IN DURANCE
The public houses of Barsoom, I have found, vary but little.
There is no privacy for other than married couples.
men without their wives are escorted to a large chamber,
the floor of which is usually of white marble or heavy glass,
kept scrupulously clean. Here are many small, raised platforms
for the guest's sleeping silks and furs, and if he have none of
his own clean, fresh ones are furnished at a nominal charge.
Once a man's belongings have been deposited upon one of these
platforms he is a guest of the house, and that platform his own
until he leaves. No one will disturb or molest his belongings,
as there are no thieves upon Mars.
As assassination is the one thing to be feared, the proprietors
of the hostelries furnish armed guards, who pace back and forth
through the sleeping-rooms day and night. The number of guards
and gorgeousness of their trappings quite usually denote the
status of the hotel.
No meals are served in these houses, but generally a public eating
place adjoins them. Baths are connected with the sleeping chambers,
and each guest is required to bathe daily or depart from the hotel.
Usually on a second or third floor there is a large sleeping-
room for single women guests, but its appointments do not vary
materially from the chamber occupied by men. The guards who watch
the women remain in the corridor outside the sleeping chamber,
while female slaves pace back and forth among the sleepers within,
ready to notify the warriors should their presence be required.
I was surprised to note that all the guards with the hotel at
which we stopped were red men, and on inquiring of one of them I
learned that they were slaves purchased by the proprietors of the
hotels from the government. The man whose post was past my sleeping
platform had been commander of the navy of a great Martian nation;
but fate had carried his flagship across the ice-barrier
within the radius of power of the magnetic shaft, and now
for many tedious years he had been a slave of the yellow men.
He told me that princes, jeds, and even jeddaks of the outer world,
were among the menials who served the yellow race; but when I
asked him if he had heard of the fate of Mors Kajak or Tardos
Mors he shook his head, saying that he never had heard of their
being prisoners here, though he was very familiar with the
reputations and fame they bore in the outer world.
Neither had he heard any rumor of the coming of the Father of
Therns and the black dator of the First Born, but he hastened to
explain that he knew little of what took place within the palace.
I could see that he wondered not a little that a yellow man should
be so inquisitive about certain red prisoners from beyond the ice-
barrier, and that I should be so ignorant of customs and conditions
among my own race.
In fact, I had forgotten my disguise upon discovering a red
man pacing before my sleeping platform; but his growing expression
of surprise warned me in time, for I had no mind to reveal my
identity to any unless some good could come of it, and I did not
see how this poor fellow could serve me yet, though I had it in my
mind that later I might be the means of serving him and all the
other thousands of prisoners who do the bidding of their stern
masters in Kadabra.
Thuvan Dihn and I discussed our plans as we sat together among
our sleeping silks and furs that night in the midst of the hundreds
of yellow men who occupied the apartment with us. We spoke in low
whispers, but, as that is only what courtesy demands in a public
sleeping place, we roused no suspicion.
At last, determining that all must be but idle speculation until
after we had had a chance to explore the city and attempt to put
into execution the plan Talu had suggested, we bade each other
good night and turned to sleep.
After breakfasting the following morning we set out to see Kadabra,
and as, through the generosity of the Prince of Marentina, we were
well supplied with the funds current in Okar we purchased a handsome
ground flier. Having learned to drive them while in Marentina,
we spent a delightful and profitable day exploring the city,
and late in the afternoon at the hour Talu told us we would
find government officials in their offices, we stopped before
a magnificent building on the plaza opposite the royal
grounds and the palace.
Here we walked boldly in past the armed guard at the door, to
be met by a red slave within who asked our wishes.
"Tell Sorav, your master, that two warriors from Illall wish
to take service in the palace guard," I said.
Sorav, Talu had told us, was the commander of the forces of
the palace, and as men from the further cities of Okar--and
especially Illall--were less likely to be tainted with the germ of
intrigue which had for years infected the household of Salensus Oll,
he was sure that we would be welcomed and few questions asked us.
He had primed us with such general information as he thought would be
necessary for us to pass muster before Sorav, after which we would
have to undergo a further examination before Salensus Oll that he
might determine our physical fitness and our ability as warriors.
The little experience we had had with the strange hooked sword
of the yellow man and his cuplike shield made it seem rather
unlikely that either of us could pass this final test, but there
was the chance that we might be quartered in the palace of Salensus
Oll for several days after being accepted by Sorav before the
Jeddak of Jeddaks would find time to put us to the final test.
After a wait of several minutes in an ante-chamber we were summoned
into the private office of Sorav, where we were courteously greeted
by this ferocious-appearing, black-bearded officer. He asked us our
names and stations in our own city, and having received replies that
were evidently satisfactory to him, he put certain questions to us
that Talu had foreseen and prepared us for.
The interview could not have lasted over ten minutes when
Sorav summoned an aid whom he instructed to record us properly,
and then escort us to the quarters in the palace which are set
aside for aspirants to membership in the palace guard.
