TARS TARKAS and I found no
time for an exchange of experiences as we stood there before the
great boulder surrounded by the corpses of our grotesque
assailants, for from all directions down the broad valley was
streaming a perfect torrent of terrifying creatures in response to
the weird call of the strange figure far above us.
"Come," cried Tars Tarkas, "we must make for the cliffs. There
lies our only hope of even temporary escape; there we may find a
cave or a narrow ledge which two may defend forever against this
motley, unarmed horde."
Together we raced across the scarlet sward, I timing my speed
that I might not outdistance my slower companion. We had, perhaps,
three hundred yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs,
and then to search out a suitable shelter for our stand against the
terrifying things that were pursuing us.
They were rapidly overhauling us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to
hasten ahead and discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought.
The suggestion was a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might
be saved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles
into the effort, I cleared the remaining distance between myself
and the cliffs in great leaps and bounds that put me at their base
in a moment.
The cliffs rose perpendicular directly from the almost level
sward of the valley. There was no accumulation of fallen debris,
forming a more or less rough ascent to them, as is the case with
nearly all other cliffs I ever have seen. The scattering boulders
that had fallen from above, and lay upon or partly buried in the
turf, were the only indication that any disintegration of the
massive, towering pile of rocks ever had taken place.
My first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my
heart with forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where
the weird herald stood still shrieking his shrill summons, the
faintest indication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty
escarpment.
To my right the bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense
foliage of the forest, which terminated at its very foot, rearing
its gorgeous foliage fully a thousand feet against its stern and
forbidding neighbor.
To the left the cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head
of the broad valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to
be a range of mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley
in every direction.
Perhaps a thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed,
directly from the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the
remotest chance for escape in that direction I turned my attention
again toward the forest.
The cliffs towered above me a good five thousand feet. The sun
was not quite upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own
shade. Here and there they were broken with streaks and patches of
dusky red, green, and occasional areas of white quartz.
Altogether they were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not
regard them with a particularly appreciative eye on this, my first
inspection of them.
Just then I was absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and
so, as my gaze ran quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse
in search of some cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them
as the prisoner must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of his
dungeon.
Tars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly
came the awful horde at his heels.
It seemed the forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point
of motioning Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the
sun passed the cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the
dull surface it burst out into a million scintillant lights of
burnished gold, of flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming
whites-a more gorgeous and inspiring spectacle human eye has never
rested upon.
The face of the entire cliff was, as later inspection
conclusively proved, so shot with veins and patches of solid gold
as to quite present the appearance of a solid wall of that precious
metal except where it was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald,
and diamond boulders-a faint and alluring indication of the vast
and unguessable riches which lay deeply buried behind the
magnificent surface.
But what caught my most interested attention at the moment that
the sun's rays set the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several
black spots which now appeared quite plainly in evidence high
across the gorgeous wall close to the forest's top, and extending
apparently below and behind the branches.
Almost immediately I recognized them for what they were, the
dark openings of caves entering the solid walls-possible avenues of
escape or temporary shelter, could we but reach them.
There was but a single way, and that led through the mighty,
towering trees upon our right. That I could scale them I knew full
well, but Tars Tarkas, with his mighty bulk and enormous weight,
would find it a task possibly quite beyond his prowess or his
skill, for Martians are at best but poor climbers. Upon the entire
surface of that ancient planet I before never had seen a hill or
mountain that exceeded four thousand feet in height above the dead
sea bottoms, and as the ascent was usually gradual, nearly to their
summits they presented but few opportunities for the practice of
climbing. Nor would the Martians have embraced even such
opportunities as might present themselves, for they could always
find a circuitous route about the base of any eminence, and these
roads they preferred and followed in preference to the shorter but
more arduous ways.
However, there was nothing else to consider than an attempt to
scale the trees contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the
caves above.
The Thark grasped the possibilities and the difficulties of the
plan at once, but there was no alternative, and so we set out
rapidly for the trees nearest the cliff.
Our relentless pursuers were now close to us, so close that it
seemed that it would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of
Thark to reach the forest in advance of them, nor was there any
considerable will in the efforts that Tars Tarkas made, for the
green men of Barsoom do not relish flight, nor ever before had I
seen one fleeing from death in whatsoever form it might have
confronted him. But that Tars Tarkas was the bravest of the brave
he had proven thousands of times; yes, tens of thousands in
countless mortal combats with men and beasts. And so I knew that
there was another reason than fear of death behind his flight, as
he knew that a greater power than pride or honor spurred me to
escape these fierce destroyers. In my case it was love-love of the
divine Dejah Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden
love of life I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek
death than life-these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.
