of explanation to Dejah Thoris over my\nshoulder, though I did not turn to look at her.\n\nWith myself ever between her enemies and herself, and with Kantos\nKan and his warriors winning to the apartment, there could be no\ndanger to Dejah Thoris standing there alone beside the throne.\n\nI wanted the men of Helium to see me and to know that their beloved\nprincess was here, too, for I knew that this knowledge would inspire\nthem to even greater deeds of valor than they had performed in the\npast, though great indeed must have been those which won for them\na way into the almost impregnable palace of the tyrant of the north.\n\nAs I crossed the chamber to attack the Kadabrans from the rear a\nsmall doorway at my left opened, and, to my surprise, revealed the\nfigures of Matai Shang, Father of Therns and Phaidor, his daughter,\npeering into the room.\n\nA quick glance about they took.  Their eyes rested for a moment,\nwide in horror, upon the dead body of Salensus Oll, upon the blood\nthat crimsoned the floor, upon the corpses of the nobles who had\nfallen thick before the throne, upon me, and upon the battling\nwarriors at the other door.\n\nThey did not essay to enter the apartment, but scanned its every\ncorner from where they stood, and then, when their eyes had sought\nits entire area, a look of fierce rage overspread the features\nof Matai Shang, and a cold and cunning smile touched the lips of\nPhaidor.\n\nThen they were gone, but not before a taunting laugh was thrown\ndirectly in my face by the woman.\n\nI did not understand then the meaning of Matai Shang's rage or\nPhaidor's pleasure, but I knew that neither boded good for me.\n\nA moment later I was upon the backs of the yellow men, and as the\nred men of Helium saw me above the shoulders of their antagonists\na great shout rang through the corridor, and for a moment drowned\nthe noise of battle.\n\n\"For the Prince of Helium!\" they cried.  \"For the Prince of Helium!\"\nand, like hungry lions upon their prey, they fell once more upon\nthe weakening warriors of the north.\n\nThe yellow men, cornered between two enemies, fought with the\ndesperation that utter hopelessness often induces.  Fought as I\nshould have fought had I been in their stead, with the determination\nto take as many of my enemies with me when I died as lay within\nthe power of my sword arm.\n\nIt was a glorious battle, but the end seemed inevitable, when\npresently from down the corridor behind the red men came a great\nbody of reenforcing yellow warriors.\n\nNow were the tables turned, and it was the men of Helium who seemed\ndoomed to be ground between two millstones.  All were compelled to\nturn to meet this new assault by a greatly superior force, so that\nto me was left the remnants of the yellow men within the throneroom.\n\nThey kept me busy, too; so busy that I began to wonder if indeed\nI should ever be done with them.  Slowly they pressed me back into\nthe room, and when they had all passed in after me, one of them\nclosed and bolted the door, effectually barring the way against\nthe men of Kantos Kan.\n\nIt was a clever move, for it put me at the mercy of a dozen men\nwithin a chamber from which assistance was locked out, and it gave\nthe red men in the corridor beyond no avenue of escape should their\nnew antagonists press them too closely.\n\nBut I have faced heavier odds myself than were pitted against me\nthat day, and I knew that Kantos Kan had battled his way from a\nhundred more dangerous traps than that in which he now was.  So it\nwas with no feelings of despair that I turned my attention to the\nbusiness of the moment.\n\nConstantly my thoughts reverted to Dejah Thoris, and I longed for\nthe moment when, the fighting done, I could fold her in my arms,\nand hear once more the words of love which had been denied me for\nso many years.\n\nDuring the fighting in the chamber I had not even a single chance\nto so much as steal a glance at her where she stood behind me beside\nthe throne of the dead ruler.  I wondered why she no longer urged\nme on with the strains of the martial hymn of Helium; but I did not\nneed more than the knowledge that I was battling for her to bring\nout the best that is in me.\n\nIt would be wearisome to narrate the details of that bloody struggle;\nof how we fought from the doorway, the full length of the room to\nthe very foot of the throne before the last of my antagonists fell\nwith my blade piercing his heart.\n\nAnd then, with a glad cry, I turned with outstretched arms to seize\nmy princess, and as my lips smothered hers to reap the reward that\nwould be thrice ample payment for the bloody encounters through\nwhich I had passed for her dear sake from the south pole to the\nnorth.\n\nThe glad cry died, frozen upon my lips; my arms dropped limp and\nlifeless to my sides; as one who reels beneath the burden of a\nmortal wound I staggered up the steps before the throne.\n\nDejah Thoris was gone.\n\n\n\n\nREWARDS\n\n\nWith the realization that Dejah Thoris was no longer within the\nthroneroom came the belated recollection of the dark face that I had\nglimpsed peering from behind the draperies that backed the throne\nof Salensus Oll at the moment that I had first come so unexpectedly\nupon the strange scene being enacted within the chamber.