CHAPTER XIX
THE MENACE OF THE DEAD
The night was still young when there came one to the entrance of thebanquet hall where O-Tar of Manator dined with his chiefs, and brushingpast the guards entered the great room with the insolence of aprivileged character, as in truth he was. As he approached the head ofthe long board O-Tar took notice of him.
"Well, hoary one!" he cried. "What brings you out of your beloved andstinking burrow again this day. We thought that the sight of themultitude of living men at the games would drive you back to yourcorpses as quickly as you could go."
The cackling laugh of I-Gos acknowledged the royal sally. "Ey, ey,O-Tar," squeaked the ancient one, "I-Gos goes out not upon pleasurebound; but when one does ruthlessly desecrate the dead of I-Gos,vengeance must be had!"
"You refer to the act of the slave Turan?" demanded O-Tar.
"Turan, yes, and the slave Tara, who slipped beneath my hide amurderous blade. Another fraction of an inch, O-Tar, and I-Gos' ancientand wrinkled covering were even now in some apprentice tanner's hands,ey, ey!"
"But they have again eluded us," cried O-Tar. "Even in the palace ofthe great jeddak twice have they escaped the stupid knaves I call TheJeddak's Guard." O-Tar had risen and was angrily emphasizing his wordswith heavy blows upon the table, dealt with a golden goblet.
"Ey, O-Tar, they elude thy guard but not the wise old calot, I-Gos."
"What mean you? Speak!" commanded O-Tar.
"I know where they are hid," said the ancient taxidermist. "In the dustof unused corridors their feet have betrayed them."
"You followed them? You have seen them?" demanded the jeddak.
"I followed them and I heard them speaking beyond a closed door,"replied I-Gos; "but I did not see them."
"Where is that door?" cried O-Tar. "We will send at once and fetchthem," he looked about the table as though to decide to whom he wouldentrust this duty. A dozen warrior chiefs arose and laid their handsupon their swords.
"To the chambers of O-Mai the Cruel I traced them," squeaked I-Gos."There you will find them where the moaning Corphals pursue theshrieking ghost of O-Mai; ey!" and he turned his eyes from O-Tar towardthe warriors who had arisen, only to discover that, to a man, they werehurriedly resuming their seats.
The cackling laughter of I-Gos broke derisively the hush that hadfallen on the room. The warriors looked sheepishly at the food upontheir plates of gold. O-Tar snapped his fingers impatiently.
"Be there only cravens among the chiefs of Manator?" he cried."Repeatedly have these presumptuous slaves flouted the majesty of yourjeddak. Must I command one to go and fetch them?"
Slowly a chief arose and two others followed his example, though withill-concealed reluctance. "All, then, are not cowards," commentedO-Tar. "The duty is distasteful. Therefore all three of you shall go,taking as many warriors as you wish."
"But do not ask for volunteers," interrupted I-Gos, "or you will goalone."
The three chiefs turned and left the banquet hall, walking slowly likedoomed men to their fate.
Gahan and Tara remained in the chamber to which Tasor had led them, theman brushing away the dust from a deep and comfortable bench where theymight rest in comparative comfort. He had found the ancient sleepingsilks and furs too far gone to be of any service, crumbling to powderat a touch, thus removing any chance of making a comfortable bed forthe girl, and so the two sat together, talking in low tones, of theadventures through which they already had passed and speculating uponthe future; planning means of escape and hoping Tasor would not be longgone. They spoke of many things--of Hastor, and Helium, and Ptarth, andfinally the conversation reminded Tara of Gathol.
"You have served there?" she asked.
"Yes," replied Turan.
"I met Gahan the Jed of Gathol at my father's palace," she said, "thevery day before the storm snatched me from Helium--he was apresumptuous fellow, magnificently trapped in platinum and diamonds.Never in my life saw I so gorgeous a harness as his, and you must wellknow, Turan, that the splendor of all Barsoom passes through the courtat Helium; but in my mind I could not see so resplendent a creaturedrawing that jeweled sword in mortal combat. I fear me that the Jed ofGathol, though a pretty picture of a man, is little else."
