ON THE KAOLIAN ROAD
If there be a fate that is sometimes cruel to me, there surely isa kind and merciful Providence which watches over me.
As I toppled from the tower into the horrid abyss below I countedmyself already dead; and Thurid must have done likewise, for heevidently did not even trouble himself to look after me, but musthave turned and mounted the waiting flier at once.
Ten feet only I fell, and then a loop of my tough, leathern harnesscaught upon one of the cylindrical stone projections in the tower'ssurface--and held. Even when I had ceased to fall I could notbelieve the miracle that had preserved me from instant death, andfor a moment I hung there, cold sweat exuding from every pore ofmy body.
But when at last I had worked myself back to a firm positionI hesitated to ascend, since I could not know that Thurid was notstill awaiting me above.
Presently, however, there came to my ears the whirring of thepropellers of a flier, and as each moment the sound grew fainterI realized that the party had proceeded toward the south withoutassuring themselves as to my fate.
Cautiously I retraced my way to the roof, and I must admit thatit was with no pleasant sensation that I raised my eyes once moreabove its edge; but, to my relief, there was no one in sight, anda moment later I stood safely upon its broad surface.
To reach the hangar and drag forth the only other flier which itcontained was the work of but an instant; and just as the two thernwarriors whom Matai Shang had left to prevent this very contingencyemerged upon the roof from the tower's interior, I rose above themwith a taunting laugh.
Then I dived rapidly to the inner court where I had last seen Woola,and to my immense relief found the faithful beast still there.
The twelve great banths lay in the doorways of their lairs, eyeinghim and growling ominously, but they had not disobeyed Thuvia'sinjunction; and I thanked the fate that had made her their keeperwithin the Golden Cliffs, and endowed her with the kind andsympathetic nature that had won the loyalty and affection of thesefierce beasts for her.
Woola leaped in frantic joy when he discovered me; and as the fliertouched the pavement of the court for a brief instant he boundedto the deck beside me, and in the bearlike manifestation of hisexuberant happiness all but caused me to wreck the vessel againstthe courtyard's rocky wall.
Amid the angry shouting of thern guardsmen we rose high above thelast fortress of the Holy Therns, and then raced straight towardthe northeast and Kaol, the destination which I had heard from thelips of Matai Shang.
Far ahead, a tiny speck in the distance, I made out another flierlate in the afternoon. It could be none other than that which boremy lost love and my enemies.
I had gained considerably on the craft by night; and then, knowingthat they must have sighted me and would show no lights afterdark, I set my destination compass upon her--that wonderful littleMartian mechanism which, once attuned to the object of destination,points away toward it, irrespective of every change in its location.
All that night we raced through the Barsoomian void, passing overlow hills and dead sea bottoms; above long-deserted cities andpopulous centers of red Martian habitation upon the ribbon-likelines of cultivated land which border the globe-encircling waterways,which Earth men call the canals of Mars.
Dawn showed that I had gained appreciably upon the flier ahead ofme. It was a larger craft than mine, and not so swift; but evenso, it had covered an immense distance since the flight began.
The change in vegetation below showed me that we were rapidlynearing the equator. I was now near enough to my quarry to haveused my bow gun; but, though I could see that Dejah Thoris was noton deck, I feared to fire upon the craft which bore her.
Thurid was deterred by no such scruples; and though it must havebeen difficult for him to believe that it was really I who followedthem, he could not very well doubt the witness of his own eyes;and so he trained their stern gun upon me with his own hands, andan instant later an explosive radium projectile whizzed perilouslyclose above my deck.
The black's next shot was more accurate, striking my flier fullupon the prow and exploding with the instant of contact, rippingwide open the bow buoyancy tanks and disabling the engine.
So quickly did my bow drop after the shot that I scarce had timeto lash Woola to the deck and buckle my own harness to a gunwalering before the craft was hanging stern up and making her last longdrop to ground.
Her stern buoyancy tanks prevented her dropping with great rapidity;but Thurid was firing rapidly now in an attempt to burst thesealso, that I might be dashed to death in the swift fall that wouldinstantly follow a successful shot.
