Thorne bolted the last door and told his companions to follow the warriors through the opening. Then he approached Yirl Du. "Have you shown these men the secret passageway?"
"Yes, my lord. And I have instructed them to completely wall up the hole as soon as the last warrior has passed through, then follow by way of the passage."
"Good. Come with me, for we still have the most difficult part of our task to perform."
They hurried out to where the men and bird-beasts stood under the dock, amid the supporting pilings, and now heard the flapping of many wings above and around them.
"Sel Han's flying warriors are attacking the castle. Now is our chance, but we must work swiftly."
In accordance with his previous orders, a hundred of Thorne's warriors had divided themselves into four groups of twenty-five men, each under the command of an officer. The members of one of these groups, all young fellows under the command of Rid Du, had stripped themselves to their loincloths and were plastering each other from head to foot with a thick coating of heavy grease, working in the dim light of a small baridium torch held by another warrior. Stacked near them was a pile of large crocks made from transparent material.
As soon as they were thoroughly greased, each man beword, mace and dagger about him, then took up a crock, inverted it, and lifted it over his head, so it rested upon his shoulders. They marched down to the water's edge, and Rid Du. who was in the lead, chopped a hole in the thin ice with his mace, then stepped into it and disappeared from view, still holding the crock over his head. His companions followed him, one by one, until all had dropped out of sight.
"Do you think they'll make it?" Thorne asked anxiously. "Looks as if they might run out of air before they reach the boat."
"Don't worry, my lord," Yirl Du replied. "All are trained divers. Every one of them could walk out to the boat and back again without danger of suffocating. And when they break through the ice around that boat the crew of the ray projector will have short shrift, with the exception of the operator whom you ordered kept alive."
"I hope you are right," said Thorne, "and you should know if any one does. Now, it is time for us to attack the other projector crews. I'll take the one on the west, you the one on the north, and Ven Hitus the one to the east. Come!"
He leaped into the saddle of a gawr held ready for him, and swiftly led the way to the west end of the dock, the great bird-beasts of his twenty-five warriors lumbering after him on the frozen ground. At the end of the dock a large ramp led up under a warehouse, open toward the lake after the manner of a lean-to. He rode out through the front of this and reconnoitered for a moment. By now there was a tremendous commotion in the castle. Baridium torches were flashing all about, and by their light he could see the warriors milling on the walls, while others mounted on gawrs circled the towers and battlements.
But what chiefly concerned him now was the ray projector which he was to capture, and which Sel Han had mounted on a house-top. He marked its position by the faint glow of the light on its instrument board. Then, with a whispered "Now!" to his fighting men, who had assembled around him, he pulled up on the guiding rod, and his bird beast launched itself into the air.
In a few moments they were soaring above their objective, which was only about five hundred yards from the dock. Then they dived downward in a steep spiral.
The crew of the ray projector had paid no attention to the sound of gawrs flapping above their heads, evidently taking these to be the mounts of their own warriors. And so, when the great bird-beasts alighted on the roof around them, and Thorne's fighting men sprang upon them with drawn swords, they were taken completely by surprise.
Thorne made straight for the operator, who leaped up to meet him; the Earthman's blade quickly sent his weapon spinning, and he clapped his hands over his eyes in token of surrender. The Takkor swordsmen made short work of the others.
Setting two men to guard his prisoner, Thorne raised his baridium torch above his head and unhooded it three times succession. A moment later he saw it answered by three flashes from the projector on the north, and knew that Yirl had succeeded in capturing it. Then came a signal from the one on the east, announcing the success of Ven Hitus, and shortly thereafter another from the projector on the boat, now under the control of Rid Du. Thorne called a warrior to his side.
“Fly back to the dock," he ordered, "and tell them they all come out now. Send fifty men to capture the airships, but let them go on foot. I want no one in the air except the man who is to carry dry clothing tou and his warriors on the boat. And let him return as soon as possible." Thorne turned his attention to the instrument board of the ray projector. Though it held a half dozen dials with numbers and pointers on them, evidently to tell the operator how much of this or that charge or substance the mechanism contained, he was at present concerned only with the parts intended for manipulation by the operator.
These consisted of two small cranks and a lever. One crank, soon found by testing it, elevated or lowered the muzzle of the projector, and the other turned it to the right or left. He pointed the muzzle upward where it could do no damage, and pulled the lever. A green flash shot skyward. He swiftly shut it off, and having mastered the weapon without the operator's assistance, ordered him bound.
A moment later the farther moon rose, flooding the scene with its pale light. After making sure that his men were in charge of Sel Han's airships, and that his warrior had returned from the boat, Thorne turned his attention to the castle.
Evidently Sel Han was still unaware that his projectors had been captured. Fully a thousand of his riders still circled above the walls on their bird-beasts. Thorne aimed the projector into the thick of these and pulled the lever. Instantly the green ray flashed out, cutting a great gap in the circle of flyers. And now from the north, south and east, the other projectors went into action.