In the dim light Tara did not perceive the wry expression upon thehalf-averted face of her companion.
"You thought little then of the Jed of Gathol?" he asked.
"Then or now," she replied, and with a little laugh; "how it wouldpique his vanity to know, if he might, that a poor panthan had won ahigher place in the regard of Tara of Helium," and she laid her fingersgently upon his knee.
He seized the fingers in his and carried them to his lips. "O, Tara ofHelium," he cried. "Think you that I am a man of stone?" One armslipped about her shoulders and drew the yielding body toward him.
"May my first ancestor forgive me my weakness," she cried, as her armsstole about his neck and she raised her panting lips to his. For longthey clung there in love's first kiss and then she pushed him away,gently. "I love you, Turan," she half sobbed; "I love you so! It is myonly poor excuse for having done this wrong to Djor Kantos, whom now Iknow I never loved, who knew not the meaning of love. And if you loveme as you say, Turan, your love must protect me from greater dishonor,for I am but as clay in your hands."
Again he crushed her to him and then as suddenly released her, andrising, strode rapidly to and fro across the chamber as though heendeavored by violent exercise to master and subdue some evil spiritthat had laid hold upon him. Ringing through his brain and heart andsoul like some joyous paean were those words that had so altered theworld for Gahan of Gathol: "I love you, Turan; I love you so!" And ithad come so suddenly. He had thought that she felt for him onlygratitude for his loyalty and then, in an instant, her barriers wereall down, she was no longer a princess; but instead a--his reflectionswere interrupted by a sound from beyond the closed door. His sandals ofzitidar hide had given forth no sound upon the marble floor he strode,and as his rapid pacing carried him past the entrance to the chamberthere came faintly from the distance of the long corridor the sound ofmetal on metal--the unmistakable herald of the approach of armed men.
For a moment Gahan listened intently, close to the door, until therecould be no doubt but that a party of warriors was approaching. Fromwhat Tasor had told him he guessed correctly that they would be comingto this portion of the palace but for a single purpose--to search forTara and himself--and it behooved him therefore to seek immediate meansfor eluding them. The chamber in which they were had other doorwaysbeside that at which they had entered, and to one of these he must lookfor some safer hiding place. Crossing to Tara he acquainted her withhis suspicion, leading her to one of the doors which they foundunsecured. Beyond it lay a dimly-lighted chamber at the threshold ofwhich they halted in consternation, drawing back quickly into thechamber they had just quitted, for their first glance revealed fourwarriors seated around a jetan board.
That their entrance had not been noted was attributed by Gahan to theabsorption of the two players and their friends in the game. Quietlyclosing the door the fugitives moved silently to the next, which theyfound locked. There was now but another door which they had not tried,and this they approached quickly as they knew that the searching partymust be close to the chamber. To their chagrin they found this avenueof escape barred.
Now indeed were they in a sorry plight, for should the searchers haveinformation leading them to this room they were lost. Again leadingTara to the door behind which were the jetan players Gahan drew hissword and waited, listening. The sound of the party in the corridorcame distinctly to their ears--they must be quite close, and doubtlessthey were coming in force. Beyond the door were but four warriors whomight be readily surprised. There could, then, be but one choice andacting upon it Gahan quietly opened the door again, stepped throughinto the adjoining chamber, Tara's hand in his, and closed the doorbehind them. The four at the jetan board evidently failed to hear them.One player had eith
er just made or was contemplating a move, for hisfingers grasped a piece that still rested upon the board. The otherthree were watching his move. For an instant Gahan looked at them,playing jetan there in the dim light of this forgotten and forbiddenchamber, and then a slow smile of understanding lighted his face.
"Come!" he said to Tara. "We have nothing to fear from these. For morethan five thousand years they have sat thus, a monument to thehandiwork of some ancient taxidermist."
