CHAPTER XV
FLIGHT AND PURSUIT
I could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds, and yet
I know that I was unconscious, for the next thing I realized was
that a growing radiance was illuminating the corridor about me and
the eyes were gone.
I was unharmed except for a slight bruise upon my forehead where
it had struck the stone flagging as I fell.
I sprang to my feet to ascertain the cause of the light. It came
from a torch in the hand of one of a party of four green warriors,
who were coming rapidly down the corridor toward me. They had
not yet seen me, and so I lost no time in slipping into the first
intersecting corridor that I could find. This time, however, I
did not advance so far away from the main corridor as on the other
occasion that had resulted in my losing Tars Tarkas and his guards.
The party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway in which
I crouched against the wall. As they passed by I breathed a sigh
of relief. I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party
was the same that I had followed into the pits. It consisted of
Tars Tarkas and his three guards.
I fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which the
great Thark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained without
while the man with the keys entered with the Thark to fasten his
irons upon him once more. The two outside started to stroll slowly
in the direction of the spiral runway which led to the floors above,
and in a moment were lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.
The torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so that its
rays illuminated both the corridor and the cell at the same time.
As I saw the two warriors disappear I approached the entrance to
the cell, with a well-defined plan already formulated.
While I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I had
decided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tars Tarkas and I were
to go back together to my little camp in the hills.
Keeping near the wall, I came quite close to the door to Tars
Tarkas' cell, and there I stood with my longsword above my head,
grasped with both hands, that I might bring it down in one quick
cut upon the skull of the jailer as he emerged.
I dislike to dwell upon what followed after I heard the footsteps
of the man as he approached the doorway. It is enough that within
another minute or two, Tars Tarkas, wearing the metal of a Warhoon
chief, was hurrying down the corridor toward the spiral runway,
bearing the Warhoon's torch to light his way. A dozen paces behind
him followed John Carter, Prince of Helium.
The two companions of the man who lay now beside the door of the
cell that had been Tars Tarkas' had just started to ascend the
runway as the Thark came in view.
"Why so long, Tan Gama?" cried one of the men.
"I had trouble with a lock," replied Tars Tarkas. "And now I find
that I have left my short-sword in the Thark's cell. Go you on,
I'll return and fetch it."
"As you will, Tan Gama," replied he who had before spoken. "We
shall see you above directly."
"Yes," replied Tars Tarkas, and turned as though to retrace his
steps to the cell, but he only waited until the two had disappeared
at the floor above. Then I joined him, we extinguished the torch,
and together we crept toward the spiral incline that led to the
upper floors of the building.
At the first floor we found that the hallway ran but halfway through,
necessitating the crossing of a rear room full of green folk, ere
we could reach the inner courtyard, so there was but one thing
left for us to do, and that was to gain the second floor and the
hallway through which I had traversed the length of the building.
Cautiously we ascended. We could hear the sounds of conversation
coming from the room above, but the hall still was unlighted, nor
was any one in sight as we gained the top of the runway. Together
we threaded the long hall and reached the balcony overlooking the
courtyard, without being detected.
At our right was the window letting into the room in which I
had seen Tan Gama and the other warriors as they started to Tars
Tarkas' cell earlier in the evening. His companions had returned
here, and we now overheard a portion of their conversation.
"What can be detaining Tan Gama?" asked one.
"He certainly could not be all this time fetching his shortsword
from the Thark's cell," spoke another.
"His short-sword?" asked a woman. "What mean you?"
"Tan Gama left his short-sword in the Thark's cell," explained the
first speaker, "and left us at the runway, to return and get it."
"Tan Gama wore no short-sword this night," said the woman. "It was
broken in to-day's battle with the Thark, and Tan Gama gave it to
me to repair. See, I have it here," and as she spoke she drew Tan
Gama's short-sword from beneath her sleeping silks and furs.
The warriors sprang to their feet.
"There is something amiss here," cried one.
"'Tis even what I myself thought when Tan Gama left us at the runway,"
said another. "Methought then that his voice sounded strangely."
"Come! let us hasten to the pits."
We waited to hear no more. Slinging my harness into a long single
strap, I lowered Tars Tarkas to the courtyard beneath, and an
instant later dropped to his side.
We had spoken scarcely a dozen words since I had felled Tan Gama
at the cell door and seen in the torch's light the expression of
utter bewilderment upon the great Thark's face.
