Ghek Plays Pranks

: The Chessmen Of Mars

While Tara of Helium was being led to The Towers of Jetan, Ghek

was escorted to the pits beneath the palace where he was

imprisoned in a dimly-lighted chamber. Here he found a bench and

a table standing upon the dirt floor near the wall, and set in

the wall several rings from which depended short lengths of

chain. At the base of the walls were several holes in the dirt

floor. These, alone, of the several things he saw,
interested

him. Ghek sat down upon the bench and waited in silence,

listening. Presently the lights were extinguished. If Ghek could

have smiled he would have then, for Ghek could see as well in the

dark as in the light--better, perhaps. He watched the dark

openings of the holes in the floor and waited. Presently he

detected a change in the air about him--it grew heavy with a

strange odor, and once again might Ghek have smiled, could he

have smiled.



Let them replace all the air in the chamber with their most

deadly fumes; it would be all the same to Ghek, the kaldane, who,

having no lungs, required no air. With the rykor it might be

different. Deprived of air it would die; but if only a sufficient

amount of the gas was introduced to stupefy an ordinary creature

it would have no effect upon the rykor, who had no objective mind

to overcome. So long as the excess of carbon dioxide in the blood

was not sufficient to prevent heart action, the rykor would

suffer only a diminution of vitality; but would still respond to

the exciting agency of the kaldane's brain.



Ghek caused the rykor to assume a sitting position with its back

against the wall where it might remain without direction from his

brain. Then he released his contact with its spinal cord; but

remained in position upon its shoulders, waiting and watching,

for the kaldane's curiosity was aroused. He had not long to wait

before the lights were flashed on and one of the locked doors

opened to admit a half-dozen warriors. They approached him

rapidly and worked quickly. First they removed all his weapons

and then, snapping a fetter about one of the rykor's ankles,

secured him to the end of one of the chains hanging from the

walls. Next they dragged the long table to a new position and

there bolted it to the floor so that an end, instead of the

middle, was directly before the prisoner. On the table before him

they set food and water and upon the opposite end of the table

they laid the key to the fetter. Then they unlocked and opened

all the doors and departed.



* * * * *



When Turan the panthan regained consciousness it was to the

realization of a sharp pain in one of his forearms. The effects

of the gas departed as rapidly as they had overcome him so that

as he opened his eyes he was in full possession of all his

faculties. The lights were on again and in their glow there was

revealed to the man the figure of a giant Martian rat crouching

upon the table and gnawing upon his arm. Snatching his arm away

he reached for his short-sword, while the rat, growling, sought

to seize his arm again. It was then that Turan discovered that

his weapons had been removed--short-sword, long-sword, dagger,

and pistol. The rat charged him then and striking the creature

away with his hand the man rose and backed off, searching for

something with which to strike a harder blow. Again the rat

charged and as Turan stepped quickly back to avoid the menacing

jaws, something seemed to jerk suddenly upon his right ankle, and

as he drew his left foot back to regain his equilibrium his heel

caught upon a taut chain and he fell heavily backward to the

floor just as the rat leaped upon his breast and sought his

throat.



The Martian rat is a fierce and unlovely thing. It is many-legged

and hairless, its hide resembling that of a newborn mouse in

repulsiveness. In size and weight it is comparable to a large

Airedale terrier. Its eyes are small and close-set, and almost

hidden in deep, fleshy apertures. But its most ferocious and

repulsive feature is its jaws, the entire bony structure of which

protrudes several inches beyond the flesh, revealing five sharp,

spadelike teeth in the upper jaw and the same number of similar

teeth in the lower, the whole suggesting the appearance of a

rotting face from which much of the flesh has sloughed away.



It was such a thing that leaped upon the breast of the panthan to

tear at his jugular. Twice Turan struck it away as he sought to

regain his feet, but both times it returned with increased

ferocity to renew the attack. Its only weapons are its jaws since

its broad, splay feet are armed with blunt talons. With its

protruding jaws it excavates its winding burrows and with its

broad feet it pushes the dirt behind it. To keep the jaws from

his flesh then was Turan's only concern and this he succeeded in

doing until chance gave him a hold upon the creature's throat.

