CHAPTER V
THE FAIR RACE
Downward along a smooth, broad floor led the strange tunnel, forsuch Carthoris was now convinced was the nature of the shaft he atfirst had thought but a cave.
Before him he could hear the occasional low moans of the banth, andpresently from behind came a similar uncanny note. Another banthhad entered the passageway on HIS trail!
His position was anything but pleasant. His eyes could not penetratethe darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face,while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence oflight were utter.
No other sounds came to his ears than the dismal, bloodthirstymoanings of the beast ahead and the beast behind.
The tunnel had led straight, from where he had entered it beneaththe side of the rock furthest from the unscaleable cliffs, towardthe mighty barrier that had baffled him so long.
Now it was running almost level, and presently he noted a gradualascent.
The beast behind him was gaining upon him, crowding him perilouslyclose upon the heels of the beast in front. Presently he shouldhave to do battle with one, or both. More firmly he gripped hisweapon.
Now he could hear the breathing of the banth at his heels. Notfor much longer could he delay the encounter.
Long since he had become assured that the tunnel led beneath thecliffs to the opposite side of the barrier, and he had hoped thathe might reach the moonlit open before being compelled to grapplewith either of the monsters.
The sun had been setting as he entered the tunnel, and the wayhad been sufficiently long to assure him that darkness now reignedupon the world without. He glanced behind him. Blazing out ofthe darkness, seemingly not ten paces behind, glared two flamingpoints of fire. As the savage eyes met his, the beast emitted afrightful roar and then he charged.
To face that savage mountain of onrushing ferocity, to stand unshakenbefore the hideous fangs that he knew were bared in slaveringblood-thirstiness, though he could not see them, required nervesof steel; but of such were the nerves of Carthoris of Helium.
He had the brute's eyes to guide his point, and, as true as thesword hand of his mighty sire, his guided the keen point to one ofthose blazing orbs, even as he leaped lightly to one side.
With a hideous scream of pain and rage, the wounded banth hurtled,clawing, past him. Then it turned to charge once more; but thistime Carthoris saw but a single gleaming point of fiery hate directedupon him.
Again the needle point met its flashing target. Again the horridcry of the stricken beast reverberated through the rocky tunnel,shocking in its torture-laden shrillness, deafening in its terrificvolume.
But now, as it turned to charge again, the man had no guide wherebyto direct his point. He heard the scraping of the padded feet uponthe rocky floor. He knew the thing was charging down upon him onceagain, but he could see nothing.
Yet, if he could not see his antagonist, neither could his antagonistnow see him.
Leaping, as he thought, to the exact centre of the tunnel, he heldhis sword point ready on a line with the beast's chest. It wasall that he could do, hoping that chance might send the point intothe savage heart as he went down beneath the great body.
So quickly was the thing over that Carthoris could scarce believehis senses as the mighty body rushed madly past him. Either hehad not placed himself in the centre of the tunnel, or else theblinded banth had erred in its calculations.
However, the huge body missed him by a foot, and the creaturecontinued on down the tunnel as though in pursuit of the prey thathad eluded him.
Carthoris, too, followed the same direction, nor was it long beforehis heart was gladdened by the sight of the moonlit exit from thelong, dark passage.
Before him lay a deep hollow, entirely surrounded by giganticcliffs. The surface of the valley was dotted with enormous trees,a strange sight so far from a Martian waterway. The ground itselfwas clothed in brilliant scarlet sward, picked out with innumerablepatches of gorgeous wild flowers.
Beneath the glorious effulgence of the two moons the scene was oneof indescribable loveliness, tinged with the weirdness of strangeenchantment.
For only an instant, however, did his gaze rest upon the naturalbeauties outspread before him. Almost immediately they were rivetedupon the figure of a great banth standing across the carcass of anew-killed thoat.
The huge beast, his tawny mane bristling around his hideous head,kept his eyes fixed upon another banth that charged erraticallyhither and thither, with shrill screams of pain, and horrid roarsof hate and rage.
Carthoris quickly guessed that the second brute was the one he hadblinded during the fight in the tunnel, but it was the dead thoatthat centred his interest more than either of the savage carnivores.
