The Gods Of Mars (22 page)

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—an agile leap gave my hands a
grasp upon the stone hand-rail above. In another instant I had drawn
myself upon the balcony.

Here through the open windows I saw the green folk 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 are to take the Thark before Kab Kadja.
Bring another with you.”

The warrior addressed arose 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 sight again. Quickly I
hastened along the hallway in pursuit. My gait 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 Warhoons.

I myself had once been a prisoner of the cruel hordes of northern
Warhoon, and the memory of the underground dungeon in which I lay still
is vivid in my memory. And so I felt certain that Tars 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 tortuous 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 Thark, Tars 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 without the radius of their
meagre light as they emerged from the cell.

I had naturally assumed that they would return with Tars Tarkas the
same way that they had come, which would have carried 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.
There 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 when
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 the 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 side wall, 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 side
arms 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.

Again 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 lent colour 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 doughty a warrior as
the great Thark 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 Warhoons, 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 Warhoons 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 long-sword 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 banth 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 hours 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 long-sword, 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 countercharge 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.

I could not have been unconscious more than a few seconds, and yet I
know that I was unconscious, for the next thing I realized was that a
growing radiance was illuminating the corridor about me and the eyes
were gone.

I was unharmed except for a slight bruise upon my forehead where it had
struck the stone flagging as I fell.

I sprang to my feet to ascertain the cause of the light. It came from
a torch in the hand of one of a party of four green warriors, who were
coming rapidly down the corridor toward me. They had not yet seen me,
and so I lost no time in slipping into the first intersecting corridor
that I could find. This time, however, I did not advance so far away
from the main corridor as on the other occasion that had resulted in my
losing Tars Tarkas and his guards.

The party came rapidly toward the opening of the passageway in which I
crouched against the wall. As they passed by I breathed a sigh of
relief. I had not been discovered, and, best of all, the party was the
same that I had followed into the pits. It consisted of Tars Tarkas
and his three guards.

I fell in behind them and soon we were at the cell in which the great
Thark had been chained. Two of the warriors remained without while the
man with the keys entered with the Thark to fasten his irons upon him
once more. The two outside started to stroll slowly in the direction
of the spiral runway which led to the floors above, and in a moment
were lost to view beyond a turn in the corridor.

The torch had been stuck in a socket beside the door, so that its rays
illuminated both the corridor and the cell at the same time. As I saw
the two warriors disappear I approached the entrance to the cell, with
a well-defined plan already formulated.

While I disliked the thought of carrying out the thing that I had
decided upon, there seemed no alternative if Tars Tarkas and I were to
go back together to my little camp in the hills.