in its mad flight, rising ever nearer the rocks above. It took but an instant, however, for me to regain the levers, and with the roof barely fifty feet above I turned her nose once more into the horizontal plane, and headed her again for the black mouth of the shaft. The collision had retarded our progress, and now a hundred swift scouts were close upon us. Zodar had told me that ascending the shaft by virtue of our repulsive rays alone would give our enemies their best chance to overtake us, since our propellers would be idle and in rising we would be outclassed by many of our pursuers. The swifter craft are seldom equipped with large buoyancy tanks, since the added bulk of them tends to reduce a vessel's speed. As many boats were now quite close to us it was inevitable that we would be quickly overhauled in the shaft, and captured or killed in short order. To me there always seems a way to gain the opposite side of an obstacle. If one cannot pass over it, or below it, or around it, why then there is but a single alternative left, and that is to pass through it. I could not get around the fact that many of these other boats could rise faster than ours by the fact of their greater buoyancy, but I was none the less determined to reach the outer world far in advance of them or die a death of my own choosing in event of failure. Reverse! screams Zodar, behind me. For the love of your first ancestor, reverse! We are at the shaft! Hold tight! I screamed in reply, grasp the buoy and hold tight! We are going straight up the shaft! The words were scarce out of my mouth as we swept beneath the pitch black opening. I threw the bow hard up, dragged the speed lever to its last notch, and clutching a stanchion with one hand and the steering wheel with the other, hung on like grim death and consigned my soul to its author. I heard a little exclamation of surprise from Zodar, followed by a grim laugh. The boy laughed, too, and said something which I could not catch for the whistling of the wind of our awful speed. I looked up above my head, hoping to catch the gleam of stars by which I could direct our course and hold a hurtling thing that bore us true to the center of the shaft. To have touched the side at the speed we were making would doubtless have resulted in instant death for us all. But not a star showed above, only utter and impenetrable darkness. Then I glanced below me, and there I saw a rapidly diminishing circle of light, the mouth of the opening above the phosphorescent radiance of Omene. By this I steered, endeavouring to keep the circle of light below me ever perfect. As best it was but a slender cord that held us from destruction, and I think that I steered that night more by intuition and blind faith than by skill or reason. We were not long in the shaft, possibly the very fact of our enormous speed saved us. For evidently we started in the right direction, and so quickly we were out again that we had no time to alter our course. Omene lies perhaps two miles below the surface crust of Mars. Our speed must have approximated two hundred miles an hour, for Martian flyers are swift, so that at most we were in the shaft not over forty seconds. We must have been out of it for some seconds before I realized that we had accomplished the impossible. Black darkness enshrouded all about us. There were neither moons nor stars. Never before had I seen such a thing upon Mars, and for the moment I was nonplussed. Then the explanation came to me. It was summer at the South Pole. The ice cap was melting, and those meteoric phenomena, clouds, unknown upon the greater part of Barsoom, were shutting out the light of heaven from this portion of the planet. Fortune indeed it was for us, nor did it take me long to grasp the opportunity for escape which this happy condition offered us. Keeping the boat's nose at a stiff angle, I raced her for the impenetrable curtain which nature had hung above this dying world to shut us out from the sight of our pursuing enemies. We plunged through the cold camp fog without diminishing our speed, and in a moment emerged into the glorious light of the two moons and the million stars. I dropped into a horizontal course and headed due north. Our enemies were a good half hour behind us with no conception of our direction. We had performed the miraculous and come through a thousand dangers unscathed. We had escaped from the land of the firstborn. No other prisoners in all the ages of Barsoom had done this thing, and now, as I looked back upon it, it did not seem to have been so difficult after all. I said as much to Zodar over my shoulder. "'It is very wonderful, nevertheless,' he replied, no one else could have accomplished it but John Carter.' At the sound of that name the boy jumped to his feet. "'John Carter,' he cried, "'John Carter! Why, man, John Carter, Prince of Helium, has been dead for years. I am his son!'' End of Chapter 13, Chapter 14 of The Gods of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gods of Mars. Chapter 14 The Eyes in the Dark My son! I could not believe my ears! Slowly I rose and faced the handsome youth. Now that I looked at him closely I commenced to see why his face and personality had attracted me so strongly. There was much of his mother's incomparable beauty in his clear-cut features, but it was strongly masculine beauty, and his gray eyes and the expression of them were mine. The boy stood facing me, half hope and half uncertainty in his look. "'Tell me of your mother,' I said, "'tell me all you can of the years that I have been robbed by a relentless fate of her dear companionship.  But I do not regret it, nor am I ashamed. A long life has taught me that a man may seem weak where women and children are concerned, and yet be anything but a weakling in the sterner avenues of life. "'Your stature, your manner, the terrible ferocity of your swordsmanship,' said the boy, "'are as my mother has described them to me a thousand times, but even with such evidence I could scarce credit the truth of what seemed so improbable to me, however much I desired it to be true. Do you know what thing it was that convinced me more than all the others?' "'What, my boy,' I asked. Your first words to me. They were of my mother. None else but the man who loved her, as she has told me my father did, would have thought first of her. For long years, my son, I can scarce recall a moment that the radiant vision of your mother's face has not been ever before me. Tell me of her.' "'Those who have known her longest say that she has not changed, unless it be to grow more beautiful, were that possible. Only, when she thinks I am not about to see her, her face grows very sad, and oh so wistful. She thinks ever of you, my father, and all Helium mourns with her and for her. Her grandfather's people love her. They loved you also, and fairly worship your memory as the saviour of Barsoom. Each year that brings its anniversary of the day that saw you racing across a near-dead world to unlock the secret of that awful portal behind which lay the mighty power of life for countless millions, a great festival is held in your honour. But there are tears mingled with the thanksgiving, tears of real regret that the author of the happiness is not with them to share the joy of living he died to give them.  I asked. The people of Helium asked that I be named with my father's name, but my mother said no, that you and she had chosen a name for me together, and that your wish must be honoured before all others, so the name that she called me is the one that you desired, a combination of hers and yours, Carthoris.' Sodar had been at the wheel as I talked with my son, and now he called me. She is dropping badly by the head, John Carter, he said, so long as we are rising at a stiff angle it was not noticeable, but now that I am trying to keep a horizontal course it is different. The wound in her bow has opened one of her forward ray tanks. It was true, and after I had examined the damage I found it a much graver matter than I had anticipated. Not only was the forest angle at which we were compelled to maintain the bow in order to keep a horizontal course greatly impeding our speed, but at the rate that we were losing our repulsive rays from the forward tanks it was but a question of an hour or more when we would be floating stern up and helpless. We had slightly reduced our speed with the dawning of a sense of security, but now I took the helm once more and pulled a noble little engine wide open, so that again we raced north at terrific velocity. In the meantime, Carthoris and Sodar, with tools in hand, were puttering with the great rent in the bow in a hopeless endeavour to stem the tide of escaping rays. It was still dark when we passed the northern boundary of the ice-cap and the area of clouds. Below us lay a typical Martian landscape, rolling ochre sea-bottom of long dead seas, low surrounding hills, with here and there the grim and silent cities of the dead past. Great piles of mighty architecture tended only by age-old memories of a once-powerful race, and by the great white apes of Barsoom. It was becoming more and more difficult to maintain our little vessel in a horizontal position. Lower and lower sagged the bow until it became necessary to stop the engine to prevent our flight terminating in a swift dive to the ground. As the sun rose and the light of a new day swept away the darkness of night our craft gave a final spasmodic plunge, turned half upon her side and then, with the deck tilting at a sickening angle, swung in a slow circle, her bow dropping further below her stern each moment. To handrail and stanchion we clung, and finally, as we saw the end approaching, snapped the buckles of our harness to the rings at her sides. In another moment the deck reared at an angle of ninety degrees, and we hung in our leather with feet dangling a thousand yards above the ground. I was swinging quite close to the controlling devices, so I reached out to the lever that directed the rays of repulsion. The boat responded to the touch, and very gently we began to sink toward the ground. It was fully half an hour before we touched. Directly north of us rose a rather lofty range of hills, toward which we decided to make our way, since they afforded greater opportunity for concealment from the pursuers we were confident might stumble in this direction. An hour later found us in the time-rounded gullies of the hills, amid the beautiful flowering plants that abound in the arid waste places of Barsoom. There we found numbers of huge milk-giving shrubs, that strange plant which serves in great part as food and drink for the wild hordes of green men. It was indeed a boon to us, for we all were nearly famished. Beneath a cluster of these which afforded a perfect concealment from wandering airscouts, we lay down to sleep, for me the first time in many hours. This was the beginning of my fifth day upon Barsoom since I had found myself suddenly translated from my cottage on the Hudson to door the valley beautiful the valley hideous. In all this time I had slept but twice, though once the clock around within the storehouse of the therns. It was mid-afternoon when I was awakened by someone seizing my hand and covering it with kisses. With a start I opened my eyes to look into the beautiful face of Thuvia. "'My prince, my prince!' she cried in an ecstasy of happiness. "'Tis you whom I had mourned as dead. My ancestors have been good to me. I have not lived in vain.'" The girl's voice awoke Zodar and Carthoris. The boy gazed upon the woman in surprise, but she did not seem to realize the presence of another than I. She would have thrown her arms about my neck and smothered me with caresses, had I not gently but firmly disengaged myself. "'Come, come, Thuvia,' I said soothingly. You are overwrought by the danger and hardships you have passed through. You forget yourself, as you forget that I am the husband of the princess of Helium.' "'I forget nothing, my prince,' she replied. You have spoken no word of love to me, nor do I expect that you ever shall. But nothing can prevent me loving you. I would not take the place of Deja Thoris. My greatest ambition is to serve you, my prince, forever as your slave. No greater boon could I ask. No greater honor could I crave. No greater happiness could I hope.'" As I have before said, I am no ladies' man, and I must admit that I seldom have felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed as I did that moment. While I was quite familiar with the Martian custom, which allows female slaves to Martian men, whose high and chivalrous honor is always ample protection for every woman in his household, yet I had never myself chosen other than men as my body servants. And I ever returned to Helium, Thuvia, I said, you shall go with me, but as an honored equal and not as a slave. There you shall find plenty of handsome young nobles who would face Isis herself to win a smile from you, and we shall have you married in short order to one of the best of them. Forget your foolish gratitude, begotten infatuation which your innocence has mistaken for love. I like your friendship better, Thuvia. You are my master, it shall be as you say," she replied simply, but there was a note of sadness in her voice. How came you here, Thuvia? I asked, and where is Tars Tarkas? The great dark I fear is dead," she replied sadly. He was a mighty fighter, but a multitude of green warriors of another horde than his overwhelmed him. The last that I saw of him they were bearing him, wounded and bleeding, to the deserted city from which they had sallied to attack us.  