The Gods Of Mars (29 page)

“And thou, Hor Vastus,” I asked, “what has been thy success?”

“A million veteran fighting-men from Helium’s thin waterways man 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 Kan, may we
not repair at once to Hastor and get under way before to-morrow’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 fusillade of shots from the palace gardens just without
cut short his further words.

Together we rushed 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. Directly beneath us upon the scarlet sward 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 Hor Vastus.

“So it would seem,” I replied, and then to the guard: “You may remove
the body.”

“Wait!” said Xodar. “If you will, Prince, ask that a cloth and a
little thoat oil be brought.”

I nodded to one of the soldiers, who left the chamber, returning
presently with the things that Xodar had requested. The black kneeled
beside the body and, dipping a corner of the cloth in the thoat 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 Xodar
had applied the thoat oil the face was white, as white as mine, and
then Xodar seized the black hair of the corpse and with a sudden wrench
tore it all away, revealing a hairless pate beneath.

Guardsmen and nobles pressed close about the silent witness upon the
marble floor. Many were the exclamations of astonishment and
questioning wonder as Xodar’s acts confirmed the suspicion which he had
held.

“A thern!” whispered Tars Tarkas.

“Worse than that, I fear,” replied Xodar. “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 Sator Throg.

“He was a Holy Thern,” said Xodar. “Fortunate 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.”

Xodar handed him the thoat 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 service 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 Dejah Thoris.

Two hours after leaving my palace at Helium, or about midnight, Kantos
Kan, Xodar, and I arrived at Hastor. Carthoris, Tars Tarkas, and Hor
Vastus 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 how long I
had lain in the pits of Zat Arras. When Kantos Kan told me, I realized
with a pang of dismay that I had misreckoned 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. In so
far as I knew she might be already 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 awaited them at the
conclusion of the voluntary pilgrimage.

If it could open to the red men the fair Valley Dor it would have
accomplished much, and in the Land of Lost Souls between the Mountains
of Otz 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 war time, 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 neighbours 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.

Tars 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 air scouts 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.
“There must be several thousands and they are bearing down directly
upon us.”

“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 enemies’ line, then the V must
open outward at the apex, the battleships of each leg engage the enemy
fiercely and drive him 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 Dor,
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
aides. 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 Omean 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. So 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 transports leaped 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 thern 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 manoeuvered our circle of death until we hung
above the gardens where our green warriors were engaged. The order was
passed down for them to embark. Then they rose slowly to a position
within the centre of the circle.

In the meantime the therns’ fire had practically ceased. They had had
enough of us and were only too glad to let us go on our way in peace.
But our escape was not to be encompassed with such ease, for scarcely
had we gotten under way once more in the direction of the entrance to
Omean than we saw far to the north a great black line topping the
horizon. It could be nothing other than a fleet of war.

Whose or whither bound, we could not even conjecture. When they had
come close enough to make us out at all, Kantos Kan’s operator received
a radio-aerogram, which he immediately handed to my companion. He read
the thing and handed it to me.

“Kantos Kan:” it read. “Surrender, in the name of the Jeddak of
Helium, for you cannot escape,” and it was signed, “Zat Arras.”

The therns must have caught and translated the message almost as soon
as did we, for they immediately renewed hostilities when they realized
that we were soon to be set upon by other enemies.

Before Zat Arras had approached near enough to fire a shot we were
again hotly engaged with the thern fleet, and as soon as he drew near
he too commenced to pour a terrific fusillade of heavy shot into us.
Ship after ship reeled and staggered into uselessness beneath the
pitiless fire that we were undergoing.