Tanar of Pellucidar p-3

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  As he sat musing thus he became aware suddenly of voices raised in altercation just outside the door of the storeroom. One was a man's voice; the other a woman's.

  "And if you won't have me," growled the man, "I'll take you."

  Tanar could not hear the woman's reply, though he heard her speak and knew from her voice that it was a woman.

  "What do I care for The Cid?" cried the man. "I am as powerful in Korsar as he. I could take the throne and be Cid myself, if I chose."

  Again Tanar heard the woman speak.

  "If you do I'll choke the wind out of you," threatened the man. "Come in here where we can talk better. Then you can yell all you want for no one can hear you."

  Tanar heard the man insert a key in the lock and as he did so the Pellucidarian sought a hiding place behind a pile of wicker hampers.

  "And after you get out of this room," continued the man, "there will be nothing left for you to yell about."

  "I have told you right along," said the woman, "that I would rather kill myself than mate with you, but if you take me by force I shall still kill myself, but I shall kill you first."

  The heart of Tanar of Pellucidar leaped in his breast when he heard that voice. His fingers closed upon the hilt of the cutlass at his side, and as Bulf voiced a sneering laugh in answer to the girl's threat, the Sarian leaped from his concealment, a naked blade shining in his right hand.

  At the sound behind him Bulf wheeled about and for an instant he did not recognize the Sarian in the Korsar garb, but Stellara did and she voiced a cry of mingled surprise and joy.

  "Tanar!" she cried. "My Tanar!"

  As the Sarian rushed him Bulf fell back, drawing his cutlass as he retreated. Tanar saw that he was making for the door leading into the corridor and he rushed at the man to engage him before he could escape, so that Bulf was forced to stand and defend himself.

  "Stand back," cried Bulf, "or you shall die for this," but Tanar of Pellucidar only laughed in his face, as he swung a wicked blow at the man's head, which Bulf but barely parried, and then they were at one another like two wild beasts.

  Tanar drew first blood from a slight gash in Bulf's shoulder and then the fellow yelled for help.

  "You said that no one could hear Stellara's cries for help from this apartment," taunted Tanar, "so why do you think that they can hear yours?"

  "Let me out of here," cried Bulf. "Let me out and I will give you your freedom." But Tanar rushed him into a corner and the sharp edge of his cutlass sheared an ear from Bulf's head.

  "Help!" shrieked the Korsar. "Help! it is Bulf. The Sarian is killing me."

  Fearful that his loud cries might reach the corridor beyond and attract attention, Tanar increased the fury of his assault. He beat down the Korsar's guard. He swung his cutlass in one terrible circle that clove Bulf's ugly skull to the bridge of his nose, and with a gurgling gasp the great brute lunged forward upon his face. And Tanar of Pellucidar turned and took Stellara in his arms.

  "Thank God," he said, "that I was in time."

  "It must have been God Himself who led you to this room," said the girl. "I thought you dead. They told me that you were dead."

  "No," said Tanar. "They put me in a dark dungeon beneath the palace, where I was condemned to remain for life."

  "And you have been so near me all this time," said Stellara, "and I thought that you were dead."

  "For a long time I thought that I was worse than dead," replied the man. "Darkness, solitude and silence—God! That is worse than death."

  "And yet you escaped!" The girl's voice was filled with awe.

  "It was because of you that I escaped," said Tanar. "Thoughts of you kept me from going mad—thought and hope urged me on to seek some avenue of escape. Never again as long as life is in me shall I feel that there can be any situation that is entirely hopeless after what I have passed any situation that is entirely hopeless after what I have passed through."

  Stellara shook her head. "Your hope will have to be strong, dear heart, against the discouragement that you must face in seeking a way out of the palace of The Cid and the city of Korsar ."

  "I have come this far," replied Tanar, "Already have I achieved the impossible. Why should I doubt my ability to wrest freedom for you and for me from whatever fate holds in store for us?"

