THE PIT OF PLENTY
I did not languish long within the prison of Salensus Oll. Duringthe short time that I lay there, fettered with chains of gold, Ioften wondered as to the fate of Thuvan Dihn, Jeddak of Ptarth.
My brave companion had followed me into the garden as I attackedThurid, and when Salensus Oll had left with Dejah Thoris and theothers, leaving Thuvia of Ptarth behind, he, too, had remainedin the garden with his daughter, apparently unnoticed, for he wasappareled similarly to the guards.
The last I had seen of him he stood waiting for the warriors whoescorted me to close the gate behind them, that he might be alonewith Thuvia. Could it be possible that they had escaped? I doubtedit, and yet with all my heart I hoped that it might be true.
The third day of my incarceration brought a dozen warriors to escortme to the audience chamber, where Salensus Oll himself was to tryme. A great number of nobles crowded the room, and among them Isaw Thurid, but Matai Shang was not there.
Dejah Thoris, as radiantly beautiful as ever, sat upon a small thronebeside Salensus Oll. The expression of sad hopelessness upon herdear face cut deep into my heart.
Her position beside the Jeddak of Jeddaks boded ill for her and me,and on the instant that I saw her there, there sprang to my mindthe firm intention never to leave that chamber alive if I mustleave her in the clutches of this powerful tyrant.
I had killed better men than Salensus Oll, and killed them with mybare hands, and now I swore to myself that I should kill him if Ifound that the only way to save the Princess of Helium. That itwould mean almost instant death for me I cared not, except thatit would remove me from further efforts in behalf of Dejah Thoris,and for this reason alone I would have chosen another way, foreven though I should kill Salensus Oll that act would not restoremy beloved wife to her own people. I determined to wait the finaloutcome of the trial, that I might learn all that I could of theOkarian ruler's intentions, and then act accordingly.
Scarcely had I come before him than Salensus Oll summoned Thuridalso.
"Dator Thurid," he said, "you have made a strange request of me;but, in accordance with your wishes and your promise that it willresult only to my interests, I have decided to accede.
"You tell me that a certain announcement will be the means ofconvicting this prisoner and, at the same time, open the way tothe gratification of my dearest wish."
Thurid nodded.
"Then shall I make the announcement here before all my nobles,"continued Salensus Oll. "For a year no queen has sat upon thethrone beside me, and now it suits me to take to wife one who isreputed the most beautiful woman upon Barsoom. A statement whichnone may truthfully deny.
"Nobles of Okar, unsheathe your swords and do homage to Dejah Thoris,Princess of Helium and future Queen of Okar, for at the end of theallotted ten days she shall become the wife of Salensus Oll."
As the nobles drew their blades and lifted them on high, inaccordance with the ancient custom of Okar when a jeddak announceshis intention to wed, Dejah Thoris sprang to her feet and, raisingher hand aloft, cried in a loud voice that they desist.
"I may not be the wife of Salensus Oll," she pleaded, "for already Ibe a wife and mother. John Carter, Prince of Helium, still lives.I know it to be true, for I overheard Matai Shang tell his daughterPhaidor that he had seen him in Kaor, at the court of Kulan Tith,Jeddak. A jeddak does not wed a married woman, nor will SalensusOll thus violate the bonds of matrimony."
Salensus Oll turned upon Thurid with an ugly look.
"Is this the surprise you held in store for me?" he cried. "Youassured me that no obstacle which might not be easily overcome stoodbetween me and this woman, and now I find that the one insuperableobstacle intervenes. What mean you, man? What have you to say?"
"And should I deliver John Carter into your hands, Salensus Oll,would you not feel that I had more than satisfied the promise thatI made you?" answered Thurid.
"Talk not like a fool," cried the enraged jeddak. "I am no childto be thus played with."
"I am talking only as a man who knows," replied Thurid. "Knowsthat he can do all that he claims."
