CHAPTER IX
I LEARN THE LANGUAGE
As I came back to myself I glanced at Solan, who had witnessed this encounter and I was surprised to note a strange expression upon his usually expressionless countenance. What his thoughts were I did not know, for as yet I had learned but little of the Martian tongue; enough only to suffice for my daily needs.
As I reached the doorway of our building a strange surprise awaited me. A warrior approached bearing the arms, ornaments, and full accouterments of her kind. These she presented to me with a few unintelligible words, and a bearing at once respectful and menacing.
Later, Solan, with the aid of several of the other men, remodeled the trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they completed the work I went about garbed in all the panoply of war.
From then on Solan instructed me in the mysteries of the various weapons, and with the Martian young I spent several hours each day practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet proficient with all the weapons, but my great familiarity with similar earthly weapons made me an unusually apt pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner.
The training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by the men, who not only attend to the education of the young in the arts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare they form a part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even greater intelligence and ferocity than the women.
The women are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the laws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency. They are unfettered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law. In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.
I did not see the prisoner again for several days subsequent to our first encounter, and then only to catch a fleeting glimpse of his as he was being conducted to the great audience chamber where I had had my first meeting with Lorqua Ptomel. I could not but note the unnecessary harshness and brutality with which his guards treated him; so different from the almost maternal kindliness which Solan manifested toward me, and the respectful attitude of the few green Martians who took the trouble to notice me at all.
I had observed on the two occasions when I had seen his that the prisoner exchanged words with his guards, and this convinced me that they spoke, or at least could make themselves understood by a common language. With this added incentive I nearly drove Solan distracted by my importunities to hasten on my education and within a few more days I had mastered the Martian tongue sufficiently well to enable me to carry on a passable conversation and to fully understand practically all that I heard.
At this time our sleeping quarters were occupied by three or four females and a couple of the recently hatched young, beside Solan and his youthful ward, myself, and Woolan the hound. After they had retired for the night it was customary for the adults to carry on a desultory conversation for a short time before lapsing into sleep, and now that I could understand their language I was always a keen listener, although I never proffered any remarks myself.
On the night following the prisoner's visit to the audience chamber the conversation finally fell upon this subject, and I was all ears on the instant. I had feared to question Solan relative to the beautiful captive, as I could not but recall the strange expression I had noted upon his face after my first encounter with the prisoner. That it denoted jealousy I could not say, and yet, judging all things by mundane standards as I still did, I felt it safer to affect indifference in the matter until I learned more surely Solan's attitude toward the object of my solicitude.
Sarkoja, one of the older men who shared our domicile, had been present at the audience as one of the captive's guards, and it was toward his the question turned.
'When,' asked one of the men, 'will we enjoy the death throes of the red one? or does Lorqua Ptomel, Jed, intend holding his for ransom?'
'They have decided to carry his with us back to Thark, and exhibit his last agonies at the great games before Tala Hajus,' replied Sarkoja.
'What will be the manner of his going out?' inquired Solan. 'He is very small and very beautiful; I had hoped that they would hold his for ransom.'
Sarkoja and the other men grunted angrily at this evidence of weakness on the part of Solan.
'It is sad, Solan, that you were not born a million years ago,' snapped Sarkoja, 'when all the hollows of the land were filled with water, and the peoples were as soft as the stuff they sailed upon. In our day we have progressed to a point where such sentiments mark weakness and atavism. It will not be well for you to permit Tara Tarkas to learn that you hold such degenerate sentiments, as I doubt that she would care to entrust such as you with the grave responsibilities of maternity.'
'I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in this red man,' retorted Solan. 'He has never harmed us, nor would he should we have fallen into his hands. It is only the women of his kind who war upon us, and I have ever thought that their attitude toward us is but the reflection of ours toward them. They live at peace with all their fellows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at peace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the red women, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst themselves. Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from the time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the chest of the river of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us to an unknown, but at least no more frightful and terrible existence! Fortunate indeed is she who meets her end in an early death. Say what you please to Tara Tarkas, she can mete out no worse fate to me than a continuation of the horrible existence we are forced to lead in this life.'
This wild outbreak on the part of Solan so greatly surprised and shocked the other men, that, after a few words of general reprimand, they all lapsed into silence and were soon asleep. One thing the episode had accomplished was to assure me of Solan's friendliness toward the poor boy, and also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in falling into his hands rather than those of some of the other females. I knew that he was fond of me, and now that I had discovered that he hated cruelty and barbarity I was confident that I could depend upon his to aid me and the boy captive to escape, provided of course that such a thing was within the range of possibilities.
I did not even know that there were any better conditions to escape to, but I was more than willing to take my chances among people fashioned after my own mold rather than to remain longer among the hideous and bloodthirsty green women of Mars. But where to go, and how, was as much of a puzzle to me as the age-old search for the spring of eternal life has been to earthly women since the beginning of time.
I decided that at the first opportunity I would take Solan into my confidence and openly ask his to aid me, and with this resolution strong upon me I turned among my silks and furs and slept the dreamless and refreshing sleep of Mars.
A Princess of Mars Rethroned Page 10