Shot after shot tore past or into us, but by a miracle neitherWoola nor I was hit, nor were the after tanks punctured. Thisgood fortune could not last indefinitely, and, assured that Thuridwould not again leave me alive, I awaited the bursting of the nextshell that hit; and then, throwing my hands above my head, I let gomy hold and crumpled, limp and inert, dangling in my harness likea corpse.
The ruse worked, and Thurid fired no more at us. Presently I heardthe diminishing sound of whirring propellers and realized thatagain I was safe.
Slowly the stricken flier sank to the ground, and when I had freedmyself and Woola from the entangling wreckage I found that we wereupon the verge of a natural forest--so rare a thing upon the bosomof dying Mars that, outside of the forest in the Valley Dor besidethe Lost Sea of Korus, I never before had seen its like upon theplanet.
From books and travelers I had learned something of the little-knownland of Kaol, which lies along the equator almost halfway roundthe planet to the east of Helium.
It comprises a sunken area of extreme tropical heat, and is inhabitedby a nation of red men varying but little in manners, customs, andappearance from the balance of the red men of Barsoom.
I knew that they were among those of the outer world who stillclung tenaciously to the discredited religion of the Holy Therns,and that Matai Shang would find a ready welcome and safe refugeamong them; while John Carter could look for nothing better thanan ignoble death at their hands.
The isolation of the Kaolians is rendered almost complete by thefact that no waterway connects their land with that of any othernation, nor have they any need of a waterway since the low, swampyland which comprises the entire area of their domain self-waterstheir abundant tropical crops.
For great distances in all directions rugged hills and aridstretches of dead sea bottom discourage intercourse with them, andsince there is practically no such thing as foreign commerce uponwarlike Barsoom, where each nation is sufficient to itself, reallylittle has been known relative to the court of the Jeddak of Kaoland the numerous strange, but interesting, people over whom herules.
Occasional hunting parties have traveled to this out-of-the-waycorner of the globe, but the hostility of the natives has usuallybrought disaster upon them, so that even the sport of hunting thestrange and savage creatures which haunt the jungle fastnesses ofKaol has of later years proved insufficient lure even to the mostintrepid warriors.
It was upon the verge of the land of the Kaols that I now knewmyself to be, but in what direction to search for Dejah Thoris, orhow far into the heart of the great forest I might have to penetrateI had not the faintest idea.
But not so Woola.
Scarcely had I disentangled him than he raised his head high in airand commenced circling about at the edge of the forest. Presentlyhe halted, and, turning to see if I were following, set off straightinto the maze of trees in the direction we had been going beforeThurid's shot had put an end to our flier.
As best I could, I stumbled after him down a steep declivitybeginning at the forest's edge.
Immense trees reared their mighty heads far above us, their broadfronds completely shutting off the slightest glimpse of the sky.It was easy to see why the Kaolians needed no navy; their cities,hidden in the midst of this towering forest, must be entirelyinvisible from above, nor could a landing be made by any but thesmallest fliers, and t
hen only with the greatest risk of accident.
How Thurid and Matai Shang were to land I could not imagine, thoughlater I was to learn that to the level of the forest top there risesin each city of Kaol a slender watchtower which guards the Kaoliansby day and by night against the secret approach of a hostile fleet.To one of these the hekkador of the Holy Therns had no difficultyin approaching, and by its means the party was safely lowered tothe ground.
As Woola and I approached the bottom of the declivity the groundbecame soft and mushy, so that it was with the greatest difficultythat we made any headway whatever.
Slender purple grasses topped with red and yellow fern-like frondsgrew rankly all about us to the height of several feet above myhead.
Myriad creepers hung festooned in graceful loops from tree to tree,and among them were several varieties of the Martian "man-flower,"whose blooms have eyes and hands with which to see and seize theinsects which form their diet.
