tmp_c799c46e2bf43fc5e02e822bf0c23ac4_SzE3FM.fixed.tidied

by MD Scott

  The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the pastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof through the building.

  There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must take--it was for Dejar Thoris, and no woman has lived who would not risk a thousand deaths for such as he.

  Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of the long leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great hook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of their craft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which landing parties are lowered to the ground from the battleships.

  I swung this hook cautiously to the roof several times before it finally found lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold, but whether it would bear the weight of my body I did not know. It might be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so that as my body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and launch me to the pavement a thousand feet below.

  An instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon the supporting ornament, I swung out into space at the end of the strap. Far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements, and death. There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves, and a nasty slipping, grating sound which turned me cold with apprehension; then the hook caught and I was safe.

  Clambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drew myself to the surface of the roof above. As I gained my feet I was confronted by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose revolver I found myself looking.

  'Who are you and whence came you?' she cried.

  'I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by the merest chance I escaped falling to the avenue below,' I replied.

  'But how came you upon the roof, woman? No one has landed or come up from the building for the past hour. Quick, explain yourself, or I call the guard.'

  'Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close a shave I had to not coming at all,' I answered, turning toward the edge of the roof, where, twenty feet below, at the end of my strap, hung all my weapons.

  The fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and to her undoing, for as she leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped her by her throat and her pistol arm and threw her heavily to the roof. The weapon dropped from her grasp, and my fingers choked off her attempted cry for assistance. I gagged and bound her and then hung her over the edge of the roof as I myself had hung a few moments before. I knew it would be morning before she would be discovered, and I needed all the time that I could gain.

  Donning my trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon had out both my machine and Kantoa Kan's. Making her fast behind mine I started my engine, and skimming over the edge of the roof I dove down into the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied by the air patrol. In less than a minute I was settling safely upon the roof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantoa Kan.

  I lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediately into a discussion of our plans for the immediate future. It was decided that I was to try to make Helium while Kantoa Kan was to enter the palace and dispatch Saba Than. If successful she was then to follow me. She set my compass for me, a clever little device which will remain steadfastly fixed upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each other farewell we rose together and sped in the direction of the palace which lay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.

  As we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing its piercing searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out a command to halt, following with a shot as I paid no attention to her hail. Kantoa Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rose steadily and at terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followed by a dozen of the air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, and later by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred women and a battery of rapid-fire guns. By twisting and turning my little machine, now rising and now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most of the time, but I was also losing ground by these tactics, and so I decided to hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave the result to fate and the speed of my machine.

  Kantoa Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to the navy of Helium, that greatly increased the speed of our machines, so that I felt sure I could distance my pursuers if I could dodge their projectiles for a few moments.

  As I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around me convinced me that only by a miracle could I escape, but the die was cast, and throwing on full speed I raced a straight course toward Helium. Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and I was just congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directed shot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft. The concussion nearly capsized him, and with a sickening plunge he hurtled downward through the dark night.

  How far I fell before I regained control of the plane I do not know, but I must have been very close to the ground when I started to rise again, as I plainly heard the squealing of animals below me. Rising again I scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making out their lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently in search of me.

  Not until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture to flash my little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my consternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed my only guide, as well as my speedometer. It was true I could follow the stars in the general direction of Helium, but without knowing the exact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my chances for finding it were slim.

  Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass intact I should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four and five hours. As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding over a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of continuous flight at high speed. Presently a great city showed below me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolises consists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five miles apart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude at which I was flying.

  Believing that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned back in a southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other large cities, but none resembling the description which Kantoa Kan had given me of Helium. In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium, another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the cities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks his brother.

  CHAPTER XXIV

  TARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND

  About noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as I skimmed out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand green warriors engaged in a terrific battle. Scarcely had I seen them than a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the almost unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined wreck, sinking erratically to the ground.

  I fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat, among warriors who had not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in life and death struggles. The women were fighting on foot with long-swords, while an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the outskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an instant separate herself from the entangled mass.

  As my machine sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with good chances of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with drawn long-sword ready to defend myself as I could.

