CHAPTER II
SLAVERY
As the ruler of Ptarth, followed by his courtiers, descended fromthe landing-stage above the palace, the servants dropped into theirplaces in the rear of their royal or noble masters, and behind theothers one lingered to the last. Then quickly stooping he snatchedthe sandal from his right foot, slipping it into his pocket-pouch.
When the party had come to the lower levels, and the jeddak haddispersed them by a sign, none noticed that the forward fellow whohad drawn so much attention to himself before the Prince of Heliumdeparted, was no longer among the other servants.
To whose retinue he had been attached none had thought to inquire,for the followers of a Martian noble are many, coming and goingat the whim of their master, so that a new face is scarcely everquestioned, as the fact that a man has passed within the palacewalls is considered proof positive that his loyalty to the jeddakis beyond question, so rigid is the examination of each who seeksservice with the nobles of the court.
A good rule that, and only relaxed by courtesy in favour of theretinue of visiting royalty from a friendly foreign power.
It was late in the morning of the next day that a giant serving manin the harness of the house of a great Ptarth noble passed out intothe city from the palace gates. Along one broad avenue and thenanother he strode briskly until he had passed beyond the districtof the nobles and had come to the place of shops. Here he soughta pretentious building that rose spire-like toward the heavens,its outer walls elaborately wrought with delicate carvings andintricate mosaics.
It was the Palace of Peace in which were housed the representativesof the foreign powers, or rather in which were located theirembassies; for the ministers themselves dwelt in gorgeous palaceswithin the district occupied by the nobles.
Here the man sought the embassy of Dusar. A clerk arose questioninglyas he entered, and at his request to have a word with the ministerasked his credentials. The visitor slipped a plain metal armletfrom above his elbow, and pointing to an inscription upon its innersurface, whispered a word or two to the clerk.
The latter's eyes went wide, and his attitude turned at once toone of deference. He bowed the stranger to a seat, and hastenedto an inner room with the armlet in his hand. A moment laterhe reappeared and conducted the caller into the presence of theminister.
For a long time the two were closeted together, and when at lastthe giant serving man emerged from the inner office his expressionwas cast in a smile of sinister satisfaction. From the Palace ofPeace he hurried directly to the palace of the Dusarian minister.
That night two swift fliers left the same palace top. One spedits rapid course toward Helium; the other--
Thuvia of Ptarth strolled in the gardens of her father's palace, aswas her nightly custom before retiring. Her silks and furs weredrawn about her, for the air of Mars is chill after the sun hastaken his quick plunge beneath the planet's western verge.
The girl's thoughts wandered from her impending nuptials, thatwould make her empress of Kaol, to the person of the trim youngHeliumite who had laid his heart at her feet the preceding day.
Whether it was pity or regret that saddened her expression as shegazed toward the southern heavens where she had watched the lightsof his flier disappear the previous night, it would be difficultto say.
So, too, is it impossible to conjecture just what her emotions mayhave been as she discerned the lights of a flier speeding rapidlyout of the distance from that very direction, as though impelledtoward her garden by the very intensity of the princess' thoughts.
She saw it circle lower above the palace until she was positivethat it but hovered in preparation for a landing.
Presently the powerful rays of its searchlight shot downward fromthe bow. They fell upon the landing-stage for a brief instant,revealing the figures of the Ptarthian guard, picking into brilliantpoints of fire the gems upon their gorgeous harnesses.
Then the blazing eye swept onward across the burnished domes andgraceful minarets, down into court and park and garden to pause atlast upon the ersite bench and the girl standing there beside it,her face upturned full toward the flier.
For but an instant the searchlight halted upon Thuvia of Ptarth,then it was extinguished as suddenly as it had come to life. Theflier passed on above her to disappear beyond a grove of loftyskeel trees that grew within the palace grounds.
The girl stood for some time as it had left her, except that herhead was bent and her eyes downcast in thought.
Who but Carthoris could it have been? She tried to feel angerthat he should have returned thus, spying upon her; but she foundit difficult to be angry with the young prince of Helium.
What mad caprice could have induced him so to transgress theetiquette of nations? For lesser things great powers had gone towar.
The princess in her was shocked and angered--but what of the girl!
And the guard--what of them? Evidently they, too, had been so muchsurprised by the unprecedented action of the stranger that theyhad not even challenged; but that they had no thought to let thething go unnoticed was quickly evidenced by the skirring of motorsupon the landing-stage and the quick shooting airward of a long-linedpatrol boat.
Thuvia watched it dart swiftly eastward. So, too, did other eyeswatch.
Within the dense shadows of the skeel grove, in a wide avenuebeneath o'erspreading foliage, a flier hung a dozen feet above theground. From its deck keen eyes watched the far-fanning searchlightof the patrol boat. No light shone from the enshadowed craft. Uponits deck was the silence of the tomb. Its crew of a half-dozenred warriors watched the lights of the patrol boat diminishing inthe distance.
"The intellects of our ancestors are with us to-night," said onein a low tone.
"No plan ever carried better," returned another. "They did preciselyas the prince foretold."