The repulsive calot tree was, too, much in evidence. It is acarnivorous plant of about the bigness of a large sage-brush suchas dots our western plains. Each branch ends in a set of strongjaws, which have been known to drag down and devour large andformidable beasts of prey.
Both Woola and I had several narrow escapes from these greedy,arboreous monsters.
Occasional areas of firm sod gave us intervals of rest from thearduous labor of traversing this gorgeous, twilight swamp, and itwas upon one of these that I finally decided to make camp for thenight which my chronometer warned me would soon be upon us.
Many varieties of fruit grew in abundance about us; and as Martiancalots are omnivorous, Woola had no difficulty in making a squaremeal after I had brought down the viands for him. Then, havingeaten, too, I lay down with my back to that of my faithful hound,and dropped into a deep and dreamless sleep.
The forest was shrouded in impenetrable darkness when a low growlfrom Woola awakened me. All about us I could hear the stealthymovement of great, padded feet, and now and then the wicked gleamof green eyes upon us. Arising, I drew my long-sword and waited.
Suddenly a deep-toned, horrid roar burst from some savage throatalmost at my side. What a fool I had been not to have found saferlodgings for myself and Woola among the branches of one of thecountless trees that surrounded us!
By daylight it would have been comparatively easy to have hoistedWoola aloft in one manner or another, but now it was too late. Therewas nothing for it but to stand our ground and take our medicine,though, from the hideous racket which now assailed our ears, andfor which that first roar had seemed to be the signal, I judgedthat we must be in the midst of hundreds, perhaps thousands, ofthe fierce, man-eating denizens of the Kaolian jungle.
All the balance of the night they kept up their infernal din, butwhy they did not attack us I could not guess, nor am I sure to thisday, unless it is that none of them ever venture upon the patchesof scarlet sward which dot the swamp.
When morning broke they were still there, walking about as ina circle, but always just beyond the edge of the sward. A moreterrifying aggregation of fierce and blood-thirsty monsters itwould be difficult to imagine.
Singly and in pairs they commenced wandering off into the jungleshortly after sunrise, and when the last of them had departed Woolaand I resumed our journey.
Occasionally we caught glimpses of horrid beasts all during theday; but, fortunately, we were never far from a sward island, andwhen they saw us their pursuit always ended at the verge of thesolid sod.
Toward noon we stumbled upon a well-constructed road runningin the general direction we had been pursuing. Everything aboutthis highway marked it as the work of skilled engineers, and I wasconfident, from the indications of antiquity which it bore, as wellas from the very evident signs of its being still in everyday use,that it must lead to one of the principal cities of Kaol.
Just as we entered it from one side a huge monster emerged fromthe jungle upon the other, and at sight of us charged madly in ourdirection.
Imagine, if you can, a bald-faced hornet of your earthly experiencegrown to the size of a prize Hereford bull, and you will have somefaint conception of the ferocious appearance and awesome formidabilityof the winged monster that bore down upon me.
Frightful jaws in front and mighty, poisoned sting behind made myrelatively puny long-sword seem a pitiful weapon of defense indeed.Nor could I hope to escape the lightning-like movements or hidefrom those myriad facet eyes which covered three-fourths of thehideous head, permitting the creature to see in all directions atone and the same time.
Even my powerful and ferocious Woola was as helpless as a kittenbefore that frightful thing. But to flee were useless, even hadit ever been to my liking to turn my back upon a danger; so I stoodmy ground, Woola snarling at my side, my only hope to die as I hadalways lived--fighting.
The creature was upon us now, and at the instant there seemed tome a single slight chance for victory. If I could but remove theterrible menace of certain death hidden in the poison sacs thatfed the sting the struggle would be less unequal.
At the thought I called to Woola to leap upon the creature's headand hang there, and as his mighty jaws closed upon that fiendishface, and glistening fangs buried themselves in the bone andcartilage and lower part of one of the huge eyes, I dived beneaththe great body as the creature rose, dragging Woola from the ground,that it might bring its sting beneath and pierce the body of thething hanging to its head.
