The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3)

by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  “Not a bad idea,” said Gantun Gur. “I can get that word to her immediately through one of her female slaves.”

  “I shall breathe more easily when I know that you have done it,” I said.

  I certainly slept better that night than I had for a long time, because I felt that, temporarily at least, Janai was safe. It was well for my peace of mind that I did not know what the next morning was to bring.

  chapter XXVI

  THE BITE OF THE ADDER

  MY CELL WAS DIVIDED laterally by a partition, the front of the cell being open on the avenue, the rear consisting of a dark compartment in which there was a single, small window and a heavy door in the back wall. This was my bedroom, and my bed was a pile of the mosslike, ochre vegetation that covers the dead sea bottoms of Barsoom. A sliding door, that was raised and lowered by means of a rope passing over a pulley and thence outside the back of the cage, connected the two compartments. When I was in the front compartment, attendants could lower the door and enter the rear compartment for the purpose of cleaning it out, and vice versa, no one venturing to come into either compartment alone with me. I must say for Jal Had, that he had our cages kept reasonably clean; but that was because he realized that he could thus keep us in a more healthy condition and not because of any humanitarian instincts which he possessed.

  The morning after Gantun Gur’s visit, I was awakened by the beating of drums and the mournful notes of wind instruments producing music that sounded very much like a dirge. Further sleep was impossible; so I crawled out into the daylight of my front compartment where I saw Ur Raj standing with his face pressed against the bars of his cage, looking toward the palace.

  “Why the music?” I asked. “Are they celebrating something?”

  “Perhaps they are at that,” he replied, with a smile, “though that music means that a member of the royal family is dead.”

  “Let us hope that it is Jal Had,” I said.

  “Probably no such luck,” returned Ur Raj.

  The attendants were coming along the avenue, feeding the animals; and when they reached Ur Raj’s cage we asked them who was dead; but they told us that it was none of our business, and passed on. Of course, there was no reason why they should not have told us, if they had known; but it seemed to give them a feeling of greater importance if they treated us like wild beasts rather than like men, and wild beasts are not supposed to know anything of the affairs of their masters.

  The green man in the adjoining cage had never been a very friendly neighbor. I think he resented the fact that I attracted more attention than he. He never addressed me, and had answered in monosyllables or not at all, the few times that I had spoken to him; but, of course, that might have been because they are naturally a sullen and taciturn race; but now, quite unexpectedly, he spoke to me.

  “If Jal Had is dead,” he said, “there will be confusion for several days. I have been here a long time, and I have learned much. I have learned that there are several who would like to succeed Jal Had, and if he is dead Amhor may have a civil war on her hands. Then would be a good time for us to try to escape.”

  “If I had thought that there was any chance of escaping,” I said, “I would not have waited for Jal Had to die.”

  “Until something happens that disrupts the discipline of the guards and throws the city into turmoil,” said the green man, “no plan of escape would have a chance of success, but when that happens I have a plan that may succeed.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “Come closer to the bars, and I will whisper it to you. I do not wish any to overhear. One man could not accomplish the thing alone, but I believe that I can trust you and the red man next to you. I have watched you both carefully, and I believe that you have the courage and the intelligence to help me carry the plan to a successful conclusion.” Then, in a whisper, he explained to me in detail the idea that he had in mind. It was not bad, and perhaps had some element of success. The green man asked me to explain to Ur Raj, and I did so. The red man listened intently and then nodded his head.

  “Whether it should fail or succeed,” he said, “it is at least better than remaining here in captivity for life.”

  “I quite agree with you,” I said, “and if only my life were at stake, I should be willing to make the attempt at any time; but I must await some opportunity to rescue Janai with me.”

  “But what can be your interest in the red girl, Janai?” demanded Ur Raj. “She certainly wouldn’t give a second glance at anyone as hideous as you.”

  “I promised Vor Daj that I would protect her,” I said; “and so I cannot go without her.”

  “I see,” said Ur Raj; “so inasmuch as no plan of escape will succeed, we might as well plan on taking Janai with us. It won’t complicate matters in the least. Fortunately, they cannot keep us from dreaming dreams, Tor-dur-bar; and as that is about all the happiness that we have a right to expect, we might as well make the most of it and dream really worthwhile dreams. I shall dream that we shall be successful; that we destroy Jal Had, and that I become Prince of Amhor. I shall make you one of my dwars, Tor-dur-bar. In fact, I appoint you now.” He laughed heartily at his little joke, and I joined in with him.

  “But I was an odwar in Morbus,” I said.

  “Oh, very well, you shall be an odwar here, then. Consider yourself promoted.”

  The green man saw nothing funny in what we were saying, taking it all literally. They have no sense of humor as we understand it, and never smile or laugh except when witnessing the sufferings of others. I have seen them fairly roll on the ground with laughter while watching the agony of some victim upon which they were reeking the most fiendish tortures. Further conversation between us on this subject was interrupted by the arrival of Orm-O with his hamper of scraps for my breakfast.

  “What has happened, Orm-O?” I asked him. “Why the music?”

