CHAPTER XV
FLIGHT AND PURSUIT
I could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds, and yet I know that I was unconscious, for the next thing I realized was that a growing radiance was illuminating the corridor about me and the eyes were gone.
I was unharmed except for a slight bruise upon my forehead where it had struck the stone flagging as I fell.
I sprang to my feet to ascertain the cause of the light. It came from a torch in the hand of one of a party of four green warriors, who were coming rapidly down the corridor toward me. They had not yet seen me, and so I lost no time in slipping into the first intersecting corridor that I could find. This time, however, I did not advance so far away from the main corridor as on the other occasion that had resulted in my losing Tara Tarkas and her guards.
The party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway in which I crouched against the wall. As they passed by I breathed a sigh of relief. I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party was the same that I had followed into the pits. It consisted of Tara Tarkas and her three guards.
I fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which the great Thark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained without while the woman with the keys entered with the Thark to fasten her irons upon her once more. The two outside started to stroll slowly in the direction of the spiral runway which led to the floors above, and in a moment were lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.
The torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so that its rays illuminated both the corridor and the cell at the same time. As I saw the two warriors disappear I approached the entrance to the cell, with a well-defined plan already formulated.
While I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I had decided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tara Tarkas and I were to go back together to my little camp in the hills.
Keeping near the wall, I came quite close to the door to Tara Tarkas' cell, and there I stood with my longsword above my head, grasped with both hands, that I might bring it down in one quick cut upon the skull of the jailer as she emerged.
I dislike to dwell upon what followed after I heard the footsteps of the woman as she approached the doorway. It is enough that within another minute or two, Tara Tarkas, wearing the metal of a Warhoon chief, was hurrying down the corridor toward the spiral runway, bearing the Warhoon's torch to light her way. A dozen paces behind her followed Joan Carter, Princess of Helium.
The two companions of the woman who lay now beside the door of the cell that had been Tara Tarkas' had just started to ascend the runway as the Thark came in view.
'Why so long, Tan Gama?' cried one of the women.
'I had trouble with a lock,' replied Tara Tarkas. 'And now I find that I have left my short-sword in the Thark's cell. Go you on, I'll return and fetch it.'
'As you will, Tan Gama,' replied she who had before spoken. 'We shall see you above directly.'
'Yes,' replied Tara Tarkas, and turned as though to retrace her steps to the cell, but she only waited until the two had disappeared at the floor above. Then I joined her, we extinguished the torch, and together we crept toward the spiral incline that led to the upper floors of the building.
At the first floor we found that the hallway ran but halfway through, necessitating the crossing of a rear room full of green folk, ere we could reach the inner courtyard, so there was but one thing left for us to do, and that was to gain the second floor and the hallway through which I had traversed the length of the building.
Cautiously we ascended. We could hear the sounds of conversation coming from the room above, but the hall still was unlighted, nor was any one in sight as we gained the top of the runway. Together we threaded the long hall and reached the balcony overlooking the courtyard, without being detected.
At our right was the window letting into the room in which I had seen Tan Gama and the other warriors as they started to Tara Tarkas' cell earlier in the evening. Her companions had returned here, and we now overheard a portion of their conversation.
'What can be detaining Tan Gama?' asked one.
'She certainly could not be all this time fetching her shortsword from the Thark's cell,' spoke another.
'Her short-sword?' asked a man. 'What mean you?'
'Tan Gama left her short-sword in the Thark's cell,' explained the first speaker, 'and left us at the runway, to return and get it.'
'Tan Gama wore no short-sword this night,' said the man. 'It was broken in to-day's battle with the Thark, and Tan Gama gave it to me to repair. See, I have it here,' and as he spoke he drew Tan Gama's short-sword from beneath his sleeping silks and furs.
The warriors sprang to their feet.
'There is something amiss here,' cried one.
''Tis even what I myself thought when Tan Gama left us at the runway,' said another. 'Methought then that her voice sounded strangely.'
'Come! let us hasten to the pits.'
We waited to hear no more. Slinging my harness into a long single strap, I lowered Tara Tarkas to the courtyard beneath, and an instant later dropped to her side.
We had spoken scarcely a dozen words since I had felled Tan Gama at the cell door and seen in the torch's light the expression of utter bewilderment upon the great Thark's face.