To put myself in the path of that poison-laden lance was to courtinstant death, but it was the only way; and as the thing shotlightning-like toward me I swung my long-sword in a terrific cutthat severed the deadly member close to the gorgeously marked body.
Then, like a battering-ram, one of the powerful hind legs caughtme full in the chest and hurled me, half stunned and wholly winded,clear across the broad highway and into the underbrush of the junglethat fringes it.
Fortunately, I passed between the boles of trees; had I struck oneof them I should have been badly injured, if not killed, so swiftlyhad I been catapulted by that enormous hind leg.
Dazed though I was, I stumbled to my feet and staggered back toWoola's assistance, to find his savage antagonist circling ten feetabove the ground, beating madly at the clinging calot with all sixpowerful legs.
Even during my sudden flight through the air I had not once releasedmy grip upon my long-sword, and now I ran beneath the two battlingmonsters, jabbing the winged terror repeatedly with its sharp point.
The thing might easily have risen out of my reach, but evidently itknew as little concerning retreat in the face of danger as eitherWoola or I, for it dropped quickly toward me, and before I couldescape had grasped my shoulder between its powerful jaws.
Time and again the now useless stub of its giant sting struck futilelyagainst my body, but the blows alone were almost as effective asthe kick of a horse; so that when I say futilely, I refer only tothe natural function of the disabled member--eventually the thingwould have hammered me to a pulp. Nor was it far from accomplishingthis when an interruption occurred that put an end forever to itshostilities.
From where I hung a few feet above the road I could see along thehighway a few hundred yards to where it turned toward the east,and just as I had about given up all hope of escaping the perilousposition in which I now was I saw a red warrior come into view fromaround the bend.
He was mounted on a splendid thoat, one of the smaller species usedby red men, and in his hand was a wondrous long, light lance.
His mount was walking sedately when I first perceived them, but theinstant that the red man's eyes fell upon us a word to the thoatbrought the animal at full charge down upon us. The long lanceof the warrior dipped toward us, and as thoat and rider hurtledbeneath, the point passed through the body of our antagonist.
With a convulsive shudder the thing stiffened, the jaws relaxed,dropping me to the ground, and then, careening once in mid air,the creature plunged headforemost to the road, full upon Woola,who still clung tenaciou
sly to its gory head.
By the time I had regained my feet the red man had turned and riddenback to us. Woola, finding his enemy inert and lifeless, releasedhis hold at my command and wriggled from beneath the body that hadcovered him, and together we faced the warrior looking down uponus.
I started to thank the stranger for his timely assistance, but hecut me off peremptorily.
"Who are you," he asked, "who dare enter the land of Kaol and huntin the royal forest of the jeddak?"
Then, as he noted my white skin through the coating of grime andblood that covered me, his eyes went wide and in an altered tonehe whispered: "Can it be that you are a Holy Thern?"
I might have deceived the fellow for a time, as I had deceivedothers, but I had cast away the yellow wig and the holy diadem inthe presence of Matai Shang, and I knew that it would not be longere my new acquaintance discovered that I was no thern at all.
"I am not a thern," I replied, and then, flinging caution to thewinds, I said: "I am John Carter, Prince of Helium, whose namemay not be entirely unknown to you."
If his eyes had gone wide when he thought that I was a Holy Thern,they fairly popped now that he knew that I was John Carter. Igrasped my long-sword more firmly as I spoke the words which I wassure would precipitate an attack, but to my surprise they precipitatednothing of the kind.
"John Carter, Prince of Helium," he repeated slowly, as though hecould not quite grasp the truth of the statement. "John Carter,the mightiest warrior of Barsoom!"
And then he dismounted and placed his hand upon my shoulder afterthe manner of most friendly greeting upon Mars.
"It is my duty, and it should be my pleasure, to kill you, JohnCarter," he said, "but always in my heart of hearts have I admiredyour prowess and believed in your sincerity the while I havequestioned and disbelieved the therns and their religion.
"It would mean my instant death were my heresy to be suspected inthe court of Kulan Tith, but if I may serve you, Prince, you havebut to command Torkar Bar, Dwar of the Kaolian Road."