It is just beyond this range of hills, the vessel in which you so nobly resigned a place that we might find escape defied our small skill in navigation, with the result that we drifted aimlessly about for two days. Then we decided to abandon the craft and attempt to make our way on foot to the nearest waterway. Yesterday we crossed these hills and came upon the dead city beyond. We had passed within its streets and were walking toward the central portion, when, at an intersecting avenue, we saw a body of green warriors approaching. Tars Tarkas was in advance, and they saw him, but me they did not see. The thark sprang back to my side and forced me into an adjacent doorway, where he told me to remain in hiding until I could escape, making my way to Helium, if possible. There will be no escape for me now, he said, for these be the Warhoon of the South. When they have seen my metal, it will be to the death. Then he stepped out to meet them. Ah, my Prince, such fighting! For an hour they swarmed about him, until the Warhoon dead formed a hill where he had stood. But at last they overwhelmed him, those behind pushing the foremost upon him, until there remained no space to swing his great sword. Then he stumbled and went down, and they rolled over him like a huge wave. When they carried him away toward the heart of the city, he was dead, I think, for I did not see him move. Before we go farther we must be sure, I said. I cannot leave Tars Tarkas alive among the Warhoon's. Tonight I shall enter the city and make sure. And I shall go with you, spoke Carthoris. And I, said Sodar. Neither one of you shall go, I replied. It is work that requires stealth and strategy, not force. One man alone may succeed, or more would invite disaster. I shall go alone. If I need your help I will return for you. They did not like it, but both were good soldiers, and it had been agreed that I should command. The sun already was low, so that I did not have long to wait before the sudden darkness of Barsoom engulfed us. With a parting word of instructions to Carthoris and Zodar in case I should not return, I bade them all farewell and set forth at a rapid dog-trot toward the city. As I emerged from the hills, the nearer moon was winging its wild flight through the heavens, its bright beams turning to burnished silver the barbaric splendor of the ancient metropolis. The city had been built upon the gently rolling foothills that in the dim and distant past had sloped down to meet the sea. It was due to this fact that I had no difficulty in entering the streets unobserved. The green hordes that use these deserted cities seldom occupy more than a few squares about the Central Plaza, and as they come and go, always across the dead sea bottoms that the cities face, it is usually a matter of comparative ease to enter from the hillside. Once within the streets I kept close in the dense shadows of the walls. At intersections I halted a moment to make sure that none was in sight before I sprang quickly to the shadows of the opposite side. Thus I made the journey to the vicinity of the Plaza without detection. As I approached the perlius of the inhabited portion of the city, I was made aware of the proximity of the warrior's quarters by the squealing and grunting of the thoats and zittatars corralled within the hollow courtyards formed by the buildings surrounding each square. These old familiar sounds that are so distinctive of green Martian life sent a thrill of pleasure surging through me. It was as one might feel on coming home after a long absence. It was amid such sounds that I at first courted the incomparable Dejah Thoris in the age-old marble halls of the dead city of Korad. As I stood in the shadows at the far corner of the first square which housed members of the horde, I saw warriors emerging from several of the buildings. They all went in the same direction, toward a great building which stood in the center of the Plaza. My knowledge of green Martian customs convinced me that this was either the quarters of the principal chieftain, or contain the audience chamber wherein the jeddak met his jeds and lesser chieftains. In either event it was evident that something was afoot which might have a bearing on the recent capture of Thar's Tarkas. To reach this building, which I now felt it imperative that I do, I must needs traverse the entire length of one square and cross a broad avenue and a portion of the Plaza. From the noises of the animals which came from every courtyard about me, I knew that there were many people in the surrounding buildings, probably several communities of the great horde of the war-hoons of the south. To pass undetected among all these people was in itself a difficult task, but if I was to find and rescue the great Thark, I must expect even more formidable obstacles before success could be mine. I had entered the city from the south, and now stood on the corner of the avenue through which I had passed, and the first intersecting avenue south of the Plaza. The buildings upon the south side of this square did not appear to be inhabited, as I could see no lights, and so I decided to gain the inner courtyard through one of them. Nothing occurred to interrupt my progress through the deserted pile I chose, and I came into the inner court close to the rear walls of the east buildings without detection. Within the court a great herd of thoats and zitadars moved restlessly about, cropping the moss-like ochre vegetation which overgrows practically the entire uncultivated area of Mars. What breeze there was came from the northwest, so there was little danger that the beasts would sent me. Had they, their squealing and grunting would have grown to such a volume as to attract the attention of the warriors within the buildings. Close to the east wall, beneath the overhanging balconies of the second floors, I crept in dense shadows the full length of the courtyard, until I came to the buildings at the north end. These were lighted for about three floors up, but above the third floor all was dark. To pass through the lighted rooms was, of course, out of the question, since they swarmed with green Martian men and women. My only path lay through the upper floors, and to gain these it was necessary to scale the face of the wall. The reaching of the balcony of the second floor was a matter of easy accomplishment, and agile leap gave my hands a grasp upon the stone handrail above. In another instant I had drawn myself upon the balcony. Here, through the open windows, I saw the green folks squatting upon their sleeping silks and furs, grunting an occasional monosyllable, which, in connection with their wondrous telepathic powers, is ample for their conversational requirements. As I drew closer to listen to their words, a warrior entered the room from the hall beyond. "'Come, Tan Gama!' he cried. "'We ought to take the talk before Kab Kaja. Bring another with you!' The warrior addressed a rose, and beckoning to a fellow squatting near, the three turned and left the apartment. If I could but follow them the chance might come to free Tars Tarkas at once. At least I would learn the location of his prison.' At my right was a door leading from the balcony into the building. It was at the end of an unlighted hall, and on the impulse of the moment I stepped within. The hall was broad and led straight through to the front of the building. On either side were the doorways of the various apartments which lined it. I had no more than entered the corridor than I saw the three warriors at the other end, those whom I had just seen leaving the apartment. Then a turn to the right took them from my side again. Quickly I hastened along the hallway in pursuit. My gate was reckless, but I felt that fate had been kind indeed to throw such an opportunity within my grasp, and I could not afford to allow it to elude me now. At the far end of the corridor I found a spiral stairway leading to the floors above and below. The three had evidently left the floor by this avenue. That they had gone down and not up I was sure from my knowledge of these ancient buildings and the methods of the warhounds. I myself had once been a prisoner of the cruel hordes of the northern warhound, and the memory of the underground dungeon in which I lay still is vivid in my memory. And so I felt certain that Tar's Tarkas lay in the dark pits beneath some nearby building, and that in that direction I should find the trail of the three warriors leading to his cell. Nor was I wrong. At the bottom of the runway, or rather at the landing on the floor below, I saw that the shaft descended into the pits beneath, and as I glanced down the flickering light of a torch revealed the presence of the three I was trailing. Down they went toward the pits beneath the structure, and at a safe distance behind I followed the flicker of their torch. The way led through a maze of torturous corridors, unlighted save for the wavering light they carried. We had gone perhaps a hundred yards when the party turned abruptly through a doorway at their right. I hastened on as rapidly as I dared through the darkness until I reached the point at which they had left the corridor. There, through an open door, I saw them removing the chains that secured the great Tark Tar's Tarkas to the wall. Hustling him roughly between them they came immediately from the chamber, so quickly in fact that I was near to being apprehended. But I managed to run along the corridor in the direction I had been going in my pursuit of them, far enough to be within the radius of their meager light as they emerged from the cell. I had naturally assumed that they would return with Tar's Tarkas the same way that they had come, which would carry them away from me, but to my chagrin they wheeled directly in my direction as they left the room. There was nothing for me but to hasten on in advance and keep out of the light of their torch. I dared not attempt to halt in the darkness of any of the many intersecting corridors, for I knew nothing of the direction they might take. Chance was as likely as not to carry me into the very corridor they might choose to enter. The sensation of moving rapidly through these dark passages was far from reassuring. I knew not at what moment I might plunge headlong into some terrible pit, or meet with some of the ghoulish creatures that inhabit these lower worlds beneath the dead cities of dying Mars. They're filtered to me a faint radiance from the torch of the men behind, just enough to permit me to trace the direction of the winding passageways directly before me, and so keep me from dashing myself against the walls at the turns. Presently I came to a place where five corridors diverged from a common point. I had hastened along one of them for some little distance, and suddenly the faint light of the torch disappeared from behind me. I paused to listen for sounds of the party behind me, but the silence was as utter as the silence of a tomb. Quickly I realized that the warriors had taken one of the other corridors with their prisoner, and so I hastened back with a feeling of considerable relief to take up a much safer and more desirable position behind them. It was much slower work returning, however, than it had been coming, for now the darkness was as utter as the silence. It was necessary to feel every foot of the way back with my hand against the sidewall, that I might not pass the spot where the five roads radiated. After what seemed an eternity to me I reached the place and recognized it by groping across the entrances to the several corridors until I had counted five of them. In not one, however, showed the faintest sign of light. I listened intently, but the naked feet of the green men sent back no guiding echoes, though presently I thought I detected the clank of sidearms in the far distance of the middle corridor. Up this then I hastened, searching for the light and stopping to listen occasionally for a repetition of the sound, but soon I was forced to admit that I must have been following a blind lead, as only darkness and silence rewarded my efforts. Then I retraced my steps toward the parting of the ways. When to my surprise I came upon the entrance to three diverging corridors, any one of which I might have traversed in my hasty dash after the false clue I had been following. Here was a pretty fix indeed. Once back at the point where the five passageways met I might wait with some assurance for the return of the warriors with Tars Tarkas. My knowledge of their customs let color to the belief that he was but being escorted to the audience chamber to have sentence passed upon him. I had not the slightest doubt but that they would preserve so doubty a warrior as the great Tark for the rare sport he would furnish at the great games. But unless I could find my way back to that point the chances were most excellent that I would wander for days through the awful blackness, until, overcome by thirst and hunger, I lay down to die, or—what was that? A faint shuffling sounded behind me. And as I cast a hasty glance over my shoulder my blood froze in my veins for the thing I saw there. It was not so much fear of the present danger. As it was the horrifying memories it recalled of that time I near went mad over the corpse of the man I had killed in the dungeons of the Warhounds. When blazing eyes came out of the dark recesses and dragged the thing that had been a man from my clutches, and I heard it scraping over the stone of my prison as they bore it away to their terrible feast. And now in these black pits of the other Warhounds I looked into those same fiery eyes, blazing at me through the terrible darkness, revealing no sign of the beast behind them. I think that the most fearsome attribute of these awesome creatures is their silence, and the fact that one never sees them. Nothing but those baleful eyes glaring unblinkingly out of the dark void behind. Grasping my lungs were tightly in my hand I backed slowly along the corridor away from the thing that watched me. But ever as I retreated the eyes advanced, nor was there any sound, not even the sound of breathing, except the occasional shuffling sound as of the dragging of a dead limb that had first attracted my attention. On and on I went, but I could not escape my sinister pursuer. Suddenly I heard the shuffling noise at my right, and looking saw another pair of eyes, evidently approaching from an intersecting corridor. As I started to renew