The Magnet Switch

: Warlord Of Mars

The guardsmen paid not the slightest attention to their wards, for

the red men could not move over two feet from the great rings to

which they were padlocked, though each had seized a weapon upon

which he had been engaged when I entered the room, and stood ready

to join me could they have but done so.



The yellow men devoted all their attention to me, nor were they

long in discovering that the three of the
were none too many to

defend the armory against John Carter. Would that I had had my own

good long-sword in my hand that day; but, as it was, I rendered a

satisfactory account of myself with the unfamiliar weapon of the

yellow man.



At first I had a time of it dodging their villainous hook-swords,

but after a minute or two I had succeeded in wresting a second

straight sword from one of the racks along the wall, and thereafter,

using it to parry the hooks of my antagonists, I felt more evenly

equipped.



The three of them were on me at once, and but for a lucky circumstance

my end might have come quickly. The foremost guardsman made

a vicious lunge for my side with his hook after the three of them

had backed me against the wall, but as I sidestepped and raised my

arm his weapon but grazed my side, passing into a rack of javelins,

where it became entangled.



Before he could release it I had run him through, and then, falling

back upon the tactics that have saved me a hundred times in tight

pinches, I rushed the two remaining warriors, forcing them back

with a perfect torrent of cuts and thrusts, weaving my sword in

and out about their guards until I had the fear of death upon them.



Then one of them commenced calling for help, but it was too late

to save them.



They were as putty in my hands now, and I backed them about the

armory as I would until I had them where I wanted them--within reach

of the swords of the shackled slaves. In an instant both lay dead

upon the floor. But their cries had not been entirely fruitless,

for now I heard answering shouts and the footfalls of many men

running and the clank of accouterments and the commands of officers.



"The door! Quick, John Carter, bar the door!" cried Tardos Mors.



Already the guard was in sight, charging across the open court that

was visible through the doorway.



A dozen seconds would bring them into the tower. A single leap

carried me to the heavy portal. With a resounding bang I slammed

it shut.



"The bar!" shouted Tardos Mors.



I tried to slip the huge fastening into place, but it defied my

every attempt.



"Raise it a little to release the catch," cried one of the red men.



I could hear the yellow warriors leaping along the flagging just

beyond the door. I raised the bar and shot it to the right just

as the foremost of the guardsmen threw himself against the opposite

side of the massive panels.



The barrier held--I had been in time, but by the fraction of a

second only.



Now I turned my attention to the prisoners. To Tardos Mors I went

first, asking where the keys might be which would unfasten their

fetters.



"The officer of the guard has them," replied the Jeddak of Helium,

"and he is among those without who seek entrance. You will have

to force them."



Most of the prisoners were already hacking at their bonds with the

swords in their hands. The yellow men were battering at the door

with javelins and axes.



I turned my attention to the chains that held Tardos Mors. Again

and again I cut deep into the metal with my sharp blade, but ever

faster and faster fell the torrent of blows upon the portal.



At last a link parted beneath my efforts, and a moment later Tardos

Mors was free, though a few inches of trailing chain still dangled

from his ankle.



A splinter of wood falling inward from the door announced the

headway that our enemies were making toward us.



The mighty panels trembled and bent beneath the furious onslaught

of the enraged yellow men.



What with the battering upon the door and the hacking of the red

men at their chains the din within the armory was appalling. No

sooner was Tardos Mors free than he turned his attention to another

of the prisoners, while I set to work to liberate Mors Kajak.



We must work fast if we would have all those fetters cut before

the door gave way. Now a panel crashed inward upon the floor, and

Mors Kajak sprang to the opening to defend the way until we should

have time to release the others.



With javelins snatched from the wall he wrought havoc among the

foremost of the Okarians while we battled with the insensate metal

that stood between our fellows and freedom.



At length all but one of the prisoners were freed, and then the door

fell with a mighty crash before a hastily improvised battering-ram,

and the yellow horde was upon us.



"To the upper chambers!" shouted the red man who was still fettered

to the floor. "To the upper chambers! There you may defend the

tower against all Kadabra. Do not delay because of me, who could

pray for no better death than in the service of Tardos Mors and

the Prince of Helium."



