"FOLLOW THE ROPE"
What could it mean?
"Follow the rope." What rope?
Presently I recalled the cord that had been attached to the parcelwhen it fell at my side, and after a little groping my hand came incontact with it again. It depended from above, and when I pulledupon it I discovered that it was rigidly fastened, possibly at thepit's mouth.
Upon examination I found that the cord, though small, was amplyable to sustain the weight of several men. Then I made anotherdiscovery--there was a second message knotted in the rope at aboutthe height of my head. This I deciphered more easily, now thatthe key was mine.
"Bring the rope with you. Beyond the knots lies danger."
That was all there was to this message. It was evidently hastilyformed--an afterthought.
I did not pause longer than to learn the contents of the secondmessage, and, though I was none too sure of the meaning of thefinal admonition, "Beyond the knots lies danger," yet I was surethat here before me lay an avenue of escape, and that the soonerI took advantage of it the more likely was I to win to liberty.
At least, I could be but little worse off than I had been in thePit of Plenty.
I was to find, however, ere I was well out of that damnable holethat I might have been very much worse off had I been compelled toremain there another two minutes.
It had taken me about that length of time to ascend some fifty feetabove the bottom when a noise above attracted my attention. To mychagrin I saw that the covering of the pit was being removed farabove me, and in the light of the courtyard beyond I saw a numberof yellow warriors.
Could it be that I was laboriously working my way into some newtrap? Were the messages spurious, after all? And then, just asmy hope and courage had ebbed to their lowest, I saw two things.
One was the body of a huge, struggling, snarling apt being loweredover the side of the pit toward me, and the other was an aperturein the side of the shaft--an aperture larger than a man's body,into which my rope led.
Just as I scrambled into the dark hole before me the apt passedme, reaching out with his mighty hands to clutch me, and snapping,growling, and roaring in a most frightful manner.
Plainly now I saw the end for which Salensus Oll had destined me.After first torturing me with starvation he had caused this fiercebeast to be lowered into my prison to finish the work that thejeddak's hellish imagination had conceived.
And then another truth flashed upon me--I had lived nine days ofthe allotted ten which must intervene before Salensus Oll couldmake Dejah Thoris his queen. The purpose of the apt was to insuremy death before the tenth day.
I almost laughed aloud as I thought how Salensus Oll's measure ofsafety was to aid in defeating the very end he sought, for whenthey discovered that the apt was alone in the Pit of Plenty theycould not know but that he had completely devoured me, and so nosuspicion of my escape would cause a search to be made for me.
Coiling the rope that had carried me thus far upon my strangejourney, I sought for the other end, but found that as I followedit forward it extended always before me. So this was the meaningof the words: "Follow the rope."
The tunnel through which I crawled was low and dark. I had followedit for several hundred yards when I felt a knot beneath my fingers."Beyond the knots lies danger."
Now I went with the utmost caution, and a moment later a sharp turnin the tunnel brought me to an opening into a large, brilliantlylighted chamber.
The trend of the tunnel I had been traversing had been slightlyupward, and from this I judged that the chamber into which I nowfound myself looking must be either on the first floor of the palaceor directly beneath the first floor.
Upon the opposite wall were many strange instruments and devices,and in the center of the room stood a long table, at which two menwere seated in earnest conversation.
He who faced me was a yellow man--a little, wizened-up, pasty-facedold fellow with great eyes that showed the white round the entirecircumference of the iris.
His companion was a black man, and I did not need to see his faceto know that it was Thurid, for there was no other of the FirstBorn north of the ice-barrier.
Thurid was speaking as I came within hearing of the men's voices.
"Solan," he was saying, "there is no risk and the reward is great.You know that you hate Salensus Oll and that nothing would pleaseyou more than to thwart him in some cherished plan. There benothing that he more cherishes today than the idea of wedding thebeautiful Princess of Helium; but I, too, want her, and with yourhelp I may win her.
"You need not more than step from this room for an instant whenI give you the signal. I will do the rest, and then, when I amgone, you may come and throw the great switch back into its place,and all will be as before. I need but an hour's start to be safebeyond the devilish power that you control in this hidden chamberbeneath the palace of your master. See how easy," and with thewords the black dator rose from his seat and, crossing the room,laid his hand upon a large, burnished lever that protruded fromthe opposite wall.
"No! No!" cried the little old man, springing after him, with a wildshriek. "Not that one! Not that one! That controls the sunraytanks, and should you pull it too far down, all Kadabra would beconsumed by heat before I could replace it. Come away! Come away!You know not with what mighty powers you play. This is the leverthat you seek. Note well the symbol inlaid in white upon its ebonsurface."
Thurid approached and examined the handle of the lever.
"Ah, a magnet," he said. "I will remember. It is settled then Itake it," he continued.
The old man hesitated. A look of combined greed and apprehensionoverspread his none too beautiful features.
"Double the figure," he said. "Even that were all too small an amountfor the service you ask. Why, I risk my life by even entertainingyou here within the forbidden precincts of my station. ShouldSalensus Oll learn of it he would have me thrown to the apts beforethe day was done."