"By this time," he had said, "I should have learned to wonder at
nothing which John Carter accomplishes." That was all. He did
not need to tell me that he appreciated the friendship which had
prompted me to risk my life to rescue him, nor did he need to say
that he was glad to see me.
This fierce green warrior had been the first to greet me that day,
now twenty years gone, which had witnessed my first advent upon
Mars. He had met me with levelled spear and cruel hatred in his
heart as he charged down upon me, bending low at the side of his
mighty thoat as I stood beside the incubator of his horde upon the
dead sea bottom beyond Korad. And now among the inhabitants of two
worlds I counted none a better friend than Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of
the Tharks.
As we reached the courtyard we stood in the shadows beneath the
balcony for a moment to discuss our plans.
"There be five now in the party, Tars Tarkas," I said; "Thuvia,
Xodar, Carthoris, and ourselves. We shall need five thoats to bear
us."
"Carthoris!" he cried. "Your son?"
"Yes. I found him in the prison of Shador, on the Sea of Omean,
in the land of the First Born."
"I know not any of these places, John Carter. Be they upon Barsoom?"
"Upon and below, my friend; but wait until we shall have made good
our escape, and you shall hear the strangest narrative that ever a
Barsoomian of the outer world gave ear to. Now we must steal our
thoats and be well away to the north before these fellows discover
how we have tricked them."
In safety we reached the great gates at the far end of the courtyard,
through which it was necessary to take our thoats to the avenue
beyond. It is no easy matter to handle five of these great, fierce
beasts, which by nature are as wild and ferocious as their masters
and held in subjection by cruelty and brute force alone.
As we approached them they sniffed our unfamiliar scent and with
squeals of rage circled about us. Their long, massive necks upreared
raised their great, gaping mouths high above our heads. They are
fearsome appearing brutes at best, but when they are aroused they
are fully as dangerous as they look. The thoat stands a good ten
feet at the shoulder. His hide is sleek and hairless, and of a
dark slate colour on back and sides, shading down his eight legs
to a vivid yellow at the huge, padded, nailless feet; the belly
is pure white. A broad, flat tail, larger at the tip than at the
root, completes the picture of this ferocious green Martian mount
--a fit war steed for these warlike people.
As the thoats are guided by telepathic means alone, there is
no need for rein or bridle, and so our object now was to find two
that would obey our unspoken commands. As they charged about us we
succeeded in mastering them sufficiently to prevent any concerted
attack upon us, but the din of their squealing was certain to bring
investigating warriors into the courtyard were it to continue much
longer.
At length I was successful in reaching the side of one great brute,
and ere he knew what I was about I was firmly seated astride his
glossy back. A moment later Tars Tarkas had caught and mounted
another, and then between us we herded three or four more toward
the great gates.
Tars Tarkas rode ahead and, leaning down to the latch, threw the
barriers open, while I held the loose thoats from breaking back to
the herd. Then together we rode through into the avenue with our
stolen mounts and, without waiting to close the gates, hurried off
toward the southern boundary of the city.
Thus far our escape had been little short of marvellous, nor did
our good fortune desert us, for we passed the outer purlieus of the
dead city and came to our camp without hearing even the faintest
sound of pursuit.
Here a low whistle, the prearranged signal, apprised the balance of
our party that I was returning, and we were met by the three with
every manifestation of enthusiastic rejoicing.
But little time was wasted in narration of our adventure. Tars
Tarkas and Carthoris exchanged the dignified and formal greetings
common upon Barsoom, but I could tell intuitively that the Thark
loved my boy and that Carthoris reciprocated his affection.
Xodar and the green Jeddak were formally presented to each other.
Then Thuvia was lifted to the least fractious thoat, Xodar and
Carthoris mounted two others, and we set out at a rapid pace toward
the east. At the far extremity of the city we circled toward
the north, and under the glorious rays of the two moons we sped
noiselessly across the dead sea bottom, away from the Warhoons and
the First Born, but to what new dangers and adventures we knew not.
Toward noon of the following day we halted to rest our mounts and
ourselves. The beasts we hobbled, that they might move slowly
about cropping the ochre moss-like vegetation which constitutes
both food and drink for them on the march. Thuvia volunteered to
remain on watch while the balance of the party slept for an hour.
It seemed to me that I had but closed my eyes when I felt her
hand upon my shoulder and heard her soft voice warning me of a new
danger.
"Arise, O Prince," she whispered. "There be that behind us which
has the appearance of a great body of pursuers."