\n\nWhy had the sight of that evil countenance not warned me to greater\ncaution?  Why had I permitted the rapid development of new situations\nto efface the recollection of that menacing danger?  But, alas,\nvain regret would not erase the calamity that had befallen.\n\nOnce again had Dejah Thoris fallen into the clutches of that\narchfiend, Thurid, the black dator of the First Born.  Again was\nall my arduous labor gone for naught.  Now I realized the cause\nof the rage that had been writ so large upon the features of Matai\nShang and the cruel pleasure that I had seen upon the face of\nPhaidor.\n\nThey had known or guessed the truth, and the hekkador of the\nHoly Therns, who had evidently come to the chamber in the hope of\nthwarting Salensus Oll in his contemplated perfidy against the high\npriest who coveted Dejah Thoris for himself, realized that Thurid\nhad stolen the prize from beneath his very nose.\n\nPhaidor's pleasure had been due to her realization of what this last\ncruel blow would mean to me, as well as to a partial satisfaction\nof her jealous hatred for the Princess of Helium.\n\nMy first thought was to look beyond the draperies at the back of\nthe throne, for there it was that I had seen Thurid.  With a single\njerk I tore the priceless stuff from its fastenings, and there\nbefore me was revealed a narrow doorway behind the throne.\n\nNo question entered my mind but that here lay the opening of the\navenue of escape which Thurid had followed, and had there been it\nwould have been dissipated by the sight of a tiny, jeweled ornament\nwhich lay a few steps within the corridor beyond.\n\nAs I snatched up the bauble I saw that it bore the device of the\nPrincess of Helium, and then pressing it to my lips I dashed madly\nalong the winding way that led gently downward toward the lower\ngalleries of the palace.\n\nI had followed but a short distance when I came upon the room in\nwhich Solan formerly had held sway.  His dead body still lay where\nI had left it, nor was there any sign that another had passed\nthrough the room since I had been there; but I knew that two had\ndone so--Thurid, the black dator, and Dejah Thoris.\n\nFor a moment I paused uncertain as to which of the several exits\nfrom the apartment would lead me upon the right path.  I tried to\nrecollect the directions which I had heard Thurid repeat to Solan,\nand at last, slowly, as though through a heavy fog, the memory of\nthe words of the First Born came to me:\n\n\"Follow a corridor, passing three diverging corridors upon the right;\nthen into the fourth right-hand corridor to where three corridors\nmeet; here again follow to the right, hugging the left wall closely\nto avoid the pit.  At the end of this corridor I shall come to a\nspiral runway which I must follow down instead of up; after that\nthe way is along but a single branchless corridor.\"\n\nAnd I recalled the exit at which he had pointed as he spoke.\n\nIt did not take me long to start upon that unknown way, nor did I\ngo with caution, although I knew that there might be grave dangers\nbefore me.\n\nPart of the way was black as sin, but for the most it was fairly\nwell lighted.  The stretch where I must hug the left wall to avoid\nthe pits was darkest of them all, and I was nearly over the edge of\nthe abyss before I knew that I was near the danger spot.  A narrow\nledge, scarce a foot wide, was all that had been left to carry\nthe initiated past that frightful cavity into which the unknowing\nmust surely have toppled at the first step.  But at last I had won\nsafely beyond it, and then a feeble light made the balance of the\nway plain, until, at the end of the last corridor, I came suddenly\nout into the glare of day upon a field of snow and ice.\n\nClad for the warm atmosphere of the hothouse city of Kadabra, the\nsudden change to arctic frigidity was anything but pleasant; but\nthe worst of it was that I knew I could not endure the bitter cold,\nalmost naked as I was, and that I would perish before ever I could\novertake Thurid and Dejah Thoris.\n\nTo be thus blocked by nature, who had had all the arts and wiles\nof cunning man pitted against him, seemed a cruel fate, and as I\nstaggered back into the warmth of the tunnel's end I was as near\nhopelessness as I ever have been.\n\nI had by no means given up my intention of continuing the pursuit,\nfor if needs be I would go ahead though I perished ere ever I\nreached my goal, but if there were a safer way it were well worth\nthe delay to attempt to discover it, that I might come again to\nthe side of Dejah Thoris in fit condition to do battle for her.\n\nScarce had I returned to the tunnel than I stumbled over a portion\nof a fur garment that seemed fastened to the floor of the corridor\nclose to the wall.  In the darkness I could not see what held it,\nbut by groping with my hands I discovered that it was wedged beneath\nthe bottom of a closed door.\n\nPushing the portal aside, I found myself upon the threshold of a\nsmall chamber, the walls of which were lined with hooks from which\ndepended suits of the complete outdoor apparel of the yellow men.