my slow retreat I heard the noise repeated behind me, and then before I could turn I heard it again at my left. The things were all about me. They had me surrounded at the intersection of two corridors. Retreat was cut off in all directions, unless I chose to charge one of the beasts. Even then I had no doubt but that the others would hurl themselves upon my back. I could not even guess the size or nature of the weird creatures. That they were of goodly proportions I guessed from the fact that the eyes were on a level with my own. Why is it that darkness so magnifies our dangers? By day I would have charged the great bath itself, had I thought it necessary, but hemmed in by the darkness of these silent pits I hesitated before a pair of eyes. Soon I saw that the matter shortly would be taken entirely from my hands, for the eyes at my right were moving slowly nearer me, as were those at my left and those behind and before me. Gradually they were closing in upon me, but still that awful stealthy silence. For what seemed ours the eyes approached gradually closer and closer, until I felt that I should go mad for the horror of it. I had been constantly turning this way and that to prevent any sudden rush from behind until I was fairly worn out. At length I could endure it no longer, and, taking a fresh grasp upon my longsword, I turned suddenly and charged down upon one of my tormentors. As I was almost upon it the thing retreated before me, but a sound from behind caused me to wheel in time to see three pairs of eyes rushing at me from the rear. With a cry of rage I turned to meet the cowardly beasts, but as I advanced they retreated as had their fellow. Another glance over my shoulder discovered the first eyes sneaking on me again. And again I charged, only to see the eyes retreat before me and hear the muffled rush of the three at my back. Thus we continued, the eyes always a little closer in the end than they had been before, until I thought that I should go mad with the terrible strain of the ordeal. That they were waiting to spring upon my back seemed evident, and that it would not be long before they succeeded was equally apparent, for I could not endure the wear of this repeated charge and counter-charge indefinitely. In fact I could feel myself weakening from the mental and physical strain I had been undergoing. At that moment I caught another glimpse from the corner of my eye of the single pair of eyes at my back making a sudden rush upon me. I turned to meet the charge. There was a quick rush of the three from the other direction, but I determined to pursue the single pair until I should have at least settled my account with one of the beasts and thus be relieved of the strain of meeting attacks from both directions. There was no sound in the corridor, only that of my own breathing, yet I knew that those three uncanny creatures were almost upon me. The eyes in front were not retreating so rapidly now. I was almost within sword reach of them. I raised my sword arm to deal the blow that should free me, and then I felt a heavy body upon my back. A cold, moist, slimy something fastened itself upon my throat. I stumbled and went down. Chapter 15 of the Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gods of Mars. Chapter 15. 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, I breathed a sigh of relief. I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party was the saint 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 Tark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained without, while the man with the keys entered with the Tark to fasten his irons upon him once more. The two outside started to stroll slowly in the direction of a 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's 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 disliked 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 medal 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, Tangama?' cried one of the men. "'I had troubled with a lock,' replied Tars Tarkas, and now I find that I have left my shortsword in the thark's cell.  I'll return and fetch it.' "'As you will, Tangama,' 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 half way 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 leading into the room in which I had seen Tan Gamma 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 Gamma?' asked one. He certainly could not be all this time fetching his short-sword from the Tark cell,' spoke another. "'His short-sword?' asked a woman. "'What mean you?' "'Tan Gamma left his short-sword in the Tark cell,' explained the first speaker, and left us at the runway to return and get it. "'Tan Gamma wore no short-sword this night,' said the woman. "'It was broken in today's battle with the Tark, and Tan Gamma gave it to me to repair. See, I have it here.' And as she spoke, she drew Tan Gamma'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 Gamma left us at the runway,' said another. "'Be thought, 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 Gamma at the cell door and seen in the torch's light the expression of utter bewilderment upon the great Tark's face. By this time, he had said, I should have learned to wander at nothing which John Cotta 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.  And now, among the inhabitants of two worlds, I counted none a better friend than Taurus Tarkas, Jeddak of the Tark's. 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, Taurus Tarkas, I said, Buvia, Zodar, 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 Omin and the land of the firstborn. I know not of these places, John Cata. 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 roused 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-collar 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, meets 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 a rain 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 through 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 perlius of the dead city and came to our camp without hearing even the faintest sound of pursuit. Here a low whistle, the pre-arranged 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 Cthorus exchanged the dignified and formal greetings common upon Barsoom, but I could tell intuitively that the Thark loved my boy and that Cthorus reciprocated his affection. Zodar and the Green Jet-Act were formally presented to each other. When Thuvia was lifted to the least fractious thought, Zodar and Cthorus 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 war-hoons 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 ogre 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. A rise, 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 animals 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 throat 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 colors, different races, different religions, and one of us was of a different world. We were quite close to the hills, but the warhounds 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.  For thy sake, O 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 lightning the burden of my mount it might thus be enabled to bear me to the safety of the hills. Lord child, she should have known John Carter better than that. Turning my thought, 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 taking 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 rested from us our last frail chance for escape. The war-hoons were now close upon us. Tars Tarkas and Zodar 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 rid 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 to 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 war-hoons 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 Zodar ranged themselves on either hand, turning their thots loose that we might all be on equal footing. The war-hoons 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 thots 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, 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 been before 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. The bow-gun spoke again, even as we looked, and another shell burst among the fleeing war-hoons. As she drew nearer I could not repress a wild cry of elation, for upon her bows I saw the device of Helium. End of Chapter 15 CHAPTER 16 OF THE GODS OF MARS by EDGAR RICE BURROWS Now a score of one-man air-scouts were launching from the upper decks of the nearer vessel, and in a moment more were speeding in long swift dives to the ground about us. In another instant we were surrounded by armed sailors, and an officer had stepped forward to address us, when his eyes fell upon Carthoris. With an exclamation of surprised pleasure he sprang forward, and placing his hands upon the boy's shoulder called him by name. Carthoris, my prince!" he cried. K.O.R., K.O.R., Horvastus greets the son of Dejah Thoris, princess of Helium, and of her husband, John Carter. Where have you been, O my prince? All Helium has been plunged in sorrow. Terrible have been the calamities that have befallen your great grand sire's mighty nation since the fatal day that saw you leave our midst. Grieve not, my good Horvastus! cried Carthoris, since I bring not back myself alone to cheer my mother's heart and the hearts of my beloved people, but also one whom all bar soon loved best, her greatest warrior and her saviour, John Carter, princess of Helium. Horvastus turned in the direction indicated by Carthoris, and as his eyes fell upon me he was like to have collapsed from sheer surprise. John Carter, he exclaimed, and then a sudden troubled look came into his eyes. My prince, he started, where hast thou? And then he stopped, but I knew the question that his lips dared not frame. The loyal fellow would not be the one to force from mine a confession of the terrible truth that I return from the bosom of the Iss, the river of mystery, back from the shore of the lost sea of Chorus and the valley door. Ah, my prince, he continued, as though no thought had interrupted his greeting, that you are back as sufficient, and let Horvastus' sword have the high honour of being first at thy feet. With these words the noble fellow unbuckled his scabbard and flung his sword upon the ground before me. Could you know the customs and the character of Red Martians, you would appreciate the depth of meaning that that simple act conveyed to me and to all about us who witnessed it.  Until death and after death I look to you alone for authority for my every act. Be you right or wrong, your word shall be my only truth. Whoso raises his hand against you must answer to my sword. It is the oath of fealty that men occasionally pay to a jeddak whose high character and chivalrous acts have inspired the enthusiastic love of his followers. Never had I known this high tribute pay to a lesser mortal. There was but one response possible. I stooped and lifted the sword from the ground, raised the hill to my lips, and then, stepping to Horvastus, I buckled the weapon upon him with my own hands. Horvastus, I said, placing my hand upon his shoulder, you know best the promptings of your own heart. That I shall need your sword, I have little doubt. But except from John Carter, upon this sacred honour, the assurance that he will never call upon you to draw this sword other than in the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness.  As we spoke, other fliers came and went between the ground and the battleship, and presently a larger boat was launched from above, one capable of carrying a dozen persons perhaps, and dropped lightly near us. As she touched, an officer sprang from her deck to the ground, and advancing to Horvastus saluted. Kantos Kan desires that this party whom we have rescued be brought immediately to the deck of the Zavarian, he said. As we approached the little craft, I looked about for members of my party, and for the first time noticed that Thuvia was not among them. Questioning elicited the fact that none had seen her since Carthoris had sent her throat galloping madly toward the hills, in the hope of carrying her out of harm's way. Immediately Horvastus dispatched a dozen air scouts in as many directions to search for her. It could not be possible that she had gone far since we had last seen her. We others stepped to the deck of the craft that had been sent to Fetchus, and a moment later were upon the Zavarian. The first man to greet me was Kantos Kan himself. My old friend had won to the highest place in the Navy of Helium, but he was still to me the same brave comrade who had shared with me the privations of a war-hoon dungeon, the terrible atrocities of the great games, and later the dangers of our search for Dejah Thoris within the hostile city of Zodanga. Then I had been an unknown wanderer upon a strange planet, and he a simple padwar in the Navy of Helium. Today he commanded all Helium's great terrors of the skies, and I was a prince of the house of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium. He did not ask me where I had been. Like Horvastus, he too dreaded the truth, and would not be the one to rest a statement from me. That it must come some time heen well new, but until it came he seemed satisfied to but know that I was with him once more. He greeted Carthoris and Tars Tarkas with a keenest delight, but he asked neither where he had been. He could scarcely keep his hands off the boy. You do not know, John Carter, he said to me, how we of Helium love this son of yours. It is as though all the great love we bore his noble father and his poor mother had been centred in him. When it became known that he was lost, ten million people wept. What menial cantos can, I whispered, by his poor mother, for the words had seemed to carry a sinister meaning which I could not fathom. He drew me to one side. For a year, he said, ever since Carthoris disappeared, Dejah Thoris has grieved and mourned for her lost boy. The blow of years ago, when you did not return from the atmosphere plant, was lessened to some extent by the duties