A Costly Recapture

: A Princess Of Mars

As the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment by the door

where I was standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard

enough to fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned

to the courtyard by the way I had come. My plan of action was formed

upon the instant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenue upon

the opposite side I soon stood within the courtyard of Tal Hajus.


/> The brilliantly lighted apartments of the first floor told me where

first to seek, and advancing to the windows I peered within. I soon

discovered that my approach was not to be the easy thing I had hoped,

for the rear rooms bordering the court were filled with warriors and

women. I then glanced up at the stories above, discovering that the

third was apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entrance to

the building from that point. It was the work of but a moment for me

to reach the windows above, and soon I had drawn myself within the

sheltering shadows of the unlighted third floor.



Fortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping

noiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovered a light in the

apartments ahead of me. Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I

discovered that it was but an opening upon an immense inner chamber

which towered from the first floor, two stories below me, to the

dome-like roof of the building, high above my head. The floor of this

great circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors and women,

and at one end was a great raised platform upon which squatted the most

hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had all the cold, hard,

cruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and

debased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for

many years. There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon his bestial

countenance, while his enormous bulk spread itself out upon the

platform where he squatted like some huge devil fish, his six limbs

accentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling manner.



But the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah Thoris

and Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of him as he

let his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her beautiful

figure. She was speaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor

could I make out the low grumbling of his reply. She stood there erect

before him, her head high held, and even at the distance I was from

them I could read the scorn and disgust upon her face as she let her

haughty glance rest without sign of fear upon him. She was indeed the

proud daughter of a thousand jeddaks, every inch of her dear, precious

little body; so small, so frail beside the towering warriors around

her, but in her majesty dwarfing them into insignificance; she was the

mightiest figure among them and I verily believe that they felt it.



Presently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and that

the prisoners be left alone before him. Slowly the chieftains, the

warriors and the women melted away into the shadows of the surrounding

chambers, and Dejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before the jeddak of

the Tharks.



One chieftain alone had hesitated before departing; I saw him standing

in the shadows of a mighty column, his fingers nervously toying with

the hilt of his great-sword and his cruel eyes bent in implacable

hatred upon Tal Hajus. It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his

thoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing upon

his face. He was thinking of that other woman who, forty years ago,

had stood before this beast, and could I have spoken a word into his

ear at that moment the reign of Tal Hajus would have been over; but

finally he also strode from the room, not knowing that he left his own

daughter at the mercy of the creature he most loathed.



Tal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating his intentions,

hurried to the winding runway which led to the floors below. No one

was near to intercept me, and I reached the main floor of the chamber

unobserved, taking my station in the shadow of the same column that

Tars Tarkas had but just deserted. As I reached the floor Tal Hajus

was speaking.



"Princess of Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom from your people

would I but return you to them unharmed, but a thousand times rather

would I watch that beautiful face writhe in the agony of torture; it

shall be long drawn out, that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were

all too short to show the love I harbor for your race. The terrors of

your death shall haunt the slumbers of the red men through all the ages

to come; they will shudder in the shadows of the night as their fathers

tell them of the awful vengeance of the green men; of the power and

might and hate and cruelty of Tal Hajus. But before the torture you

shall be mine for one short hour, and word of that too shall go forth

to Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your grandfather, that he may grovel

upon the ground in the agony of his sorrow. Tomorrow the torture will

commence; tonight thou art Tal Hajus'; come!"



He sprang down from the platform and grasped her roughly by the arm,

but scarcely had he touched her than I leaped between them. My

short-sword, sharp and gleaming was in my right hand; I could have

plunged it into his putrid heart before he realized that I was upon

him; but as I raised my arm to strike I thought of Tars Tarkas, and,

with all my rage, with all my hatred, I could not rob him of that sweet

moment for which he had lived and hoped all these long, weary years,

and so, instead, I swung my good right fist full upon the point of his

jaw. Without a sound he slipped to the floor as one dead.



In the same deathly silence I grasped Dejah Thoris by the hand, and

motioning Sola to follow we sped noiselessly from the chamber and to

the floor above. Unseen we reached a rear window and with the straps

and leather of my trappings I lowered, first Sola and then Dejah Thoris

to the ground below. Dropping lightly after them I drew them rapidly

around the court in the shadows of the buildings, and thus we returned

over the same course I had so recently followed from the distant

boundary of the city.