At length, however, we reached the shadows of the forest, while
right behind us sprang the swiftest of our pursuers-a giant plant
man with claws outreaching to fasten his blood-sucking mouths upon
us.
He was, I should say, a hundred yards in advance of his closest
companion, and so I called to Tars Tarkas to ascend a great tree
that brushed the cliff's face while I dispatched the fellow, thus
giving the less agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher
branches before the entire horde should be upon us and every
vestige of escape cut off.
But I had reckoned without a just appreciation either of the
cunning of my immediate antagonist or the swiftness with which his
fellows were covering the distance which had separated them from
me.
As I raised my long-sword to deal the creature its death thrust
it halted in its charge and, as my sword cut harmlessly through the
empty air, the great tail of the thing swept with the power of a
grizzly's arm across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet
to the ground. In an instant the brute was upon me, but ere it
could fasten its hideous mouths into my breast and throat I grasped
a writhing tentacle in either hand.
The plant man was well muscled, heavy, and powerful, but my
earthly sinews and greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly
strangle hold I had upon him, would have given me, I think, an
eventual victory had we had time to discuss the merits of our
relative prowess uninterrupted. But as we strained and struggled
about the tree into which Tars Tarkas was clambering with infinite
difficulty, I suddenly caught a glimpse over the shoulder of my
antagonist of the great swarm of pursuers that now were fairly upon
me.
Now, at last, I saw the nature of the other monsters who had
come with the plant men in response to the weird calling of the man
upon the cliff's face. They were that most dreaded of Martian
creatures-great white apes of Barsoom.
My former experiences upon Mars had familiarized me thoroughly
with them and their methods, and I may say that of all the fearsome
and terrible, weird and grotesque inhabitants of that strange
world, it is the white apes that come nearest to familiarizing me
with the sensation of fear.
I think that the cause of this feeling which these apes engender
within me is due to their remarkable resemblance in form to our
Earth men, which gives them a human appearance that is most uncanny
when coupled with their enormous size.
They stand fifteen feet in height and walk erect upon their hind
feet. Like the green Martians, they have an intermediary set of
arms midway between their upper and lower limbs. Their eyes are
very close set, but do not protrude as do those of the green men of
Mars; their ears are high set, but more laterally located than are
the green men's, while their snouts and teeth are much like those
of our African gorilla. Upon their heads grows an enormous shock of
bristly hair.
It was into the eyes of such as these and the terrible plant men
that I gazed above the shoulder of my foe, and then, in a mighty
wave of snarling, snapping, screaming, purring rage, they swept
over me-and of all the sounds that assailed my ears as I went down
beneath them, to me the most hideous was the horrid purring of the
plant men.
Instantly a score of cruel fangs and keen talons were sunk into
my flesh; cold, sucking lips fastened themselves upon my arteries.
I struggled to free myself, and even though weighted down by these
immense bodies, I succeeded in struggling to my feet, where, still
grasping my long-sword, and shortening my grip upon it until I
could use it as a dagger, I wrought such havoc among them that at
one time I stood for an instant free.
What it has taken minutes to write occurred in but a few
seconds, but during that time Tars Tarkas had seen my plight and
had dropped from the lower branches, which he had reached with such
infinite labor, and as I flung the last of my immediate antagonists
from me the great Thark leaped to my side, and again we fought,
back to back, as we had done a hundred times before.
Time and again the ferocious apes sprang in to close with us,
and time and again we beat them back with our swords. The great
tails of the plant men lashed with tremendous power about us as
they charged from various directions or sprang with the agility of
greyhounds above our heads; but every attack met a gleaming blade
in sword hands that had been reputed for twenty years the best that
Mars ever had known; for Tars Tarkas and John Carter were names
that the fighting men of the world of warriors loved best to
speak.
But even the two best swords in a world of fighters can avail
not forever against overwhelming numbers of fierce and savage
brutes that know not what defeat means until cold steel teaches
their hearts no longer to beat, and so, step by step, we were
forced back. At length we stood against the giant tree that we had
chosen for our ascent, and then, as charge after charge hurled its
weight upon us, we gave back again and again, until we had been
forced half way around the huge base of the colossal trunk.
Tars Tarkas was in the lead, and suddenly I heard a little cry
of exultation from him.
"Here is shelter for one at least, John Carter," he said, and,
glancing down, I saw an opening in the base of the tree about three
feet in diameter.
"In with you, Tars Tarkas," I cried, but he would not go; saying
that his bulk was too great for the little aperture, while I might
slip in easily.
"We shall both die if we remain without, John Carter; here is a
slight chance for one of us. Take it and you may live to avenge me,
it is useless for me to attempt to worm my way into so small an
opening with this horde of demons besetting us on all sides."