After that the end was but a matter of moments. Rising at last he

flung the lifeless thing from him with a shudder of disgust.



Now he turned his attention to a hurried inventory of the new

conditions which surrounded him since the moment of his

incarceration. He realized vaguely what had happened. He had been

anaesthetized and stripped of his weapons, and as he rose to his

feet he saw that one ankle was fettered to a chain in the wall.

He looked about the room. All the doors swung wide open! His

captors would render his imprisonment the more cruel by leaving

ever before him tempting glimpses of open aisles to the freedom

he could not attain. Upon the end of the table and within easy

reach was food and drink. This at least was attainable and at

sight of it his starved stomach seemed almost to cry aloud for

sustenance. It was with difficulty that he ate and drank in

moderation.



As he devoured the food his eyes wandered about the confines of

his prison until suddenly they seized upon a thing that lay on

the table at the end farthest from him. It was a key. He raised

his fettered ankle and examined the lock. There could be no doubt

of it! The key that lay there on the table before him was the key

to that very lock. A careless warrior had laid it there and

departed, forgetting.



Hope surged high in the breast of Gahan of Gathol, of Turan the

panthan. Furtively his eyes sought the open doorways. There was

no one in sight. Ah, if he could but gain his freedom! He would

find some way from this odious city back to her side and never

again would he leave her until he had won safety for her or death

for himself.



He rose and moved cautiously toward the opposite end of the table

where lay the coveted key. The fettered ankle halted his first

step, but he stretched at full length along the table, extending

eager fingers toward the prize. They almost laid hold upon it--a

little more and they would touch it. He strained and stretched,

but still the thing lay just beyond his reach. He hurled himself

forward until the iron fetter bit deep into his flesh, but all

futilely. He sat back upon the bench then and glared at the open

doors and the key, realizing now that they were part of a

well-laid scheme of refined torture, none the less demoralizing

because it inflicted no physical suffering.



For just a moment the man gave way to useless regret and

foreboding, then he gathered himself together, his brows cleared,

and he returned to his unfinished meal. At least they should not

have the satisfaction of knowing how sorely they had hit him. As

he ate it occurred to him that by dragging the table along the

floor he could bring the key within his reach, but when he

essayed to do so, he found that the table had been securely

bolted to the floor during the period of his unconsciousness.

Again Gahan smiled and shrugged and resumed his eating.



* * * * *



When the warriors had departed from the prison in which Ghek was

confined, the kaldane crawled from the shoulders of the rykor to

the table. Here he drank a little water and then directed the

hands of the rykor to the balance of it and to the food, upon

which the brainless thing fell with avidity. While it was thus

engaged Ghek took his spider-like way along the table to the

opposite end where lay the key to the fetter. Seizing it in a

chela he leaped to the floor and scurried rapidly toward the

mouth of one of the burrows against the wall, into which he

disappeared. For long had the brain been contemplating these

burrow entrances. They appealed to his kaldanean tastes, and

further, they pointed a hiding place for the key and a lair for

the only kind of food that the kaldane relished--flesh and blood.



Ghek had never seen an ulsio, since these great Martian rats had

long ago disappeared from Bantoom, their flesh and blood having

been greatly relished by the kaldanes; but Ghek had inherited,

almost unimpaired, every memory of every ancestor, and so he knew

that ulsio inhabited these lairs and that ulsio was good to eat,

and he knew what ulsio looked like and what his habits were,

though he had never seen him nor any picture of him. As we breed

animals for the transmission of physical attributes, so the

Kaldanes breed themselves for the transmission of attributes of

the mind, including memory and the power of recollection, and

thus have they raised what we term instinct, above the level of

the threshold of the objective mind where it may be commanded and

utilized by recollection. Doubtless in our own subjective minds

lie many of the impressions and experiences of our forebears.

These may impinge upon our consciousness in dreams only, or in

vague, haunting suggestions that we have before experienced some

transient phase of our present existence. Ah, if we had but the

power to recall them! Before us would unfold the forgotten story

of the lost eons that have preceded us. We might even walk with

God in the garden of His stars while man was still but a budding

idea within His mind.



