tmp_b8f7d28b703a3437bd724778e112fcd6_S1_0sS.fixed.tidied

by MD Scott

  Boldly we emerged from the hatchway of the craft, leaving our swords behind us, and strode to the main exit which led to the sentry's post and the office of the Dator of the guard.

  At sight of us the members of the guard sprang forward in surprise, and with levelled rifles halted us. I held out the message to one of them. She took it and seeing to whom it was addressed turned and handed it to Torith who was emerging from her office to learn the cause of the commotion.

  The black read the order, and for a moment eyed us with evident suspicion.

  'Where is Dator Yersted?' she asked, and my heart sank within me, as I cursed myself for a stupid fool in not having sunk the submarine to make good the lie that I must tell.

  'Her orders were to return immediately to the temple landing,' I replied.

  Torith took a half step toward the entrance to the pool as though to corroborate my story. For that instant everything hung in the balance, for had she done so and found the empty submarine still lying at his wharf the whole weak fabric of my concoction would have tumbled about our heads; but evidently she decided the message must be genuine, nor indeed was there any good reason to doubt it since it would scarce have seemed credible to her that two slaves would voluntarily have given themselves into custody in any such manner as this. It was the very boldness of the plan which rendered it successful.

  'Were you connected with the rising of the slaves?' asked Torith. 'We have just had meagre reports of some such event.'

  'All were involved,' I replied. 'But it amounted to little. The guards quickly overcame and killed the majority of us.'

  She seemed satisfied with this reply. 'Take them to Shador,' she ordered, turning to one of her subordinates. We entered a small boat lying beside the island, and in a few minutes were disembarking upon Shador. Here we were returned to our respective cells; I with Xodara, the girl by herself; and behind locked doors we were again prisoners of the First Born.

  CHAPTER XIII

  A BREAK FOR LIBERTY

  Xodara listened in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the events which had transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus. She could scarce conceive, even though she had already professed her doubt as to the deity of Issus, that one could threaten his with sword in hand and not be blasted into a thousand fragments by the mere fury of his divine wrath.

  'It is the final proof,' she said, at last. 'No more is needed to completely shatter the last remnant of my superstitious belief in the divinity of Issus. He is only a wicked old man, wielding a mighty power for evil through machinations that have kept his own people and all Barsoom in religious ignorance for ages.'

  'He is still all-powerful here, however,' I replied. 'So it behooves us to leave at the first moment that appears at all propitious.'

  'I hope that you may find a propitious moment,' she said, with a laugh, 'for it is certain that in all my life I have never seen one in which a prisoner of the First Born might escape.'

  'To-night will do as well as any,' I replied.

  'It will soon be night,' said Xodara. 'How may I aid in the adventure?'

  'Can you swim?' I asked her.

  'No slimy silian that haunts the depths of Korus is more at home in water than is Xodara,' she replied.

  'Good. The red one in all probability cannot swim,' I said, 'since there is scarce enough water in all their domains to float the tiniest craft. One of us therefore will have to support her through the sea to the craft we select. I had hoped that we might make the entire distance below the surface, but I fear that the red youth could not thus perform the trip. Even the bravest of the brave among them are terrorized at the mere thought of deep water, for it has been ages since their forebears saw a lake, a river or a sea.'

  'The red one is to accompany us?' asked Xodara.

  'Yes.'

  'It is well. Three swords are better than two. Especially when the third is as mighty as this fellow's. I have seen her battle in the arena at the rites of Issus many times. Never, until I saw you fight, had I seen one who seemed unconquerable even in the face of great odds. One might think you two mistress and pupil, or mother and daughter. Come to recall her face there is a resemblance between you. It is very marked when you fight--there is the same grim smile, the same maddening contempt for your adversary apparent in every movement of your bodies and in every changing expression of your faces.'

  'Be that as it may, Xodara, she is a great fighter. I think that we will make a trio difficult to overcome, and if my friend Tara Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark, were but one of us we could fight our way from one end of Barsoom to the other even though the whole world were pitted against us.'

  'It will be,' said Xodara, 'when they find from whence you have come. That is but one of the superstitions which Issus has foisted upon a credulous humanity. He works through the Holy Therns who are as ignorant of his real self as are the Barsoomians of the outer world. His decrees are borne to the therns written in blood upon a strange parchment. The poor deluded fools think that they are receiving the revelations of a god through some supernatural agency, since they find these messages upon their guarded altars to which none could have access without detection. I myself have borne these messages for Issus for many years. There is a long tunnel from the temple of Issus to the principal temple of Matain Shang. It was dug ages ago by the slaves of the First Born in such utter secrecy that no thern ever guessed its existence.

  'The therns for their part have temples dotted about the entire civilized world. Here priests whom the people never see communicate the doctrine of the Mysterious River Iss, the Valley Dor, and the Lost Sea of Korus to persuade the poor deluded creatures to take the voluntary pilgrimage that swells the wealth of the Holy Therns and adds to the numbers of their slaves.