of motherhood, for your son broke his white shell that very night. But she suffered terribly then, all Helium knew, for did not all Helium suffer with her the loss of her lord. But with the boy gone there was nothing left, and after expedition upon expedition, returned with the same hopeless tale of no clue as to his whereabouts, our beloved princess drooped lower and lower, until all who saw her felt that it could be but a matter of days ere she went to join her loved ones within the precincts of the valley door. As a last resort, Morse Kajak, her father, and Tardos Morse, her grandfather, took command of two mighty expeditions, and a month ago sailed away to explore every inch of ground in the northern hemisphere of Barsoom. For two weeks no word has come back from them, but rumors were rife that they had met with a terrible disaster and that all were dead. About this time Zat Arras renewed his importunities for her hand in marriage. He has been for ever after her since you disappeared. She hated him and feared him. But with both her father and grandfather gone, Zat Arras was very powerful, for he's still jet of Zodanga, to which position, you will remember, Tardos Morse appointed him after you had refused the honor. He had a secret audience with her six days ago. What took place, none knows. But the next day Dejah Thoris had disappeared, and with her had gone a dozen of her household guard and body servants, including Sola the Green Woman, Tars Tarkas' daughter, you recall. No word left they of their intentions, but it is always thus with those who go upon the voluntary pilgrimage from which none returns. We cannot think ought than that Dejah Thoris has sought the icy bosom of Iss, and that her devoted servants have chosen to accompany her. Zat Arras was at Helium when she disappeared. He commands this fleet which has been searching for her since. No trace of her have we found, and I fear that it be a futile quest. While we talked, Hor's vastus flyers were returning to the Zavarian. Not one, however, had discovered a trace of Thuvia. I was much depressed over the news of Dejah Thoris' disappearance, and now there was added the further burden of apprehension concerning the fate of this girl, whom I believe to be the daughter of some proud Barsoomian house, and it had been my intention to make every effort to return her to her people. I was about to ask Kantos Khan to prosecute a further search for her when a flyer from the flagship of the fleet arrived at the Zavarian with an officer bearing a message to Kantos Khan from Arras. My friend read the dispatch and then turned to me. Zat Arras commands me to bring our prisoners before him. There is not else to do. He is supreme in Helium, yet it would be far more in keeping with chivalry and good taste were he to come hither and greet the saviour of Barsoom with the honours that are his due. You know full well, my friend, I said, smiling, that Zat Arras has good cause to hate me. Nothing would please him better than to humiliate me and then to kill me. Now that he is so excellent an excuse, let us go and see if he has the courage to take advantage of it. How many Carthoris, Tars Tarkas and Sodar, we entered the small flyer with Kantos Khan and Zat Arras' officer, and in a moment we're stepping to the deck of Zat Arras' flagship. As we approached the jet of Zodanga, no sign of greeting or recognition crossed his face. Not even to Carthoris did he vouchsafe a friendly word. His attitude was cold, haughty, and uncompromising. K. O. Zat Arras, I said in greeting, but he did not respond. Why were these prisoners not disarmed, he asked to Kantos Khan. They are not prisoners, Zat Arras, replied the officer. Two of them are of Helium's noblest family. Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, is Tardos Moor's best beloved ally. The other is a friend and companion of the Prince of Helium. That is enough for me to know. It is not enough for me, however, retorted Zat Arras. Moor must I hear from those who have taken the pilgrimage than their names. Where have you been, John Carter? I have just come from the valley door and the land of the firstborn Zat Arras, I replied. Ah! He exclaimed an evident pleasure. You do not deny it, then. You have returned from the bosom of Iss? I have come back from a land of false hope, from a valley of torture and death. With my companions I have escaped from the hideous clutches of lying fiends. I have come back to the barsoom that I saved from a painless death to again save her, but this time from death in its most frightful form. Cease, blasphemer, cried Zat Arras, hope not to save that cowardly Karkas by inventing horrid lies, too. But he got no further. One does not call John Carter coward and liar thus lightly, and Zat Arras should have known it. Before a hand could be raised to stop me, I was at his side and one hand grasped his throat. Come, I, from heaven or hell, Zat Arras, you will find me still the same John Carter that I have always been, nor did ever man call me such names and live, without apologizing.  Cease him, cried Zat Arras, and a dozen officers sprang forward to assist him. Kantos Kan came close and whispered to me, Desist, I beg of you, it will blood involve us all, for I cannot see these men lay hands upon you without aiding you. My officers and men will join me, and we shall have a mutiny then that may lead to the revolution, for the sake of Tardis, Moors, and Helium, desist. At his words I released Zat Arras, and turning my back upon him, walked toward the ship's rail. Come, Kantos Kan, I said, the Prince of Helium would return to the Zavarian. None interfered. Zat Arras stood white and trembling amidst his officers. Some there were who looked upon him with scorn and drew toward me, while one, a man long in the service and confidence of Tardos Moors, spoke to me in a low tone as I passed him. You may count my medal among your fighting men, John Carter, he said. I thanked him and passed on. In silence we embarked, and shortly after stepped once more upon the deck of the Zavarian. Fifteen minutes later we received orders from the flagship to proceed toward Helium. Our journey thither was uneventful. Carthoris and I were wrapped in the gloomiest of thoughts. Kantos Kan was somber in contemplation of the further calamity that might fall upon Helium, should Zat Arras attempt to follow the age-old president that allotted a terrible death to fugitives from the valley door. Tars Tarkas grieved for the loss of his daughter. Zodar alone was carefree. A fugitive and outlaw he could be no worse off in Helium than elsewhere. Let us hope that we may at least go out with a good red blood upon our blades, he said. It was a simple wish and one most likely to be gratified. Among the officers of the Zavarian I thought I could discern division into factions ere we had reached Helium. There were those who gathered about Carthoris and myself whenever the opportunity presented, while about an equal number held a loop from us. They offered us only the most courteous treatment, but were evidently bound by their superstitious belief in the doctrine of door and is and chorus. I could not blame them, for I knew how strong a hold a creed, however ridiculous it may be, may gain upon an otherwise intelligent people. By returning from door we had committed a sacrilege. By recounting our adventures there and stating the facts as they existed we had outraged the religion of their fathers. We were blasphemers, lying heretics. Even those who still clung to us from personal love and loyalty I think did so in the face of the fact that at heart they questioned our veracity. It is very hard to accept a new religion for an old, no matter how alluring the promises of the new may be. But to reject the old as a tissue of falsehoods without being offered anything in its stead is indeed a most difficult thing to ask of any people. Kantos Kan would not talk of our experiences among the therns and the firstborn. It is enough, he said, that I jeopardize my life here and here after by countenancing you at all. Do not ask me to add still further to my sins by listening to what I have always been taught was the rankest heresy. I knew that sooner or later the time must come when our friends and enemies would be forced to declare themselves openly. When we reached Helium there must be an accounting, and if Tardos Morse had not returned I feared that the enmity of Zad Aris might weigh heavily against us, for he represented the government of Helium. To take sides against him were equivalent to treason. The majority of the troops would doubtless follow the lead of their officers, and I knew that many of the highest and most powerful men of both land and air forces would cleave to John Carter in the face of God, man, or devil. On the other hand, the majority of the populace unquestionably would demand that we pay the penalty of our sacrilege. The outlook seemed dark from whatever angle I viewed it, but my mind was so torn with anguish at the thought of Dejah Thoris that I realize now that I gave the terrible question of Helium's plight but scant attention at that time. There was always before me, day and night, a horrible nightmare of the frightful scenes through which I knew my princess might even then be passing. The horrid plant men, the ferocious white apes.  It was in the forenoon that we arrived above the mile-high scarlet tower which marks greater Helium from her twin city. As we descended in great circles toward the navy docks, a mighty multitude could be seen surging in the streets beneath. Helium had been notified by radio aerogram of our approach. From the deck of the Zavarian we four, Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, Zodar, and I, were transferred to a lesser flier to be transported to quarters within the temple of reward. It is here that Martian justice is meted to benefactor and malfactor. Here the hero is decorated, here the felon is condemned. We were taken into the temple from the landing stage upon the roof, so that we did not pass among the people at all, as is customary. Always before I had seen prisoners of note or returned wanderers of eminence, paraded from the gate of Jeddaks to the temple of reward up the broad avenue of ancestors through dense crowds of jeering or cheering citizens. I knew that Zadaris dared not trust the people near to us, for he feared that their love for Carthoris and myself might break into a demonstration which would wipe out their superstitious horror of the crime we were to be charged with. What his plans were I could only guess, but that they were sinister was evidenced by the fact that only his most trusted servitors accompanied us upon the flier to the temple of reward. We were lodged in a room upon the south side of the temple, overlooking the avenue of ancestors, done which we could see the full length to the gate of Jeddaks five miles away. The people in the temple plaza and in the streets for a distance of a full mile were standing as close-packed as it was possible for them to get. They were very orderly. There were neither scoffs nor plaudits, and when they saw us at the window above them, there were many who buried their faces in their arms and wept. Late in the afternoon a messenger arrived from Zadaris to inform us that we would be tried by an impartial body of nobles in the great hall of the temple at the first Zod on the following day, or about 8.40 a.m. Earth time. Footnote. Wherever Captain Carter has used Martian measurements of time, distance, weight, and the like, I have translated them into as nearly their equivalent in earthly values as is possible. His notes contain many Martian tables, and a great volume of scientific data, but since the International Astronomic Society is at present engaged in classifying, investigating, and verifying this vast fund of remarkable and valuable information, I have felt that it will add nothing to the interest of Captain Carter's story or to the sum total of human knowledge to maintain a strict adherence to the original manuscript in these matters, what it might readily confuse the reader and detract from the interest of the story. For those who may be interested, however, I will explain that the Martian day is a trifle over 24 hours 37 minutes duration Earth time. This the Martians divide into ten equal parts, commencing the day at about 6 a.m. Earth time. The Zodes are divided into fifty shorter periods, each of which in turn is composed of two hundred brief periods of time, about equivalent to the earthly second. The Barsoomian table of time as here given is but a part of the full table appearing in Captain Carter's notes. TABLE Two hundred towels, one zat, fifty zats, one zode, ten zodes, one revolution of Mars upon its axis. END OF CHAPTER XVI CHAPTER XVII. OF THE GODS OF MARS. BY EDGAR RICE BURROWS. THIS LIBERVOX RECORDING IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. THE GODS OF MARS. CHAPTER XVII. THE DEATH SENTENCE. A few moments before the appointed time on the following morning a strong guard of Zat Aris officers appeared at our quarters to conduct us to the great hall of the temple. In twos we entered the chamber and marched down the broad Isle of Hope as it is called to the platform in the center of the hall. Before and behind us marched armed guards, while three solid ranks of Zodangan's soldiery lined either side of the Isle from the entrance to the rostrum. As we reached the raised enclosure I saw our judges. As is the custom upon Barsoom there were thirty one, supposedly selected by lot from the men of the noble class, for nobles were on trial. But to my amazement I saw no single friendly face among them. Practically all were Zodangans, and it was I to whom Zodanga owed her defeat at the hands of the green hordes and her subsequent vassalage to Helium. There could be little justice here for John Carter, or his son, or for the great Thark who had commanded the savage tribesmen who overran Zodang as broad avenues, looting, burning, and murdering. About us the vast circular coliseum was packed to its full capacity. All classes were represented, all ages and both sexes. As we entered the hall the home of subdued conversation ceased until, as we halted upon the Platform, or Throne of Righteousness, the silence of death enveloped the ten thousand spectators. The judges were seated in a great circle about the periphery of the circular Platform. We were assigned seats with our backs toward a small Platform in the exact center of the larger one. This placed us facing the judges and the audience. On the smaller Platform each would take his place while his case was being heard. Zat Arras himself sat in the golden chair of the presiding Magistrate. As we were seated and our guards retired to the foot of the stairway leading to the Platform he arose and called my name.  