THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN
There was nothing for it now other than to fight; nor did I
have any advantage as I sprang, sword in hand, into the corridor
before the two therns, for my untimely sneeze had warned them of
my presence and they were ready for me.
There were no words, for they would have been a waste of breath.
The very presence of the two proclaimed their treachery. That
they were following to fall upon me unawares was all too plain,
and they, of course, must have known that I understood their plan.
In an instant I was engaged with both, and though I loathe the
very name of Thern, I must in all fairness admit that they are
mighty swordsmen; and these two were no exception, unless it were
that they were even more skilled and fearless than the average
among their race.
While it lasted it was indeed as joyous a conflict as I ever
had experienced. Twice at least I saved my breast from the mortal
thrust of piercing steel only by the wondrous agility with which my
earthly muscles endow me under the conditions of lesser gravity and
air pressure upon Mars.
Yet even so I came near to tasting death that day in the gloomy
corridor beneath Mars's southern pole, for Lakor played a
trick upon me that in all my experience of fighting upon two
planets I never before had witnessed the like of.
The other Thern was engaging me at the time, and I was forcing
him back--touching him here and there with my point until he was
bleeding from a dozen wounds, yet not being able to penetrate his
marvelous guard to reach a vulnerable spot for the brief instant
that would have been sufficient to send him to his ancestors.
It was then that Lakor quickly unslung a belt from his harness,
and as I stepped back to parry a wicked thrust he lashed one end
of it about my left ankle so that it wound there for an instant,
while he jerked suddenly upon the other end, throwing me
heavily upon my back.
Then, like leaping panthers, they were upon me; but they had
reckoned without Woola, and before ever a blade touched me,
a roaring embodiment of a thousand demons hurtled above my
prostrate form and my loyal Martian calot was upon them.
Imagine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs armed with
mighty talons and an enormous froglike mouth splitting his head
from ear to ear, exposing three rows of long, white tusks. Then
endow this creature of your imagination with the agility and
ferocity of a half-starved Bengal tiger and the strength of a span
of bulls, and you will have some faint conception of Woola in action.
Before I could call him off he had crushed Lakor into a jelly with
a single blow of one mighty paw, and had literally torn the other
Thern to ribbons; yet when I spoke to him sharply he cowed sheepishly
as though he had done a thing to deserve censure and chastisement.
Never had I had the heart to punish Woola during the long years that
had passed since that first day upon Mars when the green jed of the
Tharks had placed him on guard over me, and I had won his love and
loyalty from the cruel and loveless masters of his former life,
yet I believe he would have submitted to any cruelty that I might
have inflicted upon him, so wondrous was his affection for me.
The diadem in the center of the circlet of gold upon the brow of
Lakor proclaimed him a Holy Thern, while his companion, not thus
adorned, was a lesser Thern, though from his harness I gleaned that
he had reached the Ninth Cycle, which is but one below that of the
Holy Therns.
As I stood for a moment looking at the gruesome havoc Woola
had wrought, there recurred to me the memory of that other occasion
upon which I had masqueraded in the wig, diadem, and harness of
Sator Throg, the Holy Thern whom Thuvia of Ptarth had slain, and
now it occurred to me that it might prove of worth to utilize
Lakor's trappings for the same purpose.
A moment later I had torn his yellow wig from his bald pate
and transferred it and the circlet, as well as all his harness, to
my own person.
Woola did not approve of the metamorphosis. He sniffed at me
and growled ominously, but when I spoke to him and patted his huge
head he at length became reconciled to the change, and at my
command trotted off along the corridor in the direction we had
been going when our progress had been interrupted by the therns.
We moved cautiously now, warned by the fragment of conversation
I had overheard. I kept abreast of Woola that we might have
the benefit of all our eyes for what might appear suddenly
ahead to menace us, and well it was that we were forewarned.
