A Princess of Mars Rethroned (24 page)

'It cannot be,'
she exclaimed. 'It is impossible! Why no woman in all Helium but
would prefer death to the selling of our loved prince to the ruling
house of Zodanga. He must have lost his mind to have assented to
such an atrocious bargain. You, who do not know how we of Helium
love the members of our ruling house, cannot appreciate the horror
with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance.'

'What can be
done, Joan Carter?' she continued. 'You are a resourceful woman.
Can you not think of some way to save Helium from this
disgrace?'

'If I can come
within sword's reach of Saba Than,' I answered, 'I can solve the
difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned, but for personal
reasons I would prefer that another struck the blow that frees
Dejar Thoris.'

Kantoa Kan eyed
me narrowly before she spoke.

'You love him!'
she said. 'Does he know it?'

'He knows it,
Kantoa Kan, and repulses me only because he is promised to Saba
Than.'

The splendid
fellow sprang to her feet, and grasping me by the shoulder raised
her sword on high, exclaiming:

'And had the
choice been left to me I could not have chosen a more fitting mate
for the first prince of Barsoom. Here is my hand upon your
shoulder, Joan Carter, and my word that Saba Than shall go out at
the point of my sword for the sake of my love for Helium, for Dejar
Thoris, and for you. This very night I shall try to reach her
quarters in the palace.'

'How?' I asked.
'You are strongly guarded and a quadruple force patrols the
sky.'

She bent her head
in thought a moment, then raised it with an air of
confidence.

'I only need to
pass these guards and I can do it,' she said at last. 'I know a
secret entrance to the palace through the pinnacle of the highest
tower. I fell upon it by chance one day as I was passing above the
palace on patrol duty. In this work it is required that we
investigate any unusual occurrence we may witness, and a face
peering from the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace was, to
me, most unusual. I therefore drew near and discovered that the
possessor of the peering face was none other than Saba Than. She
was slightly put out at being detected and commanded me to keep the
matter to myself, explaining that the passage from the tower led
directly to her apartments, and was known only to her. If I can
reach the roof of the barracks and get my machine I can be in Saba
Than's quarters in five minutes; but how am I to escape from this
building, guarded as you say it is?'

'How well are the
machine sheds at the barracks guarded?' I asked.

'There is usually
but one woman on duty there at night upon the roof.'

'Go to the roof
of this building, Kantoa Kan, and wait me there.'

Without stopping
to explain my plans I retraced my way to the street and hastened to
the barracks. I did not dare to enter the building, filled as it
was with members of the air-scout squadron, who, in common with all
Zodanga, were on the lookout for me.

The building was
an enormous one, rearing its lofty head fully a thousand feet into
the air. But few buildings in Zodanga were higher than these
barracks, though several topped it by a few hundred feet; the docks
of the great battleships of the line standing some fifteen hundred
feet from the ground, while the freight and passenger stations of
the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high.

It was a long
climb up the face of the building, and one fraught with much
danger, but there was no other way, and so I essayed the task. The
fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the feat
much simpler than I had anticipated, since I found ornamental
ledges and projections which fairly formed a perfect ladder for me
all the way to the eaves of the building. Here I met my first real
obstacle. The eaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to
which I clung, and though I encircled the great building I could
find no opening through them.

The top floor was
alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the pastimes of their
kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof through the
building.

There was one
slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must take--it was
for Dejar Thoris, and no woman has lived who would not risk a
thousand deaths for such as he.

Clinging to the
wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of the long
leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great
hook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of
their craft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which
landing parties are lowered to the ground from the
battleships.

I swung this hook
cautiously to the roof several times before it finally found
lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold, but whether
it would bear the weight of my body I did not know. It might be
barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so that as my
body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and launch
me to the pavement a thousand feet below.

An instant I
hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon the supporting
ornament, I swung out into space at the end of the strap. Far below
me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements, and
death. There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves,
and a nasty slipping, grating sound which turned me cold with
apprehension; then the hook caught and I was safe.

Clambering
quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drew myself to
the surface of the roof above. As I gained my feet I was confronted
by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose revolver I found
myself looking.

'Who are you and
whence came you?' she cried.

'I am an air
scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by the merest
chance I escaped falling to the avenue below,' I
replied.

'But how came you
upon the roof, woman? No one has landed or come up from the
building for the past hour. Quick, explain yourself, or I call the
guard.'

'Look you here,
sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close a shave I had to
not coming at all,' I answered, turning toward the edge of the
roof, where, twenty feet below, at the end of my strap, hung all my
weapons.