Then turning to and fro toward the audience he narrated the acts upon the value of which my reward was to be determined. "'No you, O judges and people of Helium,' he said. "'That John Carter, one time Prince of Helium, has returned by his own statement from the Valley Door and even from the Temple of Issus itself. That in the presence of many men of Helium he has blasphemed against the sacred Iss, and against the Valley Door and the Lost Sea of Chorus, and the Holy Thorns themselves, and even against Issus, Goddess of Death and of Life Eternal. And know you further, by witness of thine own eyes, that see him here now upon the pedestal of truth that he has indeed returned from these sacred precincts in the face of our ancient customs and in violation of the sanctity of our ancient religion. He who be once dead may not live again. He who attempts it must be made dead for ever.  Here can be no testimony in contravention of truth. What reward shall be meted to John Carter in the accordance with the acts he has committed?' "'Death!' shouted one of the judges. And then a man sprang to his feet in the audience and raising his hand on high cried, "'Justice! Justice! Justice!'  "'What manner of justice be this?' he cried to Zad Arras. The defendant has not been heard, nor has he had an opportunity to call others in his behalf. In the name of the people of Helium I demand fair and impartial treatment for the Prince of Helium.' A great cry arose from the audience then. "'Justice! Justice! Justice!' and Zad Arras dared not deny them. "'Speak, then!' he snarled, turning to me. But blaspheme not against the things that are sacred upon Barsoom. "'Men of Helium!' I cried, turning to the spectators and speaking over the heads of my judges. How can John Carter expect justice from the men of Zodanga? He cannot, nor does he ask it. It is to the men of Helium that he states his case, nor does he appeal for mercy to any. It is not in his own cause that he speaks now, it is in thine. In the cause of your wives and daughters, and of wives and daughters yet unborn, it is to save them from the unthinkably atrocious indignities that I have seen heaped upon the fair women of Barsoom in the place men call the Temple of Isis. It is to save them from the sucking embrace of the plant men, from the fangs of the great white apes of Dor, from the cruel lust of the holy therns, from all that the cold, dead Isis carries them to from homes of love and life and happiness. Sits there no man here who does not know the history of John Carter, how he came among you from another world, and rose from a prisoner among the green men, through torture and persecution, to a place high among the highest of Barsoom. Nor ever did you know John Carter to lie in his own behalf, or to say ought that might harm the people of Barsoom, or to speak lightly of the strange religion which he respected without understanding. There be no man here or elsewhere upon Barsoom today who does not owe his life directly to a single act of mine, in which I sacrificed myself and the happiness of my princess that you might live.  It is to you of Helium that I speak now. When I am done, let the men of Zodanga have their will with me. Zad Arras has taken my sword from me, so the men of Zodanga no longer fear me. Will you listen? I think, John Carter, Prince of Helium, cried a great noble from the audience, and the multitude echoed his permission, until the building rocked with the noise of their demonstration. Zad Arras knew better than to interfere with such a sentiment as was expressed that day in the Temple of Reward, and so for two hours I talked with the people of Helium. But when I had finished, Zad Arras arose and turning to the judges said in a low tone, My nobles, you have heard John Carter's plea. Every opportunity has been given him to prove his innocence, if he be not guilty. But instead he has but utilized the time in further blasphemy. What gentleman is your verdict? Death to the blasphemer, cried one, springing to his feet, and in an instant the entire thirty-one judges were on their feet with upraised swords in token of the unanimity of their verdict. If the people did not hear Zad Arras' charge, they certainly did hear the verdict of the tribunal. A sullen murmur rose louder and louder about the packed Colosseum. And then, Kantos Khan, who had not left the platform since first he had taken his place near me, raised his hand for silence. When he could be heard he spoke to the people in a cool and level voice. You have heard the fate that the men of Zodanga would meet to Helium's noblest hero. It may be the duty of the men of Helium to accept the verdict as final. Let each man act according to his own heart. Here is the answer of Kantos Khan, head of the navy of Helium, to Zad Arras and his judges. And with that he unbuckled his scabbard and threw his sword at my feet. In an instant soldiers and citizens, officers and nobles, were crowding past the soldiers of Zodanga and forcing their way to the throne of righteousness. A hundred men surged upon the platform, and a hundred blades rattled and clanked to the floor at my feet. Zad Arras and his officers were furious, but they were helpless. One by one I raised the swords to my lips and buckled them again upon their owners. Come, said Kantos Khan, we will escort John Carter and his party to his own palace. And they formed about us and started toward the stairs leading to the Isle of Hope. Stop! cried Zad Arras. Soldiers of Helium, let no prisoners leave the throne of righteousness! The soldiers from Zodanga were the only organized body of Heliumetic troops within the temple, so Zad Arras was confident that his orders would be obeyed, but I do not think that he looked for the opposition that was raised the moment the soldiers advanced toward the throne. From every quarter of the Coliseum, swords flashed and men rushed threatening upon the Zodangans. Someone raised a cry. Tardos Moors is dead, a thousand years to John Carter, Jeddak of Helium. As I heard that and saw the ugly attitude of the men of Helium toward the soldiers of Zad Arras, I knew that only a miracle could avert a clash that would end in civil war. Hold! I cried, leaping to the pedestal of truth once more. Let no man move till I am done. A single sword thrust here today may plunge Helium into a bitter and bloody war the results of which none can foresee. It will turn brother against brother and father against son. No man's life is worth that sacrifice. Rather would I submit to the biased judgment of Zad Arras than be the cause of civil strife in Helium. Let us each give in a point to the other and let this entire matter rest until Tardos Moors returns, or Moors Kajak, his son. If neither be back at the end of a year a second trial may be held, the thing has a precedent. And then, turning to Zad Arras, I said in a low voice, unless you be a bigger fool than I take you to be, you will grasp the chance I am offering you ere it is too late. Once that multitude of swords below is drawn against your soldiery, no man upon Barsoom, not even Tardos Moors himself, can avert the consequences. Let's see you, speak quickly. The Jedd of Zodang and Helium raised his voice to the angry sea beneath us. Stay your hands, men of Helium! he shouted, his voice trembling with rage. The sentence of the court is passed, but the day of retribution has not been set. I, Zad Arras, Jedd of Zodang, appreciating the royal connections of the prisoner and his past services to Helium and Barsoom, grant a respite of one year, or until the return of Moors Kajak or Tardos Moors to Helium. Disperse quietly to your houses. Go! No one moved. They stood in tense silence with their faces fastened upon me, as though waiting for a signal to attack. Clear the temple, commanded Zad Arras in a low tone to one of his officers. Fearing the result of an attempt to carry out this order by force, I stepped to the edge of the platform and, pointing toward the main entrance, bid them pass out. As one man they turned at my request and filed, silent and threatening, passed the soldiers of Zad Arras, Jedd of Zodanga, who stood scowling in impotent rage. Kantos Kan, with the others who had sworn allegiance to me, still stood upon the throne of righteousness with me. Come, said Kantos Kan to me, we will escort you to your palace, my prince. Come, Carthoris and Zodar, come, Taras Tarkas! And with a haughty sneer for Zad Arras upon his handsome lips, he turned and strode to the throne steps and up the Isle of Hope. We four and the hundred loyal ones followed behind him. Nor was a hand raised to stay us, though glowering eyes followed our triumphal march through the temple. In the avenues we found oppressive people, but they opened a pathway for us, and many were the swords that were flung at my feet as I passed through the city of Helium toward my palace upon the outskirts. Here my old slaves fell upon their knees and kissed my hands as I greeted them. They cared not where I had been, it was enough that I had returned to them. Ah, master, cried one, if our divine princess were but here, this would be a day indeed! Tears came to my eyes so that I was forced to turn away that I might hide my emotions. Carthoris wept openly as the slaves pressed about him with expressions of affection and words of sorrow for our common loss. It was now that Tars Tarkas for the first time learned that his daughter, Sola, had accompanied Dejah Thoris upon the last long pilgrimage. I had not the heart to tell him what Kantos Kan had told me. With the stoicism of the Green Martian he showed no sign of suffering, yet I knew that his grief was as poignant as my own. In marked contrast to his kind he had in well-developed form the kindier human characteristics of love, friendship and charity. It was a sad and somber party that sat at the feast of welcome in the great dining-hall of the palace of the Prince of Helium that day. We were over a hundred strong, not counting the members of my little court, for Dejah Thoris and I had maintained a household consistent with our royal rank. The board, according to Red Martian custom, was triangular, for there were three in our family. Carthoris and I presided in the center of our sides of the table. Midway of the third side Dejah Thoris' high-backed carven chair stood vacant except for her gorgeous wedding trappings and jewels which were draped upon it. Behind stood a slave, as in the days when his mistress had occupied her place at the board, ready to do her bidding. It was the way upon Barsoom, so I endured the anguish of it. So it rung my heart to see that silent chair, where should have been my laughing and vivacious princess keeping the great hall ringing with her merry gaiety. At my right sat Cantos Can, while to the right of Dejah Thoris' empty place Tars Tarkas sat in a huge chair before a raised section of the board which years ago I had had constructed to meet the requirements of his mighty bulk. The place of honor at a Martian board is always at the hostess's right, and this place was ever reserved by Dejah Thoris for the great Thark upon the occasions that he was in Helium. Horvastus sat in the seat of honor upon Carthoris' side of the table. There was little general conversation. It was a quiet and saddened party. The loss of Dejah Thoris was still fresh in the minds of all, and to this was added fear for the safety of Tartos Morse and Morse Kajak, as well as doubt and uncertainty as to the fate of Helium, should it prove true that she was permanently deprived of her great jeddak. Suddenly our attention was attracted by the sound of distant shouting, as of many people raising their voices at once, but whether in anger or rejoicing we could not tell. Nearer and nearer came the tumult. A slave rushed into the dining-hall to cry that a great concourse of people was swarming through the palace gates. A second burst upon the heels of the first, alternately laughing and shrieking as a madman. "'Dejah Thoris is found!' he cried. "'A messenger from Dejah Thoris!' I waited to hear no more. The great windows of the dining-hall overlooked the avenue leading to the main gates. They were upon the opposite side of the hall from me in the table intervening. I did not waste time in circling the great board. With a single leap I cleared table and diners and sprang upon the balcony beyond. Thirty feet below lay the scarlet sward of the lawn and beyond where many people crowding about a great throat which bore a rider headed toward the palace. I vaulted to the ground below and ran swiftly toward the advancing party. As I came near to them I saw that the figure on the thought was sola. "'Where is the Princess of Helium?' I cried. The green girl slid from her mighty mount and ran toward me. "'Oh, my prince, my prince!' she cried. She is gone for ever. Even now she may be a captive upon the lesser moon. The black pirates of Barsoom have stolen her!' End of Chapter 17 CHAPTER 18 OF THE GODS OF MARS by EDGAR RICE BURROS CHAPTER 18 Sola's Story Once within the palace I drew Sola to the dining-hall, and when she had greeted her father after the formal manner of the green men she told the story of the pilgrimage and capture of Dejah Thoris. Seven days ago, after her audience with Zad Arras, Dejah