"He dare not do that, and you know it full well, Solan," contradictedthe black. "Too great a power of life and death you hold over thepeople of Kadabra for Salensus Oll ever to risk threatening youwith death. Before ever his minions could lay their hands upon you,you might seize this very lever from which you have just warned meand wipe out the entire city."
"And myself into the bargain," said Solan, with a shudder.
"But if you were to die, anyway, you would find the nerve to doit," replied Thurid.
"Yes," muttered Solan, "I have often thought upon that very thing.Well, First Born, is your red princess worth the price I ask formy services, or will you go without her and see her in the arms ofSalensus Oll tomorrow night?"
"Take your price, yellow man," replied Thurid, with an oath. "Halfnow and the balance when you have fulfilled your contract."
With that the dator threw a well-filled money-pouch upon the table.
Solan opened the pouch and with trembling fingers counted its contents.His weird eyes assumed a greedy expression, and his unkempt beardand mustache twitched with the muscles of his mouth and chin. Itwas quite evident from his very mannerism that Thurid had keenlyguessed the man's weakness--even the clawlike, clutching movementof the fingers betokened the avariciousness of the miser.
Having satisfied himself that the amount was correct, Solan replacedthe money in the pouch and rose from the table.
"Now," he said, "are you quite sure that you know the way to yourdestination? You must travel quickly to cover the ground to thecave and from thence beyond the Great Power, all within a briefhour, for no more dare I spare you."
"Let me repeat it to you," said Thurid, "that you may see if I beletter-perfect."
"Proceed," replied Solan.
"Through yonder door," he commenced, pointing to a door at the farend of the apartment, "I follow a corridor, passing three divergingcorridors upon my right; then into the fourth right-hand corridorstraight to where three corridors meet; here again I follow to theright, hugging
the left wall closely to avoid the pit.
"At the end of this corridor I shall come to a spiral runway, whichI must follow down instead of up; after that the way is along buta single branchless corridor. Am I right?"
"Quite right, Dator," answered Solan; "and now begone. Alreadyhave you tempted fate too long within this forbidden place."
"Tonight, or tomorrow, then, you may expect the signal," saidThurid, rising to go.
"Tonight, or tomorrow," repeated Solan, and as the door closedbehind his guest the old man continued to mutter as he turned backto the table, where he again dumped the contents of the money-pouch,running his fingers through the heap of shining metal; piling thecoins into little towers; counting, recounting, and fondling thewealth the while he muttered on and on in a crooning undertone.
Presently his fingers ceased their play; his eyes popped widerthan ever as they fastened upon the door through which Thuridhad disappeared. The croon changed to a querulous muttering, andfinally to an ugly growl.
Then the old man rose from the table, shaking his fist at the closeddoor. Now he raised his voice, and his words came distinctly.
"Fool!" he muttered. "Think you that for your happiness Solan willgive up his life? If you escaped, Salensus Oll would know thatonly through my connivance could you have succeeded. Then wouldhe send for me. What would you have me do? Reduce the city andmyself to ashes? No, fool, there is a better way--a better wayfor Solan to keep thy money and be revenged upon Salensus Oll."
He laughed in a nasty, cackling note.
"Poor fool! You may throw the great switch that will give youthe freedom of the air of Okar, and then, in fatuous security, goon with thy red princess to the freedom of--death. When you havepassed beyond this chamber in your flight, what can prevent Solanreplacing the switch as it was before your vile hand touched it?Nothing; and then the Guardian of the North will claim you andyour woman, and Salensus Oll, when he sees your dead bodies, willnever dream that the hand of Solan had aught to do with the thing."
Then his voice dropped once more into mutterings that I could nottranslate, but I had heard enough to cause me to guess a great dealmore, and I thanked the kind Providence that had led me to thischamber at a time so filled with importance to Dejah Thoris andmyself as this.
But how to pass the old man now! The cord, almost invisible uponthe floor, stretched straight across the apartment to a door uponthe far side.
There was no other way of which I knew, nor could I afford toignore the advice to "follow the rope." I must cross this room,but however I should accomplish it undetected with that old man inthe very center of it baffled me.
Of course I might have sprung in upon him and with my bare handssilenced him forever, but I had heard enough to convince me thatwith him alive the knowledge that I had gained might serve me atsome future moment, while should I kill him and another be stationedin his place Thurid would not come hither with Dejah Thoris, aswas quite evidently his intention.
As I stood in the dark shadow of the tunnel's end racking my brainfor a feasible plan the while I watched, catlike, the old man'severy move, he took up the money-pouch and crossed to one end ofthe apartment, where, bending to his knees, he fumbled with a panelin the wall.
Instantly I guessed that here was the hiding place in which hehoarded his wealth, and while he bent there, his back toward me,I entered the chamber upon tiptoe, and with the utmost stealthessayed to reach the opposite side before he should complete histask and turn again toward the room's center.
Scarcely thirty steps, all told, must I take, and yet it seemed tomy overwrought imagination that that farther wall was miles away;but at last I reached it, nor once had I taken my eyes from theback of the old miser's head.
He did not turn until my hand was upon the button that controlledthe door through which my way led, and then he turned away from meas I passed through and gently closed the door.
