“Kaor!” I said, which is the Barsoomian equivalent of Good Morning, Hello, or How do you do?—in other words, it is a Barsoomian greeting.
Rojas looked in my direction but of course she could not see me.
“Kaor,” she replied, smiling. “You must be very tired, John Carter; you have had no sleep all night.”
“When Llana of Gathol awakens, I shall sleep,” I replied; “she can handle the controls quite as well as I.”
“I have never been beyond the forests of Invak before,” said Rojas. “What a drab, lonely world this is.”
“You will find the twin cities of Helium very beautiful,” I said. “I hope that you will like it there, Rojas.”
“I am sure that I shall,” she said; “I am looking forward to being in Helium with you, John Carter.”
I wondered what she meant by that. The girl was an enigma; and I gave up trying to find a solution for her, and when Llana of Gathol spoke a moment later, and I knew that she was awake, I asked her to take the controls.
“We will cruise around outside of Helium,” I said, “until we have all regained visibility,” and then I lay down and fell asleep.
It was late that night before we had all regained visibility, and the next morning I approached Helium. A patrol boat came up to meet us, and recognizing my flier, it came alongside. The officer in command, and, in fact, the whole crew were overjoyed to see both Llana of Gathol and myself, alive and safe. The patrol boat escorted us to the hangar on the roof of my palace, where we received a tremendous welcome, as we had both been given up for dead long since.
Ptor Fak, Llana, and Rojas were behind me when I took Dejah Thoris in my arms; then I turned and presented Rojas and Ptor Fak to her.
“Had it not been for Rojas,” I told Dejah Thoris, “none of us would have been here,” and then I told her very briefly of our capture and incarceration in Invak.
I watched Rojas very closely as Dejah Thoris took both her hands in hers and kissed her on the forehead; and then, to my surprise, Rojas threw her arms about her and kissed her squarely on the mouth; the girl was absolutely bewildering.
After we had all breakfasted together Dejah Thoris asked me what my plans were now. “I shall see Tardos Mors immediately,” I replied, “and after I have arranged for the dispatch of a fleet for Gathol, I shall fly there myself, alone, to reconnoiter.”
“Why alone?” demanded Dejah Thoris; “But why should I ask? It has always been your way to do things alone.”
I saw Tardos Mors and made the necessary arrangements for the dispatch of a fleet to Gathol; and then I returned to my palace to bid Dejah Thoris good-by; and as I passed through the garden, I saw Rojas sitting there alone.
“Come here a moment, John Carter,” she said; “I have something to say to you.”
Here it comes, I thought; well, it would have to be gotten over sooner or later, and it would be a relief to get it over at once.
“You deceived me, John Carter,” she said.
“I know I did,” I replied.
“I am so glad that you did,” she said, “for I deceived you. I admired you, John Carter, tremendously; but I never loved you. I knew that you had come to Invak in a flier; and I knew that if you could be helped to escape in it, you might be persuaded to take me with you. I hate Invak; I was most unhappy there; I would have sold my very soul to have escaped, and so I tried to make you love me so that you would take me away. I thought I had succeeded, and I was very much ashamed of myself. You can never know how relieved I was when I found that I had failed, for I admired you too much to wish to bring unhappiness to you.”
“But why did you pretend to be so jealous of Llana of Gathol?” I asked.
“To make my love seem more realistic,” she said.
“You have lifted a great weight from my conscience, Rojas. I hope that you will like it here and that you will be very happy.”
“I shall love it,” she said, “for I already love Dejah Thoris, and she has asked me to stay here with her.”
“Now I know that you will be happy here,” I told her.
“I am sure of it, John Carter—I have seen some very handsome men already, and they can’t all have mates.”
The flight to Gathol was uneventful. I had taken an invisibility sphere some time before leaving Helium, and before I reached Gathol I had completely disappeared.