  "You cannot pass them with that smooth face, Tanar," said the girl, sadly. "Ah, if you only had Bulf's whiskers," and she glanced down at the corpse of the fallen man.

  Tanar turned, too, and looked down at Bulf, where he lay in a pool of blood upon the floor. And then quickly he faced Stellara. "Why not?" he cried. "Why not?"

  XVII DOWN TO THE SEA

  "WHAT do you mean?" demanded Stellara.

  "Wait and you shall see," replied Tanar, and drawing his dirk he stooped and turned Bulf over upon his back. Then with the razor-sharp blade of his weapon he commenced to hack off the bushy, black beard of the dead Korsar, while Stellara looked on in questioning wonder.

  Spreading Bulf's head cloth flat upon the floor, Tanar deposited upon it the hair that he cut from the man's face, and when he had completed his grewsome tonsorial effort he folded the hair into the handkerchief, and, rising, motioned for Stellara to follow him.

  Going to the door that led into the tunnel through which he had escaped from the dungeon, Tanar opened it, and, smearing his fingers with the pitch that exuded from the boards upon the inside of the door, he smeared some of it upon the side of his face and then turned to Stellara.

  "Put this hair upon my face in as natural a way as you can. You have lived among them all your life, so you should know well how a Korsar's beard should look."

  Horrible as the plan seemed and though she shrank from touching the hair of the dead man, Stellara steeled herself and did as Tanar bid. Little by little, patch by patch, Tanar applied pitch to his face and Stellara placed the hair upon it until presently only the eyes and nose of the Sarian remained exposed. The expression of the former were altered by increasing the size and bushiness of the eyebrows with shreds of Bulf's beard that had been left over, and then Tanar smeared his nose with some of Bulf's blood, for many of the Korsars had large, red noses. Then Stellara stood away and surveyed him critically. "Your own mother would not know you," she said.

  "Do you think I can pass as a Korsar?" he asked. "No one will suspect, unless they question you closely as you leave the palace."

  "We are going together," said Tanar.

  "But how?" asked Stellara.

  "I have been thinking of another plan," he said. "I noticed when I was living in the barracks that sailors going toward the river had no difficulty in passing through the gate leaving the palace. In fact, it is always much easier to leave the palace than to enter it. On many occasions I have heard them say merely that they were going to their ships. We can do the same."

  "Do I look like a Korsar sailor?" demanded Stellara.

  "You will when I get through with you," said Tanar, with a grin.

  "What do you mean?"

  "There is Korsar clothing here," said Tanar; "enough to outfit a dozen and there is still plenty of hair on Bulf's head."

  The girl drew back with a shudder. "Oh, Tanar! You cannot mean that."

  "What other way is there?" he demanded. "If we can escape together is it not worth any price that we might have to pay?"

  "You are right," she said. "I will do it."

  When Tanar completed his work upon her, Stellara had been transformed into a bearded Korsar, but the best that he could do in the way of disguise failed to entirely hide the contours of her hips and breasts.

  "I am afraid they will suspect," he said. "Your figure is too feminine for shorts and a shirt to hide it."

  "Wait," exclaimed Stellara. "Sometimes the sailors, when they are going on long voyages, wear cloaks, which they use to sleep in if the nights are cool. Let us see if we can find such a one here."

  "Yes, I saw one," replied Tanar, and crossing the room he returned with a cloak made of wide strip
ed goods. "That will give you greater height," he said. But when they draped it about her, her hips were still too much in evidence.

  "Build out my shoulders," suggested Stellara, and with scarfs and handkerchiefs the Sarian built the girl's shoulders out so that the cloak hung straight and she resembled a short, stocky man, more than a slender, well-formed girl.

  "Now we are ready," said the Sarian. Stellara pointed to the body of Bulf.

  "We cannot leave that lying there," she said. "Someone may come to this room and discover it and when they do every man in the palace—yes, even in the entire city—will be arrested and questioned."