The harness was still upon the body of the huge Martian mount, andCarthoris could not doubt but that this was the very animal uponwhich the green warrior had borne away Thuvia of Ptarth.
But where were the rider and his prisoner? The Prince of Heliumshuddered as he thought upon the probability of the fate that hadovertaken them.
Human flesh is the food most craved by the fierce Barsoomian lion,whose great carcass and giant thews require enormous quantities ofmeat to sustain them.
Two human bodies would have but whetted the creature's appetite,and that he had killed and eaten the green man and the red girlseemed only too likely to Carthoris. He had left the carcassof the mighty thoat to be devoured after having consumed the moretooth-some portion of his banquet.
Now the sightless banth, in its savage, aimless charging andcounter-charging, had passed beyond the kill of its fellow, andthere the light breeze that was blowing wafted the scent of newblood to its nostrils.
No longer were its movements erratic. With outstretched tail andfoaming jaws it charged straight as an arrow, for the body of thethoat and the mighty creature of destruction that stood with forepawsupon the slate-grey side, waiting to defend its meat.
When the charging banth was twenty paces from the dead thoat thekiller gave vent to its hideous challenge, and with a mighty springleaped forward to meet it.
The battle that ensued awed even the warlike Barsoomian. Themad rending, the hideous and deafening roaring, the implacablesavagery of the blood-stained beasts held him in the paralysisof fascination, and when it was over and the two creatures, theirheads and shoulders torn to ribbons, lay with their dead jawsstill buried in each other's bodies, Carthoris tore himself fromthe spell only by an effort of the will.
Hurrying to the side of the dead thoat, he searched for traces ofthe girl he feared had shared the thoat's fate, but nowhere couldhe discover anything to confirm his fears.
With slightly lightened heart he started out to explore the valley,but scarce a dozen steps had he taken when the glistening of ajewelled bauble lying on the sward caught his eye.
As he picked it up his first glance showed him that it was awoman's hair ornament, and emblazoned upon it was the insignia ofthe royal house of Ptarth.
But, sinister discovery, blood, still wet, splotched the magnificentjewels of the setting.
Carthoris half choked as the dire possibilities which the thingsuggested presented themselves to his imagination. Yet he couldnot, would not believe it.
It was impossible that that radiant creature could have met sohideous an end. It was incredible that the glorious Thuvia shouldever cease to be.
Upon his already jewel-encrusted harness, to the strap that crossedhis great chest beneath which beat his loyal heart, Carthoris,Prince of Helium, fastened the gleaming thing that Thuvia of Ptarthhad worn, and wearing, had made holy to the Heliumite.
Then he proceeded upon his way into the heart of the unknown valley.
For the most part the giant trees shut off his view to any but themost limited distances. Occasionally he caught glimpses of thetowering hills that bounded the valley upon every side, and thoughthey stood out clear beneath the light of the two moons, he knew thatthey were far off, and
that the extent of the valley was immense.
For half the night he continued his search, until presently he wasbrought to a sudden halt by the distant sound of squealing thoats.
Guided by the noise of these habitually angry beasts, he stoleforward through the trees until at last he came upon a level,treeless plain, in the centre of which a mighty city reared itsburnished domes and vividly coloured towers.
About the walled city the red man saw a huge encampment of thegreen warriors of the dead sea-bottoms, and as he let his eyesrove carefully over the city he realized that here was no desertedmetropolis of a dead past.
But what city could it be? His studies had taught him that in thislittle-explored portion of Barsoom the fierce tribe of Torquasiangreen men ruled supreme, and that as yet no red man had succeededin piercing to the heart of their domain to return again to theworld of civilization.
The men of Torquas had perfected huge guns with which their uncannymarksmanship had permitted them to repulse the few determinedefforts that near-by red nations had made to explore their countryby means of battle fleets of airships.
That he was within the boundary of Torquas, Carthoris was sure, butthat there existed there such a wondrous city he never had dreamed,nor had the chronicles of the past even hinted at such a possibility,for the Torquasians were known to live, as did the other green menof Mars, within the deserted cities that dotted the dying planet,nor ever had any green horde built so much as a single edifice,other than the low-walled incubators where their young are hatchedby the sun's heat.