Thoris attempted to slip from the palace in the dead of night. Although I had not heard the outcome of her interview with Zad Arras, I knew that something had occurred then to cause her the keenest mental agony, and when I discovered her creeping from the palace I did not need to be told her destination. Hastily, arousing a dozen of her most faithful gods, I explained my fears to them, and as one they enlisted with me to follow our beloved princess in her wanderings, even to the sacred iss and the valley door. We came upon her but a short distance from the palace. With her was faithful Wula the hound, but none other. When we overtook her she feigned anger and ordered us back to the palace, but for once we disobeyed her, and when she found that we would not let her go upon the last long pilgrimage alone she wept and embraced us, and together we went out into the night toward the south. The following day we came upon a herd of small thoats, and thereafter we were mounted and made good time. We traveled very fast and very far due south, until the morning of the fifth day we sighted a great fleet of battleship sailing north. They saw us before we could seek shelter, and soon we were surrounded by a horde of black men. The princess's guard fought nobly to the end, but they were soon overcome and slain. Only Dejah Thoris and I were spared. When she realized that she was in the clutches of the black pirates she attempted to take her own life, but one of the blacks tore her dagger from her, and then they bound us both so that we could not use our hands. The fleet continued north after capturing us. There were about twenty large battleships in all, besides a number of small swift cruisers. That evening one of the smaller cruisers that had been far in advance of the fleet returned with a prisoner, a young red woman whom they had picked up in a range of hills under the very noses, they said, of a fleet of three red Martian battleships. From scraps of conversation which we overheard it was evident that the black pirates were searching for a party of fugitives that had escaped from them several days prior. That they considered the capture of the young woman important was evident from the long and earnest interview the commander of the fleet held with her when she was brought to him. Later she was bound and placed in the compartment with Dejah Thoris and myself. The new captive was a very beautiful girl. She told Dejah Thoris that many years ago she had taken the voluntary pilgrimage from the court of her father, the jeddak of Ptarth. She was Tuvia, the princess of Ptarth. And then she asked Dejah Thoris who she might be, and when she heard she fell upon her knees and kissed Dejah Thoris' fettered hands, and told her that that very morning she had been with John Carter, princess of Helium, and Carthoris her son. Dejah Thoris could not believe her at first, but finally when the girl had narrated all the strange adventures that had befallen her since she had met John Carter, and told her of the things John Carter and Carthoris and Zodar had narrated of their adventures in the land of the firstborn, Dejah Thoris knew that it could be none other than the Prince of Helium. Far who, she said, upon all Barsoom other than John Carter, could have done the deeds you tell of. And then Tuvia told Dejah Thoris of her love for John Carter, and his loyalty and devotion to the princess of his choice. Dejah Thoris broke down and wept. Cursing Zat Aris and the cruel fate that had driven her from Helium but a few brief days before the return of her beloved Lord. I do not blame you for loving him, Tuvia, she said, and that your affection for him is pure and sincere I can well believe from the candor of your avowal of it to me. The fleet continued north nearly to Helium, but last night they evidently realized that John Carter had indeed escaped them, and so they turned toward the south once more. Shortly thereafter a guard entered our compartment and dragged me through the deck. There is no place in the land of the first bond for a green one, he said, and with that he gave me a terrific shove that carried me toppling from the deck of the battleship. Evidently this seemed to him the easiest way of ridding the vessel of my presence and killing me at the same time. But a kind fate intervened, and by a miracle I escaped with but slight bruises. The ship was moving slowly at the time, and as I lunged overboard into the darkness beneath I shuddered at the awful plunge I thought awaited me, for all day the fleet had sailed thousands of feet above the ground. But to my utter surprise I struck upon a soft mass of vegetation not twenty feet from the deck of the ship. In fact the keel of the vessel must have been grazing the surface of the ground at the time. I lay all night where I had fallen, and next morning brought an explanation of the fortunate coincidence that had saved me from a terrible death. As the sun rose I saw a vast panorama of sea-bottom and distant hills lying far below me. I was upon the highest peak of a lofty range. The fleet in the darkness of the preceding night had barely grazed the crest of the hills, and in the brief span that they hovered close to the surface the black guard had pitched me, as he supposed, to my death. A few miles west to me was a great waterway. When I reached it I found to my delight that it belonged to Hedium. Here a thought was procured for me. The rest you know. For many minutes none spoke, Dejah Thoris in the clutches of the firstborn. I shuddered at the thought, but of a sudden the old fire of unconquerable self-confidence surged through me. I sprang to my feet, and with back-thrown shoulders an upraised sword took a solemn vow to reach, rescue, and revenge my princess. A hundred swords leapt from a hundred scabbards, and a hundred fighting-men sprang to the tabletop and pledged me their lives and fortunes to the expedition. Already my plans were formulated. I thanked each loyal friend, and, leaving Carthoris to entertain them, withdrew to my own audience chamber with Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Zodar, and Horvastus. Here we discussed the details of our expedition until long after dark. Zodar was positive that Issus would choose both Dejah Thoris and Thuvia to serve her for a year. For that length of time at least they will be comparatively safe, he said, and we will at least know what to look for them. In the matter of equipping a fleet to Endromine the details were left to Kantos Kan and Zodar. The former agreed to take such vessels as we required into dock as rapidly as possible, where Zodar would direct their equipment with water propellers. For many years the Black had been in charge of the refitting of captured battleships that they might navigate Omen, and so was familiar with the construction of the propellers, housings, and the auxiliary gearing required. It was estimated that it would require six months to complete our preparations in view of the fact that the utmost secrecy must be maintained to keep the project from the ears of Zataris. Tos Kan was confident now that the man's ambitions were fully aroused, and that nothing short of the title of Jeddak of Helium would satisfy him. I doubt, he said, if he would even welcome Dejah Thoris' return, for it would mean another nearer the throne than he. With you and Carthoris out of the way there would be little to prevent him from assuming the title of Jeddak, and you may rest assured that so long as he is supreme here there is no safety for either of you. There is a way, cried Horvastus, to thwart him effectually and forever. What? I asked. He smiled. I shall whisper it here, but some day I shall stand upon the dome of the Temple of Reward and shout it to cheering multitudes below. What do you mean? asked Tos Kan. John Carter, Jeddak of Helium, said Horvastus in a low voice. The eyes of my companions lighted, and grim smiles of pleasure and anticipation overspread their faces as each eye turned toward me questioningly. But I shook my head. No, my friends, I said, smiling. I thank you, but it cannot be. Not yet, at least. When we know that Tartos Mors and Mors Kajak are gone to return no more, if I be here then I shall join you all to see that the people of Helium are permitted to choose fairly their next Jeddak, whom they choose may count upon the loyalty of my sword, nor shall I seek the honour for myself. Until then Tartos Mors is Jeddak of Helium, and Zat Arras is his representative. As you will, John Carter, said Horvastus, but what was that? He whispered, pointing toward the window overlooking the gardens.  There he goes! He cried excitedly. The guards! Below there! The guards! We were close behind him, and all saw the figure of a man run quickly across a little piece of sword and disappear in the shrubbery beyond. He was on the balcony when I first saw him, cried Horvastus. Quick! Let us follow him! Together we ran to the gardens, but even though we scoured the grounds with the entire guard for hours, no trace could we find of the Night Marauder. What do you make of it, Kantos Kan? asked Tars Tarkas. A spy sent by Zat Arras, he replied, it was ever his way. He will have something interesting to report to his master, then! laughed Horvastus. I hope he heard only our references to a new Jeddak, I said. If he overheard our plans to rescue Dejah Thoris, it will mean civil war, for he will attempt to thwart us, and in that I will not be thwarted. There would I turn against Tartos Morse himself were it necessary.  Nothing shall stay me now short of death, and should I die, my friends, will you take the oath to prosecute the search for her and bring her back in safety to her grandfather's court? On hilt of his sword each of them swore to do as I had asked. It was agreed that the battleships that were to be remodeled should be ordered to Hastor, another Heliomedic city, far to the southwest. Kantos Kan thought that the docks there, in addition to their regular work, would accommodate at least six battleships at a time. As he was commander-in-chief of the navy, it would be a simple matter for him to order the vessels there as they could be handled, and thereafter keep the remodeled fleet in remote parts of the Empire until we should be ready to assemble it for the dash upon Omin. It was late that night before our conference broke up, but each man there had his particular duties outlined, and the details of the entire plan had been mapped out. Kantos Kan and Zodar were to attend to the remodeling of the ships. Tartos Tarkas was to get into communication with Thark and learn the sentiments of his people toward his return from Dor. As favorable, he was to repair immediately to Thark and devote his time to the assembling of a great horde of green warriors, whom it was our plan to send in transports directly to the Valley Dor and the Temple of Isis, while the fleet entered Omin and destroyed the vessels of the First Born. Upon Horvastus devolved the delicate mission of organizing a secret force of fighting men, sworn to follow John Carter wherever he might lead. As we estimated that it would require over a million men to man the thousand great battleships we intended to use on Omin, and the transports for the green men as well as the ships that were to convoy the transports, it was no trifling job that Horvastus had before him. After they had left, I bid Carthoris good night, for I was very tired, and going to my own apartments, bathed and laid down upon my sleeping silks and furs, for the first good night asleep I had had an opportunity to look forward to since I had returned to Barsoom. But even now I was to be disappointed. How long I slept I do not know. When I awoke suddenly it was to find a half dozen powerful men upon me, a gag already in my mouth, and a moment later my arms and legs securely bound. So quickly had they worked, and to such good purpose, that I was utterly beyond the power to resist them by the time I was fully awake.  Silently they lifted me and bored me toward the door of my chamber. As they passed the window through which the farther moon was casting its brilliant beams, I saw that each of the party had his face swathed in layers of silk. I could not recognize one of them. When they had come into the corridor with me, they turned toward a secret panel in the wall which led to the passage that terminated in the pits beneath the palace. That any new of this panel outside my own household I was doubtful. Yet the leader of the band did not hesitate a moment. He stepped directly to the panel, touched the concealed button, and as the door swung open he stood aside while his companions entered with me. Then he closed the panel behind him and followed us. Down through the passageways to the pits we went. The leader wrapped upon it with a hilt of his sword, three quick sharp blows, a pause, then three more, another pause, then two. A second later the wall swung in, and I was pushed with an abrylently lighted chamber in which sat three richly trapped men. One of them turned toward me with a sardonic smile upon his thin, cruel lips. It was Zat Arras. End of Chapter 18 CHAPTER XIX OF THE GODS OF MARS by Edgar Rice Burroughs This Librivox recording is in the public domain. THE GODS OF MARS. CHAPTER XIX. BLACK DISPARE. Ah! said Zat Arras, to what kindly circumstance am I indebted for the pleasure of this unexpected visit from the Prince of Helium. While he was speaking one of my guards had removed the gag from my mouth, but I made no reply to Zat Arras, simply standing there in silence with level gaze fixed upon the jet of Zodanga. And I doubt not that my expression was colored by the contempt I felt for the man.  You may go, he said to those who had brought me, and when only his two companions and ourselves were left in the chamber he spoke to me again in a voice of ice, very slowly and deliberately, with many pauses, as though he would choose his words cautiously. JOHN CARTER. He said, by the edict of custom, by the law of our religion, and by the verdict of an impartial court, you are condemned to die. The people cannot save you. I alone may accomplish that. You are absolutely in my power to do with as I wish.   