But I would have sacrificed the life of every man of us rather

than desert a single red man, much less the lion-hearted hero who

begged us to leave him.



"Cut his chains," I cried to two of the red men, "while the balance

of us hold off the foe."



There were ten of us now to do battle with the Okarian guard, and I

warrant that that ancient watchtower never looked down upon a more

hotly contested battle than took place that day within its own grim

walls.



The first inrushing wave of yellow warriors recoiled from the

slashing blades of ten of Helium's veteran fighting men. A dozen

Okarian corpses blocked the doorway, but over the gruesome barrier

a score more of their fellows dashed, shouting their hoarse and

hideous war-cry.



Upon the bloody mound we met them, hand to hand, stabbing where

the quarters were too close to cut, thrusting when we could push

a foeman to arm's length; and mingled with the wild cry of the

Okarian there rose and fell the glorious words: "For Helium! For

Helium!" that for countless ages have spurred on the bravest of the

brave to those deeds of valor that have sent the fame of Helium's

heroes broadcast throughout the length and breadth of a world.



Now were the fetters struck from the last of the red men, and

thirteen strong we met each new charge of the soldiers of Salensus

Oll. Scarce one of us but bled from a score of wounds, yet none

had fallen.



From without we saw hundreds of guardsmen pouring into the courtyard,

and along the lower corridor from which I had found my way to the

armory we could hear the clank of metal and the shouting of men.



In a moment we should be attacked from two sides, and with all

our prowess we could not hope to withstand the unequal odds which

would thus divide our attention and our small numbers.



"To the upper chambers!" cried Tardos Mors, and a moment later we

fell back toward the runway that led to the floors above.



Here another bloody battle was waged with the force of yellow men

who charged into the armory as we fell back from the doorway. Here

we lost our first man, a noble fellow whom we could ill spare; but

at length all had backed into the runway except myself, who remained

to hold back the Okarians until the others were safe above.



In the mouth of the narrow spiral but a single warrior could attack

me at a time, so that I had little difficulty in holding them all

back for the brief moment that was necessary. Then, backing slowly

before them, I commenced the ascent of the spiral.



All the long way to the tower's top the guardsmen pressed me closely.

When one went down before my sword another scrambled over the dead

man to take his place; and thus, taking an awful toll with each

few feet gained, I came to the spacious glass-walled watchtower of

Kadabra.



Here my companions clustered ready to take my place, and for a

moment's respite I stepped to one side while they held the enemy

off.



From the lofty perch a view could be had for miles in every direction.

Toward the south stretched the rugged, ice-clad waste to the edge

of the mighty barrier. Toward the east and west, and dimly toward

the north I descried other Okarian cities, while in the immediate

foreground, just beyond the walls of Kadabra, the grim guardian

shaft reared its somber head.



Then I cast my eyes down into the streets of Kadabra, from which

a sudden tumult had arisen, and there I saw a battle raging, and

beyond the city's walls I saw armed men marching in great columns

toward a near-by gate.



Eagerly I pressed forward against the glass wall of the observatory,

scarce daring to credit the testimony of my own eyes. But at

last I could doubt no longer, and with a shout of joy that rose

strangely in the midst of the cursing and groaning of the battling

men at the entrance to the chamber, I called to Tardos Mors.



As he joined me I pointed down into the streets of Kadabra and to

the advancing columns beyond, above which floated bravely in the

arctic air the flags and banners of Helium.



An instant later every red man in the lofty chamber had seen the

inspiring sight, and such a shout of thanksgiving arose as I warrant

never before echoed through that age-old pile of stone.



But still we must fight on, for though our troops had entered

Kadabra, the city was yet far from capitulation, nor had the palace

been even assaulted. Turn and turn about we held the top of the

runway while the others feasted their eyes upon the sight of our

valiant countrymen battling far beneath us.



Now they have rushed the palace gate! Great battering-rams are

dashed against its formidable surface. Now they are repulsed by

a deadly shower of javelins from the wall's top!