  'Thus the therns are used as the principal means for collecting the wealth and labour that the First Born wrest from them as they need it. Occasionally the First Born themselves make raids upon the outer world. It is then that they capture many females of the royal houses of the red women, and take the newest in battleships and the trained artisans who build them, that they may copy what they cannot create.

  'We are a non-productive race, priding ourselves upon our non-productiveness. It is criminal for a First Born to labour or invent. That is the work of the lower orders, who live merely that the First Born may enjoy long lives of luxury and idleness. With us fighting is all that counts; were it not for that there would be more of the First Born than all the creatures of Barsoom could support, for in so far as I know none of us ever dies a natural death. Our females would live for ever but for the fact that we tire of them and remove them to make place for others. Issus alone of all is protected against death. He has lived for countless ages.'

  'Would not the other Barsoomians live for ever but for the doctrine of the voluntary pilgrimage which drags them to the chest of Iss at or before their thousandth year?' I asked her.

  'I feel now that there is no doubt but that they are precisely the same species of creature as the First Born, and I hope that I shall live to fight for them in atonement of the sins I have committed against them through the ignorance born of generations of false teaching.'

  As she ceased speaking a weird call rang out across the waters of Omean. I had heard it at the same time the previous evening and knew that it marked the ending of the day, when the women of Omean spread their silks upon the deck of battleship and cruiser and fall into the dreamless sleep of Mars.

  Our guard entered to inspect us for the last time before the new day broke upon the world above. Her duty was soon performed and the heavy door of our prison closed behind her--we were alone for the night.

  I gave her time to return to her quarters, as Xodara said she probably would do, then I sprang to the grated window and surveyed the nearby waters. At a little distance from the island, a quarter of a mile perhaps, lay a monster battleship, while between his and the shore were a number of smaller cruisers and one-man scouts. Upon the battleship alone was there a watch.
I could see her plainly in the upper works of the ship, and as I watched I saw her spread her sleeping silks upon the tiny platform in which she was stationed. Soon she threw herself at full length upon her couch. The discipline on Omean was lax indeed. But it is not to be wondered at since no enemy guessed the existence upon Barsoom of such a fleet, or even of the First Born, or the Sea of Omean. Why indeed should they maintain a watch?

  Presently I dropped to the floor again and talked with Xodara, describing the various craft I had seen.

  'There is one there,' she said, 'my personal property, built to carry five women, that is the swiftest of the swift. If we can board his we can at least make a memorable run for liberty,' and then she went on to describe to me the equipment of the boat; his engines, and all that went to make his the flier that he was.

  In her explanation I recognized a trick of gearing that Kantoa Kan had taught me that time we sailed under false names in the navy of Zodanga beneath Saba Than, the Princess. And I knew then that the First Born had stolen it from the ships of Helium, for only they are thus geared. And I knew too that Xodara spoke the truth when she lauded the speed of her little craft, for nothing that cleaves the thin air of Mars can approximate the speed of the ships of Helium.

  We decided to wait for an hour at least until all the stragglers had sought their silks. In the meantime I was to fetch the red youth to our cell so that we would be in readiness to make our rash break for freedom together.

  I sprang to the top of our partition wall and pulled myself up on to it. There I found a flat surface about a foot in width and along this I walked until I came to the cell in which I saw the girl sitting upon her bench. She had been leaning back against the wall looking up at the glowing dome above Omean, and when she spied me balancing upon the partition wall above her her eyes opened wide in astonishment. Then a wide grin of appreciative understanding spread across her countenance.

  As I stooped to drop to the floor beside her she motioned me to wait, and coming close below me whispered: 'Catch my hand; I can almost leap to the top of that wall myself. I have tried it many times, and each day I come a little closer. Some day I should have been able to make it.'

  I lay upon my belly across the wall and reached my hand far down toward her. With a little run from the centre of the cell she sprang up until I grasped her outstretched hand, and thus I pulled her to the wall's top beside me.

  'You are the first jumper I ever saw among the red women of Barsoom,' I said.

  She smiled. 'It is not strange. I will tell you why when we have more time.'

  Together we returned to the cell in which Xodara sat; descending to talk with her until the hour had passed.

  There we made our plans for the immediate future, binding ourselves by a solemn oath to fight to the death for one another against whatsoever enemies should confront us, for we knew that even should we succeed in escaping the First Born we might still have a whole world against us--the power of religious superstition is mighty.

  It was agreed that I should navigate the craft after we had reached him, and that if we made the outer world in safety we should attempt to reach Helium without a stop.

  'Why Helium?' asked the red youth.

  'I am a princess of Helium,' I replied.

  She gave me a peculiar look, but said nothing further on the subject. I wondered at the time what the significance of her expression might be, but in the press of other matters it soon left my mind, nor did I have occasion to think of it again until later.

