UNDER THE MOUNTAINS
As we advanced up the river which winds beneath the Golden Cliffsout of the bowels of the Mountains of Otz to mingle its dark waterswith the grim and mysterious Iss the faint glow which had appearedbefore us grew gradually into an all-enveloping radiance.
The river widened until it presented the aspect of a large lakewhose vaulted dome, lighted by glowing phosphorescent rock, wassplashed with the vivid rays of the diamond, the sapphire, the ruby,and the countless, nameless jewels of Barsoom which lay incrustedin the virgin gold which forms the major portion of these magnificentcliffs.
Beyond the lighted chamber of the lake was darkness--what lay behindthe darkness I could not even guess.
To have followed the thern boat across the gleaming water wouldhave been to invite instant detection, and so, though I was loathto permit Thurid to pass even for an instant beyond my sight, Iwas forced to wait in the shadows until the other boat had passedfrom my sight at the far extremity of the lake.
Then I paddled out upon the brilliant surface in the direction theyhad taken.
When, after what seemed an eternity, I reached the shadows at theupper end of the lake I found that the river issued from a lowaperture, to pass beneath which it was necessary that I compelWoola to lie flat in the boat, and I, myself, must need bend doublebefore the low roof cleared my head.
Immediately the roof rose again upon the other side, but no longer wasthe way brilliantly lighted. Instead only a feeble glow emanatedfrom small and scattered patches of phosphorescent rock in walland roof.
Directly before me the river ran into this smaller chamber throughthree separate arched openings.
Thurid and the therns were nowhere to be seen--into which of thedark holes had they disappeared? There was no means by which Imight know, and so I chose the center opening as being as likelyto lead me in the right direction as another.
Here the way was through utter darkness. The stream was narrow--sonarrow that in the blackness I was constantly bumping first onerock wall and then another as the river wound hither and thitheralong its flinty bed.
Far ahead I presently heard a deep and sullen roar which increasedin volume as I advanced, and then broke upon my ears with all theintensity of its mad fury as I swung round a sharp curve into adimly lighted stretch of water.
Directly before me the river thundered down from above in a mightywaterfall that filled the narrow gorge from side to side, risingfar above me several hundred feet--as magnificent a spectacle asI ever had seen.
But the roar--the awful, deafening roar of those tumbling waterspenned in the rocky, subterranean vault! Had the fall not entirelyblocked my further passage and shown me that I had followed thewrong course I believe that I should have fled anyway before themaddening tumult.
Thurid and the therns could not have come this way. By stumblingupon the wrong course I had lost the trail, and they had gained somuch ahead of me that now I might not be able to find them beforeit was too late, if, in fact, I could find them at all.
It had taken several hours to force my way up to the falls againstthe strong current, and other hours would be required for thedescent, although the pace would be much swifter.
With a sigh I turned the prow of my craft down stream, and withmighty strokes hastened with reckless speed through the dark andtortuous channel until once again I came to the chamber into whichflowed the three branches of the river.
Two unexplored channels still remained from which to choose; norwas there any means by which I could judge which was the more likelyto lead me to the plotters.
Never in my life, that I can recall, have I suffered such an agonyof indecision. So much depended upon a correct choice; so muchdepended upon haste.
The hours that I had already lost might seal the fate of theincomparable Dejah Thoris were she not already dead--to sacrificeother hours, and maybe days in a fruitless exploration of anotherblind lead would unquestionably prove fatal.
Several times I essayed the right-hand entrance only to turn backas though warned by some strange intuitive sense that this was notthe way. At last, convinced by the oft-recurring phenomenon, Icast my all upon the left-hand archway; yet it was with a lingeringdoubt that I turned a parting look at the sullen waters whichrolled, dark and forbidding, from beneath the grim, low archway onthe right.
And as I looked there came bobbing out upon the current from theStygian darkness of the interior the shell of one of the great,succulent fruits of the sorapus tree.
I could scarce restrain a shout of elation as this silent, insensatemessenger floated past me, on toward the Iss and Korus, for it toldme that journeying Martians were above me on that very stream.
They had eaten of this marvelous fruit which nature concentrateswithin the hard shell of the sorapus nut, and having eaten hadcast the husk overboard. It could have come from no others thanthe party I sought.
Quickly I abandoned all thought of the left-hand passage, and amoment later had turned into the right. The stream soon widened,and recurring areas of phosphorescent rock lighted my way.
I made good time, but was convinced that I was nearly a day behindthose I was tracking. Neither Woola nor I had eaten since theprevious day, but in so far as he was concerned it mattered butlittle, since practically all the animals of the dead sea bottomsof Mars are able to go for incredible periods without nourishment.