Ghek descended into the burrow at a steep incline for some ten

feet, when he found himself in an elaborate and delightful

network of burrows! The kaldane was elated. This indeed was life!

He moved rapidly and fearlessly and he went as straight to his

goal as you could to the kitchen of your own home. This goal lay

at a low level in a spheroidal cavity about the size of a large

barrel. Here, in a nest of torn bits of silk and fur lay six baby

ulsios.



When the mother returned there were but five babies and a great

spider-like creature, which she immediately sprang to attack only

to be met by powerful chelae which seized and held her so that

she could not move. Slowly they dragged her throat toward a

hideous mouth and in a little moment she was dead.



Ghek might have remained in the nest for a long time, since there

was ample food for many days; but he did not do so. Instead he

explored the burrows. He followed them into many subterranean

chambers of the city of Manator, and upward through walls to

rooms above the ground. He found many ingeniously devised traps,

and he found poisoned food and other signs of the constant battle

that the inhabitants of Manator waged against these repulsive

creatures that dwelt beneath their homes and public buildings.



His exploration revealed not only the vast proportions of the

network of runways that apparently traversed every portion of

the city, but the great antiquity of the majority of them. Tons

upon tons of dirt must have been removed, and for a long time he

wondered where it had been deposited, until in following downward

a tunnel of great size and length he sensed before him the

thunderous rush of subterranean waters, and presently came to the

bank of a great, underground river, tumbling onward, no doubt,

the length of a world to the buried sea of Omean. Into this

torrential sewer had unthinkable generations of ulsios pushed

their few handsful of dirt in the excavating of their vast

labyrinth.



For only a moment did Ghek tarry by the river, for his seemingly

aimless wanderings were in reality prompted by a definite

purpose, and this he pursued with vigor and singleness of design.

He followed such runways as appeared to terminate in the pits or

other chambers of the inhabitants of the city, and these he

explored, usually from the safety of a burrow's mouth, until

satisfied that what he sought was not there. He moved swiftly

upon his spider legs and covered remarkable distances in short

periods of time.



His search not being rewarded with immediate success, he decided

to return to the pit where his rykor lay chained and look to its

wants. As he approached the end of the burrow that terminated in

the pit he slackened his pace, stopping just within the entrance

of the runway that he might scan the interior of the chamber

before entering it. As he did so he saw the figure of a warrior

appear suddenly in an opposite doorway. The rykor sprawled upon

the table, his hands groping blindly for more food. Ghek saw the

warrior pause and gaze in sudden astonishment at the rykor; he

saw the fellow's eyes go wide and an ashen hue replace the copper

bronze of his cheek. He stepped back as though someone had struck

him in the face. For an instant only he stood thus as in a

paralysis of fear, then he uttered a smothered shriek and turned

and fled. Again was it a catastrophe that Ghek, the kaldane,

could not smile.



Quickly entering the room he crawled to the table top and affixed

himself to the shoulders of his rykor, and there he waited; and

who may say that Ghek, though he could not smile, possessed not a

sense of humor? For a half-hour he sat there, and then there came

to him the sound of men approaching along corridors of stone. He

could hear their arms clank against the rocky walls and he knew

that they came at a rapid pace; but just before they reached the

entrance to his prison they paused and advanced more slowly. In

the lead was an officer, and just behind him, wide-eyed and

perhaps still a little ashen, the warrior who had so recently

departed in haste. At the doorway they halted and the officer

turned sternly upon the warrior. With upraised finger he pointed

at Ghek.



"There sits the creature! Didst thou dare lie, then, to thy

dwar?"



"I swear," cried the warrior, "that I spoke the truth. But a

moment since the thing groveled, headless, upon this very table!

And may my first ancestor strike me dead upon the spot if I speak

other than a true word!"



The officer looked puzzled. The men of Mars seldom if ever lie.

He scratched his head. Then he addressed Ghek. "How long have you

been here?" he asked.



"Who knows better than those who placed me here and chained me to

a wall?" he returned in reply.



"Saw you this warrior enter here a few minutes since?"