The panic stricken riders who remained quickly dived for the nearest shelter--the castle courtyard. The Earthman instantly shut off his ray, and the others followed his example.
Calling two of his warriors before the instrument board, he instructed them in the use of the projector. He told them that if any of Sel Han's men should attempt to fly up from the courtyard they should be instantly annihilated. And finally he ordered them to watch for him to raise his hand, at which signal they were to blast a hole through the base of the castle wall directly in front of them, then shut off the ray.
These instructions completed, he mounted his gawr, and flinging the bound Ma Gong operator across the front of his saddle, flew to the dock where the main body of his swordsmen waited.
Dismounting, he turned his prisoner over to two guards and called an officer.
"Get me a herald," he commanded.
The officer hurried away, and reappeared in a few moments with a youth who carried a trumpet. Thorne gave him his instructions and he walked toward the gate.
As the Earthman stood looking after him he felt a touch on his arm. Turning, he beheld Neva, who had just come up behind him.
“I cannot find my father," she said. "I've looked for him everywhere. Do you know where he is?"
"I am sorry to say," he replied, "that the Dixtar saw fit to open the castle gates to the enemy. I haven't the slightest idea where he is--probably with his good friend, Sel Han."
She appeared distinctly shocked. "You don't mean--you don't mean..."
“That he could have betrayed us? Why not? It seems to run in the family."
She went pale at this, then looked up at him with flashing eyes. "Sheb Takkor Rad," she said, "some day you will regret lose words. There are certain things of which you are ignorant, which I hoped you would eventually come to understand. But now--now I don't care. I hate you! I never want see you again!"
As she flung away from him the notes of the herald's trumpet sounded before the gate.
“The Rad of Takkor," cried the herald, "calls upon Sel Han and his bandits to lay down their arms and march out of the castle. If they fail to compl
y they will be destroyed utterly, and the castle with them. As a token of surrender they will immediately throw open the gates." Thorne waited for some time, watching the gates expectantly. They remained closed. He called to the herald. "Connie."
Again the herald sounded his trumpet.
"The Rad of Takkor is inclined to be merciful," he cried, "yet you try him sorely. Behold!"
Thorne raised his hand. A green ray flashed out from the house-top, drilled through the base of the wall, then winked off, leaving a gaping black hole. From within the castle there came the sounds of a mighty tumult--shouts, groans, curses, and the clash of weapons. Suddenly the gates swung open, and there emerged a rabble of yellow warriors, weaponless, thrusting before them two white men whose arms were bound behind them, and carrying on their shoulders the bodies of a dozen more. It was obvious that the Ma Gongi, facing destruction by their own dread weapons, had mutinied to save their lives.
Leaving his gawr in charge of a warrior, Thorne hurried forward. As he drew near the prisoners he recognized the tall, broad-shouldered figure of Sel Han, and the wizened, rat-faced Dixtar. The first corpse, borne by four yellow warriors, was that of Sur Det.
"Surround the Ma Gongi," Thorne shouted to his swordsmen. "Be on the lookout for treachery. And bring me the two white prisoners."
Under the watchful eyes of the Takkor fighting men, the horde of yellow warriors continued to pour from the castle until it was emptied of enemies. Then, at a command from the Earthman, the swordsmen closed in behind them and a small detachment entered the castle to look for stragglers.
"Bring the prisoners and follow me," Thorne ordered.
He led the way to where Miradon Vil stood with Neva, Thaine, Lal Vak and Kov Lutas.
Rendering the imperial salute to the Vil, he said, "Your majesty, I bring you two men who have usurped the throne of your empire, one for a generation, the other for a day. They are your prisoners, to do with as you will. And since the weapons with which Sel Han set out to conquer Mars are in the custody of my swordsmen, you are once more Vil of Xancibar. As for the nest of this would-be world conqueror and his fellow conspirators, which is said to be somewhere on my estate, every prisoner here knows where it is, and I am sure that at least one of them can be persuaded to tell."
"Sheb Takkor Rad," replied Miradon Vil, his voice shaking with emotion, "I find it difficult to express..."
He got no further, for at this moment there came a sudden and unexpected interruption. Thorne's first intimation of it as the sound of a sword being whipped from its sheath. He turned in time to see Sel Han, who had managed to slip off bonds and snatch the sword of the man who guarded him, leap across the space which separated him from the two girls, catch up Thaine, fling her over his shoulder, and dash way.
Drawing his own bladearthman was the first to spring after the fugitive. Only a short way off stood Thorne's gawr, held by a warrior. Sel Han split his head with a blow of the sword and leaped into the saddle.
