A Princess of Mars Read online

  CHAPTER IV

  A PRISONER

  We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise veryrapidly. We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one ofMars' long-dead seas, in the bottom of which my encounter with theMartians had taken place.

  In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and aftertraversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far extremityof which was a low table land upon which I beheld an enormous city.Toward this we galloped, entering it by what appeared to be a ruinedroadway leading out from the city, but only to the edge of the tableland, where it ended abruptly in a flight of broad steps.

  Upon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the buildings weredeserted, and while not greatly decayed had the appearance of nothaving been tenanted for years, possibly for ages. Toward the centerof the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the buildingsimmediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten hundredcreatures of the same breed as my captors, for such I now consideredthem despite the suave manner in which I had been trapped.

  With the exception of their ornaments all were naked. The women variedin appearance but little from the men, except that their tusks weremuch larger in proportion to their height, in some instances curvingnearly to their high-set ears. Their bodies were smaller and lighterin color, and their fingers and toes bore the rudiments of nails, whichwere entirely lacking among the males. The adult females ranged inheight from ten to twelve feet.

  The children were light in color, even lighter than the women, and alllooked precisely alike to me, except that some were taller than others;older, I presumed.

  I saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any appreciabledifference in their appearance from the age of maturity, about forty,until, at about the age of one thousand years, they go voluntarily upontheir last strange pilgrimage down the river Iss, which leads no livingMartian knows whither and from whose bosom no Martian has everreturned, or would be allowed to live did he return after onceembarking upon its cold, dark waters.

  Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease, andpossibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage. The other ninehundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in hunting, inaviation and in war; but perhaps by far the greatest death loss comesduring the age of childhood, when vast numbers of the little Martiansfall victims to the great white apes of Mars.

  The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity isabout three hundred years, but would be nearer the one-thousand markwere it not for the various means leading to violent death. Owing tothe waning resources of the planet it evidently became necessary tocounteract the increasing longevity which their remarkable skill intherapeutics and surgery produced, and so human life has come to beconsidered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced by their dangeroussports and the almost continual warfare between the various communities.

  There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution ofpopulation, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the factthat no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a weapon ofdestruction.

  As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we wereimmediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures who seemed anxiousto pluck me from my seat behind my guard. A word from the leader ofthe party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across theplaza to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye hasrested upon.

  The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It was constructedof gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant stones whichsparkled and scintillated in the sunlight. The main entrance was somehundred feet in width and projected from the building proper to form ahuge canopy above the entrance hall. There was no stairway, but agentle incline to the first floor of the building opened into anenormous chamber encircled by galleries.

  On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carvedwooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty or fifty maleMartians around the steps of a rostrum. On the platform propersquatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments,gay-colored feathers and beautifully wrought leather trappingsingeniously set with precious stones. From his shoulders depended ashort cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.

  What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the hall inwhich they were congregated was the fact that the creatures wereentirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other furnishings;these being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas thegreat bulks of the Martians could scarcely have squeezed into thechairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for their long legs.Evidently, then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild andgrotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen, but the evidences ofextreme antiquity which showed all around me indicated that thesebuildings might have belonged to some long-extinct and forgotten racein the dim antiquity of Mars.

  Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a signfrom the leader I had been lowered to the ground. Again locking hisarm in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber. There werefew formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain. Mycaptor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for himas he advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name ofmy escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the rulerfollowed by his title.

  At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing tome, but later I came to know that this was the customary greetingbetween green Martians. Had the men been strangers, and thereforeunable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged ornaments,had their missions been peaceful--otherwise they would have exchangedshots, or have fought out their introduction with some other of theirvarious weapons.

  My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the vice-chieftainof the community, and a man of great ability as a statesman andwarrior. He evidently explained briefly the incidents connected withhis expedition, including my capture, and when he had concluded thechieftain addressed me at some length.

  I replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him thatneither of us could understand the other; but I noticed that when Ismiled slightly on concluding, he did likewise. This fact, and thesimilar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced methat we had at least something in common; the ability to smile,therefore to laugh; denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn thatthe Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian laugh isa thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.