As I approached the city, I could see Hin Abtol’s army drawn up around it; there were many more than there had been when I escaped in the Dusar; and on the line from which I had stolen the ship were at least a hundred more fliers, many of them large fighting ships, with some transports.
Presently several patrol boats rose to meet me. I was flying no colors, and when they hailed me I made no response. A couple of them ranged alongside me, and I could hear the exclamations of astonishment when they discovered that there was no one aboard the ship and no pilot at the controls.
I think they were rather frightened, for no one attempted to board me; and they let me fly on without interfering.
I dropped down to the Panar line, and set my flier down beside the last ship in it. One of the patrol ships landed also, and was soon surrounded by a crowd of officers and warriors, who approached my ship with every sign of curiosity written on their faces.
“This ship is piloted by Death,” I said in a loud voice; “it is death to approach too close or to try to board it.”
The men stopped then, and most of them fell back. I dropped to the ground and wandered about at will, my purpose being to gather what information I could from conversations among the officers. These men, however, were so interested in my ship that I gained no information from them; and so I wandered away and walked down the line to the flagship, which I boarded, passing the sentry at the foot of the ladder and the watch on deck. It seemed strange to walk there among the enemy, unseen; all that I had to do was to avoid contact with any of them, and I was safe from detection.
I went to the cabin of the commander of the fleet. He was sitting there with several high ranking officers, to whom he was giving instructions.
“As soon as Hin Abtol arrives from Pankor,” he was saying, “we are to take up several thousand men equipped with equilibrimotors and drop them directly into the city; and then, with Gathol as a base, we shall move on Helium with fully a million men.”
“When will Hin Abtol arrive?” asked one of the officers.
“Tonight or tomorrow morning,” replied the commander. “He is coming with a large fleet.”
Well, at last I had learned something; and my plans were formulated instantly. I left the flagship and returned to my flier, which was being examined by a considerable number of officers and men, but from a safe distance.
I had difficulty in finding an opening through which I could pass without touching any of them; but at last I succeeded, and I was soon at the controls of my flier.
As it rose from the ground apparently without human guidance, exclamations of awe and astonishment followed it. “It is Death,” I heard a man cry; “Death is at the controls.”
I circled low above them. “Yes, it is Death at the controls,” I called down to them; “Death, who has come to take all who attack Gathol;” then I zoomed swiftly aloft and turned the nose of my ship toward Pankor.
I only went far enough from Gathol to be out of sight of Hin Abtol’s forces; and then I flew in wide circles at considerable altitudes, waiting for Hin Abtol’s fleet.
At long last I saw it in the distance. With it was the man who, with the enormous number of his conscripts, would surely take Gathol and sack it, were he not stopped.
I spotted Hin Abtol’s flagship immediately and dropped down alongside it. My little flier evoked no alarm, as it would have been helpless in the midst of this great fleet; but when those aboard the flagship saw that the flier was maneuvering without human control, their curiosity knew no bounds, and they crowded to the rail to have a better look.
I circled the ship, drawing nearer and nearer. I
could see Hin Abtol on the bridge with a number of officers, and I saw that they were as much intrigued as were the warriors on deck.
Hin Abtol was leaning far out over the rail to have a better look at me; I moved in closer; the side of the flier touched the bridge lightly.
Hin Abtol was peering down at the deck and into the little control room. “There is no one aboard this ship,” he said; “some one had discovered the means of flying it by remote control.”
I had set the wheel to hold the flier tightly against the bridge; then I sprang across the deck, seized Hin Abtol by his harness, and dragged him over the rail onto the deck of the flier. An instant later still holding Hin Abtol, I was at the controls; the flier nosed down and dove beneath the flagship at full speed. I heard shouts of astonishment mingled with cries of rage and fear.
A number of small craft took after me; but I knew that they could not overtake me, and that they would not dare fire on me for fear of killing Hin Abtol.
Hin Abtol lay trembling at my side, almost paralyzed with terror. “What are you?” he finally managed to stammer. “What are you going to do with me?”