\n\nSituated as it was at the mouth of a tunnel leading from the palace,\nit was quite evident that this was the dressing-room used by the\nnobles leaving and entering the hothouse city, and that Thurid,\nhaving knowledge of it, had stopped here to outfit himself and\nDejah Thoris before venturing into the bitter cold of the arctic\nworld beyond.\n\nIn his haste he had dropped several garments upon the floor, and\nthe telltale fur that had fallen partly within the corridor had\nproved the means of guiding me to the very spot he would least have\nwished me to have knowledge of.\n\nIt required but the matter of a few seconds to don the necessary\norluk-skin clothing, with the heavy, fur-lined boots that are so\nessential a part of the garmenture of one who would successfully\ncontend with the frozen trails and the icy winds of the bleak\nnorthland.\n\nOnce more I stepped beyond the tunnel's mouth to find the fresh\ntracks of Thurid and Dejah Thoris in the new-fallen snow.  Now, at\nlast, was my task an easy one, for though the going was rough in\nthe extreme, I was no longer vexed by doubts as to the direction\nI should follow, or harassed by darkness or hidden dangers.\n\nThrough a snow-covered canyon the way led up toward the summit of\nlow hills.  Beyond these it dipped again into another canyon, only\nto rise a quarter-mile farther on toward a pass which skirted the\nflank of a rocky hill.\n\nI could see by the signs of those who had gone before that when Dejah\nThoris had walked she had been continually holding back, and that\nthe black man had been compelled to drag her.  For other stretches\nonly his foot-prints were visible, deep and close together in\nthe heavy snow, and I knew from these signs that then he had been\nforced to carry her, and I could well imagine that she had fought\nhim fiercely every step of the way.\n\nAs I came round the jutting promontory of the hill's shoulder I saw\nthat which quickened my pulses and set my heart to beating high,\nfor within a tiny basin between the crest of this hill and the next\nstood four people before the mouth of a great cave, and beside them\nupon the gleaming snow rested a flier which had evidently but just\nbeen dragged from its hiding place.\n\nThe four were Dejah Thoris, Phaidor, Thurid, and Matai Shang.  The\ntwo men were engaged in a heated argument--the Father of Therns\nthreatening, while the black scoffed at him as he went about the\nwork at which he was engaged.\n\nAs I crept toward them cautiously that I might come as near as\npossible before being discovered, I saw that finally the men appeared\nto have reached some sort of a compromise, for with Phaidor's\nassistance they both set about dragging the resisting Dejah Thoris\nto the flier's deck.\n\nHere they made her fast, and then both again descended to the ground\nto complete the preparations for departure.  Phaidor entered the\nsmall cabin upon the vessel's deck.\n\nI had come to within a quarter of a mile of them when Matai Shang\nespied me.  I saw him seize Thurid by the shoulder, wheeling him\naround in my direction as he pointed to where I was now plainly\nvisible, for the moment that I knew I had been perceived I cast\naside every attempt at stealth and broke into a mad race for the\nflier.\n\nThe two redoubled their efforts at the propeller at which they were\nworking, and which very evidently was being replaced after having\nbeen removed for some purpose of repair.\n\nThey had the thing completed before I had covered half the distance\nthat lay between me and them, and then both made a rush for the\nboarding-ladder.\n\nThurid was the first to reach it, and with the agility of a monkey\nclambered swiftly to the boat's deck, where a touch of the button\ncontrolling the buoyancy tanks sent the craft slowly upward, though\nnot with the speed that marks the well-conditioned flier.\n\nI was still some hundred yards away as I saw them rising from my\ngrasp.\n\nBack by the city of Kadabra lay a great fleet of mighty fliers--the\nships of Helium and Ptarth that I had saved from destruction earlier\nin the day; but before ever I could reach them Thurid could easily\nmake good his escape.\n\nAs I ran I saw Matai Shang clambering up the swaying, swinging\nladder toward the deck, while above him leaned the evil face of the\nFirst Born.  A trailing rope from the vessel's stern put new hope\nin me, for if I could but reach it before it whipped too high above\nmy head there was yet a chance to gain the deck by its slender aid.\n\nThat there was something radically wrong with the flier was evident\nfrom its lack of buoyancy, and the further fact that though Thurid\nhad turned twice to the starting lever the boat still hung motionless\nin the air, except for a slight drifting with a low breeze from\nthe north.\n\nNow Matai Shang was close to the gunwale.  A long, claw-like hand\nwas reaching up to grasp the metal rail.\n\nThurid leaned farther down toward his co-conspirator.\n\nSuddenly a raised dagger gleamed in the upflung hand of the black.\nDown it drove toward the white face of the Father of Therns.  With\na loud shriek of fear the Holy Hekkador grasped frantically at that\nmenacing arm.\n\nI was almost to the trailing rope by now.  The craft was still\nrising slowly, the while it drifted from me.  Then I stumbled on\nthe icy way, striking my head upon a rock as I fell sprawling but\nan arm's length from the rope, the end of which was now just leaving\nthe ground.