At the bottom of a flight of narrow steps the corridor turned
sharply back upon itself, immediately making another turn in the
original direction, so that at that point it formed a perfect
letter S, the top leg of which debouched suddenly into a large
chamber, illy lighted, and the floor of which was completely
covered by venomous snakes and loathsome reptiles.
To have attempted to cross that floor would have been to court
instant death, and for a moment I was almost completely discouraged.
Then it occurred to me that Thurid and Matai Shang with their party
must have crossed it, and so there was a way.
Had it not been for the fortunate accident by which I overheard
even so small a portion of the therns' conversation we should
have blundered at least a step or two into that wriggling
mass of destruction, and a single step would have been all-
sufficient to have sealed our doom.
These were the only reptiles I had ever seen upon Barsoom,
but I knew from their similarity to the fossilized remains of
supposedly extinct species I had seen in the museums of Helium
that they comprised many of the known prehistoric reptilian genera,
as well as others undiscovered.
A more hideous aggregation of monsters had never before assailed
my vision. It would be futile to attempt to describe them
to Earth men, since substance is the only thing which they possess
in common with any creature of the past or present with which you
are familiar--even their venom is of an unearthly virulence that,
by comparison, would make the cobra de capello seem quite as
harmless as an angleworm.
As they spied me there was a concerted rush by those nearest
the entrance where we stood, but a line of radium bulbs inset along
the threshold of their chamber brought them to a sudden halt--
evidently they dared not cross that line of light.
I had been quite sure that they would not venture beyond the
room in which I had discovered them, though I had not guessed at
what deterred them. The simple fact that we had found no reptiles
in the corridor through which we had just come was sufficient
assurance that they did not venture there.
I drew Woola out of harm's way, and then began a careful survey
of as much of the Chamber of Reptiles as I could see from where
I stood. As my eyes became accustomed to the dim light of its
interior I gradually made out a low gallery at the far end of
the apartment from which opened several exits.
Coming as close to the threshold as I dared, I followed this
gallery with my eyes, discovering that it circled the room as far
as I could see. Then I glanced above me along the upper edge of
the entrance to which we had come, and there, to my delight, I saw
an end of the gallery not a foot above my head. In an instant I
had leaped to it and called Woola after me.
Here there were no reptiles--the way was clear to the opposite
side of the hideous chamber--and a moment later Woola and I dropped
down to safety in the corridor beyond.
Not ten minutes later we came into a vast circular apartment
of white marble, the walls of which were inlaid with gold in the
strange hieroglyphics of the First Born.
From the high dome of this mighty apartment a huge circular column
extended to the floor, and as I watched I saw that it slowly revolved.
I had reached the base of the Temple of the Sun!
Somewhere above me lay Dejah Thoris, and with her were Phaidor,
daughter of Matai Shang, and Thuvia of Ptarth. But how to
reach them, now that I had found the only vulnerable spot
in their mighty prison, was still a baffling riddle.
Slowly I circled the great shaft, looking for a means of ingress.
Part way around I found a tiny radium flash torch, and as
I examined it in mild curiosity as to its presence there in this
almost inaccessible and unknown spot, I came suddenly upon the
insignia of the house of Thurid jewel-inset in its metal case.
I am upon the right trail, I thought, as I slipped the bauble
into the pocket-pouch which hung from my harness. Then I continued
my search for the entrance, which I knew must be somewhere about;
nor had I long to search, for almost immediately thereafter I came
upon a small door so cunningly inlaid in the shaft's base that it
might have passed unnoticed by a less keen or careful observer.
There was the door that would lead me within the prison, but
where was the means to open it? No button or lock were visible.
Again and again I went carefully over every square inch of its
surface, but the most that I could find was a tiny pinhole a little
above and to the right of the door's center--a pinhole that seemed
only an accident of manufacture or an imperfection of material.
Into this minute aperture I attempted to peer, but whether it
was but a fraction of an inch deep or passed completely through
the door I could not tell--at least no light showed beyond it.
