A Princess of Mars (4 page)

Unarmed and naked as I was, the first law of nature manifested
itself in the only possible solution of my immediate problem, and
that was to get out of the vicinity of the point of the charging
spear. Consequently I gave a very earthly and at the same time
superhuman leap to reach the top of the Martian incubator, for
such I had determined it must be.

My effort was crowned with a success which appalled me no less than
it seemed to surprise the Martian warriors, for it carried me fully
thirty feet into the air and landed me a hundred feet from my
pursuers and on the opposite side of the enclosure.

I alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap, and turning
saw my enemies lined up along the further wall. Some were surveying
me with expressions which I afterward discovered marked extreme
astonishment, and the others were evidently satisfying themselves
that I had not molested their young.

They were conversing together in low tones, and gesticulating and
pointing toward me. Their discovery that I had not harmed the
little Martians, and that I was unarmed, must have caused them to
look upon me with less ferocity; but, as I was to learn later, the
thing which weighed most in my favor was my exhibition of hurdling.

While the Martians are immense, their bones are very large and they
are muscled only in proportion to the gravitation which they must
overcome. The result is that they are infinitely less agile and
less powerful, in proportion to their weight, than an Earth man, and
I doubt that were one of them suddenly to be transported to Earth he
could lift his own weight from the ground; in fact, I am convinced
that he could not do so.

My feat then was as marvelous upon Mars as it would have been upon
Earth, and from desiring to annihilate me they suddenly looked upon
me as a wonderful discovery to be captured and exhibited among their
fellows.

The respite my unexpected agility had given me permitted me to
formulate plans for the immediate future and to note more closely
the appearance of the warriors, for I could not disassociate these
people in my mind from those other warriors who, only the day
before, had been pursuing me.

I noted that each was armed with several other weapons in addition
to the huge spear which I have described. The weapon which caused
me to decide against an attempt at escape by flight was what was
evidently a rifle of some description, and which I felt, for some
reason, they were peculiarly efficient in handling.

These rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, which I
learned later was a very light and intensely hard growth much prized
on Mars, and entirely unknown to us denizens of Earth. The metal of
the barrel is an alloy composed principally of aluminum and steel
which they have learned to temper to a hardness far exceeding that
of the steel with which we are familiar. The weight of these rifles
is comparatively little, and with the small caliber, explosive,
radium projectiles which they use, and the great length of the
barrel, they are deadly in the extreme and at ranges which would be
unthinkable on Earth. The theoretic effective radius of this rifle
is three hundred miles, but the best they can do in actual service
when equipped with their wireless finders and sighters is but a
trifle over two hundred miles.

This is quite far enough to imbue me with great respect for the
Martian firearm, and some telepathic force must have warned me
against an attempt to escape in broad daylight from under the
muzzles of twenty of these death-dealing machines.

The Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned and rode
away in the direction from which they had come, leaving one of their
number alone by the enclosure. When they had covered perhaps two
hundred yards they halted, and turning their mounts toward us sat
watching the warrior by the enclosure.

He was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me, and was
evidently the leader of the band, as I had noted that they seemed
to have moved to their present position at his direction. When
his force had come to a halt he dismounted, threw down his spear
and small arms, and came around the end of the incubator toward
me, entirely unarmed and as naked as I, except for the ornaments
strapped upon his head, limbs, and breast.

When he was within about fifty feet of me he unclasped an enormous
metal armlet, and holding it toward me in the open palm of his hand,
addressed me in a clear, resonant voice, but in a language, it is
needless to say, I could not understand. He then stopped as though
waiting for my reply, pricking up his antennae-like ears and cocking
his strange-looking eyes still further toward me.

As the silence became painful I concluded to hazard a little
conversation on my own part, as I had guessed that he was making
overtures of peace. The throwing down of his weapons and the
withdrawing of his troop before his advance toward me would have
signified a peaceful mission anywhere on Earth, so why not, then,
on Mars!

Placing my hand over my heart I bowed low to the Martian and
explained to him that while I did not understand his language, his
actions spoke for the peace and friendship that at the present
moment were most dear to my heart. Of course I might have been a
babbling brook for all the intelligence my speech carried to him,
but he understood the action with which I immediately followed my
words.

Stretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took the armlet from
his open palm, clasping it about my arm above the elbow; smiled at
him and stood waiting. His wide mouth spread into an answering
smile, and locking one of his intermediary arms in mine we turned
and walked back toward his mount. At the same time he motioned his
followers to advance. They started toward us on a wild run, but
were checked by a signal from him. Evidently he feared that were
I to be really frightened again I might jump entirely out of the
landscape.