'By this time,' she had said, 'I should have learned to wonder at nothing which Joan Carter accomplishes.' That was all. She did not need to tell me that she appreciated the friendship which had prompted me to risk my life to rescue her, nor did she need to say that she was glad to see me.
This fierce green warrior had been the first to greet me that day, now twenty years gone, which had witnessed my first advent upon Mars. She had met me with levelled spear and cruel hatred in her heart as she charged down upon me, bending low at the side of her mighty thoat as I stood beside the incubator of her horde upon the dead sea bottom beyond Korad. And now among the inhabitants of two worlds I counted none a better friend than Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tharks.
As we reached the courtyard we stood in the shadows beneath the balcony for a moment to discuss our plans.
'There be five now in the party, Tara Tarkas,' I said; 'Thuviar, Xodara, Carthoris, and ourselves. We shall need five thoats to bear us.'
'Carthoris!' she cried. 'Your son?'
'Yes. I found her in the prison of Shador, on the Sea of Omean, in the land of the First Born.'
'I know not any of these places, Joan Carter. Be they upon Barsoom?'
'Upon and below, my friend; but wait until we shall have made good our escape, and you shall hear the strangest narrative that ever a Barsoomian of the outer world gave ear to. Now we must steal our thoats and be well away to the north before these fellows discover how we have tricked them.'
In safety we reached the great gates at the far end of the courtyard, through which it was necessary to take our thoats to the avenue beyond. It is no easy matter to handle five of these great, fierce beasts, which by nature are as wild and ferocious as their mistresses and held in subjection by cruelty and brute force alone.
As we approached them they sniffed our unfamiliar scent and with squeals of rage circled about us. Their long, massive necks upreared raised their great, gaping mouths high above our heads. They are fearsome appearing brutes at best, but when they are aroused they are fully as dangerous as they look. The thoat stands a good ten feet at the shoulder. Her hide is sleek and hairless, and of a dark slate colour on back and sides, shading down her eight legs to a vivid yellow at the huge, padded, nailless feet; the belly is pure white. A broad, flat tail, larger at the tip than at the root, completes the picture of this ferocious green Martian mount--a fit war steed for these warlike people.
As the thoats are guided by telepathic means alone, there is no need for rein or bridle, and so our object now was to find two that would obey our unspoken commands. As they charged about us we succeeded in mastering them sufficiently to prevent any concerted attack upon us, but the din of their squealing was certain to bri
ng investigating warriors into the courtyard were it to continue much longer.
At length I was successful in reaching the side of one great brute, and ere she knew what I was about I was firmly seated astride her glossy back. A moment later Tara Tarkas had caught and mounted another, and then between us we herded three or four more toward the great gates.
Tara Tarkas rode ahead and, leaning down to the latch, threw the barriers open, while I held the loose thoats from breaking back to the herd. Then together we rode through into the avenue with our stolen mounts and, without waiting to close the gates, hurried off toward the southern boundary of the city.
Thus far our escape had been little short of marvellous, nor did our good fortune desert us, for we passed the outer purlieus of the dead city and came to our camp without hearing even the faintest sound of pursuit.
Here a low whistle, the prearranged signal, apprised the balance of our party that I was returning, and we were met by the three with every manifestation of enthusiastic rejoicing.
But little time was wasted in narration of our adventure. Tara Tarkas and Carthoris exchanged the dignified and formal greetings common upon Barsoom, but I could tell intuitively that the Thark loved my girl and that Carthoris reciprocated her affection.
Xodara and the green Jeddak were formally presented to each other. Then Thuviar was lifted to the least fractious thoat, Xodara and Carthoris mounted two others, and we set out at a rapid pace toward the east. At the far extremity of the city we circled toward the north, and under the glorious rays of the two moons we sped noiselessly across the dead sea bottom, away from the Warhoons and the First Born, but to what new dangers and adventures we knew not.
Toward noon of the following day we halted to rest our mounts and ourselves. The beasts we hobbled, that they might move slowly about cropping the ochre moss-like vegetation which constitutes both food and drink for them on the march. Thuviar volunteered to remain on watch while the balance of the party slept for an hour.
It seemed to me that I had but closed my eyes when I felt his hand upon my shoulder and heard his soft voice warning me of a new danger.
'Arise, O Princess,' he whispered. 'There be that behind us which has the appearance of a great body of pursuers.'
