THE CHARGE OF COWARDICE
Gahan, watching through the aperture between the hangings, saw the
frantic flight of their pursuers. A grim smile rested upon his lips as
he viewed the mad scramble for safety and saw them throw away their
swords and fight with one another to be first from the chamber of fear,
and when they were all gone he turned back toward Tara, the smile still
upon his lips; but the smile died the instant that he turned, for he
saw that Tara had disappeared.
"Tara!" he called in a loud voice, for he knew that there was no danger
that their pursuers would return; but there was no response, unless it
was a faint sound as of cackling laughter from afar. Hurriedly he
searched the passageway behind the hangings finding several doors, one
of which was ajar. Through this he entered the adjoining chamber which
was lighted more brilliantly for the moment by the soft rays of
hurtling Thuria taking her mad way through the heavens. Here he found
the dust upon the floor disturbed, and the imprint of sandals. They had
come this way--Tara and whatever the creature was that had stolen her.
But what could it have been? Gahan, a man of culture and high
intelligence, held few if any superstitions. In common with nearly all
races of Barsoom he clung, more or less inherently, to a certain
exalted form of ancestor worship, though it was rather the memory or
legends of the virtues and heroic deeds of his forebears that he
deified rather than themselves. He never expected any tangible evidence
of their existence after death; he did not believe that they had the
power either for good or for evil other than the effect that their
example while living might have had upon following generations; he did
not believe therefore in the materialization of dead spirits. If there
was a life hereafter he knew nothing of it, for he knew that science
had demonstrated the existence of some material cause for every
seemingly supernatural phenomenon of ancient religions and
superstitions. Yet he was at a loss to know what power might have
removed Tara so suddenly and mysteriously from his side in a chamber
that had not known the presence of man for five thousand years.
In the darkness he could not see whether there were the imprints of
other sandals than Tara's--only that the dust was disturbed--and when
it led him into gloomy corridors he lost the trail altogether. A
perfect labyrinth of passages and apartments were now revealed to him
as he hurried on through the deserted quarters of O-Mai. Here was an
ancient bath--doubtless that of the jeddak himself, and again he passed
through a room in which a meal had been laid upon a table five thousand
years before--the untasted breakfast of O-Mai, perhaps. There passed
before his eyes in the brief moments that he traversed the chambers, a
wealth of ornaments and jewels and precious metals that surprised even
the Jed of Gathol whose harness was of diamonds and platinum and whose
riches were the envy of a world. But at last his search of O-Mai's
chambers ended in a small closet in the floor of which was the opening
to a spiral runway leading straight down into Stygian darkness. The
dust at the entrance of the closet had been freshly disturbed, and as
this was the only possible indication that Gahan had of the direction
taken by the abductor of Tara it seemed as well to follow on as to
search elsewhere. So, without hesitation, he descended into the utter
darkness below. Feeling with a foot before taking a forward step his
descent was necessarily slow, but Gahan was a Barsoomian and so knew
the pitfalls that might await the unwary in such dark, forbidden
portions of a jeddak's palace.
He had descended for what he judged might be three full levels and was
pausing, as he occasionally did, to listen, when he distinctly heard a
peculiar shuffling, scraping sound approaching him from below. Whatever
the thing was it was ascending the runway at a steady pace and would
soon be near him. Gahan laid his hand upon the hilt of his sword and
drew it slowly from its scabbard that he might make no noise that would
apprise the creature of his presence. He wished that there might be
even the slightest lessening of the darkness. If he could see but the
outline of the thing that approached him he would feel that he had a
fairer chance in the meeting; but he could see nothing, and then
because he could see nothing the end of his scabbard struck the stone
side of the runway, giving off a sound that the stillness and the
narrow confines of the passage and the darkness seemed to magnify to a
terrific clatter.