\n\nWith the blow upon my head came unconsciousness.\n\nIt could not have been more than a few seconds that I lay senseless\nthere upon the northern ice, while all that was dearest to me\ndrifted farther from my reach in the clutches of that black fiend,\nfor when I opened my eyes Thurid and Matai Shang yet battled at the\nladder's top, and the flier drifted but a hundred yards farther to\nthe south--but the end of the trailing rope was now a good thirty\nfeet above the ground.\n\nGoaded to madness by the cruel misfortune that had tripped me when\nsuccess was almost within my grasp, I tore frantically across the\nintervening space, and just beneath the rope's dangling end I put\nmy earthly muscles to the supreme test.\n\nWith a mighty, catlike bound I sprang upward toward that slender\nstrand--the only avenue which yet remained that could carry me to\nmy vanishing love.\n\nA foot above its lowest end my fingers closed.  Tightly as I clung\nI felt the rope slipping, slipping through my grasp.  I tried to\nraise my free hand to take a second hold above my first, but the\nchange of position that resulted caused me to slip more rapidly\ntoward the end of the rope.\n\nSlowly I felt the tantalizing thing escaping me.  In a moment all\nthat I had gained would be lost--then my fingers reached a knot at\nthe very end of the rope and slipped no more.\n\nWith a prayer of gratitude upon my lips I scrambled upward toward\nthe boat's deck.  I could not see Thurid and Matai Shang now,\nbut I heard the sounds of conflict and thus knew that they still\nfought--the thern for his life and the black for the increased\nbuoyancy that relief from the weight of even a single body would\ngive the craft.\n\nShould Matai Shang die before I reached the deck my chances of ever\nreaching it would be slender indeed, for the black dator need but\ncut the rope above me to be freed from me forever, for the vessel\nhad drifted across the brink of a chasm into whose yawning depths\nmy body would drop to be crushed to a shapeless pulp should Thurid\nreach the rope now.\n\nAt last my hand closed upon the ship's rail and that very instant\na horrid shriek rang out below me that sent my blood cold and turned\nmy horrified eyes downward to a shrieking, hurtling, twisting thing\nthat shot downward into the awful chasm beneath me.\n\nIt was Matai Shang, Holy Hekkador, Father of Therns, gone to his\nlast accounting.\n\nThen my head came above the deck and I saw Thurid, dagger in hand,\nleaping toward me.  He was opposite the forward end of the cabin,\nwhile I was attempting to clamber aboard near the vessel's stern.\nBut a few paces lay between us.  No power on earth could raise me\nto that deck before the infuriated black would be upon me.\n\nMy end had come.  I knew it; but had there been a doubt in my mind\nthe nasty leer of triumph upon that wicked face would have convinced\nme.  Beyond Thurid I could see my Dejah Thoris, wide-eyed and\nhorrified, struggling at her bonds.  That she should be forced to\nwitness my awful death made my bitter fate seem doubly cruel.\n\nI ceased my efforts to climb across the gunwale.  Instead I took\na firm grasp upon the rail with my left hand and drew my dagger.\n\nI should at least die as I had lived--fighting.\n\nAs Thurid came opposite the cabin's doorway a new element projected\nitself into the grim tragedy of the air that was being enacted upon\nthe deck of Matai Shang's disabled flier.\n\nIt was Phaidor.\n\nWith flushed face and disheveled hair, and eyes that betrayed the\nrecent presence of mortal tears--above which this proud goddess had\nalways held herself--she leaped to the deck directly before me.\n\nIn her hand was a long, slim dagger.  I cast a last look upon\nmy beloved princess, smiling, as men should who are about to die.\nThen I turned my face up toward Phaidor--waiting for the blow.\n\nNever have I seen that beautiful face more beautiful than it was\nat that moment.  It seemed incredible that one so lovely could\nyet harbor within her fair bosom a heart so cruel and relentless,\nand today there was a new expression in her wondrous eyes that I\nnever before had seen there--an unfamiliar softness, and a look of\nsuffering.\n\nThurid was beside her now--pushing past to reach me first, and\nthen what happened happened so quickly that it was all over before\nI could realize the truth of it.\n\nPhaidor's slim hand shot out to close upon the black's dagger wrist.\nHer right hand went high with its gleaming blade.\n\n\"That for Matai Shang!\" she cried, and she buried her blade deep\nin the dator's breast.  \"That for the wrong you would have done\nDejah Thoris!\" and again the sharp steel sank into the bloody flesh.\n\n\"And that, and that, and that!\" she shrieked, \"for John Carter,\nPrince of Helium,\" and with each word her sharp point pierced the\nvile heart of the great villain.  Then, with a vindictive shove she\ncast the carcass of the First Born from the deck to fall in awful\nsilence after the body of his victim.\n\nI had been so paralyzed by surprise that I had made no move to reach\nthe deck during the awe-inspiring scene which I had just witnessed,\nand now I was to be still further amazed by her next act, for\nPhaidor extended her hand to me and assisted me to the deck, where\nI stood gazing at her in unconcealed and stupefied wonderment.