  I fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists, and as I glanced at her fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I recognized Tara Tarkas the Thark. She did not see me, as I was a trifle behind her, and just then the three warriors opposing her, and whom I recognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously. The mighty fellow made quick work of one of them, but in
stepping back for another thrust she fell over a dead body behind her and was down and at the mercy of her foes in an instant. Quick as lightning they were upon her, and Tara Tarkas would have been gathered to her mothers in short order had I not sprung before her prostrate form and engaged her adversaries. I had accounted for one of them when the mighty Thark regained her feet and quickly settled the other.

  She gave me one look, and a slight smile touched her grim lip as, touching my shoulder, she said,

  'I would scarcely recognize you, Joan Carter, but there is no other mortal upon Barsoom who would have done what you have for me. I think I have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend.'

  She said no more, nor was there opportunity, for the Warhoons were closing in about us, and together we fought, shoulder to shoulder, during all that long, hot afternoon, until the tide of battle turned and the remnant of the fierce Warhoon horde fell back upon their thoats, and fled into the gathering darkness.

  Ten thousand women had been engaged in that titanic struggle, and upon the field of battle lay three thousand dead. Neither side asked or gave quarter, nor did they attempt to take prisoners.

  On our return to the city after the battle we had gone directly to Tara Tarkas' quarters, where I was left alone while the chieftain attended the customary council which immediately follows an engagement.

  As I sat awaiting the return of the green warrior I heard something move in an adjoining apartment, and as I glanced up there rushed suddenly upon me a huge and hideous creature which bore me backward upon the pile of silks and furs upon which I had been reclining. It was Woolan--faithful, loving Woolan. She had found her way back to Thark and, as Tara Tarkas later told me, had gone immediately to my former quarters where she had taken up her pathetic and seemingly hopeless watch for my return.

  'Tala Hajus knows that you are here, Joan Carter,' said Tara Tarkas, on her return from the jeddak's quarters; 'Sarkoja saw and recognized you as we were returning. Tala Hajus has ordered me to bring you before her tonight. I have ten thoats, Joan Carter; you may take your choice from among them, and I will accompany you to the nearest waterway that leads to Helium. Tara Tarkas may be a cruel green warrior, but she can be a friend as well. Come, we must start.'

  'And when you return, Tara Tarkas?' I asked.

  'The wild calots, possibly, or worse,' she replied. 'Unless I should chance to have the opportunity I have so long waited of battling with Tala Hajus.'

  'We will stay, Tara Tarkas, and see Tala Hajus tonight. You shall not sacrifice yourself, and it may be that tonight you can have the chance you wait.'

  She objected strenuously, saying that Tala Hajus often flew into wild fits of passion at the mere thought of the blow I had dealt her, and that if ever she laid her hands upon me I would be subjected to the most horrible tortures.

  While we were eating I repeated to Tara Tarkas the story which Solan had told me that night upon the sea bottom during the march to Thark.

  She said but little, but the great muscles of her face worked in passion and in agony at recollection of the horrors which had been heaped upon the only thing she had ever loved in all her cold, cruel, terrible existence.

  She no longer demurred when I suggested that we go before Tala Hajus, only saying that she would like to speak to Sarkoja first. At her request I accompanied her to his quarters, and the look of venomous hatred he cast upon me was almost adequate recompense for any future misfortunes this accidental return to Thark might bring me.

  'Sarkoja,' said Tara Tarkas, 'forty years ago you were instrumental in bringing about the torture and death of a man named Gozava. I have just discovered that the warrior who loved that man has learned of your part in the transaction. She may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not our custom, but there is nothing to prevent her tying one end of a strap about your neck and the other end to a wild thoat, merely to test your fitness to survive and help perpetuate our race. Having heard that she would do this on the morrow, I thought it only right to warn you, for I am a just woman. The river Iss is but a short pilgrimage, Sarkoja. Come, Joan Carter.'

  The next morning Sarkoja was gone, nor was he ever seen after.

  In silence we hastened to the jeddak's palace, where we were immediately admitted to her presence; in fact, she could scarcely wait to see me and was standing erect upon her platform glowering at the entrance as I came in.