The encircling camp of green warriors lay about five hundred yardsfrom the city's walls. Between it and the city was no semblanceof breastwork or other protection against rifle or cannon fire;yet distinctly now in the light of the rising sun Carthoris couldsee many figures moving along the summit of the high wall, and uponthe roof tops beyond.
That they were beings like himself he was sure, though they were attoo great distance from him for him to be positive that they werered men.
Almost immediately after sunrise the green warriors commenced firingupon the little figures upon the wall. To Carthoris' surprisethe fire was not returned, but presently the last of the city'sinhabitants had sought shelter from the weird marksmanship of thegreen men, and no further sign of life was visible beyond the wall.
Then Carthoris, keeping within the shelter of the trees that fringedthe plain, began circling the rear of the besiegers' line, hopingagainst hope that somewhere he would obtain sight of Thuvia ofPtarth, for even now he could not believe that she was dead.
That he was not discovered was a miracle, for mounted warriors wereconstantly riding back and forth from the camp into the forest; butthe long day wore on and still he continued his seemingly fruitlessquest, until, near sunset, he came opposite a mighty gate in thecity's western wall.
Here seemed to be the principal force of the attacking horde.Here a great platform had been erected whereon Carthoris could seesquatting a huge green warrior, surrounded by others of his kind.
This, then, must be the notorious Hortan Gur, Jeddak of Torquas,the fierce old ogre of the south-western hemisphere, as only fora jeddak are platforms raised in temporary camps or upon the marchby the green hordes of Barsoom.
As the Heliumite watched he saw another green warrior push his wayforward toward the rostrum. Beside him he dragged a captive, andas the surrounding warriors parted to let the two pass, Carthoriscaught a fleeting glimpse of the prisoner.
His heart leaped in rejoicing. Thuvia of Ptarth still lived!
It was with difficulty that Carthoris restrained the impulse torush forward to the side of the Ptarthian princess; but in the endhis better judgment prevailed, for in the face of such odds he knewthat he should have been but throwing away, uselessly, any futureopportunity he might have to succour her.
He saw her dragged to the foot of the rostrum. He saw Hortan Guraddress her. He could not hear the creature's words, nor Thuvia'sreply; but it must have angered the green monster, for Carthorissaw him leap toward the prisoner, striking her a cruel blow acrossthe face with his metal-banded arm.
Then the son of John Carter, Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom,went mad. The old, blood-red haze through which his sire had glaredat countless foes, floated before his eyes.
His half-Earthly muscles, responding quickly to his will, senthim in enormous leaps and bounds toward the green monster that hadstruck the woman he loved.
The Torquasians were not looking in the direction of the forest.All eyes had been upon the figures of the girl and their jeddak,and loud was the hideous laughter that rang out in appreciation ofthe wit of the green emperor's reply to his prisoner's appeal forliberty.
Carthoris had covered about half the distance between the forestand the green warriors, when a new factor succeeded in still furtherdirecting the attention of the latter from him.
Upon a high tower within the beleaguered city a man appeared. Fromhis upturned mouth there issued a series of frightful shrieks;uncanny shrieks that swept, shrill and terrifying, across the city'swalls, over the heads of the besiegers, and out across the forestto the uttermost confines of the valley.
Once, twice, thrice the fearsome sound smote upon the ears of thelistening green men and then far, far off across the broad woodscame sharp and clear from the distance an answering shriek.
It was but the first. From every point rose similar savage cries,until the world seemed to tremble to their reverberations.
The green warriors looked nervously this way and that. They knewnot fear, as Earth men may know it; but in the face of the unusualtheir wonted self-assurance deserted them.
And then the great gate in the city wall opposite the platform ofHortan Gur swung suddenly wide. From it issued as strange a sightas Carthoris ever had witnessed, though at the moment he had timeto cast but a single fleeting glance at the tall bowmen emergingthrough the portal behind their long, oval shields; to note theirflowing auburn hair; and to realize that the growling things attheir side were fierce Barsoomian lions.
Then he was in the midst of the astonished Torquasians. Withdrawn long-sword he was among them, and to Thuvia of Ptarth, whosestartled eyes were the first to fall upon him, it seemed that shewas looking upon John Carter himself, so strangely similar to thefighting of the father was that of the son.