\n\nA wan smile touched her lips--it was not the cruel and haughty\nsmile of the goddess with which I was familiar.  \"You wonder, John\nCarter,\" she said, \"what strange thing has wrought this change in\nme?  I will tell you.  It is love--love of you,\" and when I darkened\nmy brows in disapproval of her words she raised an appealing hand.\n\n\"Wait,\" she said.  \"It is a different love from mine--it is the\nlove of your princess, Dejah Thoris, for you that has taught me\nwhat true love may be--what it should be, and how far from real\nlove was my selfish and jealous passion for you.\n\n\"Now I am different.  Now could I love as Dejah Thoris loves, and\nso my only happiness can be to know that you and she are once more\nunited, for in her alone can you find true happiness.\n\n\"But I am unhappy because of the wickedness that I have wrought.  I\nhave many sins to expiate, and though I be deathless, life is all\ntoo short for the atonement.\n\n\"But there is another way, and if Phaidor, daughter of the Holy\nHekkador of the Holy Therns, has sinned she has this day already\nmade partial reparation, and lest you doubt the sincerity of her\nprotestations and her avowal of a new love that embraces Dejah\nThoris also, she will prove her sincerity in the only way that\nlies open--having saved you for another, Phaidor leaves you to her\nembraces.\"\n\nWith her last word she turned and leaped from the vessel's deck\ninto the abyss below.\n\nWith a cry of horror I sprang forward in a vain attempt to save the\nlife that for two years I would so gladly have seen extinguished.\nI was too late.\n\nWith tear-dimmed eyes I turned away that I might not see the awful\nsight beneath.\n\nA moment later I had struck the bonds from Dejah Thoris, and as her\ndear arms went about my neck and her perfect lips pressed to mine\nI forgot the horrors that I had witnessed and the suffering that\nI had endured in the rapture of my reward.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW RULER\n\n\nThe flier upon whose deck Dejah Thoris and I found ourselves after\ntwelve long years of separation proved entirely useless.  Her\nbuoyancy tanks leaked badly.  Her engine would not start.  We were\nhelpless there in mid air above the arctic ice.\n\nThe craft had drifted across the chasm which held the corpses of\nMatai Shang, Thurid, and Phaidor, and now hung above a low hill.\nOpening the buoyancy escape valves I permitted her to come slowly\nto the ground, and as she touched, Dejah Thoris and I stepped from\nher deck and, hand in hand, turned back across the frozen waste\ntoward the city of Kadabra.\n\nThrough the tunnel that had led me in pursuit of them we passed,\nwalking slowly, for we had much to say to each other.\n\nShe told me of that last terrible moment months before when the\ndoor of her prison cell within the Temple of the Sun was slowly\nclosing between us.  Of how Phaidor had sprung upon her with\nuplifted dagger, and of Thuvia's shriek as she had realized the\nfoul intention of the thern goddess.\n\nIt had been that cry that had rung in my ears all the long, weary\nmonths that I had been left in cruel doubt as to my princess' fate;\nfor I had not known that Thuvia had wrested the blade from the\ndaughter of Matai Shang before it had touched either Dejah Thoris\nor herself.\n\nShe told me, too, of the awful eternity of her imprisonment.  Of\nthe cruel hatred of Phaidor, and the tender love of Thuvia, and\nof how even when despair was the darkest those two red girls had\nclung to the same hope and belief--that John Carter would find a\nway to release them.\n\nPresently we came to the chamber of Solan.  I had been proceeding\nwithout thought of caution, for I was sure that the city and the\npalace were both in the hands of my friends by this time.\n\nAnd so it was that I bolted into the chamber full into the midst\nof a dozen nobles of the court of Salensus Oll.  They were passing\nthrough on their way to the outside world along the corridors we\nhad just traversed.\n\nAt sight of us they halted in their tracks, and then an ugly smile\noverspread the features of their leader.\n\n\"The author of all our misfortunes!\" he cried, pointing at me.  \"We\nshall have the satisfaction of a partial vengeance at least when we\nleave behind us here the dead and mutilated corpses of the Prince\nand Princess of Helium.\n\n\"When they find them,\" he went on, jerking his thumb upward toward\nthe palace above, \"they will realize that the vengeance of the\nyellow man costs his enemies dear.  Prepare to die, John Carter,\nbut that your end may be the more bitter, know that I may change my\nintention as to meting a merciful death to your princess--possibly\nshe shall be preserved as a plaything for my nobles.\"\n\nI stood close to the instrument-covered wall--Dejah Thoris at my\nside.  She looked up at me wonderingly as the warriors advanced\nupon us with drawn swords, for mine still hung within its scabbard\nat my side, and there was a smile upon my lips.\n\nThe yellow nobles, too, looked in surprise, and then as I made no\nmove to draw they hesitated, fearing a ruse; but their leader urged\nthem on.  