"Then we shall die together, Tars Tarkas," I replied, "for I
shall not go first. Let me defend the opening while you get in,
then my smaller stature will permit me to slip in with you before
they can prevent."
We still were fighting furiously as we talked in broken
sentences, punctured with vicious cuts and thrusts at our swarming
enemy.
At length he yielded, for it seemed the only way in which either
of us might be saved from the ever-increasing numbers of our
assailants, who were still swarming upon us from all directions
across the broad valley.
"It was ever your way, John Carter, to think last of your own
life," he said; "but still more your way to command the lives and
actions of others, even to the greatest of Jeddaks who rule upon
Barsoom."
There was a grim smile upon his cruel, hard face, as he, the
greatest Jeddak of them all, turned to obey the dictates of a
creature of another world-of a man whose stature was less than half
his own.
"If you fail, John Carter," he said, "know that the cruel, and
heartless Thark, to whom you taught the meaning of friendship, will
come out to die beside you."
"As you will, my friend," I replied, "but quickly now, head
first, while I cover your retreat.
He hesitated a little at that word, for never before in his
whole life of continual strife had he turned his back upon aught
than a dead or defeated enemy.
"Haste, Tars Tarkas," I urged, "or we shall, both go down to
profitless defeat; I cannot hold them forever alone."
As he dropped to the ground to force his way into the tree, the
whole howling pack of hideous devils hurled themselves upon me. To
right and left flew my shimmering blade, now green with the sticky
juice of a plant man, now red with the crimson blood of a great
white ape; but always flying from one opponent to another,
hesitating but the barest fraction of a second to drink the
lifeblood in the center of some savage heart.
And thus I fought as I never had fought before, against such
frightful odds that I cannot realize even now that human muscles
could have withstood that awful onslaught, that terrific weight of
hurtling tons of ferocious, battling flesh.
With the fear that we would escape them, the creatures redoubled
their efforts to pull me down, and though the ground about me was
piled high with their dead and dying comrades, they succeeded at
last in overwhelming me, and I went down beneath them for the
second time that day, and once again felt those awful sucking lips
against my, flesh.
But scarce had I fallen ere I felt powerful hands grip my
ankles, and in another second I was being drawn within the shelter
of the tree's interior. For a moment it was a tug of war between
Tars Tarkas and a great plant man, who clung tenaciously to my
breast, but presently I got the point of my longsword beneath him
and with a mighty thrust pierced his vitals.
Torn and bleeding from many cruel wounds, I lay panting upon the
ground within the hollow of the tree, while Tars Tarkas defended
the opening from the furious mob without.
For an hour they howled about the tree, but after a few attempts
to reach us they confined their efforts to terrorizing shrieks and
screams; to horrid growling on the part of the great white apes and
the fearsome and indescribable purring by the plant men.
At length all but a score, who had apparently been left to
prevent our escape, had left us, and our adventure seemed destined
to result in a siege, the only outcome of which could be our death
by starvation; for even should we be able to slip out after dark,
whither in this unknown and hostile valley could we hope to turn
our steps toward possible escape?
As the attacks of our enemies ceased and our eyes became
accustomed to the semi-darkness of the interior of our strange
retreat, I took the opportunity to explore our shelter.
The tree was hollow to an extent of about fifty feet in diameter
and from its flat, hard floor I judged that it had often been used
to domicile others before our occupancy. As I raised my eyes toward
its roof to note the height I saw far above me a faint glow of
light.
There was an opening above. If we could but reach it we might
still hope to make the shelter of the cliff caves. My eyes had now
become quite used to the subdued light of the interior, and as I
pursued my investigation I presently came upon a rough ladder at
the far side of the cave.
Quickly I mounted it, only to find that it connected at the top
with the lower of a series of horizontal wooden bars that spanned
the now narrow and shaft-like interior of the tree's stem. These
bars were set one above another about three feet apart, and formed
a perfect ladder as far above me as I could see.
Dropping to the floor once more, I detailed my discovery to Tars
Tarkas, who suggested that I explore aloft as far as I could go in
safety while he guarded the entrance against a possible attack.
As I hastened above to explore the strange shaft I found that
the ladder of horizontal bars mounted always as far above me as my
eyes could reach, and as I ascended, the light from above grew
brighter and brighter.
For fully five hundred feet I continued to climb, until at
length I reached the opening in the stem which admitted the light.
It was of about the same diameter as the entrance at the foot of
the tree, and opened directly upon a large flat limb, the well-worn
surface of which testified to its long-continued use as an avenue
for some creature to and from this remarkable shaft.
I did not venture out upon the limb for fear that I might be
discovered and our retreat in this direction cut off; but instead
hurried to retrace my steps to Tars Tarkas.