Truth and honesty were writ large upon the warrior's noble countenance,so that I could not but have trusted him, enemy though he shouldhave been. His title of Captain of the Kaolian Road explainedhis timely presence in the heart of the savage forest, for everyhighway upon Barsoom is patrolled by doughty warriors of the nobleclass, nor is there any service more honorable than this lonelyand dangerous duty in the less frequented sections of the domainsof the red men of Barsoom.
"Torkar Bar has already placed a great debt of gratitude upon myshoulders," I replied, pointing to the carcass of the creature fromwhose heart he was dragging his long spear.
The red man smiled.
"It was fortunate that I came when I did," he said. "Only thispoisoned spear pricking the very heart of a sith can kill it quicklyenough to save its prey. In this section of Kaol we are all armedwith a long sith spear, whose point is smeared with the poison ofthe creature it is intended to kill; no other virus acts so quicklyupon the beast as its own.
"Look," he continued, drawing his dagger and making an incisionin the carcass a foot above the root of the sting, from which hepresently drew forth two sacs, each of which held fully a gallonof the deadly liquid.
"Thus we maintain our supply, though were it not for certain commercialuses to which the virus is put, it would scarcely be necessary toadd to our present store, since the sith is almost extinct.
"Only occasionally do we now run upon one. Of old, however, Kaolwas overrun with the frightful monsters that often came in herdsof twenty or thirty, darting down from above into our cities andcarrying away women, children, and even warriors."
As he spoke I had been wondering just how much I might safely tellthis man of the mission which brought me to his land, but his nextwords anticipated the broaching of the subject on my part, andrendered me thankful that I had not spoken too soon.
"And now as to yourself, John Carter," he said, "I shall not askyour business here, nor do I wish to hear it. I have eyes and earsand ordinary intelligence, and yesterday morning I saw the partythat came to the city of Kaol from the north in a small flier. Butone thing I ask of you, and that is: the word of John Carter thathe contemplates no overt act against either the nation of Kaol orits jeddak."
"You may have my word as to that, Torkar Bar," I replied.
"My way leads along the Kaolian road, away from the city of Kaol,"he continued. "I have seen no one--John Carter least of all. Norhave you seen Torkar Bar, nor ever heard of him. You understand?"
"Perfectly," I replied.
He laid his hand upon my shoulder.
"This road leads directly into the city of Kaol," he said. "I wishyou fortune," and vaulting to the back of his thoat he trotted awaywithout even a backward glance.
It was after dark when Woola and I spied through the mighty forestthe great wall which surrounds the city of Kaol.
We had traversed the entire way without mishap or adventure, andthough the few we had met had eyed the great calot wonderingly,none had pierced the red pigment with which I had smoothly smearedevery square inch of my body.
But to traverse the surrounding country, and to enter the guardedcity of Kulan Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, were two very different things.No man enters a Martian city without giving a very detailed andsatisfactory account of himself, nor did I delude myself with thebelief that I could for a moment impose upon the acumen of theofficers of the guard to whom I should be taken the moment I appliedat any one of the gates.
My only hope seemed to lie in entering the city surreptitiouslyunder cover of the darkness, and once in, trust to my own wits tohide myself in some crowded quarter where detection would be lessliable to occur.
With this idea in view I circled the great wall, keeping within thefringe of the forest, which is cut away for a short distance fromthe wall all about the city, that no enemy may utilize the treesas a means of ingress.
Several times I attempted to scale the barrier at different points,but not even my earthly muscles could overcome that cleverlyconstructed rampart. To a height of thirty feet the face of thewall slanted outward, and then for almost an equal distance it wasperpendicular, above which it slanted in again for some fifteenfeet to the crest.
And smooth! Polished glass could not be more so. Finally I hadto admit that at last I had discovered a Barsoomian fortificationwhich I could not negotiate.
Discouraged, I withdrew into the forest beside a broad highway whichentered the city from the east, and with Woola beside me lay downto sleep.