For an instant I paused, my ear close to the panel, to learn if hehad suspected aught, but as no sound of pursuit came from withinI wheeled and made my way along the new corridor, following therope, which I coiled and brought with me as I advanced.
But a short distance farther on I came to the rope's end at a pointwhere five corridors met. What was I to do? Which way should Iturn? I was nonplused.
A careful examination of the end of the rope revealed the fact thatit had been cleanly cut with some sharp instrument. This fact andthe words that had cautioned me that danger lay beyond the KNOTSconvinced me that the rope had been severed since my friend hadplaced it as my guide, for I had but passed a single knot, whereasthere had evidently been two or more in the entire length of thecord.
Now, indeed, was I in a pretty fix, for neither did I know whichavenue to follow nor when danger lay directly in my path; but therewas nothing else to be done than follow one of the corridors, forI could gain nothing by remaining where I was.
So I chose the central opening, and passed on into its gloomy depthswith a prayer upon my lips.
The floor of the tunnel rose rapidly as I advanced, and a momentlater the way came to an abrupt end before a heavy door.
I could hear nothing beyond, and, with my accustomed rashness, pushedthe portal wide to step into a room filled with yellow warriors.
The first to see me opened his eyes wide in astonishment, and atthe same instant I felt the tingling sensation in my finger thatdenoted the presence of a friend of the ring.
Then others saw me, and there was a concerted rush to lay hands uponme, for these were all members of the palace guard--men familiarwith my face.
The first to reach me was the wearer of the mate to my strangering, and as he came close he whispered: "Surrender to me!" thenin a loud voice shouted: "You are my prisoner, white man," andmenaced me with his two weapons.
And so John Carter, Prince of Helium, meekly surrendered to asingle antagonist. The others now swarmed about us, asking manyquestions, but I would not talk to them, and finally my captorannounced that he would lead me back to my cell.
An officer ordered several other warriors to accompany him, and amoment later we were retracing the way I had just come. My friendwalked close beside me, asking many silly questions about thecountry from which I had come, until finally his fellows paid nofurther attention to him or his gabbling.
Gradually, as he spoke, he lowered his voice, so that presentlyhe was able to converse with me in a low tone without attractingattention. His ruse was a clever one, and showed that Talu hadnot misjudged the man's fitness for the dangerous duty upon whichhe was detailed.
When he had fully assured himself that the other guardsmen were notlistening, he asked me why I had not followed the rope, and whenI told him that it had ended at the five corridors he said that itmust have been cut by someone in need of a piece of rope, for hewas sure that "the stupid Kadabrans would never have guessed itspurpose."
Before we had reached the spot from which the five corridors divergemy Marentinian friend had managed to drop to the rear of the littlecolumn with me, and when we came in sight of the branching ways hewhispered:
"Run up the first upon the right. It leads to the watchtower uponthe south wall. I will direct the pursuit up the next corridor,"and with that he gave me a great shove into the dark mouth of thetunnel, at the same time crying out in simulated pain and alarm ashe threw himself upon the floor as though I had felled him with ablow.
From behind the voices of the excited guardsmen came reverberatingalong the corridor, suddenly growing fainter as Talu's spy led themup the wrong passageway in fancied pursuit.
As I ran for my life through the dark galleries beneath the palace ofSalensus Oll I must indeed have presented a remarkable appearancehad there been any to note it, for though death loomed largeabout me, my face was split by a broad grin as I thought of theresourcefulness of the nameless hero of Marentina to whom I owedmy life.
Of such stuff are the men of my beloved Helium, and when I meetanother of their kind, of whatever race or color, m
y heart goesout to him as it did now to my new friend who had risked his lifefor me simply because I wore the mate to the ring his ruler hadput upon his finger.
The corridor along which I ran led almost straight for a considerabledistance, terminating at the foot of a spiral runway, up whichI proceeded to emerge presently into a circular chamber upon thefirst floor of a tower.
In this apartment a dozen red slaves were employed polishing orrepairing the weapons of the yellow men. The walls of the roomwere lined with racks in which were hundreds of straight and hookedswords, javelins, and daggers. It was evidently an armory. Therewere but three warriors guarding the workers.
My eyes took in the entire scene at a glance. Here were weaponsin plenty! Here were sinewy red warriors to wield them!
And here now was John Carter, Prince of Helium, in need both ofweapons and warriors!
As I stepped into the apartment, guards and prisoners saw mesimultaneously.
Close to the entrance where I stood was a rack of straight swords,and as my hand closed upon the hilt of one of them my eyes fellupon the faces of two of the prisoners who worked side by side.
One of the guards started toward me. "Who are you?" he demanded."What do you here?"
"I come for Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, and his son, Mors Kajak,"I cried, pointing to the two red prisoners, who had now sprung totheir feet, wide-eyed in astonished recognition.
"Rise, red men! Before we die let us leave a memorial in the palaceof Okar's tyrant that will stand forever in the annals of Kadabrato the honor and glory of Helium," for I had seen that all theprisoners there were men of Tardos Mors's navy.
Then the first guardsman was upon me and the fight was on, butscarce did we engage ere, to my horror, I saw that the red slaveswere shackled to the floor.