As they approached more closely they saw that the lifelike figures werecoated with dust, but that otherwise the skin was in as fine a state ofpreservation as the most recent of I-Gos' groups, and then they heardthe door of the chamber they had quitted open and knew that thesearchers were close upon them. Across the room they saw the opening ofwhat appeared to be a corridor and which investigation proved to be ashort passageway, terminating in a chamber in the center of which wasan ornate sleeping dais. This room, like the others, was but poorlylighted, time having dimmed the radiance of its bulbs and coated themwith dust. A glance showed that it was hung with heavy goods andcontained considerable massive furniture in addition to the sleepingplatform, a second glance at which revealed what appeared to be theform of a man lying partially on the floor and partially on the dais.No doorways were visible other than that at which they had entered,though both knew that others might be concealed by the hangings.
Gahan, his curiosity aroused by the legends surrounding this portion ofthe palace, crossed to the dais to examine the figure that apparentlyhad fallen from it, to find the dried and shrivelled corpse of a manlying upon his back on the floor with arms outstretched and fingersstiffly outspread. One of his feet was doubled partially beneath him,while the other was still entangled in the sleeping silks and furs uponthe dais. After five thousand years the expression of the withered faceand the eyeless sockets retained the aspect of horrid fear to such anextent, that Gahan knew that he was looking upon the body of O-Mai theCruel.
Suddenly Tara, who stood close beside him, clutched his arm and pointedtoward a far corner of the room. Gahan looked and looking felt thehairs upon his neck rising. He threw his left arm about the girl andwith bared sword stood between her and the hangings that they watched,and then slowly Gahan of Gathol backed away, for in this grim andsomber chamber, which no human foot had trod for five thousand yearsand to which no breath of wind might enter, the heavy hangings in thefar corner had moved. Not gently had they moved as a draught might havemoved them had there been a draught, but suddenly they had bulged outas though pushed against from behind. To the opposite corner backedGahan until they stood with their backs against the hangings there, andthen hearing the approach of their pursuers across the chamber beyondGahan pushed Tara through the hangings and, following her, kept openwith his left hand, which he had disengaged from the girl's grasp, atiny opening through which he could view the apartment and the doorwayupon the opposite side through which the pursuers would enter, if theycame this far.
Behind the hangings there was a space of about three feet in widthbetween them and the wall, making a passageway entirely around theroom, broken only by the single entrance opposite them; this being acommon arrangement especially in the sleeping apartments of the richand powerful upon Barsoom. The purposes of this arrangement wereseveral. The passageway afforded a station for guards in the same roomwith their master without intruding entirely upon his privacy; itconcealed secret exits from the chamber; it permitted the occupant ofthe room to hide eavesdroppers and assassins for use against enemiesthat he might lure to his chamber.
The three chiefs with a dozen warriors had had no difficulty infollowing the tracks of the fugitives through the dust of the corridorsand chambers they had traversed. To enter this portion of the palace atall had required all the courage they possessed, and now that they werewithin the very chambers of O-Mai their nerves were pitched to thehighest key--another turn and they would snap; for the people ofManator are filled with weird superstitions. As they entered the outerchamber they moved slowly, with drawn swords, no one seeming anxious totake the lead, and the twelve warriors hanging back in unconcealed andshameless terror, while the three chiefs, spurred on by fear of O-Tarand by pride, pressed together for mutual encouragement as they slowlycrossed the dimly-lighted room.
Following the tracks of Gahan and Tara they found that though eachdoorway had been approached only one threshold had been crossed andthis door they gingerly opened, revealing to their astonished gaze thefour warriors at the jetan table. For a moment they were on the vergeof flight, for though they knew what they were, coming as they did uponthem in this mysterious and haunted suite, they were as startled asthough they had beheld the very ghosts of the departed. But theypresently regained their courage sufficiently to cross this chamber tooand enter the short passageway that led to the ancient sleepingapartment of O-Mai the Cruel. They did not know that this awful chamberlay just before them, or it were doubtful that they would haveproceeded farther; but they saw that those they sought had come thisway and so they followed, but within the gloomy interior of the chamberthey halted, the three chiefs urging their followers, in low whispers,to close in behind them, and there just within the entrance they stooduntil, their eyes becoming accustomed to the dim light, one of thempointed suddenly to the thing lying upon the floor with one foottangled in the coverings of the dais.
