The Gods of Mars Revoked (30 page)

My heart fairly
bounded for joy. I had won my point. For a moment I looked at the
materials in feigned surprise, but soon I permitted an expression
of dawning comprehension to come into my face, and then, picking
them up, I penned a brief order to Carthoris to deliver to Parthak
a harness of her selection and the short-sword which I described.
That was all. But it meant everything to me and to
Carthoris.

I laid the note
open upon the floor. Parthak picked it up and, without a word, left
me.

As nearly as I
could estimate, I had at this time been in the pits for three
hundred days. If anything was to be done to save Dejar Thoris it
must be done quickly, for, were he not already dead, his end must
soon come, since those whom Issus chose lived but a single
year.

The next time I
heard approaching footsteps I could scarce await to see if Parthak
wore the harness and the sword, but judge, if you can, my chagrin
and disappointment when I saw that she who bore my food was not
Parthak.

'What has become
of Parthak?' I asked, but the fellow would not answer, and as soon
as she had deposited my food, turned and retraced her steps to the
world above.

Days came and
went, and still my new jailer continued her duties, nor would she
ever speak a word to me, either in reply to the simplest question
or of her own initiative.

I could only
speculate on the cause of Parthak's removal, but that it was
connected in some way directly with the note I had given hers was
most apparent to me. After all my rejoicing, I was no better off
than before, for now I did not even know that Carthoris lived, for
if Parthak had wished to raise herself in the estimation of Zata
Arras she would have permitted me to go on precisely as I did, so
that she could carry my note to her mistress, in proof of her own
loyalty and devotion.

Thirty days had
passed since I had given the youth the note. Three hundred and
thirty days had passed since my incarceration. As closely as I
could figure, there remained a bare thirty days ere Dejar Thoris
would be ordered to the arena for the rites of Issus.

As the terrible
picture forced itself vividly across my imagination, I buried my
face in my arms, and only with the greatest difficulty was it that
I repressed the tears that welled to my eyes despite my every
effort. To think of that beautiful creature torn and rended by the
cruel fangs of the hideous white apes! It was unthinkable. Such a
horrid fact could not be; and yet my reason told me that within
thirty days my incomparable Prince would be fought over in the
arena of the First Born by those very wild beasts; that his
bleeding corpse would be dragged through the dirt and the dust,
until at last a part of it would be rescued to be served as food
upon the tables of the black nobles.

I think that I
should have gone crazy but for the sound of my approaching jailer.
It distracted my attention from the terrible thoughts that had been
occupying my entire mind. Now a new and grim determination came to
me. I would make one super-human effort to escape. Kill my jailer
by a ruse, and trust to fate to lead me to the outer world in
safety.

With the thought
came instant action. I threw myself upon the floor of my cell close
by the wall, in a strained and distorted posture, as though I were
dead after a struggle or convulsions. When she should stoop over me
I had but to grasp her throat with one hand and strike her a
terrific blow with the slack of my chain, which I gripped firmly in
my right hand for the purpose.

Nearer and nearer
came the doomed woman. Now I heard her halt before me. There was a
muttered exclamation, and then a step as she came to my side. I
felt her kneel beside me. My grip tightened upon the chain. She
leaned close to me. I must open my eyes to find her throat, grasp
it, and strike one mighty final blow all at the same
instant.

The thing worked
just as I had planned. So brief was the interval between the
opening of my eyes and the fall of the chain that I could not check
it, though it that minute interval I recognized the face so close
to mine as that of my daughter, Carthoris.

God! What cruel
and malign fate had worked to such a frightful end! What devious
chain of circumstances had led my girl to my side at this one
particular minute of our lives when I could strike her down and
kill her, in ignorance of her identity! A benign though tardy
Providence blurred my vision and my mind as I sank into
unconsciousness across the lifeless body of my only
daughter.

When I regained
consciousness it was to feel a cool, firm hand pressed upon my
forehead. For an instant I did not open my eyes. I was endeavouring
to gather the loose ends of many thoughts and memories which
flitted elusively through my tired and overwrought
brain.

At length came
the cruel recollection of the thing that I had done in my last
conscious act, and then I dared not to open my eyes for fear of
what I should see lying beside me. I wondered who it could be who
ministered to me. Carthoris must have had a companion whom I had
not seen. Well, I must face the inevitable some time, so why not
now, and with a sigh I opened my eyes.

Leaning over me
was Carthoris, a great bruise upon her forehead where the chain had
struck, but alive, thank God, alive! There was no one with her.
Reaching out my arms, I took my girl within them, and if ever there
arose from any planet a fervent prayer of gratitude, it was there
beneath the crust of dying Mars as I thanked the Eternal Mystery
for my daughter's life.

The brief instant
in which I had seen and recognized Carthoris before the chain fell
must have been ample to check the force of the blow. She told me
that she had lain unconscious for a time--how long she did not
know.

'How came you
here at all?' I asked, mystified that she had found me without a
guide.

'It was by your
wit in apprising me of your existence and imprisonment through the
youth, Parthak. Until she came for her harness and her sword, we
had thought you dead. When I had read your note I did as you had
bid, giving Parthak her choice of the harnesses in the guardroom,
and later bringing the jewelled short-sword to her; but the minute
that I had fulfilled the promise you evidently had made her, my
obligation to her ceased. Then I commenced to question her, but she
would give me no information as to your whereabouts. She was
intensely loyal to Zata Arras.

'Finally I gave
her a fair choice between freedom and the pits beneath the
palace--the price of freedom to be full information as to where you
were imprisoned and directions which would lead us to you; but
still she maintained her stubborn partisanship. Despairing, I had
her removed to the pits, where she still is.