When they had come almost within sword's reach of me\nI raised my hand and laid it upon the polished surface of a great\nlever, and then, still smiling grimly, I looked my enemies full in\nthe face.\n\nAs one they came to a sudden stop, casting affrighted glances at\nme and at one another.\n\n\"Stop!\" shrieked their leader.  \"You dream not what you do!\"\n\n\"Right you are,\" I replied.  \"John Carter does not dream.  He\nknows--knows that should one of you take another step toward Dejah\nThoris, Princess of Helium, I pull this lever wide, and she and I\nshall die together; but we shall not die alone.\"\n\nThe nobles shrank back, whispering together for a few moments.  At\nlast their leader turned to me.\n\n\"Go your way, John Carter,\" he said, \"and we shall go ours.\"\n\n\"Prisoners do not go their own way,\" I answered, \"and you are\nprisoners--prisoners of the Prince of Helium.\"\n\nBefore they could make answer a door upon the opposite side of the\napartment opened and a score of yellow men poured into the apartment.\nFor an instant the nobles looked relieved, and then as their eyes\nfell upon the leader of the new party their faces fell, for he was\nTalu, rebel Prince of Marentina, and they knew that they could look\nfor neither aid nor mercy at his hands.\n\n\"Well done, John Carter,\" he cried.  \"You turn their own mighty\npower against them.  Fortunate for Okar is it that you were here\nto prevent their escape, for these be the greatest villains north\nof the ice-barrier, and this one\"--pointing to the leader of the\nparty--\"would have made himself Jeddak of Jeddaks in the place\nof the dead Salensus Oll.  Then indeed would we have had a more\nvillainous ruler than the hated tyrant who fell before your sword.\"\n\nThe Okarian nobles now submitted to arrest, since nothing but death\nfaced them should they resist, and, escorted by the warriors of\nTalu, we made our way to the great audience chamber that had been\nSalensus Oll's.  Here was a vast concourse of warriors.\n\nRed men from Helium and Ptarth, yellow men of the north, rubbing\nelbows with the blacks of the First Born who had come under my\nfriend Xodar to help in the search for me and my princess.  There\nwere savage, green warriors from the dead sea bottoms of the south,\nand a handful of white-skinned therns who had renounced their\nreligion and sworn allegiance to Xodar.\n\nThere was Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak, and tall and mighty in his\ngorgeous warrior trappings, Carthoris, my son.  These three fell\nupon Dejah Thoris as we entered the apartment, and though the lives\nand training of royal Martians tend not toward vulgar demonstration,\nI thought that they would suffocate her with their embraces.\n\nAnd there were Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and Kantos Kan,\nmy old-time friends, and leaping and tearing at my harness in the\nexuberance of his great love was dear old Woola--frantic mad with\nhappiness.\n\nLong and loud was the cheering that burst forth at sight of us;\ndeafening was the din of ringing metal as the veteran warriors of\nevery Martian clime clashed their blades together on high in token\nof success and victory, but as I passed among the throng of saluting\nnobles and warriors, jeds and jeddaks, my heart still was heavy,\nfor there were two faces missing that I would have given much to\nhave seen there--Thuvan Dihn and Thuvia of Ptarth were not to be\nfound in the great chamber.\n\nI made inquiries concerning them among men of every nation, and at\nlast from one of the yellow prisoners of war I learned that they\nhad been apprehended by an officer of the palace as they sought to\nreach the Pit of Plenty while I lay imprisoned there.\n\nI did not need to ask to know what had sent them thither--the\ncourageous jeddak and his loyal daughter.  My informer said that\nthey lay now in one of the many buried dungeons of the palace\nwhere they had been placed pending a decision as to their fate by\nthe tyrant of the north.\n\nA moment later searching parties were scouring the ancient pile in\nsearch of them, and my cup of happiness was full when I saw them\nbeing escorted into the room by a cheering guard of honor.\n\nThuvia's first act was to rush to the side of Dejah Thoris, and I\nneeded no better proof of the love these two bore for each other\nthan the sincerity with which they embraced.\n\nLooking down upon that crowded chamber stood the silent and empty\nthrone of Okar.\n\nOf all the strange scenes it must have witnessed since that long-dead\nage that had first seen a Jeddak of Jeddaks take his seat upon\nit, none might compare with that upon which it now looked down,\nand as I pondered the past and future of that long-buried race of\nblack-bearded yellow men I thought that I saw a brighter and more\nuseful existence for them among the great family of friendly nations\nthat now stretched from the south pole almost to their very doors.\n\nTwenty-two years before I had been cast, naked and a stranger, into\nthis strange and savage world.  The hand of every race and nation\nwas raised in continual strife and warring against the men of\nevery other land and color.  Today, by the might of my sword and the\nloyalty of the friends my sword had made for me, black man and white,\nred man and green rubbed shoulders in peace and good-fellowship.