I did not reply; I thought that that would terrify him the more; and I know that it did, for after a while he implored me to speak.
We flew back, high over Gathol, which was now safe from attack. Early the next morning I saw a great fleet coming out of the southeast—it was the fleet from Helium that Tardos Mors was bringing to relieve Gathol.
As I was approaching it, the effects of the invisibility sphere diminished rapidly; and I materialized before the astounded gaze of Hin Abtol.
“Who are you? What are you?” he demanded.
“I am the man whose flier you stole at Horz,” I replied. “I am the man who took it from beneath your nose in Pankor, and with it Llana of Gathol—I am John Carter, Prince of Helium; have you ever heard of me?”
Nearing the fleet, I broke out my colors—the colors of the Prince of Helium; and a great cheer rose from the deck of every ship that could distinguish them.
The rest is history now—how Helium’s great fleet destroyed Hin Abtol’s fleet, and the army of Helium routed the forces which had for so long invested Gathol.
When the brief war was over, we set free nearly a million of the frozen men of Panar; and I returned to Helium and Dejah Thoris, from whom I hope never to be separated again.
I had brought with me Jad-han and Pan Dan Chee, whom we had found among the prisoners of the Panars; and though I was not present at the meeting between Pan Dan Chee and Llana of Gathol, Dejah Thoris has assured me that the dangers and vicissitudes he had suffered for love of the fair Gatholian had not been in vain.
Part 1
JOHN CARTER AND THE GIANT OF MARS
chapter I
ABDUCTION
THE MOONS OF MARS looked down upon a giant Martian thoat as it raced silently over the soft mossy ground. Eight powerful legs carried the creature forward in great, leaping strides.
The path of the mighty beast was guided telepathically by the two people who sat in a huge saddle that was cinched to the thoat’s broad back.
It was the custom of Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, to ride forth weekly to inspect part of her grandfather’s vast farming and industrial kingdom.
Her journey to the farm lands wound through the lonely Helium Forest where grow the huge trees that furnish much of the lumber supply to the civilized nations of Mars.
Dawn was just breaking in the eastern Martian sky, and the jungle was dark and still damp with the evening dew. The gloom of the forest made Dejah Thoris thankful for the presence of her companion, who rode in the saddle in front of her. Her hands rested on his broad, bronze shoulders, and the feel of those smooth, supple muscles gave her a little thrill of confidence. One of his hands rested on the jewel-encrusted hilt of his great long-sword; and he sat his saddle very straight, for he was the mightiest warrior on Mars.
John Carter turned to gaze at the lovely face of his princess.
“Frightened, Dejah Thoris?” he asked.
“Never, when I am with my chieftain,” Dejah Thoris smiled.
“But what of the forest monsters, the arboks?”
“Grandfather has had them all removed. On the last trip, my guard killed the only tree reptile I’ve ever seen.”
Suddenly Dejah Thoris gasped, clutched vainly at John Carter to regain her balance. The mighty thoat lurched heavily to the mossy ground. The riders catapulted over his head. In an instant the two had regained their feet; but the thoat lay very still.
Carter jerked his long-sword from its scabbard and motioned Dejah Thoris to stay at his back.
The silence of the forest was abruptly shattered by an uncanny roar directly above them.
“An arbok!” Dejah Thoris cried.
The tree reptile launched itself straight for the hated man-things. Carter lifted his sword and swung quickly to one side, drawing the monster’s attention away from Dejah Thoris who crouched behind the fallen thoat.
The earthman’s first thrust sliced harmlessly through the beast’s outer skin. A huge claw knocked him off balance, and he found himself lying on the ground with the great fangs at his throat.
“Dejah Thoris, get the atom gun from the thoat’s back,” Carter called hoarsely to the girl. There was no answer.
Calling upon every ounce of his great strength, Carter drove his sword into the arbok’s neck. The creature shuddered. A stream of blood gushed from the wound. The man wriggled from under the dead body and sprang to his feet.