  Tanar looked about the room and then he seized the corpse of Bulf and dragged it into a far corner, after which he piled bundles of hides and baskets upon it until it was entirely concealed, and over the blood stains upon the floor he dragged other bales and baskets until all signs of the duel had been erased or hidden.

  "And now," he said, "is as good a time as another to put our disguises to the test." Together they approached the door. "You know the least frequented passages to the garden," said Tanar. "Let us make our way from the palace through the garden to the gate that gave us escape before."

  "Then follow me," replied Stellara, as Tanar opened the door and the two stepped out into the corridor beyond. It was empty. Tanar closed the door behind him, and Stellara led the way down the passage.

  They had proceeded but a short distance when they heard a man's voice in an apartment to the left.

  "Where is she?" he demanded.

  "I do not know," replied a woman's voice. "She was here but a moment ago and Bulf was with her."

  "Find them and lose no time about it," commanded the man, sternly. And he stepped from the apartment just as Tanar and Stellara were approaching.

  It was The Cid. Stellara's heart stopped beating as the Korsar ruler looked into the faces of Tanar and herself.

  "Who are you?'" demanded The Cid.

  "We are sailors," said Tanar, quickly, before Stellara could reply.

  "What are you doing here in my palace?" demanded the Korsar ruler.

  "We were sent here with packages to the storeroom," replied Tanar, "and we are but now returning to our ship."

  "Well, be quick about it. I do not like your looks," growled The Cid as he stamped off down the corridor ahead of them.

  Tanar saw Stellara sway and he stepped to her side and supported her, but she quickly gained possession of herself, and an instant later turned to the right and led Tanar through a doorway into the garden.

  "God!" whispered the man, as they walked side by side after quitting the building. "If The Cid did not know you, then your disguise must be perfect."

  Stellara shook her head for even as yet she could not control her voice to speak, following the terror induced by her encounter with The Cid.

  There were a number of men and women in the garden close to the palace. Some of these scrutinized them casually, but they passed by in safety and a moment later the gravel walk they were following wound through dense shrubbery that hid them from view and then they were at the doorway in the garden wall.

  Again fortune favored them here and they passed out into the barracks yards without being noticed.

  Electing to try the main gate because of the greater number of people who passed to and fro through it, Tanar turned to the right, passed along the full length of the barracks past a dozen men and approached the gate with Stellara at his side.

  They were almost through when a stupid-looking Korsar soldier stopped them. "Who are you," he demanded, "and what business takes you from the palace?"

  "We are sailors," replied Tanar. "We are going to our ship."

  "What were you doing in the palace?" demanded the man.

  "We took packages there from the captain of the ship to The Cid's storeroom," explained the Sarian.

  "I do not like the looks of you," said the man. "I have never seen either one of you before."

  "We have been away upon a long cruise," replied Tanar.

  "Wait here until the captain of the gate returns," said the man. "He will wish to question you."

  The Sarian's heart sank. "If we are late in returning to our ship, we shall be punished," said he.

  "That is nothing to me," replied the soldier.

  Stellara reached inside her cloak and beneath the man's shorts that covered her own apparel and searched until she found a pouch that was attached to her girdle. From this she drew something which she slipped into Tanar's hands. He understood immediately, and stepping close to the soldier he pressed two pieces of gold into the fellow's palm. "It will go very hard with us if we are late," he said.

  The man felt the cool gold within his palm. "Very well," he said, gruffly, "go on about your business, and be quick about it."

  Without waiting for a second invitation Tanar and Stellara merged with the crowd upon the Korsar street. Nor did either speak, and it is possible that Stellara did not even breathe until they had left the palace gate well behind.

  "And where now?" she asked at last.

  "We are going to sea," replied the man.

  "In a Korsar ship?" she demanded.

  "In a Korsar boat," he replied. "We are going fishing."