\nAll the nations of Barsoom were not yet as one, but a great\nstride forward toward that goal had been taken, and now if I could\nbut cement the fierce yellow race into this solidarity of nations\nI should feel that I had rounded out a great lifework, and repaid\nto Mars at least a portion of the immense debt of gratitude I owed\nher for having given me my Dejah Thoris.\n\nAnd as I thought, I saw but one way, and a single man who could\ninsure the success of my hopes.  As is ever the way with me, I acted\nthen as I always act--without deliberation and without consultation.\n\nThose who do not like my plans and my ways of promoting them have\nalways their swords at their sides wherewith to back up their\ndisapproval; but now there seemed to be no dissenting voice, as,\ngrasping Talu by the arm, I sprang to the throne that had once been\nSalensus Oll's.\n\n\"Warriors of Barsoom,\" I cried, \"Kadabra has fallen, and with her\nthe hateful tyrant of the north; but the integrity of Okar must be\npreserved.  The red men are ruled by red jeddaks, the green warriors\nof the ancient seas acknowledge none but a green ruler, the First\nBorn of the south pole take their law from black Xodar; nor would\nit be to the interests of either yellow or red man were a red jeddak\nto sit upon the throne of Okar.\n\n\"There be but one warrior best fitted for the ancient and mighty\ntitle of Jeddak of Jeddaks of the North.  Men of Okar, raise your\nswords to your new ruler--Talu, the rebel prince of Marentina!\"\n\nAnd then a great cry of rejoicing rose among the free men of\nMarentina and the Kadabran prisoners, for all had thought that the\nred men would retain that which they had taken by force of arms,\nfor such had been the way upon Barsoom, and that they should be\nruled henceforth by an alien Jeddak.\n\nThe victorious warriors who had followed Carthoris joined in the\nmad demonstration, and amidst the wild confusion and the tumult\nand the cheering, Dejah Thoris and I passed out into the gorgeous\ngarden of the jeddaks that graces the inner courtyard of the palace\nof Kadabra.\n\nAt our heels walked Woola, and upon a carved seat of wondrous\nbeauty beneath a bower of purple blooms we saw two who had preceded\nus--Thuvia of Ptarth and Carthoris of Helium.\n\nThe handsome head of the handsome youth was bent low above the\nbeautiful face of his companion.  I looked at Dejah Thoris, smiling,\nand as I drew her close to me I whispered:  \"Why not?\"\n\nIndeed, why not?  What matter ages in this world of perpetual youth?\n\nWe remained at Kadabra, the guests of Talu, until after his formal\ninduction into office, and then, upon the great fleet which I had\nbeen so fortunate to preserve from destruction, we sailed south\nacross the ice-barrier; but not before we had witnessed the total\ndemolition of the grim Guardian of the North under orders of the\nnew Jeddak of Jeddaks.\n\n\"Henceforth,\" he said, as the work was completed, \"the fleets\nof the red men and the black are free to come and go across the\nice-barrier as over their own lands.\n\n\"The Carrion Caves shall be cleansed, that the green men may find\nan easy way to the land of the yellow, and the hunting of the sacred\napt shall be the sport of my nobles until no single specimen of\nthat hideous creature roams the frozen north.\"\n\nWe bade our yellow friends farewell with real regret, as we set\nsail for Ptarth.  There we remained, the guest of Thuvan Dihn, for\na month; and I could see that Carthoris would have remained forever\nhad he not been a Prince of Helium.\n\nAbove the mighty forests of Kaol we hovered until word from Kulan\nTith brought us to his single landing-tower, where all day and half\na night the vessels disembarked their crews.  At the city of Kaol\nwe visited, cementing the new ties that had been formed between\nKaol and Helium, and then one long-to-be-remembered day we sighted\nthe tall, thin towers of the twin cities of Helium.\n\nThe people had long been preparing for our coming.  The sky was\ngorgeous with gaily trimmed fliers.  Every roof within both cities\nwas spread with costly silks and tapestries.\n\nGold and jewels were scattered over roof and street and plaza,\nso that the two cities seemed ablaze with the fires of the hearts\nof the magnificent stones and burnished metal that reflected the\nbrilliant sunlight, changing it into countless glorious hues.\n\nAt last, after twelve years, the royal family of Helium was reunited\nin their own mighty city, surrounded by joy-mad millions before\nthe palace gates.  Women and children and mighty warriors wept in\ngratitude for the fate that had restored their beloved Tardos Mors\nand the divine princess whom the whole nation idolized.  Nor did\nany of us who had been upon that expedition of indescribable danger\nand glory lack for plaudits.\n\nThat night a messenger came to me as I sat with Dejah Thoris and\nCarthoris upon the roof of my city palace, where we had long since\ncaused a lovely garden to be made that we three might find seclusion\nand quiet happiness among ourselves, far from the pomp and ceremony\nof court, to summon us to the Temple of Reward--\"where one is to\nbe judged this night,\" the summons concluded.