I put my ear to it next and listened, but again my efforts
brought negligible results.
During these experiments Woola had been standing at my side
gazing intently at the door, and as my glance fell upon him it
occurred to me to test the correctness of my hypothesis, that this
portal had been the means of ingress to the Temple used by Thurid,
the black dator, and Matai Shang, Father of Therns.
Turning away abruptly, I called to him to follow me. For a
moment he hesitated, and then leaped after me, whining and tugging
at my harness to draw me back. I walked on, however, some distance
from the door before I let him have his way, that I might see
precisely what he would do. Then I permitted him to lead me
wherever he would.
Straight back to that baffling portal he dragged me, again
taking up his position facing the blank stone, gazing straight at
its shining surface. For an hour I worked to solve the mystery of
the combination that would open the way before me.
Carefully I recalled every circumstance of my pursuit of Thurid,
and my conclusion was identical with my original belief--that
Thurid had come this way without other assistance than his own
knowledge and passed through the door that barred my progress,
unaided from within. But how had he accomplished it?
I recalled the incident of the Chamber of Mystery in the
Golden Cliffs that time I had freed Thuvia of Ptarth from the
dungeon of the therns, and she had taken a slender, needle-like
key from the keyring of her dead jailer to open the door leading
back into the Chamber of Mystery where Tars Tarkas fought for his
life with the great banths. Such a tiny keyhole as now defied me
had opened the way to the intricate lock in that other door.
Hastily I dumped the contents of my pocket-pouch upon the ground
before me. Could I but find a slender bit of steel I might yet
fashion a key that would give me ingress to the Temple prison.
As I examined the heterogeneous collection of odds and ends that
is always to be found in the pocket-pouch of a Martian warrior my
hand fell upon the emblazoned radium flash torch of the black dator.
As I was about to lay the thing aside as of no value in my
present predicament my eyes chanced upon a few strange characters
roughly and freshly scratched upon the soft gold of the case.
Casual curiosity prompted me to decipher them, but what I read
carried no immediate meaning to my mind. There were three sets of
characters, one below another:
3 |--| 50 T
1 |--| 1 X
9 |--| 25 T
For only an instant my curiosity was piqued, and then I
replaced the torch in my pocket-pouch, but my fingers had not
unclasped from it when there rushed to my memory the recollection
of the conversation between Lakor and his companion when the lesser
Thern had quoted the words of Thurid and scoffed at them: "And what
think you of the ridiculous matter of the light? Let the light
shine with the intensity of three radium units for fifty tals"--ah,
there was the first line of characters upon the torch's metal case--
3--50 T; "and for one xat let it shine with the intensity of one
radium unit"--there was the second line; "and then for twenty-five
tals with nine units."
The formula was complete; but--what did it mean?
I thought I knew, and, seizing a powerful magnifying glass
from the litter of my pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a careful
examination of the marble immediately about the pinhole in the door.
I could have cried aloud in exultation when my scrutiny
disclosed the almost invisible incrustation of particles of
carbonized electrons which are thrown off by these Martian torches.
It was evident that for countless ages radium torches had been
applied to this pinhole, and for what purpose there could be but a
single answer--the mechanism of the lock was actuated by light
rays; and I, John Carter, Prince of Helium, held the combination in
my hand--scratched by the hand of my enemy upon his own torch case.
In a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomian
chronometer--a delicate instrument that records the tals and xats
and zodes of Martian time, presenting them to view beneath
a strong crystal much after the manner of an earthly odometer.
Timing my operations carefully, I held the torch to the small
aperture in the door, regulating the intensity of the light by
means of the thumb-lever upon the side of the case.
For fifty tals I let three units of light shine full in the
pinhole, then one unit for one xat, and for twenty-five tals nine
units. Those last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-five
seconds of my life. Would the lock click at the end of those
seemingly interminable intervals of time?
