CHAPTER XII
A PRISONER WITH POWER
As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and,fixing his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:
"You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have byyour prowess won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you arenot one of us; you owe us no allegiance.
"Your position is a peculiar one," he continued; "you are a prisonerand yet you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien andyet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can killa mighty warrior with one blow of your fist. And now you are reportedto have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of another race;a prisoner who, from her own admission, half believes you are returnedfrom the valley of Dor. Either one of these accusations, if proved,would be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we are a justpeople and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark, if Tal Hajusso commands.
"But," he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, "if you run off withthe red girl it is I who shall have to account to Tal Hajus; it is Iwho shall have to face Tars Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right tocommand, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better man, forsuch is the custom of the Tharks.
"I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule supreme thegreatest of the lesser communities among the green men; we do not wishto fight between ourselves; and so if you were dead, John Carter, Ishould be glad. Under two conditions only, however, may you be killedby us without orders from Tal Hajus; in personal combat inself-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended inan attempt to escape.
"As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of thesetwo excuses for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility. Thesafe delivery of the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatestimportance. Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such acapture; she is the granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks,who is also our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red girl told usthat we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we are ajust and truthful race. You may go."
Turning, I left the audience chamber. So this was the beginning ofSarkoja's persecution! I knew that none other could be responsible forthis report which had reached the ears of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly,and now I recalled those portions of our conversation which had touchedupon escape and upon my origin.
Sarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas' oldest and most trusted female.As such she was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior hadthe confidence of Lorquas Ptomel to such an extent as did his ablestlieutenant, Tars Tarkas.
However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind,my audience with Lorquas Ptomel only served to center my every facultyon this subject. Now, more than before, the absolute necessity forescape, in so far as Dejah Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me,for I was convinced that some horrible fate awaited her at theheadquarters of Tal Hajus.
As described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated personificationof all the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which he haddescended. Cold, cunning, calculating; he was, also, in markedcontrast to most of his fellows, a slave to that brute passion whichthe waning demands for procreation upon their dying planet has almoststilled in the Martian breast.
The thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into the clutchesof such an abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me. Far betterthat we save friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as didthose brave frontier women of my lost land, who took their own livesrather than fall into the hands of the Indian braves.
As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tars Tarkasapproached me on his way from the audience chamber. His demeanortoward me was unchanged, and he greeted me as though we had not justparted a few moments before.
"Where are your quarters, John Carter?" he asked.
"I have selected none," I replied. "It seemed best that I quarteredeither by myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting anopportunity to ask your advice. As you know," and I smiled, "I am notyet familiar with all the customs of the Tharks."
"Come with me," he directed, and together we moved off across the plazato a building which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Solaand her charges.
"My quarters are on the first floor of this building," he said, "andthe second floor also is fully occupied by warriors, but the thirdfloor and the floors above are vacant; you may take your choice ofthese.
"I understand," he continued, "that you have given up your woman to thered prisoner. Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, butyou can fight well enough to do about as you please, and so, if youwish to give your woman to a captive, it is your own affair; but as achieftain you should have those to serve you, and in accordance withour customs you may select any or all the females from the retinues ofthe chieftains whose metal you now wear."
I thanked him, but assured him that I could get along very nicelywithout assistance except in the matter of preparing food, and so hepromised to send women to me for this purpose and also for the care ofmy arms and the manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would benecessary. I suggested that they might also bring some of the sleepingsilks and furs which belonged to me as spoils of combat, for the nightswere cold and I had none of my own.
He promised to do so, and departed. Left alone, I ascended the windingcorridor to the upper floors in search of suitable quarters. Thebeauties of the other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, Iwas soon lost in a tour of investigation and discovery.
I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this broughtme nearer to Dejah Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor ofthe adjoining building, and it flashed upon me that I could rig up somemeans of communication whereby she might signal me in case she neededeither my services or my protection.
Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and othersleeping and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor.The windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, whichformed the center of the square made by the buildings which faced thefour contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the quarteringof the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying theadjoining buildings.
While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-likevegetation which blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yetnumerous fountains, statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptionsbore witness to the beauty which the court must have presented inbygone times, when graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whomstern and unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes,but from all except the vague legends of their descendants.
One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martianvegetation which once filled this scene with life and color; thegraceful figures of the beautiful women, the straight and handsome men;the happy frolicking children--all sunlight, happiness and peace. Itwas difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages ofdarkness, cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts ofculture and humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the finalcomposite race which now is dominant upon Mars.
My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young femalesbearing loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, andcasks of food and drink, including considerable loot from the aircraft. All this, it seemed, had been the property of the twochieftains I had slain, and now, by the customs of the Tharks, it hadbecome mine. At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the backrooms, and then departed, only to return with a second load, which theyadvised me constituted the balance of my goods. On the second tripthey were accompanied by ten or fifteen other women and youths, who, itseemed, formed the retinues of the two chieftains.
They were not their families, nor their wives, nor their servants; therelationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that itis most difficult to describe. All property among the green Marti
ansis owned in common by the community, except the personal weapons,ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals. These alonecan one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more of thesethan are required for his actual needs. The surplus he holds merely ascustodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the communityas necessity demands.
The women and children of a man's retinue may be likened to a militaryunit for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters ofinstruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of theircontinual roamings and their unending strife with other communities andwith the red Martians. His women are in no sense wives. The greenMartians use no word corresponding in meaning with this earthly word.Their mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is directedwithout reference to natural selection. The council of chieftains ofeach community control the matter as surely as the owner of a Kentuckyracing stud directs the scientific breeding of his stock for theimprovement of the whole.
In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, butthe results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with thecommunity interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of themother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy,loveless, mirthless existence.
It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both menand women, with the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; butbetter far a finer balance of human characteristics even at the expenseof a slight and occasional loss of chastity.
Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whetherI would or not, I made the best of it and directed them to findquarters on the upper floors, leaving the third floor to me. One ofthe girls I charged with the duties of my simple cuisine, and directedthe others to take up the various activities which had formerlyconstituted their vocations. Thereafter I saw little of them, nor didI care to.