CHAPTER XXVII
FROM JOY TO DEATH
For ten days the hordes of Thark and their wild allies were feasted andentertained, and, then, loaded with costly presents and escorted by tenthousand soldiers of Helium commanded by Mors Kajak, they started onthe return journey to their own lands. The jed of lesser Helium with asmall party of nobles accompanied them all the way to Thark to cementmore closely the new bonds of peace and friendship.
Sola also accompanied Tars Tarkas, her father, who before all hischieftains had acknowledged her as his daughter.
Three weeks later, Mors Kajak and his officers, accompanied by TarsTarkas and Sola, returned upon a battleship that had been dispatched toThark to fetch them in time for the ceremony which made Dejah Thorisand John Carter one.
For nine years I served in the councils and fought in the armies ofHelium as a prince of the house of Tardos Mors. The people seemednever to tire of heaping honors upon me, and no day passed that did notbring some new proof of their love for my princess, the incomparableDejah Thoris.
In a golden incubator upon the roof of our palace lay a snow-white egg.For nearly five years ten soldiers of the jeddak's Guard had constantlystood over it, and not a day passed when I was in the city that DejahThoris and I did not stand hand in hand before our little shrineplanning for the future, when the delicate shell should break.
Vivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as we sat theretalking in low tones of the strange romance which had woven our livestogether and of this wonder which was coming to augment our happinessand fulfill our hopes.
In the distance we saw the bright-white light of an approachingairship, but we attached no special significance to so common a sight.Like a bolt of lightning it raced toward Helium until its very speedbespoke the unusual.
Flashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearer for thejeddak, it circled impatiently awaiting the tardy patrol boat whichmust convoy it to the palace docks.
Ten minutes after it touched at the palace a message called me to thecouncil chamber, which I found filling with the members of that body.
On the raised platform of the throne was Tardos Mors, pacing back andforth with tense-drawn face. When all were in their seats he turnedtoward us.
"This morning," he said, "word reached the several governments ofBarsoom that the keeper of the atmosphere plant had made no wirelessreport for two days, nor had almost ceaseless calls upon him from ascore of capitals elicited a sign of response.
"The ambassadors of the other nations asked us to take the matter inhand and hasten the assistant keeper to the plant. All day a thousandcruisers have been searching for him until just now one of them returnsbearing his dead body, which was found in the pits beneath his househorribly mutilated by some assassin.
"I do not need to tell you what this means to Barsoom. It would takemonths to penetrate those mighty walls, in fact the work has alreadycommenced, and there would be little to fear were the engine of thepumping plant to run as it should and as they all have for hundreds ofyears; but the worst, we fear, has happened. The instruments showa rapidly decreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom--the enginehas stopped."
"My gentlemen," he concluded, "we have at best three days to live."
There was absolute silence for several minutes, and then a young noblearose, and with his drawn sword held high above his head addressedTardos Mors.
"The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have ever shownBarsoom how a nation of red men should live, now is our opportunity toshow them how they should die. Let us go about our duties as though athousand useful years still lay before us."
The chamber rang with applause and as there was nothing better to dothan to allay the fears of the people by our example we went our wayswith smiles upon our faces and sorrow gnawing at our hearts.
When I returned to my palace I found that the rumor already had reachedDejah Thoris, so I told her all that I had heard.
"We have been very happy, John Carter," she said, "and I thank whateverfate overtakes us that it permits us to die together."
The next two days brought no noticeable change in the supply of air,but on the morning of the third day breathing became difficult at thehigher altitudes of the rooftops. The avenues and plazas of Heliumwere filled with people. All business had ceased. For the most partthe people looked bravely into the face of their unalterable doom.Here and there, however, men and women gave way to quiet grief.
Toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumband within an hour the people of Barsoom were sinking by thousands intothe unconsciousness which precedes death by asphyxiation.
Dejah Thoris and I with the other members of the royal family hadcollected in a sunken garden within an inner courtyard of the palace.We conversed in low tones, when we conversed at all, as the awe of thegrim shadow of death crept over us. Even Woola seemed to feel theweight of the impending calamity, for he pressed close to Dejah Thorisand to me, whining pitifully.
The little incubator had been brought from the roof of our palace atrequest of Dejah Thoris and she sat gazing longingly upon theunknown little life that now she would never know.
As it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe Tardos Mors arose,saying,
"Let us bid each other farewell. The days of the greatness of Barsoomare over. Tomorrow's sun will look down upon a dead world whichthrough all eternity must go swinging through the heavens peopled noteven by memories. It is the end."
He stooped and kissed the women of his family, and laid his strong handupon the shoulders of the men.
As I turned sadly from him my eyes fell upon Dejah Thoris. Her headwas drooping upon her breast, to all appearances she was lifeless.With a cry I sprang to her and raised her in my arms.
Her eyes opened and looked into mine.
"Kiss me, John Carter," she murmured. "I love you! I love you! It iscruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon a life oflove and happiness."