Once again they charge, but a sortie by a large force of Okarians

from an intersecting avenue crumples the head of the column, and

the men of Helium go down, fighting, beneath an overwhelming force.



The palace gate flies open and a force of the jeddak's own guard,

picked men from the flower of the Okarian army, sallies forth

to shatter the broken regiments. For a moment it looks as though

nothing could avert defeat, and then I see a noble figure upon

a mighty thoat--not the tiny thoat of the red man, but one of his

huge cousins of the dead sea bottoms.



The warrior hews his way to the front, and behind him rally the

disorganized soldiers of Helium. As he raises his head aloft to

fling a challenge at the men upon the palace walls I see his face,

and my heart swells in pride and happiness as the red warriors leap

to the side of their leader and win back the ground that they had

but just lost--the face of him upon the mighty thoat is the face

of my son--Carthoris of Helium.



At his side fights a huge Martian war-hound, nor did I need a

second look to know that it was Woola--my faithful Woola who had

thus well performed his arduous task and brought the succoring

legions in the nick of time.



"In the nick of time?"



Who yet might say that they were not too late to save, but surely

they could avenge! And such retribution as that unconquered army

would deal out to the hateful Okarians! I sighed to think that I

might not be alive to witness it.



Again I turned to the windows. The red men had not yet forced the

outer palace wall, but they were fighting nobly against the best

that Okar afforded--valiant warriors who contested every inch of

the way.



Now my attention was caught by a new element without the city wall--a

great body of mounted warriors looming large above the red men.

They were the huge green allies of Helium--the savage hordes from

the dead sea bottoms of the far south.



In grim and terrible silence they sped on toward the gate, the

padded hoofs of their frightful mounts giving forth no sound. Into

the doomed city they charged, and as they wheeled across the wide

plaza before the palace of the Jeddak of Jeddaks I saw, riding at

their head, the mighty figure of their mighty leader--Tars Tarkas,

Jeddak of Thark.



My wish, then, was to be gratified, for I was to see my old friend

battling once again, and though not shoulder to shoulder with him,

I, too, would be fighting in the same cause here in the high tower

of Okar.



Nor did it seem that our foes would ever cease their stubborn

attacks, for still they came, though the way to our chamber was

often clogged with the bodies of their dead. At times they would

pause long enough to drag back the impeding corpses, and then fresh

warriors would forge upward to taste the cup of death.



I had been taking my turn with the others in defending the approach

to our lofty retreat when Mors Kajak, who had been watching the

battle in the street below, called aloud in sudden excitement.

There was a note of apprehension in his voice that brought me to

his side the instant that I could turn my place over to another,

and as I reached him he pointed far out across the waste of snow

and ice toward the southern horizon.



"Alas!" he cried, "that I should be forced to witness cruel fate

betray them without power to warn or aid; but they be past either

now."



As I looked in the direction he indicated I saw the cause of his

perturbation. A mighty fleet of fliers was approaching majestically

toward Kadabra from the direction of the ice-barrier. On and on

they came with ever increasing velocity.



"The grim shaft that they call the Guardian of the North is beckoning

to them," said Mors Kajak sadly, "just as it beckoned to Tardos

Mors and his great fleet; see where they lie, crumpled and broken,

a grim and terrible monument to the mighty force of destruction

which naught can resist."



I, too, saw; but something else I saw that Mors Kajak did not; in

my mind's eye I saw a buried chamber whose walls were lined with

strange instruments and devices.



In the center of the chamber was a long table, and before it sat a

little, pop-eyed old man counting his money; but, plainest of all,

I saw upon the wall a great switch with a small magnet inlaid within

the surface of its black handle.



Then I glanced out at the fast-approaching fleet. In five minutes

that mighty armada of the skies would be bent and worthless scrap,

lying at the base of the shaft beyond the city's wall, and yellow

hordes would be loosed from another gate to rush out upon the few

survivors stumbling blindly down through the mass of wreckage;

then the apts would come. I shuddered at the thought, for I could

vividly picture the whole horrible scene.