He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me that I would
ride behind one of them, and then mounted his own animal. The
fellow designated reached down two or three hands and lifted me up
behind him on the glossy back of his mount, where I hung on as best
I could by the belts and straps which held the Martian's weapons and
ornaments.

The entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away toward the range
of hills in the distance.

We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very
rapidly. We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one
of Mars' long-dead seas, in the bottom of which my encounter with
the Martians had taken place.

In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after
traversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far
extremity of which was a low table land upon which I beheld an
enormous city. Toward this we galloped, entering it by what
appeared to be a ruined roadway leading out from the city, but only
to the edge of the table land, where it ended abruptly in a flight
of broad steps.

Upon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the buildings
were deserted, and while not greatly decayed had the appearance of
not having been tenanted for years, possibly for ages. Toward the
center of the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the
buildings immediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten
hundred creatures of the same breed as my captors, for such I now
considered them despite the suave manner in which I had been
trapped.

With the exception of their ornaments all were naked. The women
varied in appearance but little from the men, except that their
tusks were much larger in proportion to their height, in some
instances curving nearly to their high-set ears. Their bodies were
smaller and lighter in color, and their fingers and toes bore the
rudiments of nails, which were entirely lacking among the males.
The adult females ranged in height from ten to twelve feet.

The children were light in color, even lighter than the women, and
all looked precisely alike to me, except that some were taller than
others; older, I presumed.

I saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any
appreciable difference in their appearance from the age of maturity,
about forty, until, at about the age of one thousand years, they go
voluntarily upon their last strange pilgrimage down the river Iss,
which leads no living Martian knows whither and from whose bosom no
Martian has ever returned, or would be allowed to live did he return
after once embarking upon its cold, dark waters.

Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease,
and possibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage. The other
nine hundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in
hunting, in aviation and in war; but perhaps by far the greatest
death loss comes during the age of childhood, when vast numbers of
the little Martians fall victims to the great white apes of Mars.

The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity
is about three hundred years, but would be nearer the one-thousand
mark were it not for the various means leading to violent death.
Owing to the waning resources of the planet it evidently became
necessary to counteract the increasing longevity which their
remarkable skill in therapeutics and surgery produced, and so human
life has come to be considered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced
by their dangerous sports and the almost continual warfare between
the various communities.

There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of
population, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the
fact that no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a
weapon of destruction.

As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we were
immediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures who seemed
anxious to pluck me from my seat behind my guard. A word from the
leader of the party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a
trot across the plaza to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice
as mortal eye has rested upon.

The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It was
constructed of gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant
stones which sparkled and scintillated in the sunlight. The main
entrance was some hundred feet in width and projected from the
building proper to form a huge canopy above the entrance hall.
There was no stairway, but a gentle incline to the first floor of
the building opened into an enormous chamber encircled by galleries.

On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carved
wooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty or fifty male
Martians around the steps of a rostrum. On the platform proper
squatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments,
gay-colored feathers and beautifully wrought leather trappings
ingeniously set with precious stones. From his shoulders depended
a short cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.

What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the
hall in which they were congregated was the fact that the creatures
were entirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other
furnishings; these being of a size adapted to human beings such as
I, whereas the great bulks of the Martians could scarcely have
squeezed into the chairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for
their long legs. Evidently, then, there were other denizens on Mars
than the wild and grotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen,
but the evidences of extreme antiquity which showed all around me
indicated that these buildings might have belonged to some
long-extinct and forgotten race in the dim antiquity of Mars.

Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a sign
from the leader I had been lowered to the ground. Again locking his
arm in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber. There were
few formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain. My
captor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for
him as he advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the
name of my escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the
ruler followed by his title.

At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing
to me, but later I came to know that this was the customary greeting
between green Martians. Had the men been strangers, and therefore
unable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged
ornaments, had their missions been peaceful—otherwise they would
have exchanged shots, or have fought out their introduction with
some other of their various weapons.

My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the
vice-chieftain of the community, and a man of great ability as a
statesman and warrior. He evidently explained briefly the incidents
connected with his expedition, including my capture, and when he had
concluded the chieftain addressed me at some length.

I replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that
neither of us could understand the other; but I noticed that when I
smiled slightly on concluding, he did likewise. This fact, and the
similar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced
me that we had at least something in common; the ability to smile,
therefore to laugh; denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn
that the Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian
laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.

The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at
variance with our conceptions of incitants to merriment. The
death agonies of a fellow being are, to these strange creatures
provocative of the wildest hilarity, while their chief form of
commonest amusement is to inflict death on their prisoners of
war in various ingenious and horrible ways.