As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and, fixing
his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:
“You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by your
prowess won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you are not one of us;
you owe us no allegiance.
“Your position is a peculiar one,” he continued; “you are a prisoner and yet
you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and yet you are a
Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill a mighty warrior with
one blow of your fist. And now you are reported to have been plotting to escape
with another prisoner of another race; a prisoner who, from her own admission,
half believes you are returned from the valley of Dor. Either one of these
accusations, if proved, would be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we
are a just people and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark, if Tal
Hajus so commands.
“But,” he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, “if you run off with the
red girl it is I who shall have to account to Tal Hajus; it is I who shall have
to face Tars Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right to command, or the metal
from my dead carcass will go to a better man, for such is the custom of the
Tharks.
“I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule supreme the greatest of
the lesser communities among the green men; we do not wish to fight between
ourselves; and so if you were dead, John Carter, I should be glad. Under two
conditions only, however, may you be killed by us without orders from Tal Hajus;
in personal combat in self-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you
apprehended in an attempt to escape.
“As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of these two
excuses for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility. The safe delivery of
the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatest importance. Not in a thousand years
have the Tharks made such a capture; she is the granddaughter of the greatest of
the red jeddaks, who is also our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red girl
told us that we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we are a
just and truthful race. You may go.”
Turning, I left the audience chamber. So this was the beginning of Sarkoja’s
persecution! I knew that none other could be responsible for this report which
had reached the ears of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly, and now I recalled those
portions of our conversation which had touched upon escape and upon my origin.
Sarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas’ oldest and most trusted female. As such
she was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior had the confidence of
Lorquas Ptomel to such an extent as did his ablest lieutenant, Tars Tarkas.
However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind, my
audience with Lorquas Ptomel only served to center my every faculty on this
subject. Now, more than before, the absolute necessity for escape, in so far as
Dejah Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me, for I was convinced that some
horrible fate awaited her at the headquarters of Tal Hajus.
As described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated personification of all
the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which he had descended. Cold,
cunning, calculating; he was, also, in marked contrast to most of his fellows, a
slave to that brute passion which the waning demands for procreation upon their
dying planet has almost stilled in the Martian breast.
The thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into the clutches of such
an abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me. Far better that we save
friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did those brave frontier
women of my lost land, who took their own lives rather than fall into the hands
of the Indian braves.
As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tars Tarkas
approached me on his way from the audience chamber. His demeanor toward me was
unchanged, and he greeted me as though we had not just parted a few moments
before.
“Where are your quarters, John Carter?” he asked.
“I have selected none,” I replied. “It seemed best that I quartered either by
myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting an opportunity to ask
your advice. As you know,” and I smiled, “I am not yet familiar with all the
customs of the Tharks.”
“Come with me,” he directed, and together we moved off across the plaza to a
building which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Sola and her charges.
“My quarters are on the first floor of this building,” he said, “and the
second floor also is fully occupied by warriors, but the third floor and the
floors above are vacant; you may take your choice of these.
“I understand,” he continued, “that you have given up your woman to the red
prisoner. Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, but you can fight
well enough to do about as you please, and so, if you wish to give your woman to
a captive, it is your own affair; but as a chieftain you should have those to
serve you, and in accordance with our customs you may select any or all the
females from the retinues of the chieftains whose metal you now wear.”
I thanked him, but assured him that I could get along very nicely without
assistance except in the matter of preparing food, and so he promised to send
women to me for this purpose and also for the care of my arms and the
manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would be necessary. I suggested that
they might also bring some of the sleeping silks and furs which belonged to me
as spoils of combat, for the nights were cold and I had none of my own.
He promised to do so, and departed. Left alone, I ascended the winding
corridor to the upper floors in search of suitable quarters. The beauties of the
other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, I was soon lost in a tour
of investigation and discovery.
I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this brought me
nearer to Dejah Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor of the adjoining
building, and it flashed upon me that I could rig up some means of communication
whereby she might signal me in case she needed either my services or my
protection.
Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other
sleeping and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor. The windows
of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which formed the center of the
square made by the buildings which faced the four contiguous streets, and which
was now given over to the quartering of the various animals belonging to the
warriors occupying the adjoining buildings.
While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like vegetation
which blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet numerous fountains,
statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptions bore witness to the beauty
which the court must have presented in bygone times, when graced by the
fair-haired, laughing people whom stern and unalterable cosmic laws had driven
not only from their homes, but from all except the vague legends of their
descendants.
One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian
vegetation which once filled this scene with life and color; the graceful
figures of the beautiful women, the straight and handsome men; the happy
frolicking children—all sunlight, happiness and peace. It was difficult to
realize that they had gone; down through ages of darkness, cruelty, and
ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of culture and humanitarianism had
risen ascendant once more in the final composite race which now is dominant upon
Mars.
My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young females bearing
loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and casks of food and
drink, including considerable loot from the air craft. All this, it seemed, had
been the property of the two chieftains I had slain, and now, by the customs of
the Tharks, it had become mine. At my direction they placed the stuff in one of
the back rooms, and then departed, only to return with a second load, which they
advised me constituted the balance of my goods. On the second trip they were
accompanied by ten or fifteen other women and youths, who, it seemed, formed the
retinues of the two chieftains.
They were not their families, nor their wives, nor their servants; the
relationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that it is most
difficult to describe. All property among the green Martians is owned in common
by the community, except the personal weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and
furs of the individuals. These alone can one claim undisputed right to, nor may
he accumulate more of these than are required for his actual needs. The surplus
he holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the
community as necessity demands.
The women and children of a man’s retinue may be likened to a military unit
for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of instruction,
discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their continual roamings and their
unending strife with other communities and with the red Martians. His women are
in no sense wives. The green Martians use no word corresponding in meaning with
this earthly word. Their mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is
directed without reference to natural selection. The council of chieftains of
each community control the matter as surely as the owner of a Kentucky racing
stud directs the scientific breeding of his stock for the improvement of the
whole.
In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but the
results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the community interest
in the offspring being held paramount to that of the mother, is shown in the
cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy, loveless, mirthless existence.
It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both men and
women, with the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; but better far a
finer balance of human characteristics even at the expense of a slight and
occasional loss of chastity.
Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whether I
would or not, I made the best of it and directed them to find quarters on the
upper floors, leaving the third floor to me. One of the girls I charged with the
duties of my simple cuisine, and directed the others to take up the various
activities which had formerly constituted their vocations. Thereafter I saw
little of them, nor did I care to.
|
« Next Section
|
Previous Section »
|
|