Quick have I always been to decide and act. The impulse that moves

me and the doing of the thing seem simultaneous; for if my mind

goes through the tedious formality of reasoning, it must be a

subconscious act of which I am not objectively aware. Psychologists

tell me that, as the subconscious does not reason, too close a

scrutiny of my mental activities might prove anything but flattering;

but be that as it may, I have often won success while the thinker

would have been still at the endless task of comparing various

judgments.



And now celerity of action was the prime essential to the success

of the thing that I had decided upon.



Grasping my sword more firmly in my hand, I called to the red man

at the opening to the runway to stand aside.



"Way for the Prince of Helium!" I shouted; and before the astonished

yellow man whose misfortune it was to be at the fighting end of

the line at that particular moment could gather his wits together

my sword had decapitated him, and I was rushing like a mad bull

down upon those behind him.



"Way for the Prince of Helium!" I shouted as I cut a path through

the astonished guardsmen of Salensus Oll.



Hewing to right and left, I beat my way down that warrior-choked

spiral until, near the bottom, those below, thinking that an army

was descending upon them, turned and fled.



The armory at the first floor was vacant when I entered it, the

last of the Okarians having fled into the courtyard, so none saw

me continue down the spiral toward the corridor beneath.



Here I ran as rapidly as my legs would carry me toward the five

corners, and there plunged into the passageway that led to the

station of the old miser.



Without the formality of a knock, I burst into the room. There sat

the old man at his table; but as he saw me he sprang to his feet,

drawing his sword.



With scarce more than a glance toward him I leaped for the great

switch; but, quick as I was, that wiry old fellow was there before

me.



How he did it I shall never know, nor does it seem credible that

any Martian-born creature could approximate the marvelous speed of

my earthly muscles.



Like a tiger he turned upon me, and I was quick to see why Solan

had been chosen for this important duty.



Never in all my life have I seen such wondrous swordsmanship and

such uncanny agility as that ancient bag of bones displayed. He was

in forty places at the same time, and before I had half a chance

to awaken to my danger he was like to have made a monkey of me,

and a dead monkey at that.



It is strange how new and unexpected conditions bring out unguessed

ability to meet them.



That day in the buried chamber beneath the palace of Salensus Oll

I learned what swordsmanship meant, and to what heights of sword

mastery I could achieve when pitted against such a wizard of the

blade as Solan.



For a time he liked to have bested me; but presently the latent

possibilities that must have been lying dormant within me for a

lifetime came to the fore, and I fought as I had never dreamed a

human being could fight.



That that duel-royal should have taken place in the dark recesses

of a cellar, without a single appreciative eye to witness it has

always seemed to me almost a world calamity--at least from the

viewpoint Barsoomian, where bloody strife is the first and greatest

consideration of individuals, nations, and races.



I was fighting to reach the switch, Solan to prevent me; and, though

we stood not three feet from it, I could not win an inch toward

it, for he forced me back an inch for the first five minutes of

our battle.



I knew that if I were to throw it in time to save the oncoming

fleet it must be done in the next few seconds, and so I tried my

old rushing tactics; but I might as well have rushed a brick wall

for all that Solan gave way.



In fact, I came near to impaling myself upon his point for my

pains; but right was on my side, and I think that that must give a

man greater confidence than though he knew himself to be battling

in a wicked cause.



At least, I did not want in confidence; and when I next rushed Solan

it was to one side with implicit confidence that he must turn to

meet my new line of attack, and turn he did, so that now we fought

with our sides towards the coveted goal--the great switch stood

within my reach upon my right hand.



To uncover my breast for an instant would have been to court sudden

death, but I saw no other way than to chance it, if by so doing I

might rescue that oncoming, succoring fleet; and so, in the face

of a wicked sword-thrust, I reached out my point and caught the

great switch a sudden blow that released it from its seating.



So surprised and horrified was Solan that he forgot to finish his

thrust; instead, he wheeled toward the switch with a loud shriek--a

shriek which was his last, for before his hand could touch the

lever it sought, my sword's point had passed through his heart.



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