“Dejah Thoris! Dejah Thoris!”
Wildly Carter searched the ground and trees surrounding the dead thoat and arbok. There was no sign of Dejah Thoris. She had utterly vanished.
A shaft of light from the rising sun filtering through the foliage glistened on an object at the earthman’s feet. Carter picked up a large shell, a shell recently ejected from a silent atom gun.
Springing to the dead thoat, he examined the saddle trappings. The atom gun that he had told Dejah Thoris to fire was still in its leather boot!
The earthman stooped beside the dead thoat’s head. There was a tiny, bloody hole through its skull. That shot and the charging arbok had been part of a well conceived plan to abduct Dejah Thoris, and kill him!
But Dejah Thoris—how had she disappeared so quickly, so completely?
Grimly, Carter set off at a run back to the forest toward Helium.
Noon found the earthman in a private audience-chamber of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, grandfather of Dejah Thoris.
The old jeddak was worried. He thrust a rough piece of parchment into John Carter’s hand. Crude, bold letters were inscribed upon the parchment; and as Carter scanned the note his eyes burned with anger: It read:
“I, Pew Mogel, the most powerful ruler on Mars, have decided to take over the iron works of Helium. The iron will furnish me with all the ships I need to protect Helium and the other cities of Barsoom from invasion. If you have not evacuated all your workers from the iron mines and factories in three days, then I will start sending you the fingers of the Royal Princess of Helium. Hurry, because I may decide to send her tongue, which wags too much of John Carter. Remember, obey Pew Mogel, for he is all-powerful.”
Tardos Mors dug his nails into the palms of his hands.
“Who is this upstart who calls himself the most powerful ruler of Mars?”
Carter looked thoughtfully at the note.
“He must have spies here,” he said. “Pew Mogel knew that I was to leave this morning with Dejah Thoris on a tour of inspection.”
“A spy it must have been,” Tardos Mors groaned. “I found this note pinned to the curtains in my private audience-chamber. But what can we do? Dejah Thoris is the only thing in life that I have left to love—” His voice broke.
“All Helium loves her, Tardos Mors, and we will all die before we return to you empty-handed.”
Carter strode to the visiscreen and pushed a button.
“Summon Kant
os Kan and Tars Tarkas.” He spoke quickly to an orderly. “Have them come here at once.”
Soon after, the huge, green warrior and the lean, red man were in the audience-chamber.
“It is fortunate, John Carter, that I am here in Helium on my weekly visit from the plains.” Tars Tarkas, the green thark, gripped his massive sword with his powerful four hands. His great, giant body loomed majestically above the others in the room.
Kantos Kan laid his hand on John Carter’s shoulder.
“I was on my way to the palace when I received your summons. Already, word of our princess’ abduction has spread over Helium. I came immediately,” said the noble fellow, “to offer you my sword and my heart.”
“I have never heard of this Pew Mogel,” said Tars Tarkas. “Is he a green man?”
Tardos Mors grunted, “He’s probably some petty outlaw or criminal who has an overbloated ego.”
Carter raised his eyes from the ransom note.
“No, Tardos Mors. I think he is more formidable than you imagine. He is clever, also. There must have been an airship, with a silent motor, at hand to carry Dejah Thoris away so quickly—or perhaps some great bird! Only a very powerful man who is prepared to back up his threats would kidnap the Princess of Helium and even hope to take over the great iron works.
“He probably has great resources at his command. It is doubtful, however, if he has any intention of returning the princess or he would have included more details in his ransom note.”
Suddenly the earthman’s keen eyes narrowed. A shadow had moved in the adjoining room.
With a powerful leap, Carter reached the arched doorway. A furtive figure melted away into the semi-gloom of the passageway, with Carter close behind.
Seeing escape impossible, the stranger halted, sank to one knee and leveled a ray-gun at the approaching figure of the earthman. Carter saw his finger whiten as he squeezed the trigger.
The Collected John Carter of Mars (Volume 3) Page 67