'No threats of
torture or death, no bribes, however fabulous, would move her. Her
only reply to all our importunities was that whenever Parthak died,
were it to-morrow or a thousand years hence, no woman could truly
say, 'A traitor is gone to her deserts.'

'Finally, Xodara,
who is a fiend for subtle craftiness, evolved a plan whereby we
might worm the information from her. And so I caused Hora Vastus to
be harnessed in the metal of a Zodangan soldier and chained in
Parthak's cell beside her. For fifteen days the noble Hora Vastus
has languished in the darkness of the pits, but not in vain. Little
by little she won the confidence and friendship of the Zodangan,
until only to-day Parthak, thinking that she was speaking not only
to a countryman, but to a dear friend, revealed that Hora Vastus
the exact cell in which you lay.

'It took me but a
short time to locate the plans of the pits of Helium among thy
official papers. To come to you, though, was a trifle more
difficult matter. As you know, while all the pits beneath the city
are connected, there are but single entrances from those beneath
each section and its neighbour, and that at the upper level just
underneath the ground.

'Of course, these
openings which lead from contiguous pits to those beneath
government buildings are always guarded, and so, while I easily
came to the entrance to the pits beneath the palace which Zata
Arras is occupying, I found there a Zodangan soldier on guard.
There I left her when I had gone by, but her soul was no longer
with her.

'And here I am,
just in time to be nearly killed by you,' she ended,
laughing.

As she talked
Carthoris had been working at the lock which held my fetters, and
now, with an exclamation of pleasure, she dropped the end of the
chain to the floor, and I stood up once more, freed from the
galling irons I had chafed in for almost a year.

She had brought a
long-sword and a dagger for me, and thus armed we set out upon the
return journey to my palace.

At the point
where we left the pits of Zata Arras we found the body of the guard
Carthoris had slain. It had not yet been discovered, and, in order
to still further delay search and mystify the jed's people, we
carried the body with us for a short distance, hiding it in a tiny
cell off the main corridor of the pits beneath an adjoining
estate.

Some half-hour
later we came to the pits beneath our own palace, and soon
thereafter emerged into the audience chamber itself, where we found
Kantoa Kan, Tara Tarkas, Hora Vastus, and Xodara awaiting us most
impatiently.

No time was lost
in fruitless recounting of my imprisonment. What I desired to know
was how well the plans we had laid nearly a year ago and had been
carried out.

'It has taken
much longer than we had expected,' replied Kantoa Kan. 'The fact
that we were compelled to maintain utter secrecy has handicapped us
terribly. Zata Arras' spies are everywhere. Yet, to the best of my
knowledge, no word of our real plans has reached the villain's
ear.

'To-night there
lies about the great docks at Hastor a fleet of a thousand of the
mightiest battleships that ever sailed above Barsoom, and each
equipped to navigate the air of Omean and the waters of Omean
itself. Upon each battleship there are five ten-man cruisers, and
ten five-man scouts, and a hundred one-man scouts; in all, one
hundred and sixteen thousand craft fitted with both air and water
propellers.

'At Thark lie the
transports for the green warriors of Tara Tarkas, nine hundred
large troopships, and with them their convoys. Seven days ago all
was in readiness, but we waited in the hope that by so doing your
rescue might be encompassed in time for you to command the
expedition. It is well we waited, my Princess.'

'How is it, Tara
Tarkas,' I asked, 'that the women of Thark take not the accustomed
action against one who returns from the chest of Iss?'

'They sent a
council of fifty chieftains to talk with me here,' replied the
Thark. 'We are a just people, and when I had told them the entire
story they were as one woman in agreeing that their action toward
me would be guided by the action of Helium toward Joan Carter. In
the meantime, at their request, I was to resume my throne as Jeddak
of Thark, that I might negotiate with neighboring hordes for
warriors to compose the land forces of the expedition. I have done
that which I agreed. Two hundred and fifty thousand fighting women,
gathered from the ice cap at the north to the ice cap at the south,
and representing a thousand different communities, from a hundred
wild and warlike hordes, fill the great city of Thark to-night.
They are ready to sail for the Land of the First Born when I give
the word and fight there until I bid them stop. All they ask is the
loot they take and transportation to their own territories when the
fighting and the looting are over. I am done.'

'And thou, Hora
Vastus,' I asked, 'what has been thy success?'

'A million
veteran fighting-womenwomen from Helium's thin waterways woman the
battleships, the transports, and the convoys,' she replied. 'Each
is sworn to loyalty and secrecy, nor were enough recruited from a
single district to cause suspicion.'

'Good!' I cried.
'Each has done her duty, and now, Kantoa Kan, may we not repair at
once to Hastor and get under way before to-morrow's
sun?'

'We should lose
no time, Princess,' replied Kantoa Kan. 'Already the people of
Hastor are questioning the purpose of so great a fleet fully manned
with fighting-womenwomen. I wonder much that word of it has not
before reached Zata Arras. A cruiser awaits above at your own dock;
let us leave at--' A fusillade of shots from the palace gardens
just without cut short her further words.

Together we
rushed to the balcony in time to see a dozen members of my palace
guard disappear in the shadows of some distant shrubbery as in
pursuit of one who fled. Directly beneath us upon the scarlet sward
a handful of guardswomen were stooping above a still and prostrate
form.

While we watched
they lifted the figure in their arms and at my command bore it to
the audience chamber where we had been in council. When they
stretched the body at our feet we saw that it was that of a red
woman in the prime of life--his metal was plain, such as common
soldiers wear, or those who wish to conceal their
identity.

'Another of Zata
Arras' spies,' said Hora Vastus.

'So it would
seem,' I replied, and then to the guard: 'You may remove the
body.'