"Then turn John Carter over to me within ten days or yourselfsuffer the end that I should mete out to him were he in my power!"snapped the Jeddak of Jeddaks, with an ugly scowl.
"You need not wait ten days, Salensus Oll," replied Thurid; andthen, turning suddenly upon me as he extended a pointing finger,he cried: "There stands John Carter, Prince of Helium!"
"Fool!" shrieked Salensus Oll. "Fool! John Carter is a whiteman. This fellow be as yellow as myself. John Carter's face issmooth--Matai Shang has described him to me. This prisoner hasa beard and mustache as large and black as any in Okar. Quick,guardsmen, to the pits with the black maniac who wishes to throwhis life away for a poor joke upon your ruler!"
"Hold!" cried Thurid, and springing forward before I could guesshis intention, he had grasped my beard and ripped the whole falsefabric from my face and head, revealing my smooth, tanned skinbeneath and my close-cropped black hair.
Instantly pandemonium reigned in the audience chamber of SalensusOll. Warriors pressed forward with drawn blades, thinking that Imight be contemplating the assassination of the Jeddak of Jeddaks;while others, out of curiosity to see one whose name was familiarfrom pole to pole, crowded behind their fellows.
As my identity was revealed I saw Dejah Thoris spring to herfeet--amazement writ large upon her face--and then through thatjam of armed men she forced her way before any could prevent. Amoment only and she was before me with outstretched arms and eyesfilled with the light of her great love.
"John Carter! John Carter!" she cried as I folded her to my breast,and then of a sudden I knew why she had denied me in the gardenbeneath the tower.
What a fool I had been! Expecting that she would penetrate themarvelous disguise that had been wrought for me by the barber ofMarentina! She had not known me, that was all; and when she sawthe sign of love from a stranger she was offended and righteouslyindignant. Indeed, but I had been a fool.
"And it was you," she cried, "who spoke to me from the tower! Howcould I dream that my beloved Virginian lay behind that fiercebeard and that yellow skin?"
She had been wont to call me her Virginian as a term of endearment,for she knew that I loved the sound of that beautiful name, made athousand times more beautiful and hallowed by her dear lips, and asI heard it again after all those long years my eyes became dimmedwith tears and my voice choked with emotion.
But an instant did I crush that dear form to me ere Salensus Oll,trembling with rage and jealousy, shouldered his way to us.
"Seize the man," he cried to his warriors, and a hundred ruthlesshands tore us apart.
Well it was for the nobles of the court of Okar that John Carterhad been disarmed. As it was, a dozen of them felt the weight ofmy clenched fists, and I had fought my way half up the steps beforethe throne to which Salensus Oll had carried Dejah Thoris ere everthey could stop me.
Then I went down, fighting, beneath a half-hundred warriors; butbefore they had battered me into unconsciousness I heard that fromthe lips of Dejah Thoris that made all my suffering well worthwhile.
Standing there beside the great tyrant, who clutched her by thearm, she pointed to where I fought alone against such awful odds.
"Think you, Salensus Oll, that the wife of such as he is," shecried, "would ever dishonor his memory, were he a thousand timesdead, by mating with a lesser mortal? Lives there upon any worldsuch another as John Carter, Prince of Helium? Lives there anotherman who could fight his way back and forth across a warlike planet,facing savage beasts and hordes of savage men, for the love of awoman?
"I, Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, am his. He fought for meand won me. If you be a brave man you will honor the bravery thatis his, and you will not kill him. Make him a slave if you will,Salensus Oll; but spare his life. I would rather be a slave withsuch as he than be Queen of Okar."
"Neither slave nor queen dicta
tes to Salensus Oll," replied theJeddak of Jeddaks. "John Carter shall die a natural death in thePit of Plenty, and the day he dies Dejah Thoris shall become myqueen."
I did not hear her reply, for it was then that a blow upon myhead brought unconsciousness, and when I recovered my senses onlya handful of guardsmen remained in the audience chamber with me.As I opened my eyes they goaded me with the points of their swordsand bade me rise.