The girl stood pointing in the direction from whence we had come,
and as I arose and looked, I, too, thought that I could detect
a thin dark line on the far horizon. I awoke the others. Tars
Tarkas, whose giant stature towered high above the rest of us,
could see the farthest.
"It is a great body of mounted men," he said, "and they are travelling
at high speed."
There was no time to be lost. We sprang to our hobbled thoats,
freed them, and mounted. Then we turned our faces once more toward
the north and took our flight again at the highest speed of our
slowest beast.
For the balance of the day and all the following night we raced
across that ochre wilderness with the pursuers at our back ever
gaining upon us. Slowly but surely they were lessening the distance
between us. Just before dark they had been close enough for us to
plainly distinguish that they were green Martians, and all during
the long night we distinctly heard the clanking of their accoutrements
behind us.
As the sun rose on the second day of our flight it disclosed
the pursuing horde not a half-mile in our rear. As they saw us a
fiendish shout of triumph rose from their ranks.
Several miles in advance lay a range of hills--the farther shore
of the dead sea we had been crossing. Could we but reach these
hills our chances of escape would be greatly enhanced, but Thuvia's
mount, although carrying the lightest burden, already was showing
signs of exhaustion. I was riding beside her when suddenly her
animal staggered and lurched against mine. I saw that he was going
down, but ere he fell I snatched the girl from his back and swung
her to a place upon my own thoat, behind me, where she clung with
her arms about me.
This double burden soon proved too much for my already overtaxed
beast, and thus our speed was terribly diminished, for the others
would proceed no faster than the slowest of us could go. In that
little party there was not one who would desert another; yet we
were of different countries, different colours, different races,
different religions--and one of us was of a different world.
We were quite close to the hills, but the Warhoons were gaining
so rapidly that we had given up all hope of reaching them in time.
Thuvia and I were in the rear, for our beast was lagging more and
more. Suddenly I felt the girl's warm lips press a kiss upon my
shoulder. "For thy sake, O my Prince," she murmured. Then her
arms slipped from about my waist and she was gone.
I turned and saw that she had deliberately slipped to the ground
in the very path of the cruel demons who pursued us, thinking that
by lightening the burden of my mount it might thus be enabled to
bear me to the safety of the hills. Poor child! She should have
known John Carter better than that.
Turning my thoat, I urged him after her, hoping to reach her side
and bear her on again in our hopeless flight. Carthoris must have
glanced behind him at about the same time and taken in the situation,
for by the time I had reached Thuvia's side he was there also, and,
springing from his mount, he threw her upon its back and, turning
the animal's head toward the hills, gave the beast a sharp crack
across the rump with the flat of his sword. Then he attempted to
do the same with mine.
The brave boy's act of chivalrous self-sacrifice filled me with
pride, nor did I care that it had wrested from us our last frail
chance for escape. The Warhoons were now close upon us. Tars Tarkas
and Xodar had discovered our absence and were charging rapidly to
our support. Everything pointed toward a splendid ending of my
second journey to Barsoom. I hated to go out without having seen
my divine Princess, and held her in my arms once again; but if
it were not writ upon the book of Fate that such was to be, then
would I take the most that was coming to me, and in these last few
moments that were to be vouchsafed me before I passed over into that
unguessed future I could at least give such an account of myself
in my chosen vocation as would leave the Warhoons of the South food
for discourse for the next twenty generations.
As Carthoris was not mounted, I slipped from the back of my
own mount and took my place at his side to meet the charge of the
howling devils bearing down upon us. A moment later Tars Tarkas
and Xodar ranged themselves on either hand, turning their thoats
loose that we might all be on an equal footing.
The Warhoons were perhaps a hundred yards from us when a loud
explosion sounded from above and behind us, and almost at the same
instant a shell burst in their advancing ranks. At once all was
confusion. A hundred warriors toppled to the ground. Riderless
thoats plunged hither and thither among the dead and dying.
Dismounted warriors were trampled underfoot in the stampede which
followed. All semblance of order had left the ranks of the green
men, and as they looked far above our heads to trace the origin of
this unexpected attack, disorder turned to retreat and retreat to
a wild panic. In another moment they were racing as madly away
from us as they had before been charging down upon us.
We turned to look in the direction from whence the first report
had come, and there we saw, just clearing the tops of the nearer
hills, a great battleship swinging majestically through the air.
Her bow gun spoke again even as we looked, and another shell burst
among the fleeing Warhoons.
As she drew nearer I could not repress a wild cry of elation, for
upon her bows I saw the device of Helium.