The aid took us to his own office first, where he measured
and weighed and photographed us simultaneously with a machine
ingeniously devised for that purpose, five copies being
instantly reproduced in five different offices of the government,
two of which are located in other cities miles distant.
Then he led us through the palace grounds to the main guardroom
of the palace, there turning us over to the officer in charge.
This individual again questioned us briefly, and finally
despatched a soldier to guide us to our quarters. These we found
located upon the second floor of the palace in a semi-detached
tower at the rear of the edifice.
When we asked our guide why we were quartered so far from the
guardroom he replied that the custom of the older members of the
guard of picking quarrels with aspirants to try their metal had
resulted in so many deaths that it was found difficult to maintain
the guard at its full strength while this custom prevailed.
Salensus Oll had, therefore, set apart these quarters for aspirants,
and here they were securely locked against the danger of attack
by members of the guard.
This unwelcome information put a sudden check to all our well-
laid plans, for it meant that we should virtually be prisoners in
the palace of Salensus Oll until the time that he should see fit
to give us the final examination for efficiency.
As it was this interval upon which we had banked to accomplish
so much in our search for Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of Ptarth, our
chagrin was unbounded when we heard the great lock click behind our
guide as he had quitted us after ushering us into the chambers we
were to occupy.
With a wry face I turned to Thuvan Dihn. My companion but shook
his head disconsolately and walked to one of the windows upon
the far side of the apartment.
Scarcely had he gazed beyond them than he called to me in a
tone of suppressed excitement and surprise. In an instant I
was by his side.
"Look!" said Thuvan Dihn, pointing toward the courtyard below.
As my eyes followed the direction indicated I saw two women
pacing back and forth in an enclosed garden.
At the same moment I recognized them--they were Dejah Thoris
and Thuvia of Ptarth!
There were they whom I had trailed from one pole to another,
the length of a world. Only ten feet of space and a few metal bars
separated me from them.
With a cry I attracted their attention, and as Dejah Thoris
looked up full into my eyes I made the sign of love that the
men of Barsoom make to their women.
To my astonishment and horror her head went high, and as a
look of utter contempt touched her finely chiseled features she
turned her back full upon me. My body is covered with the scars of
a thousand conflicts, but never in all my long life have I suffered
such anguish from a wound, for this time the steel of a woman's
look had entered my heart.
With a groan I turned away and buried my face in my arms. I
heard Thuvan Dihn call aloud to Thuvia, but an instant later his
exclamation of surprise betokened that he, too, had been repulsed
by his own daughter.
"They will not even listen," he cried to me. "They have put
their hands over their ears and walked to the farther end of the
garden. Ever heard you of such mad work, John Carter? The two
must be bewitched."
Presently I mustered the courage to return to the window, for
even though she spurned me I loved her, and could not keep my eyes
from feasting upon her divine face and figure, but when she saw me
looking she again turned away.
I was at my wit's end to account for her strange actions, and
that Thuvia, too, had turned against her father seemed incredible.
Could it be that my incomparable princess still clung to the
hideous faith from which I had rescued her world? Could it be that
she looked upon me with loathing and contempt because I had
returned from the Valley Dor, or because I had desecrated the
temples and persons of the Holy Therns?
To naught else could I ascribe her strange deportment, yet it
seemed far from possible that such could be the case, for the love
of Dejah Thoris for John Carter had been a great and wondrous love--
far above racial distinctions, creed, or religion.
As I gazed ruefully at the back of her haughty, royal head a
gate at the opposite end of the garden opened and a man entered.
As he did so he turned and slipped something into the hand of the
yellow guardsman beyond the gate, nor was the distance too great
that I might not see that money had passed between them.
Instantly I knew that this newcomer had bribed his way within
the garden. Then he turned in the direction of the two women,
and I saw that he was none other than Thurid, the black dator
of the First Born.
He approached quite close to them before he spoke, and as they
turned at the sound of his voice I saw Dejah Thoris shrink from him.
There was a nasty leer upon his face as he stepped close to her and
spoke again. I could not hear his words, but her answer came clearly.
"The granddaughter of Tardos Mors can always die," she said,
"but she could never live at the price you name."
Then I saw the black scoundrel go upon his knees beside her,
fairly groveling in the dirt, pleading with her. Only part of what
he said came to me, for though he was evidently laboring under the
stress of passion and excitement, it was equally apparent that he
did not dare raise his voice for fear of detection.
"I would save you from Matai Shang," I heard him say. "You know
the fate that awaits you at his hands. Would you not choose
me rather than the other?"
"I would choose neither," replied Dejah Thoris, "even were I
free to choose, as you know well I am not."
"You ARE free!" he cried. "John Carter, Prince of Helium, is dead."
"I know better than that; but even were he dead, and I must
needs choose another mate, it should be a plant man or a great
white ape in preference to either Matai Shang or you, black calot,"
she answered with a sneer of contempt.