Then they led me through long corridors to a court far toward thecenter of the palace.
In the center of the court was a deep pit, near the edge of whichstood half a dozen other guardsmen, awaiting me. One of themcarried a long rope in his hands, which he commenced to make readyas we approached.
We had come to within fifty feet of these men when I felt a suddenstrange and rapid pricking sensation in one of my fingers.
For a moment I was nonplused by the odd feeling, and then therecame to me recollection of that which in the stress of my adventureI had entirely forgotten--the gift ring of Prince Talu of Marentina.
Instantly I looked toward the group we were nearing, at the sametime raising my left hand to my forehead, that the ring might bevisible to one who sought it. Simultaneously one of the waitingwarriors raised his left hand, ostensibly to brush back his hair,and upon one of his fingers I saw the duplicate of my own ring.
A quick look of intelligence passed between us, after which I keptmy eyes turned away from the warrior and did not look at him again,for fear that I might arouse the suspicion of the Okarians. Whenwe reached the edge of the pit I saw that it was very deep, andpresently I realized I was soon to judge just how far it extendedbelow the surface of the court, for he who held the rope passed itabout my body in such a way that it could be released from aboveat any time; and then, as all the warriors grasped it, he pushedme forward, and I fell into the yawning abyss.
After the first jerk as I reached the end of the rope that hadbeen paid out to let me fall below the pit's edge they lowered mequickly but smoothly. The moment before the plunge, while two orthree of the men had been assisting in adjusting the rope aboutme, one of them had brought his mouth close to my cheek, and inthe brief interval before I was cast into the forbidding hole hebreathed a single word into my ear:
"Courage!"
The pit, which my imagination had pictured as bottomless, provedto be not more than a hundred feet in depth; but as its walls weresmoothly polished it might as well have been a thousand feet, forI could never hope to escape without outside assistance.
For a day I was left in darkness; and then, quite suddenly, abrilliant light illumined my strange cell. I was reasonably hungryand thirsty by this time, not having tasted food or drink sincethe day prior to my incarceration.
To my amazement I found the sides of the pit, that I had thoughtsmooth, lined with shelves, upon which were the most deliciousviands and liquid refreshments that Okar afforded.
With an exclamation of delight I sprang forward to partake ofsome of the welcome food, but ere ever I reached it the light wasextinguished, and, though I groped my way about the chamber, myhands came in contact with nothing beside the smooth, hard wallthat I had felt on my first examination of my prison.
Immediately the pangs of hunger and thirst began to assail me.Where before I had had but a mild craving for food and drink, I nowactually suffered for want of it, and all because of the tantalizingsight that I had had of food almost within my grasp.
Once more darkness and silence enveloped me, a silence that wasbroken only by a single mocking laugh.
For another day nothing occurred to break the monotony of myimprisonment or relieve the suffering superinduced by hunger andthirst. Slowly the pangs became less keen, as suffering deadenedthe activity of certain nerves; and then the light flashed on onceagain, and before me stood an array of new and tempting dishes,with great bottles of clear water and flagons of refreshing wine,upon the outside of which the cold sweat of condensation stood.
Again, with the hunger madness of a wild beast, I sprang forwardto seize those tempting dishes; but, as before, the light went outand I came to a sudden stop against a hard wall.
Then the mocking laugh rang out for a second time.
The Pit of Plenty!
Ah, what a cruel mind must have devised this exquisite, hellishtorture! Day after day was the thing repeated, until I was onthe verge of madness; and then, as I had done in the pits of theWarhoons, I took a new, firm hold upon my reason and forced it backinto the channels of sanity.
By sheer will-power I regained control over my tottering mentality,and so successful was I that the next time that the light came Isat quite still and looked indifferently at the fresh and temptingfood almost within my reach. Glad I was that I had done so, forit gave me an opportunity to solve the seeming mystery of thosevanishing banquets.
