The Looting Of Zodanga

: A Princess Of Mars

As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed by

Tars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats. I led them to

the palace walls, which I negotiated easily without assistance. Once

inside, however, the gate gave me considerable trouble, but I finally

was rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon my

fierce escort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.



As we approached the palace I could see through the great windows of

the first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber of

Than Kosis. The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women,

as though some important function was in progress. There was not a

guard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact that the

city and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so I came close

and peered within.



At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted with

diamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by officers and

dignitaries of state. Before them stretched a broad aisle lined on

either side with soldiery, and as I looked there entered this aisle at

the far end of the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to the

foot of the throne.



First there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard bearing a huge

salver on which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a great golden

chain with a collar and padlock at each end. Directly behind these

officers came four others carrying a similar salver which supported the

magnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the reigning house of

Zodanga.



At the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted,

facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle. Then came more

dignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, and

finally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not a

feature of either was discernible. These two stopped at the foot of

the throne, facing Than Kosis. When the balance of the procession had

entered and assumed their stations Than Kosis addressed the couple

standing before him. I could not hear his words, but presently two

officers advanced and removed the scarlet robe from one of the figures,

and I saw that Kantos Kan had failed in his mission, for it was Sab

Than, Prince of Zodanga, who stood revealed before me.



Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers and

placed one of the collars of gold about his son's neck, springing the

padlock fast. After a few more words addressed to Sab Than he turned

to the other figure, from which the officers now removed the

enshrouding silks, disclosing to my now comprehending view Dejah

Thoris, Princess of Helium.



The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment Dejah

Thoris would be joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga. It was an

impressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed the

most fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments were

adjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung open in

the hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my head, and, with

the heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great window and sprang

into the midst of the astonished assemblage. With a bound I was on the

steps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as he stood riveted with

surprise I brought my long-sword down upon the golden chain that would

have bound Dejah Thoris to another.



In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced me

from every quarter, and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger

he had drawn from his nuptial ornaments. I could have killed him as

easily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom stayed my

hand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart I held

him as though in a vise and with my long-sword pointed to the far end

of the hall.



"Zodanga has fallen," I cried. "Look!"



All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forging

through the portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his fifty

warriors on their great thoats.



A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word of

fear, and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were hurling

themselves upon the advancing Tharks.



Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris to

my side. Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than Kosis

now stood facing me, with drawn long-sword. In an instant we were

engaged, and I found no mean antagonist.



As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the

steps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah

Thoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made Sab

Than jeddak of Zodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the floor the

new jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp, and again we

faced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and,

with my back against a golden throne, I fought once again for Dejah

Thoris. I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down

Sab Than and, with him, my last chance to win the woman I loved. My

blade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parry

the thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I had disarmed, and one was

down, when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler, and to

avenge the death of the old.



As they advanced there were cries of "The woman! The woman! Strike

her down; it is her plot. Kill her! Kill her!"



Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the

little doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my

intentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my

chances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris

against any army of swordsmen.



The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, and

I began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save Dejah

Thoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd of

pygmies that swarmed about him. With one swing of his mighty longsword

he laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathway before

him until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside me,

dealing death and destruction right and left.



The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted to

escape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks

remained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.



Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower of

Zodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles.



My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, and

leaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriors

and hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace. The jailers had all

left to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched the

labyrinthine prison without opposition.



I called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridor and compartment,

and finally I was rewarded by hearing a faint response. Guided by the

sound, we soon found him helpless in a dark recess.



He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight,

faint echoes of which had reached his prison cell. He told me that the

air patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of the

palace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.



We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the bars

and chains which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I returned to

search the bodies on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks of

his cell and of his chains.



Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon we

had Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.



The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to us

from the city's streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct the

fighting without. Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide, the

green warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for other

Zodangans and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were left alone.



She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her she

greeted me with a wan smile.



"Was there ever such a man!" she exclaimed. "I know that Barsoom has

never before seen your like. Can it be that all Earth men are as you?

Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in a

few short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever

done: joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought

them to fight as allies of a red Martian people."



"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris," I replied smiling. "It was not I

who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would work

greater miracles than this you have seen."



A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,



"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free."



"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late," I returned.

"I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser men

would not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed of

winning a Dejah Thoris for myself--for never had I dreamed that in all

the universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium. That you

are a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough to

make me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine."



"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea

before the plea were made," she replied, rising and placing her dear

hands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and kissed her.



And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the

alarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terrible

harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughter

of Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter,

Gentleman of Virginia.