We finally came upon my thoats in the courtyard where I had left them,

and placing the trappings upon them we hastened through the building to

the avenue beyond. Mounting, Sola upon one beast, and Dejah Thoris

behind me upon the other, we rode from the city of Thark through the

hills to the south.



Instead of circling back around the city to the northwest and toward

the nearest waterway which lay so short a distance from us, we turned

to the northeast and struck out upon the mossy waste across which, for

two hundred dangerous and weary miles, lay another main artery leading

to Helium.



No word was spoken until we had left the city far behind, but I could

hear the quiet sobbing of Dejah Thoris as she clung to me with her dear

head resting against my shoulder.



"If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one;

greater than she can ever pay you; and should we not make it," she

continued, "the debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you

have saved the last of our line from worse than death."



I did not answer, but instead reached to my side and pressed the little

fingers of her I loved where they clung to me for support, and then, in

unbroken silence, we sped over the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us

occupied with his own thoughts. For my part I could not be other than

joyful had I tried, with Dejah Thoris' warm body pressed close to mine,

and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as gaily as

though we were already entering the gates of Helium.



Our earlier plans had been so sadly upset that we now found ourselves

without food or drink, and I alone was armed. We therefore urged our

beasts to a speed that must tell on them sorely before we could hope to

sight the ending of the first stage of our journey.



We rode all night and all the following day with only a few short

rests. On the second night both we and our animals were completely

fagged, and so we lay down upon the moss and slept for some five or six

hours, taking up the journey once more before daylight. All the

following day we rode, and when, late in the afternoon we had sighted

no distant trees, the mark of the great waterways throughout all

Barsoom, the terrible truth flashed upon us--we were lost.



Evidently we had circled, but which way it was difficult to say, nor

did it seem possible with the sun to guide us by day and the moons and

stars by night. At any rate no waterway was in sight, and the entire

party was almost ready to drop from hunger, thirst and fatigue. Far

ahead of us and a trifle to the right we could distinguish the outlines

of low mountains. These we decided to attempt to reach in the hope

that from some ridge we might discern the missing waterway. Night fell

upon us before we reached our goal, and, almost fainting from weariness

and weakness, we lay down and slept.



I was awakened early in the morning by some huge body pressing close to

mine, and opening my eyes with a start I beheld my blessed old Woola

snuggling close to me; the faithful brute had followed us across that

trackless waste to share our fate, whatever it might be. Putting my

arms about his neck I pressed my cheek close to his, nor am I ashamed

that I did it, nor of the tears that came to my eyes as I thought of

his love for me. Shortly after this Dejah Thoris and Sola awakened,

and it was decided that we push on at once in an effort to gain the

hills.



We had gone scarcely a mile when I noticed that my thoat was commencing

to stumble and stagger in a most pitiful manner, although we had not

attempted to force them out of a walk since about noon of the preceding

day. Suddenly he lurched wildly to one side and pitched violently to

the ground. Dejah Thoris and I were thrown clear of him and fell upon

the soft moss with scarcely a jar; but the poor beast was in a pitiable

condition, not even being able to rise, although relieved of our

weight. Sola told me that the coolness of the night, when it fell,

together with the rest would doubtless revive him, and so I decided not

to kill him, as was my first intention, as I had thought it cruel to

leave him alone there to die of hunger and thirst. Relieving him of

his trappings, which I flung down beside him, we left the poor fellow

to his fate, and pushed on with the one thoat as best we could. Sola

and I walked, making Dejah Thoris ride, much against her will. In this

way we had progressed to within about a mile of the hills we were

endeavoring to reach when Dejah Thoris, from her point of vantage upon

the thoat, cried out that she saw a great party of mounted men filing

down from a pass in the hills several miles away. Sola and I both

looked in the direction she indicated, and there, plainly discernible,

were several hundred mounted warriors. They seemed to be headed in a

southwesterly direction, which would take them away from us.