"I saw him," replied Ghek.



"And you sat there where you sit now?" continued the officer.



"Look thou to my chain and tell me then where else might I sit!"

cried Ghek. "Art the people of thy city all fools?"



Three other warriors pressed behind the two in front, craning

their necks to view the prisoner while they grinned at the

discomfiture of their fellow. The officer scowled at Ghek.



"Thy tongue is as venomous as that of the she-banth O-Tar sent to

The Towers of Jetan," he said.



"You speak of the young woman who was captured with me?" asked

Ghek, his expressionless monotone and face revealing naught of

the interest he felt.



"I speak of her," replied the dwar, and then turning to the

warrior who had summoned him: "return to thy quarters and remain

there until the next games. Perhaps by that time thy eyes may

have learned not to deceive thee."



The fellow cast a venomous glance at Ghek and turned away. The

officer shook his head. "I do not understand it," he muttered.

"Always has U-Van been a true and dependable warrior. Could it

be--?" he glanced piercingly at Ghek. "Thou hast a strange head

that misfits thy body, fellow," he cried. "Our legends tell us of

those ancient creatures that placed hallucinations upon the mind

of their fellows. If thou be such then maybe U-Van suffered from

thy forbidden powers. If thou be such O-Tar will know well how to

deal with thee." He wheeled about and motioned his warriors to

follow him.



"Wait!" cried Ghek. "Unless I am to be starved, send me food."



"You have had food," replied the warrior.



"Am I to be fed but once a day?" asked Ghek. "I require food

oftener than that. Send me food."



"You shall have food," replied the officer. "None may say that

the prisoners of Manator are ill-fed. Just are the laws of

Manator," and he departed.



No sooner had the sounds of their passing died away in the

distance than Ghek clambered from the shoulders of his rykor, and

scurried to the burrow where he had hidden the key. Fetching it

he unlocked the fetter from about the creature's ankle, locked it

empty and carried the key farther down into the burrow. Then he

returned to his place upon his brainless servitor. After a while

he heard footsteps approaching, whereupon he rose and passed into

another corridor from that down which he knew the warrior was

coming. Here he waited out of sight, listening. He heard the man

enter the chamber and halt. He heard a muttered exclamation,

followed by the jangle of metal dishes as a salver was slammed

upon a table; then rapidly retreating footsteps, which quickly

died away in the distance.



Ghek lost no time in returning to the chamber, recovering the

key, relocking the rykor to his chain. Then he replaced the key

in the burrow and squatting on the table beside his headless

body, directed its hands toward the food. While the rykor ate

Ghek sat listening for the scraping sandals and clattering arms

that he knew soon would come. Nor had he long to wait. Ghek

scrambled to the shoulders of his rykor as he heard them coming.

Again it was the officer who had been summoned by U-Van and with

him were three warriors. The one directly behind him was

evidently the same who had brought the food, for his eyes went

wide when he saw Ghek sitting at the table and he looked very

foolish as the dwar turned his stern glance upon him.



"It is even as I said," he cried. "He was not here when I brought

his food."



"But he is here now," said the officer grimly, "and his fetter is

locked about his ankle. Look! it has not been opened--but where

is the key? It should be upon the table at the end opposite him.

Where is the key, creature?" he shouted at Ghek.



"How should I, a prisoner, know better than my jailer the

whereabouts of the key to my fetters?" he retorted.



"But it lay here," cried the officer, pointing to the other end

of the table.



"Did you see it?" asked Ghek.



The officer hesitated. "No but it must have been there," he

parried.



"Did you see the key lying there?" asked Ghek, pointing to

another warrior.



The fellow shook his head negatively. "And you? and you?"

continued the kaldane addressing the others.



They both admitted that they never had seen the key. "And if it

had been there how could I have reached it?" he continued.



"No, he could not have reached it," admitted the officer; "but

there shall be no more of this! I-Zav, you will remain here on

guard with this prisoner until you are relieved."



I-Zav looked anything but happy as this intelligence was

transmitted to him, and he eyed Ghek suspiciously as the dwar and

the other warriors turned and left him to his unhappy lot.



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