Nor did I suffer. The water of the river was sweet and cold, forit was unpolluted by decaying bodies--like the Iss--and as forfood, why the mere thought that I was nearing my beloved princessraised me above every material want.
As I proceeded, the river became narrower and the current swiftand turbulent--so swift in fact that it was with difficulty thatI forced my craft upward at all. I could not have been making toexceed a hundred yards an hour when, at a bend, I was confrontedby a series of rapids through which the river foamed and boiled ata terrific rate.
My heart sank within me. The sorapus nutshell had proved a falseprophet, and, after all, my intuition had been correct--it was theleft-hand channel that I should have followed.
Had I been a woman I should have wept. At my right was a great,slow-moving eddy that circled far beneath the cliff's overhangingside, and to rest my tired muscles before turning back I let myboat drift into its embrace.
I was almost prostrated by disappointment. It would mean anotherhalf-day's loss of time to retrace my way and take the only passagethat yet remained unexplored. What hellish fate had led me toselect from three possible avenues the two that were wrong?
As the lazy current of the eddy carried me slowly about the peripheryof the watery circle my boat twice touched the rocky side of theriver in the dark recess beneath the cliff. A third time it struck,gently as it had before, but the contact resulted in a differentsound--the sound of wood scraping upon wood.
In an instant I was on the alert, for there could be no woodwithin that buried river that had not been man brought. Almostcoincidentally with my first apprehension of the noise, my hand shotout across the boat's side, and a second later I felt my fingersgripping the gunwale of another craft.
As though turned to stone I sat in tense and rigid silence, strainingmy eyes into the utter darkness before me in an effort to discoverif the boat were occupied.
It was entirely possible that there might be men on board itwho were still ignorant of my presence, for the boat was scrapinggently against the rocks upon one side, so that the gentle touchof my boat upon the other easily could have gone unnoticed.
Peer as I would I could not penetrate the darkness, and then Ilistened intently for the sound of breathing near me; but exceptfor the noise of the rapids, the soft scraping of the boats, and thelapping of the water at their sides I could distinguish no sound.As usual, I thought rapidly.
A rope lay coiled in the bottom of my own craft. Very softly Igathered it up, and making one end fast to the bronze ring in theprow I stepped gingerly into the boat beside me. In one hand Igrasped the rope, in the oth
er my keen long-sword.
For a full minute, perhaps, I stood motionless after entering thestrange craft. It had rocked a trifle beneath my weight, but ithad been the scraping of its side against the side of my own boatthat had seemed most likely to alarm its occupants, if there wereany.
But there was no answering sound, and a moment later I had feltfrom stem to stern and found the boat deserted.
Groping with my hands along the face of the rocks to which thecraft was moored, I discovered a narrow ledge which I knew must bethe avenue taken by those who had come before me. That they couldbe none other than Thurid and his party I was convinced by the sizeand build of the boat I had found.
Calling to Woola to follow me I stepped out upon the ledge. Thegreat, savage brute, agile as a cat, crept after me.
As he passed through the boat that had been occupied by Thurid andthe therns he emitted a single low growl, and when he came besideme upon the ledge and my hand rested upon his neck I felt his shortmane bristling with anger. I think he sensed telepathically therecent presence of an enemy, for I had made no effort to impart tohim the nature of our quest or the status of those we tracked.
This omission I now made haste to correct, and, after the mannerof green Martians with their beasts, I let him know partially bythe weird and uncanny telepathy of Barsoom and partly by word ofmouth that we were upon the trail of those who had recently occupiedthe boat through which we had just passed.
A soft purr, like that of a great cat, indicated that Woolaunderstood, and then, with a word to him to follow, I turned tothe right along the ledge, but scarcely had I done so than I felthis mighty fangs tugging at my leathern harness.
As I turned to discover the cause of his act he continued to pullme steadily in the opposite direction, nor would he desist untilI had turned about and indicated that I would follow him voluntarily.
Never had I known him to be in error in a matter of tracking, soit was with a feeling of entire security that I moved cautiously inthe huge beast's wake. Through Cimmerian darkness he moved alongthe narrow ledge beside the boiling rapids.
As we advanced, the way led from beneath the overhanging cliffsout into a dim light, and then it was that I saw that the trailhad been cut from the living rock, and that it ran up along theriver's side beyond the rapids.
For hours we followed the dark and gloomy river farther and fartherinto the bowels of Mars. From the direction and distance I knewthat we must be well beneath the Valley Dor, and possibly beneaththe Sea of Omean as well--it could not be much farther now to theTemple of the Sun.