Instantly the shuffling sound of approach ceased. For a moment Gahan
stood in silent waiting, then casting aside discretion he moved on
again down the spiral. The thing, whatever it might be, gave forth no
sound now by which Gahan might locate it. At any moment it might be
upon him and so he kept his sword in readiness. Down, ever downward the
steep spiral led. The darkness and the silence of the tomb surrounded
him, yet somewhere ahead was something. He was not alone in that horrid
place--another presence that he could not hear or see hovered before
him--of that he was positive. Perhaps it was the thing that had stolen
Tara. Perhaps Tara herself, still in the clutches of some nameless
horror, was just ahead of him. He quickened his pace--it became almost
a run at the thought of the danger that threatened the woman he loved,
and then he collided with a wooden door that swung open to the impact.
Before him was a lighted corridor. On either side were chambers. He had
advanced but a short distance from the bottom of the spiral when he
recognized that he was in the pits below the palace. A moment later he
heard behind him the shuffling sound that had attracted his attention
in the spiral runway. Wheeling about he saw the author of the sound
emerging from a doorway he had just passed. It was Ghek the kaldane.
"Ghek!" exclaimed Gahan. "It was you in the runway? Have you seen Tara
of Helium?"
"It was I in the spiral," replied the kaldane; "but I have not seen
Tara of Helium. I have been searching for her. Where is she?"
"I do not know," replied the Gatholian; "but we must find her and take
her from this place."
"We may find her," said Ghek; "but I doubt our ability to take her
away. It is not so easy to leave Manator as it is to enter it. I may
come and go at will, through the ancient burrows of the ulsios; but you
are too large for that and your lungs need more air than may be found
in some of the deeper runways."
"But U-Thor!" exclaimed Gahan. "Have you heard aught of him or his
intentions?"
"I have heard much," replied Ghek. "He camps at The Gate of Enemies.
That spot he holds and his warriors lie just beyond The Gate; but he
has not sufficient force to enter the city and take the palace. An hour
since and you might have made your way to him; but now every avenue is
strongly guarded since O-Tar learned that A-Kor had escaped to U-Thor."
"A-Kor has escaped and joined U-Thor!" exclaimed Gahan.
"But little more than an hour since. I was with him when a warrior
came--a man whose name is Tasor--who brought a message from you. It was
decided that Tasor should accompany A-Kor in an attempt to reach the
camp of U-Thor, the great jed of Manatos, and exact from him the
assurances you required. Then U-Thor was to return and take food to you
and the Princess of Helium. I accompanied them. We won through easily
and found U-Thor more than willing to respect your every wish, but when
Tasor would have returned to you the way was blocked by the warriors of
O-Tar. Then it was that I volunteered to come to you and report and
find food and drink and then go forth among the Gatholian slaves of
Manator and prepare them for their part in the plan that U-Thor and
Tasor conceived."
"And what was this plan?"
"U-Thor has sent for reinforcements. To Manatos he has sent and to all
the outlying districts that are his. It will take a month to collect
and bring them hither and in the meantime the slaves within the city
are to organize secretly, stealing and hiding arms against the day that
the reinforcements arrive. When that day comes the forces of U-Thor
will enter the Gate of Enemies and as the warriors of O-Tar rush to
repulse them the slaves from Gathol will fall upon them from the rear
with the majority of their numbers, while the balance will assault the
palace. They hope thus to divert so many from The Gate that U-Thor will
have little difficulty in forcing an entrance to the city."
"Perhaps they will succeed," commented Gahan; "but the warriors of
O-Tar are many, and those who fight in defense of their homes and their
jeddak have always an advantage. Ah, Ghek, would that we had the great
warships of Gathol or of Helium to pour their merciless fire into the
streets of Manator while U-Thor marched to the palace over the corpses
of the slain." He paused, deep in thought, and then turned his gaze
again upon the kaldane. "Heard you aught of the party that escaped with
me from The Field of Jetan--of Floran, Val Dor, and the others? What of
them?"
"Ten of these won through to U-Thor at The Gate of Enemies and were
well received by him. Eight fell in the fighting upon the way. Val Dor
and Floran live, I believe, for I am sure that I heard U-Thor address
two warriors by these names."