Should you go free in Helium for a year, in accordance with the conditions of your reprieve, there is little fear that the people would ever insist upon the execution of the sentence imposed upon you. You may go free within two minutes, upon one condition. Tardos Mors will never return to Helium. Neither will Mors Kajak nor Dejah Thoris. One must select a new jeddak within the year. Zat Arras would be jeddak of Helium. Say that you will espouse my cause. This is the price of your freedom. I am done. I knew it was within the scope of Zat Arras' cruel heart to destroy me, and if I were dead I could see little reason to doubt that he might easily become jeddak of Helium. Free I could prosecute the search for Dejah Thoris. Where I dead my brave comrades might not be able to carry out our plans. So by refusing to accede to his request it was quite probable that not only would I not prevent him from becoming jeddak of Helium, but that I would be the means of sealing Dejah Thoris' fate, of consigning her through my refusal to the horrors of the arena of Isis. For a moment I was perplexed, but for a moment only. The proud daughter of a thousand jeddaks would choose death to a dishonorable alliance such as this, nor could John Carter do less for Helium than his princess would do. Then I turned to Zat Arras. There can be no alliance, I said, between a traitor to Helium and a prince of the house of Tardo's Moors. I do not believe Zat Arras that the great jeddak is dead. Zat Arras shrugged his shoulders. It will not be long, John Carter, he said, that your opinions will be of interest even to yourself, so make the best of them while you can. Zat Arras will permit you in due time to reflect further upon the magnanimous offer he has made you. Into the silence and darkness of the pits you will enter upon your reflection this night with the knowledge that should you fail within a reasonable time to agree to the alternative which has been offered you, never shall you emerge from the darkness and the silence again. Or shall you know at what minute the hand will reach out through the darkness and the silence with the keen dagger that shall rob you of your last chance to win again the warmth and the freedom and joyousness of the outer world? Zat Arras clapped his hands as he ceased speaking. The guards returned. Zat Arras waved his hand in my direction. To the pits, he said. That was all. Four men accompanied me from the chamber, and with a radium handlight to illumine the way escorted me through seemingly interminable tunnels, down, ever down beneath the city of Helium. At length they halted within a fair-sized chamber. There were rings set in the rocky walls. To them chains were fastened, and at the ends of many of the chains were human skeletons. One of these they kicked aside, and, unlocking the huge padlock that had held a chain about what had once been a human ankle, they snapped the iron band about my own leg. Then they left me, taking the light with them. Utter darkness prevailed. For a few minutes I could hear the clanking of accoutrements, but even this grew fainter and fainter, until at last the silence was as complete as the darkness. I was alone with my gruesome companions, with the bones of dead men whose fate was likely but the index of my own. How long I stood listening in the darkness I do not know. But the silence was unbroken, and at last I sunk to the hard floor of my prison, where, leaning my head against the stony wall, I slept. It must have been several hours later that I awakened to find a young man standing before me. In one hand he bore a light, in the other a receptacle containing a gruelike mixture, the common prison fare of Barsoom. Zat Arras sends you greetings, said the young man, and commands me to inform you that, though he is fully advised of the plot to make you Jadakaphelium, he is, however, not inclined to withdraw the offer which he has made you. To gain your freedom you have but to request me to advise Zat Arras that you accept the terms of his proposition. I but shook my head. The youth said no more, and, after placing the food upon the floor at my side, returned up the corridor taking the light with him. Twice a day for many days this youth came to my cell with food, and ever the same greetings from Zat Arras. For a long time I tried to engage him in conversation upon other matters, but he would not talk, and so at length I desisted. For months I sought to devise methods to inform Carthoris of my whereabouts. For months I scraped and scraped upon a single link of the massive chain which held me, hoping eventually to wear it through, that I might follow the youth back through the winding tunnels to a point where I could make a break for liberty. I was beside myself with anxiety for knowledge of the progress of the expedition which was to rescue Dejah Thoris. I felt that Carthoris would not let the matter drop were he free to act, but in so far as I knew he also might be a prisoner in Zat Arras' pits. That Zat Arras spy had overheard our conversation relative to the selection of a new jeddak I knew, and scarcely a half-dozen minutes prior we had discussed the details of the plan to rescue Dejah Thoris. The chances were that that matter too was well known to him. Carthoris, Kantos Kan, Tars Tarkas, Horvastis, and Zodar might even now be the victims of Zat Arras' assassins or else his prisoners. I determined to make at least one more effort to learn something, and to this end I adopted strategy when the next youth came to my cell. I had noticed that he was a handsome fellow, about the size and age of Carthoris, and I had also noticed that his shabby trappings but illy comported with his dignified and noble bearing. It was with these observations as a basis that I opened my negotiations with him upon his next subsequent visit. "'You have been very kind to me during my imprisonment here,' I said to him. And as I feel that I have at best but a very short time to live, I wish, ere it is too late, to furnish substantial testimony of my appreciation of all that you have done to render my imprisonment bearable. Promptly you have brought my food each day, seeing that it was pure and of sufficient quantity. Never by word or deed have you attempted to take advantage of my defenceless condition to insult or torture me. You have been uniformly courteous and considerate. It is this more than any other thing which prompts my feeling of gratitude and my desire to give you some slight token of it. In the guard room of my palace are many fine trappings. Go thou there and select the harness which most pleases you. It shall be yours. All I ask is that you wear it, that I may know that my wish has been realized. Tell me that you will do it." The boy's eyes had lighted with pleasure as I spoke, and I saw him glance from his rusty trappings to the magnificence of my own. For a moment he stood in thought before he spoke, and for that moment my heart fairly ceased beating, so much for me there was which hung upon the substance of his answer. And I went to the palace of the Prince of Helium with any such demand they would laugh at me, and into the bargain would more than likely throw me head foremost into the avenue. No, it cannot be. Though I thank you for the offer. Why, if Zat Arras even dreamed that I contemplated such a thing, he would have my heart cut out of me. There can be no harm in it, my boy, I urged. By night you may go to my palace with a note from me to Carthoris, my son. You may read the note before you deliver it, that you may know that it contains nothing harmful to Zat Arras. My son will be discreet, and so none but us three need know. It is very simple, and such a harmless act that it could be condemned by no one. Again he stood silently in deep thought. And there is a jeweled short sword which I took from the body of a northern jeddak. When you get the harness, see that Carthoris gives you that also. With it and the harness which you may select there will be no more handsomely accoutred warrior in all Zodanga. Bring writing materials when you come next to my cell, and within a few hours we shall see you garbed in a style befitting your berth and carriage. Still in thought and without speaking he turned and left me. I could not guess what his decision might be, and for hours I sat fretting over the outcome of the matter. If he accepted a message to Carthoris it would mean to me that Carthoris still lived and was free. If the youth returned wearing the harness and the sword I would know that Carthoris had received my note and that he knew that I still lived, that the bearer of the note was a Zodangan would be sufficient to explain to Carthoris that I was a prisoner of Zat Arras. It was with feelings of excited expectancy which I could scarce hide that I heard the youth's approach upon the occasion of his next regular visit. I did not speak beyond my accustomed greeting of him. As he placed the food upon the floor by my side he also deposited writing materials at the same time. My heart fairly bounded for joy. I had won my point. For a moment I looked at the materials in famed 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 his 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 Dejah Thoris it must be done quickly, for, were she not already dead, her end must soon come, since those whom Isis chose lived but a single year. The next time I heard approaching footsteps I could scarce awake to see if Parthak wore the harness and the sword, but judge if you can my chagrin and disappointment when I saw that he who bore my food was not Parthak. What has become of Parthak, I asked, but the fellow would not answer, and as soon as he had deposited my food turned and retraced his steps to the world above. Days came and went, and still my new jailer continued his duties, nor would he ever speak a word to me, either in reply to the simplest question or of his own initiative. I could only speculate on the cause of Parthak's removal, that it was connected in some way directly with the note I had given him was most apparent to me. After all my rejoicing I was no better off than before. For now I did not even know that Parthoris lived, for if Parthak had wished to raise himself in the estimation of Zad Aris he would have permitted me to go on precisely as I did, so that he could carry my note to his master in proof of his 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 Dejah Thoris would be ordered into the arena for the rites of Isis. 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 rendered 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 princess would be fought over in the arena of the firstborn by those very wild beasts, that her 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 have been occupying my entire mind. Now a new and grim determination came to me. I would make one superhuman 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 he should stoop over me I had but to grasp his throat with one hand and strike him a terrific blow with the slack of my chain, which I gripped firmly in my right hand for the purpose. Near and near came the doomed man. Now I heard him halt before me. There was a muttered exclamation, and then a step as he came to my side. I felt him kneel beside me. My grip tightened upon the chain. He leaned close to me. I must open my eyes to find his 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 in that minute interval I recognized the fate so close to mine as that of my son, Cartorus. God! What cruel and maligned fate had worked to such a frightful end!  A benign, though tardy providence blurred my vision and my mind as I sank into unconsciousness across the lifeless body of my only son. 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. Cartorus 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 Cartorus, a great bruise upon his forehead where the chain had struck. But alive, thank God, alive! There was no one with him. Reaching out my arms I took my boy 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 son's life. The brief instant in which I had seen and recognized Cartorus before the chain fell must have been ample to check the force of the blow. He told me that he had lain unconscious for a time, how long he did not know. How came you here at all, I asked, mystified that he had found me without a guide. It was by your wit in apprising me of your existence and imprisonment through the youth Parthak. Until he came for his harness and his sword we had thought you dead. When I had read your note I did as you had bid, giving Parthak his choice of the harnesses in the guard room, and later bringing the jeweled short sword to him. But the minute that I had fulfilled the promise you evidently had made him my obligation to him ceased. Then I commenced to question him, but he would give me no information as to your whereabouts. He was intensely loyal to Zad Arras. Finally I gave him 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 he maintained his stubborn partisanship, despairing I had him removed to the pits where he still is. No threats of torture or death, no bribes, however fabulous would move him. His only reply to all our importunities was that whenever Parthak died, or tomorrow or a thousand years hence, no man could truly say a traitor is gone to his deserts. Finally Zodar, who is a fiend for subtle craftiness, evolved a plan whereby we might worm the information from him, and so I caused Horvastus to be harnessed in the middle of a Zodangan soldier and chained in Parthak's cell beside him. For fifteen days the noble Horvastus has languished in the darkness of the pits, but not in vain. Little by little he won the confidence and friendship of the Zodangan, until only to-day Parthak, thinking that he was speaking not only to a countryman but to a dear friend, revealed that Horvastus the exact cell in which you lay. It took me but a short time to locate the plans of the pits of Helium among the 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 neighbor, 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 Zad Arras is occupying, I found there a Zodangan soldier on guard. There I left him when I had gone by, but his soul was no longer with him.  