Even as my mind framed the thought, Woola halted suddenly before anarrow, arched doorway in the cliff by the trail's side. Quicklyhe crouched back away from the entrance, at the same time turninghis eyes toward me.
Words could not have more plainly told me that danger of some sortlay near by, and so I pressed quietly forward to his side, andpassing him looked into the aperture at our right.
Before me was a fair-sized chamber that, from its appointments, Iknew must have at one time been a guardroom. There were racks forweapons, and slightly raised platforms for the sleeping silks andfurs of the warriors, but now its only occupants were two of thetherns who had been of the party with Thurid and Matai Shang.
The men were in earnest conversation, and from their tones it wasapparent that they were entirely unaware that they had listeners.
"I tell you," one of them was saying, "I do not trust the blackone. There was no necessity for leaving us here to guard the way.Against what, pray, should we guard this long-forgotten, abysmalpath? It was but a ruse to divide our numbers.
"He will have Matai Shang leave others elsewhere on some pretext orother, and then at last he will fall upon us with his confederatesand slay us all."
"I believe you, Lakor," replied the other, "there can never beaught else than deadly hatred between thern and First Born. Andwhat think you of the ridiculous matter of the light? 'Let thelight shine with the intensity of three radium units for fiftytals, and for one xat let it shine with the intensity of one radiumunit, and then for twenty-five tals with nine units.' Those werehis very words, and to think that wise old Matai Shang should listento such foolishness."
"Indeed, it is silly," replied Lakor. "It will open nothing otherthan the way to a quick death for us all. He had to make someanswer when Matai Shang asked him flatly what he should do when hecame to the Temple of the Sun, and so he made his answer quicklyfrom his imagination--I would wager a hekkador's diadem that hecould not now repeat it himself."
"Let us not remain here longer, Lakor," spoke the other thern."Perchance if we hasten after them we may come in time to rescueMatai Shang, and wreak our own vengeance upon the black dator.What say you?"
"Never in a long life," answered Lakor, "have I disobeyed a singlecommand of the Father of Therns. I shall stay here until I rot ifhe does not return to bid me elsewhere."
Lakor's companion shook his head.
"You are my superior," he said; "I cannot do other than you sanction,though I still believe that we are foolish to remain."
I, too, thought that they were foolish to remain, for I saw fromWoola's actions that the trail led through the room where the twotherns held guard. I had no reason to harbor any considerable lovefor this race of self-deified demons, yet I would have passed themby were it possible without molesting them.
It was worth trying anyway, for a fight might delay us considerably,or even put an end entirely to my search--better men than I havegone down before fighters of meaner ability than that possessed bythe fierce thern warriors.
Signaling Woola to heel I stepped suddenly into the room before thetwo men. At sight of me their long-swords flashed from the harnessat their sides, but I raised my hand in a gesture of restraint.
"I seek Thurid, the black dator," I said. "My quarrel is with him,not with you. Let me pass then in peace, for if I mistake not heis as much your enemy as mine, and you can have no cause to protecthim."
They lowered their swords and Lakor spoke.
"I know not whom you may be, with the white skin of a thern andthe black hair of a red man; but were it only Thurid whose safetywere at stake you might pass, and welcome, in so far as we beconcerned.
"Tell us who you be, and what mission calls you to this unknownworld beneath the Valley Dor, then maybe we can see our way to letyou pass upon the errand which we should like to undertake wouldour orders permit."
I was surprised that neither of them had recognized me, for Ithought that I was quite sufficiently well known either by personalexperience or reputation to every thern upon Barsoom as to make myidentity immediately apparent in any part of the planet. In fact,I was the only white man upon Mars whose hair was black and whoseeyes were gray, with the exception of my son, Carthoris.
To reveal my identity might be to precipitate an attack, for everythern upon Barsoom knew that to me they owed the fall of theirage-old spiritual supremacy. On the other hand my reputation asa fighting man might be sufficient to pass me by these two weretheir livers not of the right complexion to welcome a battle tothe death.
To be quite candid I did not attempt to delude myself with any suchsophistry, since I knew well that upon war-like Mars there are fewcowards, and that every man, whether prince, priest, or peasant,glories in deadly strife. And so I gripped my long-sword thetighter as I replied to Lakor.
"I believe that you will see the wisdom of permitting me to passunmolested," I said, "for it would avail you nothing to die uselesslyin the rocky bowels of Barsoom merely to protect a hereditary enemy,such as Thurid, Dator of the First Born.
"That you shall die should you elect to oppose me is evidenced bythe moldering corpses of all the many great Barsoomian warriorswho have gone down beneath this blade--I am John Carter, Prince ofHelium."
For a moment that name seemed to paralyze the two men; but onlyfor a moment, and then the younger of them, with a vile name uponhis lips, rushed toward me with ready sword.