  Along the banks of the river were moored many craft, but when Tanar saw how many men were on or around them he realized that the plan he had chosen, which contemplated stealing a fishing boat, most probably would end disastrously, and he explained his doubts to Stellara.

  "We could never do it," she said. "Stealing a boat is considered the most heinous crime that one can commit in Korsar, and if the owner of a boat is not aboard it you may rest assured that some of his friends are watching it for him, even though there is little likelihood that anyone will attempt to steal it since the penalty is death."

  Tanar shook his head. "Then we shall have to risk passing through the entire city of Korsar ," he said, "and going out into the open country without any reasonable excuse in the event that we are questioned."

  "We might buy a boat," suggested Stellara.

  "I have no money." said Tanar.

  "I have," replied the girl. "The Cid has always kept me well supplied with gold."

  Once more she reached into her pouch and drew forth a handful of gold pieces. "Here," she said, "take these. If they are not enough you can ask me for more, but I think that you can buy a boat for half that sum."

  Questioning the first man that he approached at the river side, Tanar learned that there was a small fishing boat for sale a short way down the river, and it was not long before they had found its owner and consummated the purchase.

  As they pushed off into the current and floated down stream, Tanar became conscious of a sudden conviction that his escape from Korsar had been effected too easily; that there must be something wrong, that either he was dreaming or else disaster and recapture lay just ahead.

  Borne down toward the sea by the slow current of the river, Tanar wielded a single oar, paddlewise from the stern, to keep the boat out in the channel and its bow in the right direction, for he did not wish to make sail under the eyes of Korsar sailors and fishermen, as he was well aware that he could not do so without attracting attention by his bungling to his evident inexperience and thus casting suspicion upon them.

  Slowly the boat drew away from the city and from the Korsar raiders anchored in mid-stream and then, at last, he felt that it would be safe to hoist the sail and take advantage of the land breeze that was blowing.

  With Stellara's assistance the canvas was spread and as it bellied to the wind the craft bore forward with accelerated speed, and then behind them they heard shouts and, turning, saw three boats speeding toward them.

  Across the waters came commands for them to lay to.

  The pursuing boats, which had set out under sail and had already acquired considerable momentum, appeared to be rapidly overhauling the smaller craft. But presently, as the speed of the latter increased, the distance between them seemed not to va
ry.

  The shouts of the pursuers had attracted the attention of the sailors on board the anchored raiders, and presently a heavy shot struck the water just off their starboard bow.

  Tanar shook his head. "That is too close," he said. "I had better come about."

  "Why?" demanded Stellara.

  "I do not mind risking capture," he said, "because in that event no harm will befall you when they discover your identity, but I cannot risk the cannon shots for if one of them strikes us, you will be killed."

  "Do not come about," cried the girl. "I would rather die here with you than be captured, for capture would mean death for you and then I should not care to live. Keep on, Tanar, we may outdistance them yet. And as for their cannon shots, a small, moving boat like this is a difficult target and their marksmanship is none too good."

  Again the cannon boomed and this time the ball passed over them and struck the water just beyond.

  "They are getting our range," said Tanar.

  The girl moved close to his side, where he sat by the tiller. "Put your arm around me, Tanar," she said. "If we must die, let us die together."

  The Sarian encircled her with his free arm and drew her close to him, and an instant later there was a terrific explosion from the direction of the raider that had been firing on them. Turning quickly toward the ship, they saw what had happened—an overcharged cannon had exploded.

  "They were too anxious," said Tanar.

  It was some time before another shot was fired and this one fell far astern, but the pursuing boats were clinging tenaciously to their wake.

  "They are not gaining," said Stellara.

  "No," said Tanar, "and neither are we."

  "But I think we shall after we reach the open sea," said the girl. "We shall get more wind there and this boat is lighter and speedier than theirs. Fate smiled upon us when it led us to this boat rather than to a larger one."