The fellow,
acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and to her
undoing, for as she leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped her by
her throat and her pistol arm and threw her heavily to the roof.
The weapon dropped from her grasp, and my fingers choked off her
attempted cry for assistance. I gagged and bound her and then hung
her over the edge of the roof as I myself had hung a few moments
before. I knew it would be morning before she would be discovered,
and I needed all the time that I could gain.

Donning my
trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon had out
both my machine and Kantoa Kan's. Making her fast behind mine I
started my engine, and skimming over the edge of the roof I dove
down into the streets of the city far below the plane usually
occupied by the air patrol. In less than a minute I was settling
safely upon the roof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantoa
Kan.

I lost no time in
explanation, but plunged immediately into a discussion of our plans
for the immediate future. It was decided that I was to try to make
Helium while Kantoa Kan was to enter the palace and dispatch Saba
Than. If successful she was then to follow me. She set my compass
for me, a clever little device which will remain steadfastly fixed
upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each
other farewell we rose together and sped in the direction of the
palace which lay in the route which I must take to reach
Helium.

As we neared the
high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing its piercing
searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out a command to
halt, following with a shot as I paid no attention to her hail.
Kantoa Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rose steadily
and at terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followed by a
dozen of the air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, and
later by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred women and a battery of
rapid-fire guns. By twisting and turning my little machine, now
rising and now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most
of the time, but I was also losing ground by these tactics, and so
I decided to hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave
the result to fate and the speed of my machine.

Kantoa Kan had
shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to the navy of
Helium, that greatly increased the speed of our machines, so that I
felt sure I could distance my pursuers if I could dodge their
projectiles for a few moments.

As I sped through
the air the screeching of the bullets around me convinced me that
only by a miracle could I escape, but the die was cast, and
throwing on full speed I raced a straight course toward Helium.
Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and I was
just congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directed
shot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft. The
concussion nearly capsized him, and with a sickening plunge he
hurtled downward through the dark night.

How far I fell
before I regained control of the plane I do not know, but I must
have been very close to the ground when I started to rise again, as
I plainly heard the squealing of animals below me. Rising again I
scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making out their
lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently in
search of me.

Not until their
lights were no longer discernible did I venture to flash my little
lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my consternation that a
fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed my only guide, as
well as my speedometer. It was true I could follow the stars in the
general direction of Helium, but without knowing the exact location
of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my chances for
finding it were slim.

Helium lies a
thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass intact I
should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four and
five hours. As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding
over a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of
continuous flight at high speed. Presently a great city showed
below me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian
metropolises consists in two immense circular walled cities about
seventy-five miles apart and would have been easily distinguishable
from the altitude at which I was flying.

Believing that I
had come too far to the north and west, I turned back in a
southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other
large cities, but none resembling the description which Kantoa Kan
had given me of Helium. In addition to the twin-city formation of
Helium, another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers,
one of vivid scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the
center of one of the cities, while the other, of bright yellow and
of the same height, marks his brother.

CHAPTER
XXIV

TARS TARKAS FINDS
A FRIEND

About noon I
passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as I skimmed
out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand green
warriors engaged in a terrific battle. Scarcely had I seen them
than a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the almost
unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a
ruined wreck, sinking erratically to the ground.

I fell almost
directly in the center of the fierce combat, among warriors who had
not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in life and death
struggles. The women were fighting on foot with long-swords, while
an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the outskirts of the
conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an instant
separate herself from the entangled mass.

As my machine
sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with good
chances of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with
drawn long-sword ready to defend myself as I could.

I fell beside a
huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists, and as I
glanced at her fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I
recognized Tara Tarkas the Thark. She did not see me, as I was a
trifle behind her, and just then the three warriors opposing her,
and whom I recognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously. The
mighty fellow made quick work of one of them, but in stepping back
for another thrust she fell over a dead body behind her and was
down and at the mercy of her foes in an instant. Quick as lightning
they were upon her, and Tara Tarkas would have been gathered to her
mothers in short order had I not sprung before her prostrate form
and engaged her adversaries. I had accounted for one of them when
the mighty Thark regained her feet and quickly settled the
other.

She gave me one
look, and a slight smile touched her grim lip as, touching my
shoulder, she said,

'I would scarcely
recognize you, Joan Carter, but there is no other mortal upon
Barsoom who would have done what you have for me. I think I have
learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my
friend.'