He had
been standing a little behind his companion, Lakor, duringour parley, and now, ere he could engage me, the older man graspedhis harness and drew him back.
"Hold!" commanded Lakor. "There will be plenty of time to fight ifwe find it wise to fight at all. There be good reasons why everythern upon Barsoom should yearn to spill the blood of the blasphemer,the sacrilegist; but let us mix wisdom with our righteous hate.The Prince of Helium is bound upon an errand which we ourselves,but a moment since, were wishing that we might undertake.
"Let him go then and slay the black. When he returns we shall stillbe here to bar his way to the outer world, and thus we shall haverid ourselves of two enemies, nor have incurred the displeasure ofthe Father of Therns."
As he spoke I could not but note the crafty glint in his evileyes, and while I saw the apparent logic of his reasoning I felt,subconsciously perhaps, that his words did but veil some sinisterintent. The other thern turned toward him in evident surprise, butwhen Lakor had whispered a few brief words into his ear he, too,drew back and nodded acquiescence to his superior's suggestion.
"Proceed, John Carter," said Lakor; "but know that if Thurid doesnot lay you low there will be those awaiting your return who willsee that you never pass again into the sunlight of the upper world.Go!"
During our conversation Woola had been growling and bristlingclose to my side. Occasionally he would look up into my face witha low, pleading whine, as though begging for the word that wouldsend him headlong at the bare throats before him. He, too, sensedthe villainy behind the smooth words.
Beyond the therns several doorways opened off the guardroom, andtoward the one upon the extreme right Lakor motioned.
"That way leads to Thurid," he said.
But when I would have called Woola to follow me there the beastwhined and held back, and at last ran quickly to the first openingat the left, where he stood emitting his coughing bark, as thoughurging me to follow him upon the right way.
I turned a questioning look upon Lakor.
"The brute is seldom wrong," I said, "and while I do not doubt yoursuperior knowledge, Thern, I think that I shall do well to listento the voice of instinct that is backed by love and loyalty."
As I spoke I smiled grimly that he might know without words thatI distrusted him.
"As you will," the fellow replied with a shrug. "In the end itshall be all the same."
I turned and followed Woola into the left-hand passage, and thoughmy back was toward my enemies, my ears were on the alert; yetI heard no sound of pursuit. The passageway was dimly lighted byoccasional radium bulbs, the universal lighting medium of Barsoom.
These same lamps may have been doing continuous duty in thesesubterranean chambers for ages, since they require no attentionand are so compounded that they give off but the minutest of theirsubstance in the generation of years of luminosity.
We had proceeded for but a short distance when we commenced to passthe mouths of diverging corridors, but not once did Woola hesitate.It was at the opening to one of these corridors upon my right thatI presently heard a sound that spoke more plainly to John Carter,fighting man, than could the words of my mother tongue--it was theclank of metal--the metal of a warrior's harness--and it came froma little distance up the corridor upon my right.
Woola heard it, too, and like a flash he had wheeled and stoodfacing the threatened danger, his mane all abristle and all hisrows of glistening fangs bared by snarling, backdrawn lips. Witha gesture I silenced him, and together we drew aside into anothercorridor a few paces farther on.
Here we waited; nor did we have long to wait, for presently we sawthe shadows of two men fall upon the floor of the main corridorathwart the doorway of our hiding place. Very cautiously theywere moving now--the accidental clank that had alarmed me was notrepeated.
Presently they came opposite our station; nor was I surprised tosee that the two were Lakor and his companion of the guardroom.
They walked very softly, and in the right hand of each gleamed akeen long-sword. They halted quite close to the entrance of ourretreat, whispering to each other.
"Can it be that we have distanced them already?" said Lakor.
"Either that or the beast has led the man upon a wrong trail,"replied the other, "for the way which we took is by far the shorterto this point--for him who knows it. John Carter would have foundit a short road to death had he taken it as you suggested to him."
"Yes," said Lakor, "no amount of fighting ability would have savedhim from the pivoted flagstone. He surely would have stepped uponit, and by now, if the pit beneath it has a bottom, which Thuriddenies, he should have been rapidly approaching it. Curses on thatcalot of his that warned him toward the safer avenue!"
"There be other dangers ahead of him, though," spoke Lakor's fellow,"which he may not so easily escape--should he succeed in escapingour two good swords. Consider, for example, what chance he willhave, coming unexpectedly into the chamber of--"
I would have given much to have heard the balance of that conversationthat I might have been warned of the perils that lay ahead, butfate intervened, and just at the very instant of all other instantsthat I would not have elected to do it, I sneezed.