He who had first spoken turned toward the man who squatted beforethe control board.
"Now!" he whispered. There was no other order given. Every manupon the craft had evidently been well schooled in each detailof that night's work. Silently the dark hull crept beneath thecathedral arches of the dark and silent grove.
Thuvia of Ptarth, gazing toward the east, saw the blacker blotagainst the blackness of the trees as the craft topped the buttressedgarden wall. She saw the dim bulk incline gently downward towardthe scarlet sward of the garden.
She knew that men came not thus with honourable intent. Yet shedid not cry aloud to alarm the near-by guardsmen, nor did she fleeto the safety of the palace.
Why?
I can see her shrug her shapely shoulders in reply as she voicesthe age-old, universal answer of the woman: Because!
Scarce had the flier touched the ground when four men leaped fromits deck. They ran forward toward the girl.
Still she made no sign of alarm, standing as though hypnotized.Or could it have been as one who awaited a welcome visitor?
Not until they were quite close to her did she move. Then thenearer moon, rising above the surrounding foliage, touched theirfaces, lighting all with the brilliancy of her silver rays.
Thuvia of Ptarth saw only strangers--warriors in the harness ofDusar. Now she took fright, but too late!
Before she could voice but a single cry, rough hands seized her.A heavy silken scarf was wound about her head. She was liftedin strong arms and borne to the deck of the flier. There was thesudden whirl of propellers, the rushing of air against her body,and, from far beneath the shouting and the challenge from the guard.
Racing toward the south another flier sped toward Helium. In itscabin a tall red man bent over the soft sole of an upturned sandal.With delicate instruments he measured the faint imprint of a smallobject which appeared there. Upon a pad beside him was the outlineof a key, and here he noted the results of his measurements.
A smile played upon his lips as he completed his task and turnedto one who waited at the opposite side of the table.
"The man is a genius," he remarke
d.
"Only a genius could have evolved such a lock as this is designedto spring. Here, take the sketch, Larok, and give all thine owngenius full and unfettered freedom in reproducing it in metal."
The warrior-artificer bowed. "Man builds naught," he said, "thatman may not destroy." Then he left the cabin with the sketch.
As dawn broke upon the lofty towers which mark the twin citiesof Helium--the scarlet tower of one and the yellow tower of itssister--a flier floated lazily out of the north.
Upon its bow was emblazoned the signia of a lesser noble of afar city of the empire of Helium. Its leisurely approach and theevident confidence with which it moved across the city aroused nosuspicion in the minds of the sleepy guard. Their round of dutynearly done, they had little thought beyond the coming of thosewho were to relieve them.
Peace reigned throughout Helium. Stagnant, emasculating peace.Helium had no enemies. There was naught to fear.
Without haste the nearest air patrol swung sluggishly about andapproached the stranger. At easy speaking distance the officerupon her deck hailed the incoming craft.
The cheery "Kaor!" and the plausible explanation that the owner hadcome from distant parts for a few days of pleasure in gay Heliumsufficed. The air-patrol boat sheered off, passing again upon itsway. The stranger continued toward a public landing-stage, whereshe dropped into the ways and came to rest.
At about the same time a warrior entered her cabin.
"It is done, Vas Kor," he said, handing a small metal key to thetall noble who had just risen from his sleeping silks and furs.
"Good!" exclaimed the latter. "You must have worked upon it allduring the night, Larok."
The warrior nodded.
"Now fetch me the Heliumetic metal you wrought some days since,"commanded Vas Kor.
This done, the warrior assisted his master to replace the handsomejewelled metal of his harness with the plainer ornaments of anordinary fighting man of Helium, and with the insignia of the samehouse that appeared upon the bow of the flier.
Vas Kor breakfasted on board. Then he emerged upon the aerial dock,entered an elevator, and was borne quickly to the street below,where he was soon engulfed by the early morning throng of workershastening to their daily duties.
Among them his warrior trappings were no more remarkable than isa pair of trousers upon Broadway. All Martian men are warriors,save those physically unable to bear arms. The tradesman andhis clerk clank with their martial trappings as they pursue theirvocations. The schoolboy, coming into the world, as he does, almostadult from the snowy shell that has encompassed his developmentfor five long years, knows so little of life without a sword athis hip that he would feel the same discomfiture at going abroadunarmed that an Earth boy would experience in walking the streetsknicker-bockerless.
Vas Kor's destination lay in Greater Helium, which lies someseventy-five miles across the level plain from Lesser Helium. Hehad landed at the latter city because the air patrol is lesssuspicious and alert than that above the larger metropolis wherelies the palace of the jeddak.
As he moved with the throng in the parklike canyon of the thoroughfarethe life of an awakening Martian city was in evidence about him.Houses, raised high upon their slender metal columns for the nightwere dropping gently toward the ground. Among the flowers upon thescarlet sward which lies about the buildings children were alreadyplaying, and comely women laughing and chatting with their neighboursas they culled gorgeous blossoms for the vases within doors.