As he talked, Carthoris had been working at the lock which held my fetters, and now, with an exclamation of pleasure, he 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. He had brought a longsword 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 Zad 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 and adjoining a state. 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 Cantus Can, Taurus Tarkus, Horovastus, and Zodar awaiting us most impatiently. No time was lost in fruitless recounting of my imprisonment. What I desired to know was how well the plants we had laid nearly a year ago had been carried out. It has taken much longer than we had expected, replied Cantus Can. The fact that we were compelled to maintain utter secrecy has handicapped us terribly. Zad Arras spies are everywhere. Yet to the best of my knowledge no word of our real plans has reached the villain's ear. Tonight 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 Omen and the waters of Omen 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 Taurus Tarkus, nine hundred large troopships, and with them their convoys. Seven days ago all was in readiness, but we waited in the hope that by doing so your rescue might be encompassed in time for you to command the expedition. It is well we waited, my prince. How is it, Taurus Tarkus, I asked, that the men of Thark take not the accustomed action against one who returns from the bosom of Iss? They sent a council of fifteen chieftains to talk with me here, replied the Thark. We are just people, and when I had told them the entire story they were as one man in agreeing that their action toward me would be guided by the action of Helium toward John 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 men, 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 war-like hordes fill the great city of Thark tonight. They are ready to sail for the land of the first barn 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 who have asked, what has been thy success? A million veteran fighting men from Helium's thin waterways manned the battleships, the transports, and the convoys, he 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 his duty, and now Kantos can, may we not repair it once to Hastor and get under way before tomorrow's sun? We should lose no time, Prince, replied Kantos Kan. Already the people of Hastor are questioning the purpose of so great a fleet fully manned with fighting men. I wonder much that word of it has not before reached Zat Arras. A cruiser awaits above at your own dock. Let us leave at... A fuselot of shots from the palace gardens just without cut short his further words. Together we rush 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. Still beneath us, upon the scarlet sword, a handful of guardsmen 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 man in the prime of life, his metal was plain, such as common soldiers wear, or those who wish to conceal their identity. Another of Zat Arras' spies, said Horvastus. So it would seem, I replied, and then to the guard you may remove the body. Wait! said Zodar, if you will, Prince, ask that a cloth and a little thot oil be brought. I nodded to one of the soldiers who left the chamber, returning presently with the things that Zodar had requested. The black kneel beside the body, and, dipping a corner of the cloth and the thot oil, rubbed for a moment on the dead face before him. Then he turned to me with a smile, pointing to his work. I looked and saw that where Zodar had applied the thot oil the face was white, as white as mine, and then Zodar seized the black hair of the corpse and with a sudden wrench tore it all away, revealing a hairless paint beneath. Guardsmen and nobles pressed close about the silent witness upon the marble floor. Many were the exclamations of astonishment and questioning wonder as Zodar's acts confirmed the suspicion which he had held. "'A thern!' whispered Tars Tarkas. "'Worse than that, I fear,' replied Zodar, but let us see. With that he drew his dagger and cut open a locked pouch which had dangled from the thern's harness, and from it he brought forth a circlet of gold set with a large gem. It was the mate to that which I had taken from Sattor Throg. "'E was a holly thern,' said Zodar. Fognet indeed it is for us that he did not escape.' The officer of the guard entered the chamber at this juncture. "'My prince,' he said, "'I have to report that this fellow's companion escaped us. I think that it was with the connivance of one or more of the men at the gate. I have ordered them all under arrest.' Zodar handed him the thot oil and cloth. "'With this you may discover the spy among you,' he said. I at once ordered a secret search within the city, for every Martian noble maintains a secret surface of his own. A half hour later the officer of the guard came again to report. This time it was to confirm our worst fears. Half the guards at the gate that night had been therns disguised as red men. "'Come,' I cried, "'we must lose no time. On to Hastor at once. Should the therns attempt to check us at the southern verge of the ice-cap it may result in the wrecking of all our plans and the total destruction of the expedition.' Ten minutes later we were speeding through the night toward Hastor, prepared to strike the first blow for the preservation of Dejathoris. End of Chapter 19, Chapter 20 of The Gods of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The Gods of Mars. Chapter 20 The Air Battle. Two hours after leaving my palace at Helium, or about midnight, Kantos Kan, Zodar, and I arrived at Hastor. Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Horovastis had gone directly to Thark upon another cruiser. The transports were to get under way immediately and move slowly south. The fleet of battleships would overtake them on the morning of the second day. At Hastor we found all in readiness. And so perfectly had Kantos Kan planned every detail of the campaign, that within ten minutes of our arrival the first of the fleet had soared aloft from its dock, and thereafter, at the rate of one a second, the great ships floated gracefully out into the night to form a long, thin line which stretched for miles toward the south. It was not until after we had entered the cabin of Kantos Kan that I thought to ask the date, for up to now I was not positive of how long I had lain in the pits of Zad Aris. When Kantos Kan told me, I realized with a pang of dismay that I had misrecon the time while I lay in the utter darkness of my cell. Three hundred and sixty-five days had passed. It was too late to save Dejah Thoris. The expedition was no longer one of rescue but of revenge. I did not remind Kantos Kan of the terrible fact that ere we could hope to enter the Temple of Issus, the Princess of Helium would be no more. Insofar as I knew she might already be dead, for I did not know the exact date on which she first viewed Issus. What now the value of burdening my friends with my added personal sorrows they had shared quite enough of them with me in the past? Hereafter I would keep my grief to myself, and so I said nothing to any other of the fact that we were too late. The expedition could yet do much if it could but teach the people of Barsoom the facts of the cruel deception that had been worked upon them for countless ages, and thus save thousands each year from the horrid fate that had waited them at the conclusion of the voluntary pilgrimage. If it could open to the Red Men the fair valley door it would have accomplished much, and in the land of lost souls between the mountains of Ots and the ice barrier were many broad acres that needed no irrigation to bear rich harvests. Here at the bottom of a dying world was the only naturally productive area upon its surface. Here alone were dews and rains, here alone was an open sea, here was water in plenty. And all this was but the stamping ground of fierce brutes, and from its beauteous and fertile expanse the wicked remnants of two once mighty races barred all the other millions of Barsoom. Could I but succeed in once breaking down the barrier of religious superstition which had kept the Red Races from this El Dorado it would be a fitting memorial to the immortal virtues of my princess. I should have again served Barsoom and Dejah Thoris Martyrdom would not have been in vain. On the morning of the second day we raised the great fleet of transports and their consorts at the first Flood of Dawn, and soon were near enough to exchange signals. I may mention here that radio aerograms are seldom if ever used in wartime, or for the transmission of secret dispatches at any time, for as often as one nation discovers a new cipher or invents a new instrument for wireless purposes its neighbors bend every effort until they are able to intercept and translate the messages. For so long a time has this gone on that practically every possibility of wireless communication has been exhausted, and no nation dares transmit dispatches of importance in this way. Thoris Tarkas reported all well with the transports. The battleships passed through to take an advanced position, and the combined fleets moved slowly over the ice-cap, hugging the surface closely to prevent detection by the therns whose land we were approaching. Far in advance of all a thin line of one-man airscouts protected us from surprise, and on either side they flanked us, while a smaller number brought up the rear some twenty miles behind the transports. In this formation we had progressed toward the entrance to Omean for several hours, when one of our scouts returned from the front to report that the cone-like summit of the entrance was in sight. At almost the same instant another scout from the left flank came racing toward the flagship. His very speed bespoke the importance of his information. Kantos Kan and I awaited him upon the little forward deck which corresponds with the bridge of earthly battleships. Scarcely had his tiny flier come to rest upon the broad landing-deck of the flagship ere he was bounding up the stairway to the deck where we stood. "'A great fleet of battleships south-south-east, my prince,' he cried.  The thern spies were not in the palace of John Carter for nothing, said Kantos Kan to me. Your orders, prince. Dispatch ten battleships to guard the entrance to Omean, with orders to let no hostile enter or leave the shaft. That will bottle up the great fleet of the first born. Form the balance of the battleships into a great V with the apex pointing directly south-south-east. Order the transports, surrounded by their convoys, to follow closely in the wake of the battleships, until the point of the V has entered the enemy's line. Then the V must open outward at the apex. The battleships of each leg engage the enemy fiercely, and drive them back to form a lane through his line into which the transports with their convoys must race at top speed, that they may gain a position above the temples and gardens of the therns. Here, let them land and teach the holy therns such a lesson in ferocious warfare as they will not forget for countless ages. It had not been my intention to be distracted from the main issue of the campaign, but we must settle this attack with the therns once and for all, or there will be no peace for us while our fleet remains near door, and our chances of ever returning to the outer world will be greatly minimized. Kantos Kan saluted and turned to deliver my instructions to his waiting aids. In an incredibly short space of time the formation of the battleships changed in accordance with my commands. The ten that were to guard the way to Womin were speeding toward their destination, and the troopships and convoys were closing up in preparation for the spurt through the lane. The order of full speed ahead was given, the fleet sprang through the air like coursing greyhounds, and in another moment the ships of the enemy were in full view. They formed a ragged line as far as the eye could reach in either direction, and about three ships deep. Though sudden was our onslaught that they had no time to prepare for it. It was as unexpected as lightning from a clear sky. Every phase of my plan worked splendidly. Our huge ships mowed their way entirely through the line of thern battlecraft. Then the V opened up and a broad lane appeared through which the transport leapt toward the temples of the therns, which could now be plainly seen glistening in the sunlight. By the time the therns had rallied from the attack a hundred thousand green warriors were already pouring through their courts and gardens, while a hundred and fifty thousand others leaned from low-swinging transports to direct their almost uncanny marksmanship upon the therns' soldiery that manned the ramparts, or attempted to defend the temples. Now the two great fleets closed in a titanic struggle far above the fiendish din of battle in the gorgeous gardens of the therns. Slowly the two lines of Helium's battleships joined their ends, and then commenced the circling within the line of the enemy, which is so marked a characteristic of Barsoomian naval warfare. Around and around in each other's tracks moved the ships under Kantos Kan. Until at length they formed nearly a perfect circle. By this time they were moving at high speed, so that they presented a difficult target for the enemy. Broadside after broadside they delivered, as each vessel came in line with the ships of the therns. The latter attempted to rush in and break up the formation, but it was like stopping a buzz-saw with the bare hand. From my position on the deck, beside Kantos Kan, I saw ship after ship of the enemy take the awful, sickening dive which proclaims its total destruction. Slowly we maneuvered our circle