Still clutching the struggling, kicking Thaine, and holding both her wrists with his left hand, he pulled up on the guiding rod with his right. The great bird-beast lumbered forward and took off, flapping noisily because of the double burden it carried, while Thorne and his companions looked on helplessly, not daring to use their javelins for fear of injuring the girl.
The gawr, obedient to the guiding rod, flew swiftly out over the lake.
CHAPTER 22
Before the sound of Sel Han's derisive laughter died out, Thorne turned and sprinted for the nearest gawr.
"Send five hundred swordsmen after me," he ordered as he sprang into the saddle. "This may lead to an ambush." Then he lifted the guiding rod and was off.
As his bird-beast rose in the air, Thorne saw that Sel Han was already halfway across the lake, and circling toward the northeast, a direction that would carry him over the heart of the marsh and into a terrain altogether strange to the Earthman. A glance behind him showed a horde of his riders coming across the lake. Fearing they might not have marked his course, he raised his baridium torch over his head and flashed it thrice. His signal was answered, almost immediately by three flashes from a rider in the front ranks.
He did not doubt that Sel Han was making for his secret lair, which was believed to be somewhere in Takkor Marsh. But league after league of marshland unrolled beneath them, with the fugitive showing no signs of halting. And gradually, Thorne's swift bird-beast gained on the other. The nearer moon rose, its bright rays accentuating the details of the scene.
Presently, when it seemed that the two moons were about to meet, Thorne noticed a change in the topography of the country ahead. They were nearing a broad, flat-topped mountain with a sloping base of sand and boulders that led to rugged, frowning cliffs.
Sel Han's destination was obviously those frowning cliffs, but as he approached them Thorne noticed that his bird-beast had reached the limit of its endurance. With its beak almost over the rim, it fell, fluttering weakly and pecking ineffectually at the sheer cliff face with its hooked bill in an effort to save itself. Fortunately there was a shelf of rock only fifty feet below, and on this the creature alighted.
Thorne arrived on that shelf not five seconds later, but Sel Han had already sprung from his saddle, and with Thaine still slung helplessly over his shoulder, was sprinting away along that narrow ledge. Whipping out his sword, the Earthman leaped down and set out in hot pursuit.
Abruptly the ledge curved around a sharp bend in the cliff wall, and for a moment Thorne lost sight of his quarry. Then, as he rounded the bend, he saw them again. They were now in an indentation of the cliff face about an eighth of a mile deep, and the cliff opposite him was honeycombed with baridium-lighted caverns and terraced with ledges that swarmed with Ma Gong workmen. On the top of the cliff above them a troop of mounted yellow warriors sat on guard. This, then, was the hidden nest of the conspirators.
Though not more than five hundred feet separated Sel Han and his followers, he was unable to reach them, for the ledge ended suddenly only ahort distance farther on. But if he could not cross to his men, he could call them to him, and this he did.
"Ho, warriors! Your Vildus is beset! To me!”
Instantly there came a chorus of answering cries, and the flapping of their mounts' wings as they took off. Almost at the same moment the vanguard of the Takkor swordsmen rounded the bend in the wall.
Though he had noted all these happenings, Thorne had not slackened his pace; he turned and called to his men.
"Capture those caves," he shouted, pointing across the inlet with his sword, "and everything in them."
Again he turned and dashed forward, then suddenly cried out in consternation. Sel Han and his precious burden had disappeared.
The Takkor swordsmen and the Ma Gong warriors now clashed in midair, but Thorne ran on breathlessly until he reached the very end of the ledge. Then he saw the explanation--a circular doorway hewn in the solid rock at his left.
Fearing an ambush, Thorne stepped warily through that opening. He found himself in an immense cavern, lighted and ventilated by a hole in the roof through which the bright moonlight was streaming. Immediately beneath this hole a narrow wooden bridge crossed a wide chasm which split the floor of the cave from side to side. At the opposite end of the bridge was Sel Han. He had flung Thaine to the floor, and was hacking desperately with his sword at the two slender poles which supported the farther end of the bridge.
Thorne sprang forward, but the wood splintered and the bridge sagged, then fell into the chasm.
Thorne paused on the brink of the chasm. It was fully fifty feet across, and about two hundred feet deep, reaching clear to the smooth walls on both sides.
The Earthman glared at his enemy, who laughed mockingly. Behind him, on a pedestal at the rear of the cave, was a stone colossus with a sardonic grin on its repulsive features, evidently the forgotten god of some vanished race. It almost seemed as if the god had laughed.
"Now if you had a pair of wings..." banter
ed Sel Han, grinning maliciously.
Thorne had no intention of replying, but at this moment he noticed something which made him change his mind. Thaine, lying on the floor behind his enemy, sat up and opened her eyes, looking about her in bewilderment. She still wore her weapons.
"Sel Han, the mighty swordsman," he mocked. "The irresistible Vildus of Mars. I am alone, yet you run away. It must be that you fear me."
The Swordsman of Mars Page 14