I soon reached him and presently we were both ascending the long
ladder toward the opening above.
Tars Tarkas went in advance and as I reached the first of the
horizontal bars I drew the ladder up after me and, handing it to
him, he carried it a hundred feet further aloft, where he wedged it
safely between one of the bars and the side of the shaft. In like
manner I dislodged the lower bars as I passed them, so that we soon
had the interior of the tree denuded of all possible means of
ascent for a distance of a hundred feet from the base; thus
precluding possible pursuit and attack from the rear.
As we were to learn later, this precaution saved us from dire
predicament, and was eventually the means of our salvation.
When we reached the opening at the top Tars Tarkas drew to one
side that I might pass out and investigate, as, owing to my lesser
weight and greater agility, I was better fitted for the perilous
threading of this dizzy, hanging pathway.
The limb upon which I found myself, ascended at a slight angle
toward the cliff and as I followed it I found that it terminated a
few feet above a narrow ledge which protruded from the cliff's face
at the entrance to a narrow cave.
As I approached the slightly more slender extremity of the
branch it bent beneath my weight until, as I balanced perilously
upon its outer tip, it swayed gently on a level with the ledge at a
distance of a couple of feet.
Five hundred feet below me lay the vivid scarlet carpet of the
valley; nearly five thousand feet above towered the mighty,
gleaming face of the gorgeous cliffs.
The cave that I faced was not one of those that I had seen from
the ground, and which lay much higher, possibly a thousand feet.
But so far as I might know it was as good for our purpose as
another, and so I returned to the tree for Tars Tarkas.
Together we wormed our way along the waving pathway, but when we
reached the end of the branch we found that our combined weight so
depressed the limb that the cave's mouth was now too far above us
to be reached.
We finally agreed that Tars Tarkas should return along the
branch, leaving his longest leather harness strap with me, and that
when the limb had risen to a height that would permit me to enter
the cave I was to do so, and on Tars Tarkas' return I could then
lower the strap and haul him up to the safety of the ledge.
This we did without mishap and soon found ourselves together
upon the verge of a dizzy little balcony, with a magnificent view
of the valley spreading out below us.
As far as the eye could reach gorgeous forest and crimson sward
skirted a silent sea, and about all towered the brilliant monster
guardian cliffs. Once we thought we discerned a gilded minaret
gleaming in the sun amidst the waving tops of far-distant trees,
but we soon abandoned the idea in the belief that it was but an
hallucination born of our great desire to discover the haunts of
civilized men in this beautiful, yet forbidding, spot.
Below us upon the river's bank the great white apes were
devouring the last remnants of Tars Tarkas' former companions,
while great herds of plant men grazed in ever-widening circles
about the sward which they kept as close clipped as the smoothest
of lawns.
Knowing that attack from the tree was now improbable, we
determined to explore the cave, which we had every reason to
believe was but a continuation of the path we had already
traversed, leading the gods alone knew where, but quite evidently
away from this valley of grim ferocity.
As we advanced we found a well-proportioned tunnel cut from the
solid cliff. Its walls rose some twenty feet above the floor, which
was about five feet in width. The roof was arched. We had no means
of making a light, and so groped our way slowly into the
ever-increasing darkness, Tars Tarkas keeping in touch with one
wall while I felt along the other, while, to prevent our wandering
into diverging branches and becoming separated or lost in some
intricate and labyrinthine maze, we clasped hands.
How far we traversed the tunnel in this manner I do not know,
but presently we came to an obstruction which blocked our further
progress. It seemed more like a partition than a sudden ending of
the cave, for it was constructed not of the material of the cliff,
but of something which felt like very hard wood.
Silently I groped over its surface with my hands, and presently
was rewarded by the feel of the button which as commonly denotes a
door on Mars as does a door knob on Earth.
Gently pressing it, I had the satisfaction of feeling the door
slowly give before me, and in another instant we were looking into
a dimly lighted apartment, which, so far as we could see, was
unoccupied.
Without more ado I swung the door wide open and, followed by the
huge Thark, stepped into the chamber, As we stood for a moment in
silence gazing about the room a slight noise behind caused me to
turn quickly, when, to my astonishment, I saw the door close with a
sharp click as though by an unseen hand.
Instantly I sprang toward it to wrench it open again, for
something in the uncanny movement of the thing and the tense and
almost palpable silence of the chamber seemed to portend a lurking
evil lying hidden in this rock-bound chamber within the bowels of
the Golden Cliffs.
My fingers clawed futilely at the unyielding portal, while my
eyes sought in vain for a duplicate of the button which had given
us ingress.
And then, from unseen lips, a cruel and mocking peal of laughter
rang through the desolate place.
