A Princess of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER II

  THE ESCAPE OF THE DEAD

  A sense of delicious dreaminess overcame me, my muscles relaxed, and Iwas on the point of giving way to my desire to sleep when the sound ofapproaching horses reached my ears. I attempted to spring to my feetbut was horrified to discover that my muscles refused to respond to mywill. I was now thoroughly awake, but as unable to move a muscle asthough turned to stone. It was then, for the first time, that Inoticed a slight vapor filling the cave. It was extremely tenuous andonly noticeable against the opening which led to daylight. There alsocame to my nostrils a faintly pungent odor, and I could only assumethat I had been overcome by some poisonous gas, but why I should retainmy mental faculties and yet be unable to move I could not fathom.

  I lay facing the opening of the cave and where I could see the shortstretch of trail which lay between the cave and the turn of the cliffaround which the trail led. The noise of the approaching horses hadceased, and I judged the Indians were creeping stealthily upon me alongthe little ledge which led to my living tomb. I remember that I hopedthey would make short work of me as I did not particularly relish thethought of the innumerable things they might do to me if the spiritprompted them.

  I had not long to wait before a stealthy sound apprised me of theirnearness, and then a war-bonneted, paint-streaked face was thrustcautiously around the shoulder of the cliff, and savage eyes lookedinto mine. That he could see me in the dim light of the cave I wassure for the early morning sun was falling full upon me through theopening.

  The fellow, instead of approaching, merely stood and stared; his eyesbulging and his jaw dropped. And then another savage face appeared,and a third and fourth and fifth, craning their necks over theshoulders of their fellows whom they could not pass upon the narrowledge. Each face was the picture of awe and fear, but for what reasonI did not know, nor did I learn until ten years later. That there werestill other braves behind those who regarded me was apparent from thefact that the leaders passed back whispered word to those behind them.

  Suddenly a low but distinct moaning sound issued from the recesses ofthe cave behind me, and, as it reached the ears of the Indians, theyturned and fled in terror, panic-stricken. So frantic were theirefforts to escape from the unseen thing behind me that one of thebraves was hurled headlong from the cliff to the rocks below. Theirwild cries echoed in the canyon for a short time, and then all wasstill once more.

  The sound which had frightened them was not repeated, but it had beensufficient as it was to start me speculating on the possible horrorwhich lurked in the shadows at my back. Fear is a relative term and soI can only measure my feelings at that time by what I had experiencedin previous positions of danger and by those that I have passed throughsince; but I can say without shame that if the sensations I enduredduring the next few minutes were fear, then may God help the coward,for cowardice is of a surety its own punishment.

  To be held paralyzed, with one's back toward some horrible and unknowndanger from the very sound of which the ferocious Apache warriors turnin wild stampede, as a flock of sheep would madly flee from a pack ofwolves, seems to me the last word in fearsome predicaments for a manwho had ever been used to fighting for his life with all the energy ofa powerful physique.

  Several times I thought I heard faint sounds behind me as of somebodymoving cautiously, but eventually even these ceased, and I was left tothe contemplation of my position without interruption. I could butvaguely conjecture the cause of my paralysis, and my only hope lay inthat it might pass off as suddenly as it had fallen upon me.

  Late in the afternoon my horse, which had been standing with draggingrein before the cave, started slowly down the trail, evidently insearch of food and water, and I was left alone with my mysteriousunknown companion and the dead body of my friend, which lay just withinmy range of vision upon the ledge where I had placed it in the earlymorning.

  From then until possibly midnight all was silence, the silence of thedead; then, suddenly, the awful moan of the morning broke upon mystartled ears, and there came again from the black shadows the sound ofa moving thing, and a faint rustling as of dead leaves. The shock tomy already overstrained nervous system was terrible in the extreme, andwith a superhuman effort I strove to break my awful bonds. It was aneffort of the mind, of the will, of the nerves; not muscular, for Icould not move even so much as my little finger, but none the lessmighty for all that. And then something gave, there was a momentaryfeeling of nausea, a sharp click as of the snapping of a steel wire,and I stood with my back against the wall of the cave facing my unknownfoe.

  And then the moonlight flooded the cave, and there before me lay my ownbody as it had been lying all these hours, with the eyes staring towardthe open ledge and the hands resting limply upon the ground. I lookedfirst at my lifeless clay there upon the floor of the cave and thendown at myself in utter bewilderment; for there I lay clothed, and yethere I stood but naked as at the minute of my birth.

  The transition had been so sudden and so unexpected that it left me fora moment forgetful of aught else than my strange metamorphosis. Myfirst thought was, is this then death! Have I indeed passed overforever into that other life! But I could not well believe this, as Icould feel my heart pounding against my ribs from the exertion of myefforts to release myself from the anaesthesis which had held me. Mybreath was coming in quick, short gasps, cold sweat stood out fromevery pore of my body, and the ancient experiment of pinching revealedthe fact that I was anything other than a wraith.

  Again was I suddenly recalled to my immediate surroundings by arepetition of the weird moan from the depths of the cave. Naked andunarmed as I was, I had no desire to face the unseen thing whichmenaced me.

  My revolvers were strapped to my lifeless body which, for someunfathomable reason, I could not bring myself to touch. My carbine wasin its boot, strapped to my saddle, and as my horse had wandered off Iwas left without means of defense. My only alternative seemed to liein flight and my decision was crystallized by a recurrence of therustling sound from the thing which now seemed, in the darkness of thecave and to my distorted imagination, to be creeping stealthily upon me.

  Unable longer to resist the temptation to escape this horrible place Ileaped quickly through the opening into the starlight of a clearArizona night. The crisp, fresh mountain air outside the cave acted asan immediate tonic and I felt new life and new courage coursing throughme. Pausing upon the brink of the ledge I upbraided myself for whatnow seemed to me wholly unwarranted apprehension. I reasoned withmyself that I had lain helpless for many hours within the cave, yetnothing had molested me, and my better judgment, when permitted thedirection of clear and logical reasoning, convinced me that the noisesI had heard must have resulted from purely natural and harmless causes;probably the conformation of the cave was such that a slight breeze hadcaused the sounds I heard.

  I decided to investigate, but first I lifted my head to fill my lungswith the pure, invigorating night air of the mountains. As I did so Isaw stretching far below me the beautiful vista of rocky gorge, andlevel, cacti-studded flat, wrought by the moonlight into a miracle ofsoft splendor and wondrous enchantment.

  Few western wonders are more inspiring than the beauties of an Arizonamoonlit landscape; the silvered mountains in the distance, the strangelights and shadows upon hog back and arroyo, and the grotesque detailsof the stiff, yet beautiful cacti form a picture at once enchanting andinspiring; as though one were catching for the first time a glimpse ofsome dead and forgotten world, so different is it from the aspect ofany other spot upon our earth.

  As I stood thus meditating, I turned my gaze from the landscape to theheavens where the myriad stars formed a gorgeous and fitting canopy forthe wonders of the earthly scene. My attention was quickly riveted bya large red star close to the distant horizon. As I gazed upon it Ifelt a spell of overpowering fascination--it was Mars, the god of war,and for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power ofirresistible enchantment. As I gazed at i
t on that far-gone night itseemed to call across the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, to drawme as the lodestone attracts a particle of iron.

  My longing was beyond the power of opposition; I closed my eyes,stretched out my arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myselfdrawn with the suddenness of thought through the trackless immensity ofspace. There was an instant of extreme cold and utter darkness.