  “Do you mean that you have not heard?” he asked. “Vanuma is dead. One of her slaves told me that there was no doubt but that she had been poisoned; and Jal Had is suspected.”

  Vanuma dead! What would become of Janai now?

  We inmates of the zoo were little affected by what went on in the palace following the death of Vanuma, but for a single circumstance. Until after the funeral, which occurred five days later, the palace grounds were closed to the public, and so we looked forward to a period of what I felt would be a most delightful interlude of peace and quiet; but I soon discovered that it was not as enjoyable as I had anticipated, for I found the monotony of it almost unendurable. Strange as it may seem, I missed the gaping rabble and learned that they afforded us quite as much amusement, entertainment, and distraction as we offered them.

  During this time, I learned something from Orm-O which set my mind at rest insofar as Janai was concerned for at least a period of time. He told me that court etiquette required a period of mourning of twenty-seven days, during which the royal family eschewed all pleasures; but he had also told me that immediately following this period Jal Had planned to take Janai in marriage.

  Another thing that I learned from him was that the family of Vanuma believed that Jal Had had caused Vanuma to be poisoned.

  They were powerful nobles of royal descent, and among them was one who aspired to be Prince of Amhor. This Dur Ajmad was far more popular than Jal Had, his influence with the army, outside of Jal Had’s personal troops, being great.

  Had it not been for Orm-O, we in the zoo would have known nothing of all this; but he kept us well informed, so that we were able to follow the happenings in the palace and the city quite as well as any of the ordinary citizens of Amhor. As the days passed, I could see that the temper of the people who visited the zoo had changed. They were tense and nervous, and many were the glances cast in the direction of the palace. More people than ever jammed the avenue between the cages, but I felt that they were there more to see what might happen in the palace grounds than to look at us. Whispering groups gathered, paying no attention to us; and they were
evidently concerned with more important things than wild beasts.

  Then one day near the close of the mourning period, I heard, early in the morning, the humming staccato of Martian firearms; and there were trumpet calls and shouted orders. Guards closed the gates that had just been opened to admit the public; and with the exception of the detail that remained to guard the gate, attendants and warriors alike ran in the direction of the palace.

  It was all very exciting; but in the excitement I did not forget what it might mean to me and Janai, nor did I forget the plan that the green man and Ur Raj and I had discussed; and so, when one of the last of the attendants came running down the avenue toward the palace, I threw myself upon the floor of my cage and writhed in apparent agony, as I screamed to him to come to me. I didn’t know whether or not the ruse would work, for the man must have wanted to go with the others and see what was happening at the palace; but I banked on the fact that he must realize that if anything happened to one of his charges and especially so valuable a one as I, Jal Had would unquestionably punish him for deserting his post; and Jal Had’s punishments were quite often fatal.

  The fellow hesitated a moment as he turned and looked in my direction. He started on again toward the palace but after a few steps he turned and ran to my cage. “What is the matter with you, beast?” he cried.

  “There is a strange reptile in my sleeping den,” I cried. “It has bitten me, and I am going to die.”

  “Where did it bite you?” he demanded.

  “On the hand,” I cried. “Come look.”

  He came close, and when he did so I reached between the bars quickly and seized him by the throat. So quickly and so tightly did I close upon his windpipe that he had no opportunity to make an outcry. Ur Raj and the green man were pressed against the bars of their cages watching me. Only we three saw the guard die.

  I dragged the body upward until I could seize the keys that hung upon a ring by his harness. Then I let it drop to the ground. I easily reached the padlock that secured the door in the front of the cage, and in a few seconds I was out on the ground. From there I crawled quickly beneath the cages to the rear where my activities would be hidden from view from any who might pass along the avenue. I released the green man and Ur Raj, and for a moment we stood there discussing the advisability of carrying out in full the plan we had contemplated. It offered considerable risk for us, but we felt that it might create such a diversion that in the ensuing confusion we might have a better chance of escaping.

  “Yes,” agreed Ur Raj, “the more confusion there is, the better chance we shall have to reach the palace and find your Janai.”

  I must say that the whole plan was hare-brained and hopeless. It had perhaps one chance in a hundred million of succeeding.

  “Very well,” I said, “come on.”

  Back of the cages we found a number of the staves and goads used by the attendants to control the beasts, and armed with these we started toward the lower cages nearest the gate and farthest from the palace. I was also armed with the short-sword and dagger I had taken from the attendant I had killed, but I could not hope that they would be of much use to me in the event that our plans miscarried.

  Beginning at the cage nearest the gate, we released the animals, driving them ahead of us along the rear of the cages in the direction of the palace.

  I had been fearful that we would be unable to control them and that they would turn upon us and destroy us; but I soon learned that from experience they had become afraid of the sharp goads used by the keepers, with which we threatened and prodded them along. Even the two great apts and the white apes moved sullenly before us. At first there was little noise or confusion, only low growls from the carnivores and the nervous snorting of the herbivorous animals; but as we proceeded and the number and variety of the beasts increased, so did the volume of sounds until the air rang with the bellowing of the zitidars and the squeals of the maddened thoats, and the roars and growls of banths and apts and the scores of other beasts moving nervously ahead of us.