As I made no move to reach the food, the torturers left the lightturned on in the hope that at last I could refrain no longer fromgiving them the delicious thrill of enjoyment that my former futileefforts to obtain it had caused.
And as I sat scrutinizing the laden shelves I presently saw howthe thing was accomplished, and so simple was it that I wondered Ihad not guessed it before. The wall of my prison was of clearestglass--behind the glass were the tantalizing viands.
After nearly an hour the light went out, but this time there wasno mocking laughter--at least not upon the part of my tormentors;but I, to be at quits with them, gave a low laugh that none mightmistake for the cackle of a maniac.
Nine days passed, and I was weak from hunger and thirst, but nolonger suffering--I was past that. Then, down through the darknessabove, a little parcel fell to the floor at my side.
Indifferently I groped for it, thinking it but some new inventionof my jailers to add to my sufferings.
At last I found it--a tiny package wrapped in paper, at the end ofa strong and slender cord. As I opened it a few lozenges fell tothe floor. As I gathered them up, feeling of them and smellingof them, I discovered that they were tablets of concentrated foodsuch as are quite common in all parts of Barsoom.
Poison! I thought.
Well, what of it? Why not end my misery now rather than drag outa few more wretched days in this dark pit? Slowly I raised one ofthe little pellets to my lips.
"Good-bye, my Dejah Thoris!" I breathed. "I have lived for youand fought for you, and now my next dearest wish is to be realized,for I shall die for you," and, taking the morsel in my mouth, Idevoured it.
One by one I ate them all, nor ever did anything taste better thanthose tiny bits of nourishment, within which I knew must lie theseeds of death--possibly of some hideous, torturing death.
As I sat quietly upon the floor of my prison, waiting for the end,my fingers by accident came in contact with the bit of paper inwhich the things had been wrapped; and as I idly played with it,my mind roaming far back into the past, that I might live again fora few brief moments before I died some of the many happy momentsof a long and happy life, I became aware of strange protuberancesupon the smooth surface of the parchment-like substance in my hands.
For a time they carried no special significance to my mind--I merelywas mildly wondrous that they were there; but at last they seemedto take form, and then I realized that there was but a single lineof them, like writing.
Now, more interestedly, my fingers traced and retraced them. Therewere four separate and distinct combinations of raised lines. Couldit be that these were four words, and that they were intended tocarry a message to me?
The more I thought of it the more excited I became, until my fingersraced madly back and forth over those bewildering little hills andvalleys upon that bit of paper.
But I could make nothing of them, and at last I decided that my veryhaste was preventing me from solving the mystery. Then I took itmore slowly. Again and again my forefinger traced the first ofthose four combinations.
Martian writing is rather difficult to explain to an Earth man--itis something of a cross between shorthand an
d picture-writing, andis an entirely different language from the spoken language of Mars.
Upon Barsoom there is but a single oral language.
It is spoken today by every race and nation, just as it was atthe beginning of human life upon Barsoom. It has grown with thegrowth of the planet's learning and scientific achievements, butso ingenious a thing it is that new words to express new thoughtsor describe new conditions or discoveries form themselves--no otherword could explain the thing that a new word is required for otherthan the word that naturally falls to it, and so, no matter how farremoved two nations or races, their spoken languages are identical.
Not so their written languages, however. No two nations have thesame written language, and often cities of the same nation have awritten language that differs greatly from that of the nation towhich they belong.
Thus it was that the signs upon the paper, if in reality they werewords, baffled me for some time; but at last I made out the firstone.
It was "courage," and it was written in the letters of Marentina.
Courage!
That was the word the yellow guardsman had whispered in my ear asI stood upon the verge of the Pit of Plenty.
The message must be from him, and he I knew was a friend.
With renewed hope I bent my every energy to the deciphering of thebalance of the message, and at last success rewarded my endeavor--Ihad read the four words:
"Courage! Follow the rope."