Even to the famous fighting smile of the Virginian was the resemblancetrue. And the sword arm! Ah, the subtleness of it, and the speed!
All about was turmoil and confusion. Green warriors were leapingto the backs of their restive, squealing thoats. Calots weregrowling out their savage gutturals, whining to be at the throatsof the oncoming foemen.
Thar Ban and another by the side of the rostrum had been the firstto note the coming of Carthoris, and it was with them he battledfor possession of the red girl, while the others hastened to meetthe host advancing from the beleaguered city.
Carthoris sought both to defend Thuvia of Ptarth and reach theside of the hideous Hortan Gur that he might avenge the blow thecreature had struck the girl.
He succeeded in reaching the rostrum, over the dead bodies oftwo warriors who had turned to join Thar Ban and his companion inrepulsing this adventurous red man, just as Hortan Gur was aboutto leap from it to the back of his thoat.
The attention of the green warriors turned principally uponthe bowmen advancing upon them from the city, and upon the savagebanths that paced beside them--cruel beasts of war, infinitely moreterrible than their own savage calots.
As Carthoris leaped to the rostrum he drew Thuvia up beside him,and then he turned upon the departing jeddak with an angry challengeand a sword thrust.
As the Heliumite's point pricked his green hide, Hortan Gur turnedupon his adversary with a snarl, but at the same instant twoof his chieftains called to him to hasten, for the charge of thefair-skinned inhabitants of the city was developing into a moreserious matter than the Torquasians had anticipated.
Instead of remaining to battle with the red
man, Hortan Gur promisedhim his attention after he had disposed of the presumptuous citizensof the walled city, and, leaping astride his thoat, galloped offto meet the rapidly advancing bowmen.
The other warriors quickly followed their jeddak, leaving Thuviaand Carthoris alone upon the platform.
Between them and the city raged a terrific battle. The fair-skinnedwarriors, armed only with their long bows and a kind of short-handledwar-axe, were almost helpless beneath the savage mounted green menat close quarters; but at a distance their sharp arrows did fullyas much execution as the radium projectiles of the green men.
But if the warriors themselves were outclassed, not so their savagecompanions, the fierce banths. Scarce had the two lines cometogether when hundreds of these appalling creatures had leapedamong the Torquasians, dragging warriors from their thoats--draggingdown the huge thoats themselves, and bringing consternation to allbefore them.
The numbers of the citizenry, too, was to their advantage, forit seemed that scarce a warrior fell but his place was taken by ascore more, in such a constant stream did they pour from the city'sgreat gate.
And so it came, what with the ferocity of the banths and thenumbers of the bowmen, that at last the Torquasians fell back,until presently the platform upon which stood Carthoris and Thuvialay directly in the centre of the fight.
That neither was struck by a bullet or an arrow seemed a miracleto both; but at last the tide had rolled completely past them, sothat they were alone between the fighters and the city, except forthe dying and the dead, and a score or so of growling banths, lesswell trained than their fellows, who prowled among the corpsesseeking meat.
To Carthoris the strangest part of the battle had been the terrifictoll taken by the bowmen with their relatively puny weapons. Nowherethat he could see was there a single wounded green man, but thecorpses of their dead lay thick upon the field of battle.
Death seemed to follow instantly the slightest pinprick of a bowman'sarrow, nor apparently did one ever miss its goal. There could bebut one explanation: the missiles were poison-tipped.
Presently the sounds of conflict died in the distant forest.Quiet reigned, broken only by the growling of the devouring banths.Carthoris turned toward Thuvia of Ptarth. As yet neither hadspoken.
"Where are we, Thuvia?" he asked.
The girl looked at him questioningly. His very presence had seemedto proclaim a guilty knowledge of her abduction. How else mighthe have known the destination of the flier that brought her!
"Who should know better than the Prince of Helium?" she asked inreturn. "Did he not come hither of his own free will?"
"From Aaanthor I came voluntarily upon the trail of the green manwho had stolen you, Thuvia," he replied; "but from the time I leftHelium until I awoke above Aaanthor I thought myself bound forPtarth.