They doubtless were Thark warriors who had been sent out to capture us,

and we breathed a great sigh of relief that they were traveling in the

opposite direction. Quickly lifting Dejah Thoris from the thoat, I

commanded the animal to lie down and we three did the same, presenting

as small an object as possible for fear of attracting the attention of

the warriors toward us.



We could see them as they filed out of the pass, just for an instant,

before they were lost to view behind a friendly ridge; to us a most

providential ridge; since, had they been in view for any great length

of time, they scarcely could have failed to discover us. As what

proved to be the last warrior came into view from the pass, he halted

and, to our consternation, threw his small but powerful fieldglass to

his eye and scanned the sea bottom in all directions. Evidently he was

a chieftain, for in certain marching formations among the green men a

chieftain brings up the extreme rear of the column. As his glass swung

toward us our hearts stopped in our breasts, and I could feel the cold

sweat start from every pore in my body.



Presently it swung full upon us and--stopped. The tension on our

nerves was near the breaking point, and I doubt if any of us breathed

for the few moments he held us covered by his glass; and then he

lowered it and we could see him shout a command to the warriors who had

passed from our sight behind the ridge. He did not wait for them to

join him, however, instead he wheeled his thoat and came tearing madly

in our direction.



There was but one slight chance and that we must take quickly. Raising

my strange Martian rifle to my shoulder I sighted and touched the

button which controlled the trigger; there was a sharp explosion as the

missile reached its goal, and the charging chieftain pitched backward

from his flying mount.



Springing to my feet I urged the thoat to rise, and directed Sola to

take Dejah Thoris with her upon him and make a mighty effort to reach

the hills before the green warriors were upon us. I knew that in the

ravines and gullies they might find a temporary hiding place, and even

though they died there of hunger and thirst it would be better so than

that they fell into the hands of the Tharks. Forcing my two revolvers

upon them as a slight means of protection, and, as a last resort, as an

escape for themselves from the horrid death which recapture would

surely mean, I lifted Dejah Thoris in my arms and placed her upon the

thoat behind Sola, who had already mounted at my command.



"Good-bye, my princess," I whispered, "we may meet in Helium yet. I

have escaped from worse plights than this," and I tried to smile as I

lied.



"What," she cried, "are you not coming with us?"



"How may I, Dejah Thoris? Someone must hold these fellows off for a

while, and I can better escape them alone than could the three of us

together."



She sprang quickly from the thoat and, throwing her dear arms about my

neck, turned to Sola, saying with quiet dignity: "Fly, Sola! Dejah

Thoris remains to die with the man she loves."



Those words are engraved upon my heart. Ah, gladly would I give up my

life a thousand times could I only hear them once again; but I could

not then give even a second to the rapture of her sweet embrace, and

pressing my lips to hers for the first time, I picked her up bodily and

tossed her to her seat behind Sola again, commanding the latter in

peremptory tones to hold her there by force, and then, slapping the

thoat upon the flank, I saw them borne away; Dejah Thoris struggling to

the last to free herself from Sola's grasp.



Turning, I beheld the green warriors mounting the ridge and looking for

their chieftain. In a moment they saw him, and then me; but scarcely

had they discovered me than I commenced firing, lying flat upon my

belly in the moss. I had an even hundred rounds in the magazine of my

rifle, and another hundred in the belt at my back, and I kept up a

continuous stream of fire until I saw all of the warriors who had been

first to return from behind the ridge either dead or scurrying to cover.



My respite was short-lived however, for soon the entire party,

numbering some thousand men, came charging into view, racing madly

toward me. I fired until my rifle was empty and they were almost upon

me, and then a glance showing me that Dejah Thoris and Sola had

disappeared among the hills, I sprang up, throwing down my useless gun,

and started away in the direction opposite to that taken by Sola and

her charge.



If ever Martians had an exhibition of jumping, it was granted those

astonished warriors on that day long years ago, but while it led them

away from Dejah Thoris it did not distract their attention from

endeavoring to capture me.



They raced wildly after me until, finally, my foot struck a projecting

piece of quartz, and down I went sprawling upon the moss. As I looked

up they were upon me, and although I drew my long-sword in an attempt

to sell my life as dearly as possible, it was soon over. I reeled

beneath their blows which fell upon me in perfect torrents; my head

swam; all was black, and I went down beneath them to oblivion.



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