"Good!" exclaimed Gahan. "Go then, through the burrows of the ulsios,
to The Gate of Enemies and carry to Floran the message that I shall
write in his own language. Come, while I write the message."
In a nearby room they found a bench and table and there Gahan sat and
wrote in the strange, stenographic characters of Martian script a
message to Floran of Gathol. "Why," he asked, when he had finished it,
"did you search for Tara through the spiral runway where we nearly met?"
"Tasor told me where you were to be found, and as I have explored the
greater part of the palace by means of the ulsio runways and the darker
and less frequented passages I knew precisely where you were and how to
reach you. This secret spiral ascends from the pits to the roof of the
loftiest of the palace towers. It has secret openings at every level;
but there is no living Manatorian, I believe, who knows of its
existence. At least never have I met one within it and I have used it
many times. Thrice have I been in the chamber where O-Mai lies, though
I knew nothing of his identity or the story of his death until Tasor
told it to us in the camp of U-Thor."
"You know the palace thoroughly then?" Gahan interrupted.
"Better than O-Tar himself or any of his servants."
"Good! And you would serve the Princess Tara, Ghek, you may serve her
best by accompanying Floran and following his instructions. I will
write them here at the close of my message to him, for the walls have
ears, Ghek, while none but a Gatholian may read what I have written to
Floran. He will transmit it to you. Can I trust you?"
"I may never return to Bantoom," replied Ghek. "Therefore I have but
two friends in all Barsoom. What better may I do than serve them
faithfully? You may trust me, Gatholian, who with a woman of your kind
has taught me that there be finer and nobler things than perfect
mentality uninfluenced by the unreasoning tuitions of the heart. I go."
* * * * *
As O-Tar pointed to the little doorway all eyes turned in the direction
he indicated and surprise was writ large upon the faces of the warriors
when they recognized the two who had entered the banquet hall. There
was I-Gos, and he dragged behind him one who was gagged and whose hands
were fastened behind with a ribbon of tough silk. It was the slave
girl. I-Gos' cackling laughter rose above the silence of the room.
"Ey, ey!" he shrilled. "What the young warriors of O-Tar cannot do, old
I-Gos does alone."
"Only a Corphal may capture a Corphal," growled one of the chiefs who
had fled from the chambers of O-Mai.
I-Gos laughed. "Terror turned your heart to water," he replied; "and
shame your tongue to libel. This be no Corphal, but only a woman of
Helium; her companion a warrior who can match blades with the best of
you and cut your putrid hearts. Not so in the days of I-Gos' youth. Ah,
then were there men in Manator. Well do I recall that day that I--"
"Peace, doddering fool!" commanded O-Tar. "Where is the man?"
"Where I found the woman--in the death chamber of O-Mai. Let your wise
and brave chieftains go thither and fetch him. I am an old man, and
could bring but one."
"You have done well, I-Gos," O-Tar hastened to assure him, for when he
learned that Gahan might still be in the haunted chambers he wished to
appease the wrath of I-Gos, knowing well the vitriolic tongue and
temper of the ancient one. "You think she is no Corphal, then, I-Gos?"
he asked, wishing to carry the subject from the man who was still at
large.
"No more than you," replied the ancient taxidermist.
O-Tar looked long and searchingly at Tara of Helium. All the beauty
that was hers seemed suddenly to be carried to every fibre of his
consciousness. She was still garbed in the rich harness of a Black
Princess of Jetan, and as O-Tar the Jeddak gazed upon her he realized
that never before had his eyes rested upon a more perfect figure--a
more beautiful face.
"She is no Corphal," he murmured to himself. "She is no Corphal and she
is a princess--a princess of Helium, and, by the golden hair of the
Holy Hekkador, she is beautiful. Take the gag from her mouth and
release her hands," he commanded aloud. "Make room for the Princess
Tara of Helium at the side of O-Tar of Manator. She shall dine as
becomes a princess."
Slaves did as O-Tar bid and Tara of Helium stood with flashing eyes
behind the chair that was offered her. "Sit!" commanded O-Tar.