"It had been intimated that I had guilty knowledge of your abduction,"he explained simply, "and I was hastening to the jeddak, yourfather, to convince him of the falsity of the charge, and to give myservice to your recovery. Before I left Helium some one tamperedwith my compass, so that it bore me to Aaanthor instead of toPtarth. That is all. You believe me?"
"But the warriors who stole me from the garden!" she exclaimed."After we arrived at Aaanthor they wore the metal of the Prince ofHelium. When they took me they were trapped in Dusarian harness.There seemed but a single explanation. Whoever dared the outragewished to put the onus upon another, should he be detected in theact; but once safely away from Ptarth he felt safe in having hisminions return to their own harness."
"You believe that I did this thing, Thuvia?" he asked.
"Ah, Carthoris," she replied sadly, "I did not wish to believe it;but when everything pointed to you--even then I would not believeit."
"I did not do it, Thuvia," he said. "But let me be entirely honestwith you. As much as I love your father, as much as I respect KulanTith, to whom you are betrothed, as well as I know the frightfulconsequences that must have followed such an act of mine, hurlinginto war, as it would, three of the greatest nations of Barsoom--yet,notwithstanding all this, I should not have hesitated to take youthus, Thuvia of Ptarth, had you even hinted that it would not havedispleased YOU.
"But you did nothing of the kind, and so I am here, not in my ownservice, but in yours, and in the service of the man to whom youare promised, to save you for him, if it lies within the power ofman to do so," he concluded, almost bitterly.
Thuvia of Ptarth looked into his face for several moments. Herbreast was rising and falling as though to some resistless emotion.She half took a step toward him. Her lips parted as though tospeak--swiftly and impetuously.
And then she conquered whatever had moved her.
"The future acts of the Prince of Helium," she said coldly, "mustconstitute the proof of his past honesty of purpose."
Carthoris was hurt by the girl's tone, as much as by the doubt asto his integrity which her words implied.
He had half hoped that she might hint that his love would beacceptable--certainly there was due him at least a little gratitudefor his recent acts in her behalf; but the best he received wascold skepticism.
The Prince of Helium shrugged his broad shoulders. The girl notedit, and the little smile that touched his lips, so that it becameher turn to be hurt.
Of course she had not meant to hurt him. He might have known thatafter what he had said she could not do anything to encourage him!But he need not have made his indifference quite so palpable. Themen of Helium were noted for their gallantry--not for boorishness.Possibly it was the Earth blood that flowed in his veins.
How could she know that the shrug was but Carthoris' way ofattempting, by physical effort, to cast blighting sorrow from hisheart, or that the smile upon his lips was the fighting smile of hisfather with which the son gave outward evidence of the determinationhe had reached to submerge his own great love in his efforts tosave Thuvia of Ptarth for another, because he believed that sheloved this other!
He reverted to his original question.
"Where are we?" he asked. "I do not know."
"Nor I," replied the girl. "Those who stole me from Ptarth spokeamong themselves of Aaanthor, so that I thought it possible thatthe ancient city to which they took me was that famous ruin; butwhere we may be now I have no idea."
"When the bowmen return we shall doubtless learn all that there isto know," said Carthoris. "Let us hope that they prove friendly.What race may they be? Only in the most ancient of our legendsand in the mural paintings of the deserted cities of the deadsea-bottoms are depicted such a race of auburn-haired, fair-skinnedpeople. Can it be that we have stumbled upon a surviving city ofthe past which all Barsoom believes buried beneath the ages?"
Thuvia was looking toward the forest into which the green men andthe pursuing bowmen had disappeared. From a great distance camethe hideous cries of banths, and an occasional shot.
"It is strange that they do not return," said the girl.
"One would expect to see the wounded limping or being carried backto the city," replied Carthoris, with a puzzled frown. "But howabout the wounded nearer the city? Have they carried them within?"
Both turned their eyes toward the field between them and the walledcity, where the fighting had been most furious.
There were the banths, still growling about their hideous feast.
Carthoris looked at Thuvia in astonishment. Then he pointed towardthe field.
"Where are they?" he whispered. "WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEIR DEADAND WOUNDED?"