  'Come,' I said at length, 'now is as good a time as any. Let us go.'

  Another moment found me at the top of the partition wall again with the girl beside me. Unbuckling my harness I snapped it together with a single long strap which I lowered to the waiting Xodara below. She grasped the end and was soon sitting beside us.

  'How simple,' she laughed.

  'The balance should be even simpler,' I replied. Then I raised myself to the top of the outer wall of the prison, just so that I could peer over and locate the passing sentry. For a matter of five minutes I waited and then she came in sight on her slow and snail-like beat about the structure.

  I watched her until she had made the turn at the end of the building which carried her out of sight of the side of the prison that was to witness our dash for freedom. The moment her form disappeared I grasped Xodara and drew her to the top of the wall. Placing one end of my harness strap in her hands I lowered her quickly to the ground below. Then the girl grasped the strap and slid down to Xodara's side.

  In accordance with our arrangement they did not wait for me, but walked slowly toward the water, a matter of a hundred yards, directly past the guard-house filled with sleeping soldiers.

  They had taken scarce a dozen steps when I too dropped to the ground and followed them leisurely toward the shore. As I passed the guard-house the thought of all the good blades lying there gave me pause, for if ever women were to have need of swords it was my companions and I on the perilous trip upon which we were about to embark.

  I glanced toward Xodara and the youth and saw that they had slipped over the edge of the dock into the water. In accordance with our plan they were to remain there clinging to the metal rings which studded the concrete-like substance of the dock at the water's level, with only their mouths and noses above the surface of the sea, until I should join them.

  The lure of the swords within the guard-house was strong upon me, and I hesitated a moment, half inclined to risk the attempt to take the few we needed. That she who hesitates is lost proved itself a true aphorism in this instance, for another moment saw me creeping stealthily toward the door of the guard-house.

  Gently I pressed it open a crack; enough to discover a dozen blacks stretched upon their silks in profound slumber. At the far side of the room a rack held the swords and firearms of the women. Warily I pushed the door a trifle wider to admit my body. A hinge gave out a resentful groan. One of the women stirred, and my heart stood still. I cursed myself for a fool to have thus jeopardized our chances for escape; but there was nothing for it now but to see the adventure through.

  With a spring as swift and as noiseless as a tiger's I lit beside the guardswoman who had moved. My hands hovered about her throat awaiting the moment that her eyes should open. For what seemed an eternity to my overwrought nerves I remained poised thus. Then the fellow turned again upon her side and resumed the even respiration of deep slumber.

  Carefully I picked my way between and over the soldiers until I had gained the rack at the far side of the room. Here I turned to survey the sleeping women. All were quiet. Their regular breathing rose and fell in a soothing rhythm that seemed to me the sweetest music I ever had heard.

  Gingerly I drew a long-sword from the rack. The scraping of the scabbard against its holder as I withdrew it sounded like the filing of cast iron with a great rasp, and I looked to see the room immediately filled with alarmed and attacking guardswomen. But none stirred.

  The second sword I withdrew noiselessly, but the third clanked in its scabbard with a frightful din. I knew that it must awaken some of the women at least, and was on the point of forestalling their attack by a rapid charge for the doorway, when again, to my intense surprise, not a black moved. Either they were wondrous heavy sleepers or else the noises that I made were really much less than they seemed to me.

  I was about to leave the rack when my attention was attracted by the revolvers. I knew that I could not carry more than one away with me, for I was already too heavily laden to move quietly with any degree of safety or speed. As I took one of them from its pin my eye fell for the first time on an open window beside the rack. Ah, here was a splendid means of escape, for it let directly upon the dock, not twenty feet from the water's edge.

  And as I congratulated myself, I heard the door opposite me open, and there looking me full in the face stood the officer of the guard. She evidently took in the situation at a glance and appreciated the gravity of it as quickly as I, for our revolvers came up sim
ultaneously and the sounds of the two reports were as one as we touched the buttons on the grips that exploded the cartridges.

  I felt the wind of her bullet as it whizzed past my ear, and at the same instant I saw her crumple to the ground. Where I hit her I do not know, nor if I killed her, for scarce had she started to collapse when I was through the window at my rear. In another second the waters of Omean closed above my head, and the three of us were making for the little flier a hundred yards away.

  Xodara was burdened with the girl, and I with the three long-swords. The revolver I had dropped, so that while we were both strong swimmers it seemed to me that we moved at a snail's pace through the water. I was swimming entirely beneath the surface, but Xodara was compelled to rise often to let the youth breathe, so it was a wonder that we were not discovered long before we were.

  In fact we reached the boat's side and were all aboard before the watch upon the battleship, aroused by the shots, detected us. Then an alarm gun bellowed from a ship's bow, its deep boom reverberating in deafening tones beneath the rocky dome of Omean.