  'Strap her to that pillar,' she shrieked. 'We shall see who it is dares strike the mighty Tala Hajus. Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall burn the eyes from her head that she may not pollute my person with her vile gaze.'

  'Chieftains of Thark,' I cried, turning to the assembled council and ignoring Tala Hajus, 'I have been a chief among you, and today I have fought for Thark shoulder to shoulder with his greatest warrior. You owe me, at least, a hearing. I have won that much today. You claim to be just people--'

  'Silence,' roared Tala Hajus. 'Gag the creature and bind her as I command.'

  'Justice, Tala Hajus,' exclaimed Lorqua Ptomel. 'Who are you to set aside the customs of ages among the Tharks.'

  'Yes, justice!' echoed a dozen voices, and so, while Tala Hajus fumed and frothed, I continued.

  'You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty jeddak during the fighting today? I did not see her in the thick of battle; she was not there. She rends defenseless men and little children in her lair, but how recently has one of you seen her fight with women? Why, even I, a midget beside her, felled her with a single blow of my fist. Is it of such that the Tharks fashion their jeddaks? There stands beside me now a great Thark, a mighty warrior and a noble woman. Chieftains, how sounds, Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark?'

  A roar of deep-toned applause greeted this suggestion.

  'It but remains for this council to command, and Tala Hajus must prove her fitness to rule. Were she a brave woman she would invite Tara Tarkas to combat, for she does not love her, but Tala Hajus is afraid; Tala Hajus, your jeddak, is a coward. With my bare hands I could kill her, and she knows it.'

  After I ceased there was tense silence, as all eyes were riveted upon Tala Hajus. She did not speak or move, but the blotchy green of her countenance turned livid, and the froth froze upon her lips.

  'Tala Hajus,' said Lorqua Ptomel in a cold, hard voice, 'never in my long life have I seen a jeddak of the Tharks so humiliated. There could be but one answer to this arraignment. We wait it.' And still Tala Hajus stood as though electrified.

  'Chieftains,' continued Lorqua Ptomel, 'shall the jeddak, Tala Hajus, prove her fitness to rule over Tara Tarkas?'

  There were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords flashed high in assent.

  There was no alternative. That decree was final, and so Tala Hajus drew her long-sword and advanced to meet Tara Tarkas.

  The combat was soon over, and, with her foot upon the neck of the dead monster, Tara Tarkas became jeddak among the Tharks.

  Her first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I had won by my combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them.

  Seeing the favorable disposition of the warriors toward Tara Tarkas, as well as toward me, I grasped the opportunity to enlist them in my cause against Zodanga. I told Tara Tarkas the story of my adventures, and in a few words had explained to her the thought I had in mind.

  'Joan Carter has made a proposal,' she said, addressing the council, 'which meets with my sanction. I shall put it to you briefly. Dejar Thoris, the Prince of Helium, who was our prisoner, is now held by the jeddak of Zodanga, whose daughter he must wed to save his country from devastation at the hands of the Zodangan forces.

  'Joan Carter suggests that we rescue his and return his to Helium. The loot of Zodanga would be magnificent, and I have often thought that had we an alliance with the people of Helium we could obtain sufficient assurance of sustenance to permit us to increase the size and frequency of our hatchings, and thus become unquestionably supreme among the green women of all Barsoom. What
say you?'

  It was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the bait as a speckled trout to a fly.

  For Tharks they were wildly enthusiastic, and before another half hour had passed twenty mounted messengers were speeding across dead sea bottoms to call the hordes together for the expedition.

  In three days we were on the march toward Zodanga, one hundred thousand strong, as Tara Tarkas had been able to enlist the services of three smaller hordes on the promise of the great loot of Zodanga.

  At the head of the column I rode beside the great Thark while at the heels of my mount trotted my beloved Woolan.

  We traveled entirely by night, timing our marches so that we camped during the day at deserted cities where, even to the beasts, we were all kept indoors during the daylight hours. On the march Tara Tarkas, through her remarkable ability and statesmanship, enlisted fifty thousand more warriors from various hordes, so that, ten days after we set out we halted at midnight outside the great walled city of Zodanga, one hundred and fifty thousand strong.