  A gate that is always kept closed separates the zoo from the grounds immediately surrounding the palace. This, the attendants in their excitement had left open today, and through it we drove the beasts into the palace grounds without interference.

  By now every beast in the horrible pack, excited to a high pitch of nervous tension by this unaccustomed liberty and the voices of their fellows, had joined in the horrid diapason of ferocity so that no one within the palace grounds or, for that matter, for some distance beyond them, could have failed to hear, and now I saw the attendants who had deserted their posts running to meet us. The beasts saw them, too, and some of the more intelligent, such as the great white apes, must have remembered indignities and cruelties heaped upon them during their captivity, for with snarls and growls and roars of rage they sprang forward to meet the keepers, and fell upon them and destroyed them; and then, further incited by this taste of blood and revenge, they moved on toward the soldiers defending the gates, which were being threatened by the troops of Dur Ajmad.

  This was precisely what we had hoped for, as it created a diversion which permitted Ur Raj, the green man, and me to enter a side door of the palace unobserved.

  At last I had succeeded in entering the palace where Janai was a prisoner; but a plan for turning the situation to our advantage was still as remote as the farther moon. I was in the palace, but where in that great pile was Janai?

  chapter XXVII

  FLIGHT INTO JEOPARDY

  THE ROOMS AND CORRIDORS of that portion of the palace which we had entered were deserted, the inmates being either in hiding or defending the gates.

  “And now that we are here,” demanded Bal Tab, the green man, “what do we do next? Where is the red woman?”

  “It is a large palace to search,” said Ur Raj. “Even if we meet with no interference, it would take a long time; but certainly before long we shall find warriors barring our way.”

  “Someone is coming down this corridor,” said Bal Tab. “I can hear him.”

  The corridor curved to the left just ahead of us, and presently around this curve came a youth whom I recognized instantly. It was Orm-O. He ran quickly toward me.

  “From one of the upper windows, I saw you enter the palace,” he said, “and I hurried to meet you as quickly as I could.”

  “Where is Janai?” I demanded.

  “I will show you,” he said; “but if I am found out, I shall be killed. Perhaps you are too late, for Jal Had has gone to visit her in her apartments, even though the period of mourning is not over.”

  “Hurry,” I snapped, and Orm-O set off at a trot along the corridor, followed by Ur Raj, Bal Tab, and me. He led us to the bottom of a spiral ramp and told us to ascend to the third level where we should turn to the right and follow a corridor to its end. There we should find the door leading into Janai’s apartments.

  “If Jal Had is with Janai, the corridor will be guarded,” he said, “and you will have to fight, but you will not have to contend with firearms as Jal Had, fearing assassination, permits no one but himself to carry firearms in the palace.”

  After thanking Orm-O, the three of us ascended the spiral ramp, and as we reached the third level I saw two warriors standing before a door at the end of a short corridor. Behind that door would be Jal Had and Janai.

  The warriors saw us as soon as we saw them, and they came toward us with drawn swords.

  “What do you want here?” demanded one of them.

  “I wish to see Jal Had,” I replied.

  “You cannot see Jal Had,” he said. “Go back to your cages where you belong.”

  For answer, Bal Tab felled the warrior with a blow from the metal shod goad that he carried, and almost simultaneously I engaged the other in a duel with swords. The fellow was a remarkably good swordsman, but he could not cope with one who had been a pupil of John Carter and who had the added advantage of an abnormally long reach and great strength.

  I finished him quic
kly as I did not wish to delay much, nor did I wish to add to his sufferings.

  Bal Tab was smiling, for it amused him to see men die. “You have a fine sword arm,” he said, which was high praise from a green Martian.

  Stepping over the body of my antagonist, I threw open the door and entered the room beyond, a small ante-room which was vacant. At the far end of this room was another door, beyond which I could hear the sound of voices raised in anger or excitement. Crossing quickly, I entered the second room where I found Jal Had holding Janai in his arms. She was struggling to escape, and striking at him. His face was red with anger, and I saw him raise his fist to strike her.

  “Stop!” I cried, and then they both turned and saw me.

  “Tor-dur-bar!” cried Janai, and there was a note of relief in her tone.

  When Jal Had saw us he pushed Janai roughly from him and whipped out his radium pistol. I leaped for him, but before I could reach him, a metal shod goad whizzed by my shoulder and passed through the heart of the Prince of Amhor before he could level his pistol or squeeze the trigger. Bal Tab it was who had cast the goad, and to him I probably owed my life.

  I think we were all a little surprised and shaken by the suddenness and enormity of the thing that had taken place, and for a moment we stood there in silence looking down at the body of Jal Had.

  “Well,” said Ur Raj, presently, “he is dead; and now what are we going to do?”

  “The palace and the palace grounds are filled with his retainers,” said Janai. “If they discover what we have done, we shall all be killed.”

  “We three should give them a battle they would long remember,” said Bal Tab.

  “If there were some place where we might hide until after dark,” said Ur Raj, “I am sure that we can get out of the palace grounds, and we might even be able to leave the city.”