"Look!" he gasped. "It is the corpse of O-Mai! Ancestor of ancestors!we are in the forbidden chamber." Simultaneously there came from behindthe hangings beyond the grewsome dead a hollow moan followed by apiercing scream, and the hangings shook and bellied before their eyes.
With one accord, chieftains and warriors, they turned and bolted forthe doorway; a narrow doorway, where they jammed, fighting andscreaming in an effort to escape. They threw away their swords andclawed at one another to make a passage for escape; those behindclimbed upon the shoulders of those in front; and some fell and weretrampled upon; but at last they all got through, and, the swiftestfirst, they bolted across the two intervening chambers to the outercorridor beyond, nor did they halt their mad retreat before theystumbled, weak and trembling, into the banquet hall of O-Tar. At sightof them the warriors who had remained with the jeddak leaped to theirfeet with drawn swords, thinking that their fellows were pursued bymany enemies; but no one followed them into the room, and the threechieftains came and stood before O-Tar with bowed heads and tremblingknees.
"Well?" demanded the jeddak. "What ails you? Speak!"
"O-Tar," cried one of them when at last he could master his voice."When have we three failed you in battle or combat? Have our swordsbeen not always among the foremost in defense of your safety and yourhonor?"
"Have I denied this?" demanded O-Tar.
"Listen, then, O Jeddak, and judge us with leniency. We followed thetwo slaves to the apartments of O-Mai the Cruel. We entered theaccursed chambers and still we did not falter. We came at last to thathorrid chamber no human eye had scanned before in fifty centuries andwe looked upon the dead face of O-Mai lying as he has lain for all thistime. To the very death chamber of O-Mai the Cruel we came and yet wewere ready to go farther; when suddenly there broke upon our horrifiedears the moans and the shrieking that mark these haunted chambers andthe hangings moved and rustled in the dead air. O-Tar, it was more thanhuman nerves could endure. We turned and fled. We threw away our swordsand fought with one another to escape. With sorrow, but without shame,I tell it, for there be no man in all Manator that would not have donethe same. If these slaves be Corphals they are safe among their fellowghosts. If they be not Corphals, then already are they dead in thechambers of O-Mai, and there may they rot for all of me, for I wouldnot return to that accursed spot for the harness of a jeddak and thehalf of Barsoom for an empire. I have spoken."
O-Tar knitted his scowling brows. "Are all my chieftains cowards andcravens?" he demanded presently in sneering tones.
From among those who had not been of the searching party a chieftainarose and turned a scowling face upon O-Tar.
"The jeddak knows," he said, "that in the annals of Manator her jeddakshave ever been accounted the bravest of her warriors. Where my jeddakleads I will follow, nor may any jeddak call me a coward or a cravenunless I refuse to go where he dares to go. I have spoken."
After he had resumed his seat there was a painful silence, for all knewthat the speaker had challenged the courage of O-Tar the Jeddak ofManator and all awaited the reply of their ruler. In every mind was thesame thought--O-Tar must lead them at once to the chamber of O-Mai theCruel, or accept forever the stigma of cowardice, and there could be nocoward upon the throne of Manator. That they all knew and that O-Tarknew, as well.
But O-Tar hesitated. He looked about upon the faces of those around himat the banquet board; but he saw only the grim visages of relentlesswarriors. There was no trace of leniency in the face of any. And thenhis eyes wandered to a small entrance at one side of the great chamber.An expression of relief expunged the scowl of anxiety from his features.
"Look!" he exclaimed. "See who has come!"
The Chessmen of Mars Page 20