The boy stood pointing in the direction from whence we had come, and as I arose and looked, I, too, thought that I could detect a thin dark line on the far horizon. I awoke the others. Tara Tarkas, whose giant stature towered high above the rest of us, could see the farthest.
'It is a great body of mounted women,' she said, 'and they are travelling at high speed.'
There was no time to be lost. We sprang to our hobbled thoats, freed them, and mounted. Then we turned our faces once more toward the north and took our flight again at the highest speed of our slowest beast.
For the balance of the day and all the following night we raced across that ochre wilderness with the pursuers at our back ever gaining upon us. Slowly but surely they were lessening the distance between us. Just before dark they had been close enough for us to plainly distinguish that they were green Martians, and all during the long night we distinctly heard the clanking of their accoutrements behind us.
As the sun rose on the second day of our flight it disclosed the pursuing horde not a half-mile in our rear. As they saw us a fiendish shout of triumph rose from their ranks.
Several miles in advance lay a range of hills--the farther shore of the dead sea we had been crossing. Could we but reach these hills our chances of escape would be greatly enhanced, but Thuviar's mount, although carrying the lightest burden, already was showing signs of exhaustion. I was riding beside his when suddenly his animal staggered and lurched against mine. I saw that she was going down, but ere she fell I snatched the boy from her back and swung his to a place upon my own thoat, behind me, where he clung with his arms about me.
This double burden soon proved too much for my already overtaxed beast, and thus our speed was terribly diminished, for the others would proceed no faster than the slowest of us could go. In that little party there was not one who would desert another; yet we were of different countries, different colours, different races, different religions--and one of us was of a different world.
We were quite close to the hills, but the Warhoons were gaining so rapidly that we had given up all hope of reaching them in time. Thuviar and I were in the rear, for our beast was lagging more and more. Suddenly I felt the boy's warm lips press a kiss upon my shoulder. 'For thy sake, O my Princess,' he murmured. Then his arms slipped from about my waist and he was gone.
I turned and saw that he had deliberately slipped to the ground in the very path of the cruel demons who pursued us, thinking that by lightening the burden of my mount it might thus be enabled to bear me to the safety of the hills. Poor child! He should have known Joan Carter better than that.
Turning my thoat, I urged her after him, hoping to reach his side and bear his on again in our hopeless flight. Carthoris must have glanced behind her at about the same time and taken in the situation, for by the time I had reached Thuviar's side she was there also, and, springing from her mount, she threw his upon its back and, turning the animal's head toward the hills, gave the beast a sharp crack across the rump with the flat of her sword. Then she attempted to do the same with mine.
The brave girl's act of chivalrous self-sacrifice filled me with pride, nor did I care that it had wrested from us our last frail chance for escape. The Warhoons were now close upon us. Tara Tarkas and Xodara had discovered our absence and were charging rapidly to our support. Everything pointed toward a splendid ending of my second journey to Barsoom. I hated to go out without having seen my divine Prince, and held his in my arms once again; but if it were not writ upon the book of Fate that such was to be, then would I take the most that was coming to me, and in these last few moments that were to be vouchsafed me before I passed over into that unguessed future I could at least give such an account of myself in my chosen vocation as would leave the Warhoons of the South food for discourse for the next twenty generations.
As Carthoris was not mounted, I slipped from the back of my own mount and took my place at her side to meet the charge of the howling devils bearing down upon us. A moment later Tara Tarkas and Xodara ranged themselves on either hand, turning their thoats loose that we might all be on an equal footing.
The Warhoons were perhaps a hundred yards from us when a loud explosion sounded from above and behind us, and almost at the same instant a shell burst in their advancing ranks. At once all was confusion. A hundred warriors toppled to the ground. Riderless thoats plunged hither and thither among the dead and dying. Dismounted warriors were trampled underfoot in the stampede which followed. All semblance of order had left the ranks of the green women, and as they looked far above our heads to trace the origin of this unexpected attack, disorder turned to retreat and retreat to a wild panic. In another moment they were racing as madly away from us as they had before been charging down upon us.
We turned to look in the direction from whence the first report had come, and there we saw, just clearing the tops of the nearer hills, a great battleship swinging majestically through the air. His bow gun spoke again even as we looked, and another shell burst among the fleeing Warhoons.
As he drew nearer I could not repress a wild cry of elation, for upon his bows I saw the device of Helium.
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