As I pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling of unconquerablepower and authority rose in me. The fighting blood of Virginia sprangto life in my veins.
"It shall not be, my princess," I cried. "There is, there must be someway, and John Carter, who has fought his way through a strange worldfor love of you, will find it."
And with my words there crept above the threshold of my conscious minda series of nine long forgotten sounds. Like a flash of lightning inthe darkness their full purport dawned upon me--the key to the threegreat doors of the atmosphere plant!
Turning suddenly toward Tardos Mors as I still clasped my dying love tomy breast I cried.
"A flier, Jeddak! Quick! Order your swiftest flier to the palace top.I can save Barsoom yet."
He did not wait to question, but in an instant a guard was racing tothe nearest dock and though the air was thin and almost gone at therooftop they managed to launch the fastest one-man, air-scout machinethat the skill of Barsoom had ever produced.
Kissing Dejah Thoris a dozen times and commanding Woola, who would havefollowed me, to remain and guard her, I bounded with my old agility andstrength to the high ramparts of the palace, and in another moment Iwas headed toward the goal of the hopes of all Barsoom.
I had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe, but I took astraight course across an old sea bottom and so had to rise only a fewfeet above the ground.
I traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against timewith death. The face of Dejah Thoris hung always before me. As Iturned for a last look as I left the palace garden I had seen herstagger and sink upon the ground beside the little incubator. That shehad dropped into the last coma which would end in death, if the airsupply remained unreplenished, I well knew, and so, throwing caution tothe winds, I flung overboard everything but the engine and compass,even to my ornaments, and lying on my belly along the deck with onehand on the steering wheel and the other pushing the speed lever to itslast notch I split the thin air of dyi
ng Mars with the speed of ameteor.
An hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphere plant loomedsuddenly before me, and with a sickening thud I plunged to the groundbefore the small door which was withholding the spark of life from theinhabitants of an entire planet.
Beside the door a great crew of men had been laboring to pierce thewall, but they had scarcely scratched the flint-like surface, and nowmost of them lay in the last sleep from which not even air would awakenthem.
Conditions seemed much worse here than at Helium, and it was withdifficulty that I breathed at all. There were a few men stillconscious, and to one of these I spoke.
"If I can open these doors is there a man who can start the engines?" Iasked.
"I can," he replied, "if you open quickly. I can last but a fewmoments more. But it is useless, they are both dead and no one elseupon Barsoom knew the secret of these awful locks. For three days mencrazed with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts tosolve its mystery."
I had no time to talk, I was becoming very weak and it was withdifficulty that I controlled my mind at all.
But, with a final effort, as I sank weakly to my knees I hurled thenine thought waves at that awful thing before me. The Martian hadcrawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panelbefore us we waited in the silence of death.
Slowly the mighty door receded before us. I attempted to rise andfollow it but I was too weak.
"After it," I cried to my companion, "and if you reach the pump roomturn loose all the pumps. It is the only chance Barsoom has to existtomorrow!"
From where I lay I opened the second door, and then the third, and as Isaw the hope of Barsoom crawling weakly on hands and knees through thelast doorway I sank unconscious upon the ground.
CHAPTER XXVIII
AT THE ARIZONA CAVE
It was dark when I opened my eyes again. Strange, stiff garments wereupon my body; garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I roseto a sitting posture.
I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I wasclothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I hadbeen naked. Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showedthrough a ragged aperture.
As my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets andin one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper. Oneof these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appearedto be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange,still figure huddled over a tiny bench. As I approached it I saw thatit was the dead and mummified remains of a little old woman with longblack hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burnerupon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity ofgreenish powder.
Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs, and stretchingentirely across the cave, was a row of human skeletons. From the thongwhich held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little oldwoman; as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with anoise as of the rustling of dry leaves.
It was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into thefresh air; glad to escape from so gruesome a place.
The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge whichran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation.
A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze. The silvered mountainsin the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, thecacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars. I could scarcebelieve my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me--I waslooking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before Ihad gazed with longing upon Mars.
Burying my head in my arms I turned, broken, and sorrowful, down thetrail from the cave.
Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret,forty-eight million miles away.
Did the Martian reach the pump room? Did the vitalizing air reach thepeople of that distant planet in time to save them? Was my DejahThoris alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside thetiny golden incubator in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard ofthe palace of Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium?
For ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions.For ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world ofmy lost love. I would rather lie dead beside her there than live onEarth all those millions of terrible miles from her.
The old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously wealthy;but what care I for wealth!
As I sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the Hudson, justtwenty years have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.
I can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk,and tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called beforesince that long dead night, and I think I can see, across that awfulabyss of space, a beautiful black-haired woman standing in the gardenof a palace, and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm aroundher as she points into the sky toward the planet Earth, while at theirfeet is a huge and hideous creature with a heart of gold.
I believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells methat I shall soon know.
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