Twenty-three! Twenty-four! Twenty-five!
I shut off the light with a snap. For seven tals I waited--
there had been no appreciable effect upon the lock's mechanism.
Could it be that my theory was entirely wrong?
Hold! Had the nervous strain resulted in a hallucination, or
did the door really move? Slowly the solid stone sank noiselessly
back into the wall--there was no hallucination here.
Back and back it slid for ten feet until it had disclosed at its
right a narrow doorway leading into a dark and narrow corridor
that paralleled the outer wall. Scarcely was the entrance
uncovered than Woola and I had leaped through--then the door
slipped quietly back into place.
Down the corridor at some distance I saw the faint reflection
of a light, and toward this we made our way. At the point where
the light shone was a sharp turn, and a little distance beyond this
a brilliantly lighted chamber.
Here we discovered a spiral stairway leading up from the
center of the circular room.
Immediately I knew that we had reached the center of the base
of the Temple of the Sun--the spiral runway led upward past the
inner walls of the prison cells. Somewhere above me was Dejah
Thoris, unless Thurid and Matai Shang had already succeeded in
stealing her.
We had scarcely started up the runway when Woola suddenly
displayed the wildest excitement. He leaped back and forth,
snapping at my legs and harness, until I thought that he was mad,
and finally when I pushed him from me and started once more to
ascend he grasped my sword arm between his jaws and dragged me back.
No amount of scolding or cuffing would suffice to make him
release me, and I was entirely at the mercy of his brute strength
unless I cared to use my dagger upon him with my left hand; but,
mad or no, I had not the heart to run the sharp blade into that
faithful body.
Down into the chamber he dragged me, and across it to the side
opposite that at which we had entered. Here was another doorway
leading into a corridor which ran directly down a steep incline.
Without a moment's hesitation Woola jerked me along this rocky passage.
Presently he stopped and released me, standing between me and
the way we had come, looking up into my face as though to ask if I
would now follow him voluntarily or if he must still resort to force.
Looking ruefully at the marks of his great teeth upon my bare arm
I decided to do as he seemed to wish me to do. After all, his strange
instinct might be more dependable than my faulty human judgment.
And well it was that I had been forced to follow him. But a
short distance from the circular chamber we came suddenly into a
brilliantly lighted labyrinth of crystal glass partitioned passages.
At first I thought it was one vast, unbroken chamber, so clear
and transparent were the walls of the winding corridors, but after
I had nearly brained myself a couple of times by attempting to pass
through solid vitreous walls I went more carefully.
We had proceeded but a few yards along the corridor that had
given us entrance to this strange maze when Woola gave mouth to
a most frightful roar, at the same time dashing against the clear
partition at our left.
The resounding echoes of that fearsome cry were still
reverberating through the subterranean chambers when I saw the
thing that had startled it from the faithful beast.
Far in the distance, dimly through the many thicknesses of
intervening crystal, as in a haze that made them seem unreal and
ghostly, I discerned the figures of eight people--three females and
five men.
At the same instant, evidently startled by Woola's fierce cry,
they halted and looked about. Then, of a sudden, one of them, a
woman, held her arms out toward me, and even at that great distance
I could see that her lips moved--it was Dejah Thoris, my ever
beautiful and ever youthful Princess of Helium.
With her were Thuvia of Ptarth, Phaidor, daughter of Matai Shang,
and Thurid, and the Father of Therns, and the three lesser therns
that had accompanied them.
Thurid shook his fist at me, and then two of the therns grasped
Dejah Thoris and Thuvia roughly by their arms and hurried them on.
A moment later they had disappeared into a stone corridor beyond
the labyrinth of glass.
They say that love is blind; but so great a love as that of Dejah Thoris
that knew me even beneath the Thern disguise I wore and across the
misty vista of that crystal maze must indeed be far from blind.
Warlord of Mars Chapter 2 ...
Warlord of Mars Chapter 4