CHAPTER XXIII
LOST IN THE SKY
Without effort at concealment I hastened to the vicinity of ourquarters, where I felt sure I should find Kantos Kan. As I neared thebuilding I became more careful, as I judged, and rightly, that theplace would be guarded. Several men in civilian metal loitered nearthe front entrance and in the rear were others. My only means ofreaching, unseen, the upper story where our apartments were situatedwas through an adjoining building, and after considerable maneuvering Imanaged to attain the roof of a shop several doors away.
Leaping from roof to roof, I soon reached an open window in thebuilding where I hoped to find the Heliumite, and in another moment Istood in the room before him. He was alone and showed no surprise atmy coming, saying he had expected me much earlier, as my tour of dutymust have ended some time since.
I saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day at the palace, andwhen I had enlightened him he was all excitement. The news that DejahThoris had promised her hand to Sab Than filled him with dismay.
"It cannot be," he exclaimed. "It is impossible! Why no man in allHelium but would prefer death to the selling of our loved princess tothe ruling house of Zodanga. She must have lost her mind to haveassented to such an atrocious bargain. You, who do not know how we ofHelium love the members of our ruling house, cannot appreciate thehorror with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance."
"What can be done, John Carter?" he continued. "You are a resourcefulman. Can you not think of some way to save Helium from this disgrace?"
"If I can come within sword's reach of Sab Than," I answered, "I cansolve the difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned, but for personalreasons I would prefer that another struck the blow that frees DejahThoris."
Kantos Kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke.
"You love her!" he said. "Does she know it?"
"She knows it, Kantos Kan, and repulses me only because she is promisedto Sab Than."
The splendid fellow sprang to his feet, and grasping me by the shoulderraised his sword on high, exclaiming:
"And had the choice been left to me I could not have chosen a morefitting mate for the first princess of Barsoom. Here is my hand uponyour shoulder, John Carter, and my word that Sab Than shall go out atthe point of my sword for the sake of my love for Helium, for DejahThoris, and for you. This very night I shall try to reach his quartersin the palace."
"How?" I asked. "You are strongly guarded and a quadruple forcepatrols the sky."
He bent his head in thought a moment, then raised it with an air ofconfidence.
"I only need to pass these guards and I can do it," he said at last."I know a secret entrance to the palace through the pinnacle of thehighest tower. I fell upon it by chance one day as I was passing abovethe palace on patrol duty. In this work it is required that weinvestigate any unusual occurrence we may witness, and a face peeringfrom the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace was, to me, mostunusual. I therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor ofthe peering face was none other than Sab Than. He was slightly put outat being detected and commanded me to keep the matter to myself,explaining that the passage from the tower led directly to hisapartments, and was known only to him. If I can reach the roof of thebarracks and get my machine I can be in Sab Than's quarters in fiveminutes; but how am I to escape from this building, guarded as you sayit is?"
"How well are the machine sheds at the barracks guarded?" I asked.
"There is usually but one man on duty there at night upon the roof."
"Go to the roof of this building, Kantos Kan, and wait me there."
Without stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way to the streetand hastened to the barracks. I did not dare to enter the building,filled as it was with members of the air-scout squadron, who, in commonwith all Zodanga, were on the lookout for me.
The building was an enormous one, rearing its lofty head fully athousand feet into the air. But few buildings in Zodanga were higherthan these barracks, though several topped it by a few hundred feet;the docks of the great battleships of the line standing some fifteenhundred feet from the ground, while the freight and passenger stationsof the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high.
It was a long climb up the face of the building, and one fraught withmuch danger, but there was no other way, and so I essayed the task.The fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the featmuch simpler than I had anticipated, since I found ornamental ledgesand projections which fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the wayto the eaves of the building. Here I met my first real obstacle. Theeaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which I clung, andthough I encircled the great building I could find no opening throughthem.
The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in thepastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof throughthe building.
There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I musttake--it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not riska thousand deaths for such as she.
Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of thelong leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a greathook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of theircraft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which landingparties are lowered to the ground from the battleships.
I swung this hook cautiously to the roof several times before itfinally found lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold,but whether it would bear the weight of my body I did not know. Itmight be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so thatas my body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off andlaunch me to the pavement a thousand feet below.
An instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon thesupporting ornament, I swung out into space at the end of the strap.Far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements,and death. There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves,and a nasty slipping, grating sound which turned me cold withapprehension; then the hook caught and I was safe.
Clambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drewmyself to the surface of the roof above. As I gained my feet I wasconfronted by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose revolver Ifound myself looking.
"Who are you and whence came you?" he cried.
"I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by themerest chance I escaped falling to the avenue below," I replied.
"But how came you upon the roof, man? No one has landed or come upfrom the building for the past hour. Quick, explain yourself, or Icall the guard."
"Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close ashave I had to not coming at all," I answered, turning toward the edgeof the roof, where, twenty feet below, at the end of my strap, hung allmy weapons.
The fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and tohis undoing, for as he leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped him byhis throat and his pistol arm and threw him heavily to the roof. Theweapon dropped from his grasp, and my fingers choked off his attemptedcry for assistance. I gagged and bound him and then hung him over theedge of the roof as I myself had hung a few moments before. I knew itwould be morning before he would be discovered, and I needed all thetime that I could gain.
Donning my trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon hadout both my machine and Kantos Kan's. Making his fast behind mine Istarted my engine, and skimming over the edge of the roof I dove downinto the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied bythe air patrol. In less than a minute I was settling safely upon theroof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantos Kan.
I lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediately into adiscussion of our plans for the immediate future. It was decided thatI was to try to make Helium while Kantos Kan was to enter the palaceand dispatch Sab Than. If successful he was then to follow me. He setmy compass for me, a clever little device which will r
emain steadfastlyfixed upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding eachother farewell we rose together and sped in the direction of the palacewhich lay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.
As we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing itspiercing searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out acommand to halt, following with a shot as I paid no attention to hishail. Kantos Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rosesteadily and at terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followedby a dozen of the air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, andlater by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery ofrapid-fire guns. By twisting and turning my little machine, now risingand now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most of thetime, but I was also losing ground by these tactics, and so I decidedto hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave the result tofate and the speed of my machine.
Kantos Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to thenavy of Helium, that greatly increased the speed of our machines, sothat I felt sure I could distance my pursuers if I could dodge theirprojectiles for a few moments.
As I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around meconvinced me that only by a miracle could I escape, but the die wascast, and throwing on full speed I raced a straight course towardHelium. Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and Iwas just congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directedshot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft. Theconcussion nearly capsized her, and with a sickening plunge she hurtleddownward through the dark night.
How far I fell before I regained control of the plane I do not know,but I must have been very close to the ground when I started to riseagain, as I plainly heard the squealing of animals below me. Risingagain I scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making outtheir lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently insearch of me.
Not until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture toflash my little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to myconsternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyedmy only guide, as well as my speedometer. It was true I could followthe stars in the general direction of Helium, but without knowing theexact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling mychances for finding it were slim.
Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compassintact I should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between fourand five hours. As it turned out, however, morning found me speedingover a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours ofcontinuous flight at high speed. Presently a great city showed belowme, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolisesconsists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five milesapart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude atwhich I was flying.
Believing that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned backin a southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several otherlarge cities, but none resembling the description which Kantos Kan hadgiven me of Helium. In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium,another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vividscarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of thecities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marksher sister.