Of a sudden the vicious beast lost all control of himself,
as with a vile oath he leaped at the slender woman, gripping her
tender throat in his brute clutch. Thuvia screamed and sprang to
aid her fellow-prisoner, and at the same instant I, too, went mad,
and tearing at the bars that spanned my window I ripped them from
their sockets as they had been but copper wire.
Hurling myself through the aperture I reached the garden,
but a hundred feet from where the black was choking the life
from my Dejah Thoris, and with a single great bound I was upon him.
I spoke no word as I tore his defiling fingers from that beautiful
throat, nor did I utter a sound as I hurled him twenty feet from me.
Foaming with rage, Thurid regained his feet and charged me
like a mad bull.
"yellow man," he shrieked, "you knew not upon whom you had
laid your vile hands, but ere I am done with you, you will
know well what it means to offend the person of a First Born."
Then he was upon me, reaching for my throat, and precisely as
I had done that day in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus I did
here in the garden of the palace of Salensus Oll. I ducked beneath
his outstretched arms, and as he lunged past me I planted a
terrific right upon the side of his jaw.
Just as he had done upon that other occasion he did now. Like a top
he spun round, his knees gave beneath him, and he crumpled to the
ground at my feet. Then I heard a voice behind me.
It was the deep voice of authority that marks the ruler of men,
and when I turned to face the resplendent figure of a giant
yellow man I did not need to ask to know that it was Salensus Oll.
At his right stood Matai Shang, and behind them a score of guardsmen.
"Who are you," he cried, "and what means this intrusion within
the precincts of the women's garden? I do not recall your face.
How came you here?"
But for his last words I should have forgotten my disguise
entirely and told him outright that I was John Carter,
Prince of Helium; but his question recalled me to myself.
I pointed to the dislodged bars of the window above.
"I am an aspirant to membership in the palace guard," I said,
"and from yonder window in the tower where I was confined awaiting
the final test for fitness I saw this brute attack the this woman.
I could not stand idly by, O Jeddak, and see this thing done within
the very palace grounds, and yet feel that I was fit to serve and
guard your royal person."
I had evidently made an impression upon the ruler of Okar by my
fair words, and when he had turned to Dejah Thoris and Thuvia of
Ptarth, and both had corroborated my statements it began to look
pretty dark for Thurid.
I saw the ugly gleam in Matai Shang's evil eyes as Dejah Thoris
narrated all that had passed between Thurid and herself, and
when she came to that part which dealt with my interference with
the dator of the First Born her gratitude was quite apparent,
though I could see by her eyes that something puzzled her strangely.
I did not wonder at her attitude toward me while others were present;
but that she should have denied me while she and Thuvia were the only
occupants of the garden still cut me sorely.
As the examination proceeded I cast a glance at Thurid
and startled him looking wide-eyed and wonderingly at me,
and then of a sudden he laughed full in my face.
A moment later Salensus Oll turned toward the black.
"What have you to say in explanation of these charges?" he asked
in a deep and terrible voice. "Dare you aspire to one whom
the Father of Therns has chosen--one who might even be a fit mate
for the Jeddak of Jeddaks himself?"
And then the black-bearded tyrant turned and cast a sudden
greedy look upon Dejah Thoris, as though with the words a new
thought and a new desire had sprung up within his mind and breast.
Thurid had been about to reply and, with a malicious grin upon
his face, was pointing an accusing finger at me, when Salensus
Oll's words and the expression of his face cut him short.
A cunning look crept into his eyes, and I knew from the expression of
his face that his next words were not the ones he had intended to speak.
"O Mightiest of Jeddaks," he said, "the man and the women do not
speak the truth. The fellow had come into the garden to assist
them to escape. I was beyond and overheard their conversation,
and when I entered, the woman screamed and the man sprang upon
me and would have killed me.
"What know you of this man? He is a stranger to you, and I
dare say that you will find him an enemy and a spy. Let him be put
on trial, Salensus Oll, rather than your friend and guest, Thurid,
Dator of the First Born."
Salensus Oll looked puzzled. He turned again and looked upon
Dejah Thoris, and then Thurid stepped quite close to him and
whispered something in his ear--what, I know not.
Presently the yellow ruler turned to one of his officers.
"See that this man be securely confined until we have time to
go deeper into this affair," he commanded, "and as bars alone seem
inadequate to restrain him, let chains be added."
Then he turned and left the garden, taking Dejah Thoris with
him--his hand upon her shoulder. Thurid and Matai Shang went also,
and as they reached the gateway the black turned and laughed again
aloud in my face.
What could be the meaning of his sudden change toward me?
Could he suspect my true identity? It must be that, and the thing
that had betrayed me was the trick and blow that had laid him low
for the second time.
As the guards dragged me away my heart was very sad and bitter indeed,
for now to the two relentless enemies that had hounded her for so long
another and a more powerful one had been added, for I would have been
but a fool had I not recognized the sudden love for Dejah Thoris that had
just been born in the terrible breast of Salensus Oll, Jeddak of Jeddaks,
ruler of Okar.
Warlord of Mars Chapter 9 ...
Warlord of Mars Chapter 11