\n\nI racked my brain to try and determine what important case there\nmight be pending which could call the royal family from their palaces\non the eve of their return to Helium after years of absence; but\nwhen the jeddak summons no man delays.\n\nAs our flier touched the landing stage at the temple's top we saw\ncountless other craft arriving and departing.  In the streets below\na great multitude surged toward the great gates of the temple.\n\nSlowly there came to me the recollection of the deferred doom that\nawaited me since that time I had been tried here in the Temple by\nZat Arras for the sin of returning from the Valley Dor and the Lost\nSea of Korus.\n\nCould it be possible that the strict sense of justice which dominates\nthe men of Mars had caused them to overlook the great good that\nhad come out of my heresy?  Could they ignore the fact that to me,\nand me alone, was due the rescue of Carthoris, of Dejah Thoris, of\nMors Kajak, of Tardos Mors?\n\nI could not believe it, and yet for what other purpose could I have\nbeen summoned to the Temple of Reward immediately upon the return\nof Tardos Mors to his throne?\n\nMy first surprise as I entered the temple and approached the Throne\nof Righteousness was to note the men who sat there as judges.  There\nwas Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, whom we had but just left within\nhis own palace a few days since; there was Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of\nPtarth--how came he to Helium as soon as we?\n\nThere was Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, and Xodar, Jeddak of the\nFirst Born; there was Talu, Jeddak of Jeddaks of the North, whom\nI could have sworn was still in his ice-bound hothouse city beyond\nthe northern barrier, and among them sat Tardos Mors and Mors Kajak,\nwith enough lesser jeds and jeddaks to make up the thirty-one who\nmust sit in judgment upon their fellow-man.\n\nA right royal tribunal indeed, and such a one, I warrant, as never\nbefore sat together during all the history of ancient Mars.\n\nAs I entered, silence fell upon the great concourse of people that\npacked the auditorium.  Then Tardos Mors arose.\n\n\"John Carter,\" he said in his deep, martial voice, \"take your place\nupon the Pedestal of Truth, for you are to be tried by a fair and\nimpartial tribunal of your fellow-men.\"\n\nWith level eye and high-held head I did as he bade, and as I glanced\nabout that circle of faces that a moment before I could have sworn\ncontained the best friends I had upon Barsoom, I saw no single\nfriendly glance--only stern, uncompromising judges, there to do\ntheir duty.\n\nA clerk rose and from a great book read a long list of the more\nnotable deeds that I had thought to my credit, covering a long period\nof twenty-two years since first I had stepped the ocher sea bottom\nbeside the incubator of the Tharks.  With the others he read of\nall that I had done within the circle of the Otz Mountains where\nthe Holy Therns and the First Born had held sway.\n\nIt is the way upon Barsoom to recite a man's virtues with his sins\nwhen he is come to trial, and so I was not surprised that all that\nwas to my credit should be read there to my judges--who knew it\nall by heart--even down to the present moment.  When the reading\nhad ceased Tardos Mors arose.\n\n\"Most righteous judges,\" he exclaimed, \"you have heard recited all\nthat is known of John Carter, Prince of Helium--the good with the\nbad.  What is your judgment?\"\n\nThen Tars Tarkas came slowly to his feet, unfolding all his mighty,\ntowering height until he loomed, a green-bronze statue, far above\nus all.  He turned a baleful eye upon me--he, Tars Tarkas, with whom\nI had fought through countless battles; whom I loved as a brother.\n\nI could have wept had I not been so mad with rage that I almost\nwhipped my sword out and had at them all upon the spot.\n\n\"Judges,\" he said, \"there can be but one verdict.  No longer may\nJohn Carter be Prince of Helium\"--he paused--\"but instead let him\nbe Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom!\"\n\nAs the thirty-one judges sprang to their feet with drawn and\nupraised swords in unanimous concurrence in the verdict, the storm\nbroke throughout the length and breadth and height of that mighty\nbuilding until I thought the roof would fall from the thunder of\nthe mad shouting.\n\nNow, at last, I saw the grim humor of the method they had adopted\nto do me this great honor, but that there was any hoax in the reality\nof the title they had conferred upon me was readily disproved by\nthe sincerity of the congratulations that were heaped upon me by\nthe judges first and then the nobles.\n\nPresently fifty of the mightiest nobles of the greatest courts of\nMars marched down the broad Aisle of Hope bearing a splendid car\nupon their shoulders, and as the people saw who sat within, the\ncheers that had rung out for me paled into insignificance beside\nthose which thundered through the vast edifice now, for she whom\nthe nobles carried was Dejah Thoris, beloved Princess of Helium.\n\nStraight to the Throne of Righteousness they bore her, and there\nTardos Mors assisted her from the car, leading her forward to my\nside.\n\n\"Let a world's most beautiful woman share the honor of her husband,\"\nhe said.\n\nBefore them all I drew my wife close to me and kissed her upon the lips."