The pleasant "kaor" of the Barsoomian greeting fell continuallyupon the ears of the stranger as friends and neighbours took upthe duties of a new day.
The district in which he had landed was residential--a district ofmerchants of the more prosperous sort. Everywhere were evidencesof luxury and wealth. Slaves appeared upon every housetop withgorgeous silks and costly furs, laying them in the sun for airing.Jewel-encrusted women lolled even thus early upon the carvenbalconies before their sleeping apartments. Later in the day theywould repair to the roofs when the slaves had arranged couches andpitched silken canopies to shade them from the sun.
Strains of inspiring music broke pleasantly from open windows,for the Martians have solved the problem of attuning the nervespleasantly to the sudden transition from sleep to waking that provesso difficult a thing for most Earth folk.
Above him raced the long, light passenger fliers, plying, each inits proper plane, between the numerous landing-stages for internalpassenger traffic. Landing-stages that tower high into the heavensare for the great international passenger liners. Freighters haveother landing-stages at various lower levels, to within a coupleof hundred feet of the ground; nor dare any flier rise or drop fromone plane to another except in certain restricted districts wherehorizontal traffic is forbidden.
Along the close-cropped sward which paves the avenue ground flierswere moving in continuous lines in opposite directions. For thegreater part they skimmed along the surface of the sward, soaringgracefully into the air at times to pass over a slower-going driverahead, or at intersections, where the north and south traffic hasthe right of way and the east and west must rise above it.
From private hangars upon many a roof top fliers were darting intothe line of traffic. Gay farewells and parting admonitions mingledwith the whirring of motors and the subdued noises of the city.
Yet with all the swift movement and the countless thousands rushinghither and thither, the predominant suggestion was that of luxuriousease and soft noiselessness.
Martians dislike harsh, discordant clamour. The only loud noisesthey can abide are the martial sounds of war, the clash of arms,the collision of two mighty dreadnoughts of the air. To them thereis no sweeter music than this.
At the intersection of two broad avenues Vas Kor descended from thestreet level to one of the great pneumatic stations of the city.Here he paid before a little wicket the fare to his destinationwith a couple of the dull, oval coins of Helium.
Beyond the gatekeeper he came to a slowly moving line of what toEarthly eyes would have appeared to be conical-nosed, eight-footprojectiles for some giant gun. In slow procession the thingsmoved in single file along a grooved track. A half dozen attendantsassisted passengers to enter, or directed these carriers to theirproper destination.
Vas Kor approached one that was empty. Upon its nose was a dialand a pointer. He set the pointer for a certain station in GreaterHelium, raised the arched lid of the thing, stepped in and lay downupon the upholstered bottom. An attendant closed the lid, whichlocked with a little click, and the carrier continued its slow way.
Presently it switched itself automatically to another track, toenter, a moment later, one of the series of dark-mouthed tubes.
The instant that its entire length was within the black apertureit sprang forward with the speed of a rifle ball. There was aninstant of whizzing--a soft, though sudden, stop, and slowly thecarrier emerged upon another platform, another attendant raisedthe lid and Vas Kor stepped out at the station beneath the centreof Greater Helium, seventy-five miles from the point at which hehad embarked.
Here he sought the street level, stepping immediately into a waitingground flier. He spoke no word to the slave sitting in the driver'sseat. It was evident that he had been expected, and that the fellowhad received his instructions before his coming.
Scarcely had Vas Kor taken his seat when the flier went quicklyinto the fast-moving procession, turning presently from the broadand crowded avenue into a less congested street. Presently it leftthe thronged district behind to enter a section of small shops,where it stopped before the entrance to one which bore the sign ofa dealer in foreign silks.
Vas Kor entered the low-ceiling room. A man at the far endmotioned him toward an inner apartment, giving no further sign ofrecognition until he had passed in after the caller and closed thedoor.
Then he faced his visitor, saluting deferentially.
"Most noble--" he commenced, but Vas Kor silenced him with a gesture.
br /> "No formalities," he said. "We must forget that I am aught otherthan your slave. If all has been as carefully carried out as ithas been planned, we have no time to waste. Instead we should beupon our way to the slave market. Are you ready?"
The merchant nodded, and, turning to a great chest, producedthe unemblazoned trappings of a slave. These Vas Kor immediatelydonned. Then the two passed from the shop through a rear door,traversed a winding alley to an avenue beyond, where they entereda flier which awaited them.
Five minutes later the merchant was leading his slave to the publicmarket, where a great concourse of people filled the great openspace in the centre of which stood the slave block.
The crowds were enormous to-day, for Carthoris, Prince of Helium,was to be the principal bidder.
One by one the masters mounted the rostrum beside the slave blockupon which stood their chattels. Briefly and clearly each recountedthe virtues of his particular offering.
When all were done, the major-domo of the Prince of Helium recalledto the block such as had favourably impressed him. For such hehad made a fair offer.
There was little haggling as to price, and none at all when VasKor was placed upon the block. His merchant-master accepted thefirst offer that was made for him, and thus a Dusarian noble enteredthe household of Carthoris.