  The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variancewith our conceptions of incitants to merriment. The death agonies of afellow being are, to these strange creatures, provocative of the wildesthilarity, while their chief form of commonest amusement is to inflictdeath on their prisoners of war in various ingenious and horrible ways.

  The assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely, feeling mymuscles and the texture of my skin. The principal chieftain thenevidently signified a desire to see me perform, and, motioning me tofollow, he started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza.

  Now, I had made no attempt to walk, since my first signal failure,except while tightly grasping Tars Tarkas' arm, and so now I wentskipping and flitting about among the desks and chairs like somemonstrous grasshopper. After bruising myself severely, much to theamusement of the Martians, I again had recourse to creeping, but thisdid not suit them and I was roughly jerked to my feet by a toweringfellow who had laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.

  As he banged me down upon my feet his face was bent close to mine and Idid the only thing a gentleman might do under the circumstances ofbrutality, boorishness, and lack of consideration for a stranger'srights; I swung my fist squarely to his jaw and he went down like afelled ox. As he sunk to the floor I wheeled around with my backtoward the nearest desk, expecting to be overwhelmed by the vengeanceof his fellows, but determined to give them as good a battle as theunequal odds
would permit before I gave up my life.

  My fears were groundless, however, as the other Martians, at firststruck dumb with wonderment, finally broke into wild peals of laughterand applause. I did not recognize the applause as such, but later,when I had become acquainted with their customs, I learned that I hadwon what they seldom accord, a manifestation of approbation.

  The fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor did any ofhis mates approach him. Tars Tarkas advanced toward me, holding outone of his arms, and we thus proceeded to the plaza without furthermishap. I did not, of course, know the reason for which we had come tothe open, but I was not long in being enlightened. They first repeatedthe word "sak" a number of times, and then Tars Tarkas made severaljumps, repeating the same word before each leap; then, turning to me,he said, "sak!" I saw what they were after, and gathering myselftogether I "sakked" with such marvelous success that I cleared a goodhundred and fifty feet; nor did I, this time, lose my equilibrium, butlanded squarely upon my feet without falling. I then returned by easyjumps of twenty-five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.

  My exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser Martians,and they immediately broke into demands for a repetition, which thechieftain then ordered me to make; but I was both hungry and thirsty,and determined on the spot that my only method of salvation was todemand the consideration from these creatures which they evidentlywould not voluntarily accord. I therefore ignored the repeatedcommands to "sak," and each time they were made I motioned to my mouthand rubbed my stomach.

  Tars Tarkas and the chief exchanged a few words, and the former,calling to a young female among the throng, gave her some instructionsand motioned me to accompany her. I grasped her proffered arm andtogether we crossed the plaza toward a large building on the far side.

  My fair companion was about eight feet tall, having just arrived atmaturity, but not yet to her full height. She was of a lightolive-green color, with a smooth, glossy hide. Her name, as Iafterward learned, was Sola, and she belonged to the retinue of TarsTarkas. She conducted me to a spacious chamber in one of the buildingsfronting on the plaza, and which, from the litter of silks and fursupon the floor, I took to be the sleeping quarters of several of thenatives.

  The room was well lighted by a number of large windows and wasbeautifully decorated with mural paintings and mosaics, but upon allthere seemed to rest that indefinable touch of the finger of antiquitywhich convinced me that the architects and builders of these wondrouscreations had nothing in common with the crude half-brutes which nowoccupied them.

  Sola motioned me to be seated upon a pile of silks near the center ofthe room, and, turning, made a peculiar hissing sound, as thoughsignaling to someone in an adjoining room. In response to her call Iobtained my first sight of a new Martian wonder. It waddled in on itsten short legs, and squatted down before the girl like an obedientpuppy. The thing was about the size of a Shetland pony, but its headbore a slight resemblance to that of a frog, except that the jaws wereequipped with three rows of long, sharp tusks.