The girl sank into the chair. "I sit as a prisoner," she said; "not as
a guest at the board of my enemy, O-Tar of Manator."
O-Tar motioned his followers from the room. "I would speak alone with
the Princess of Helium," he said. The company and the slaves withdrew
and once more the Jeddak of Manator turned toward the girl. "O-Tar of
Manator would be your friend," he said.
Tara of Helium sat with arms folded upon her small, firm breasts, her
eyes flashing from behind narrowed lids, nor did she deign to answer
his overture. O-Tar leaned closer to her. He noted the hostility of her
bearing and he recalled his first encounter with her. She was a
she-banth, but she was beautiful. She was by far the most desirable
woman that O-Tar had ever looked upon and he was determined to possess
her. He told her so.
"I could take you as my slave," he said to her; "but it pleases me to
make you my wife. You shall be Jeddara of Manator. You shall have seven
days in which to prepare for the great honor that O-Tar is conferring
upon you, and at this hour of the seventh day you shall become an
empress and the wife of O-Tar in the throne room of the jeddaks of
Manator." He struck a gong that stood beside him upon the table and
when a slave appeared he bade him recall the company. Slowly the chiefs
filed in and took their places at the table. Their faces were grim and
scowling, for there was still unanswered the question of their jeddak's
courage. If O-Tar had hoped they would forget he had been mistaken in
his men.
O-Tar arose. "In seven days," he announced, "there will be a great
feast in honor of the new Jeddara of Manator," and he waved his hand
toward Tara of Helium. "The ceremony will occur at the beginning of the
seventh zode* in the throne room. In the meantime the Princess of
Helium will be cared for in the tower of the women's quarters of the
palace. Conduct her thither, E-Thas, with a suitable guard of honor and
see to it that slaves and eunuchs be placed at her disposal, who shall
attend upon all her wants and guard her carefully from harm."
* About 8:30 P. M. Earth Time.
Now E-Thas knew that the real meaning concealed in these fine words was
that he should conduct the prisoner under a strong guard to the women's
quarters and confine her there in the tower for seven days, placing
about her trustworthy guards who would prevent her escape or frustrate
any attempted rescue.
As Tara was departing from the chamber with E-Thas and the guard, O-Tar
leaned close to her ear and whispered: "Consider well during these
seven days the high honor I have offered you, and--its sole
alternative." As though she had not heard him the girl passed out of
the banquet hall, her head high and her eyes straight to the front.
After Ghek had left him Gahan roamed the pits and the ancient corridors
of the deserted portions of the palace seeking some clue to the
whereabouts or the fate of Tara of Helium. He utilized the spiral
runway in passing from level to level until he knew every foot of it
from the pits to the summit of the high tower, and into what apartments
it opened at the various levels as well as the ingenious and hidden
mechanism that operated the locks of the cleverly concealed doors
leading to it. For food he drew upon the stores he found in the pits
and when he slept he lay upon the royal couch of O-Mai in the forbidden
chamber sharing the dais with the dead foot of the ancient jeddak.
In the palace about him seethed, all unknown to Gahan, a vast unrest.
Warriors and chieftains pursued the duties of their vocations with dour
faces, and little knots of them were collecting here and there and with
frowns of anger discussing some subject that was uppermost in the minds
of all. It was upon the fourth day following Tara's incarceration in
the tower that E-Thas, the major-domo of the palace and one of O-Tar's
creatures, came to his master upon some trivial errand. O-Tar was alone
in one of the smaller chambers of his personal suite when the
major-domo was announced, and after the matter upon which E-Thas had
come was disposed of the jeddak signed him to remain.
"From the position of an obscure warrior I have elevated you, E-Thas,
to the honors of a chief. Within the confines of the palace your word
is second only to mine. You are not loved for this, E-Thas, and should
another jeddak ascend the throne of Manator what would become of you,
whose enemies are among the most powerful of Manator?"
"Speak not of it, O-Tar," begged E-Thas. "These last few days I have
thought upon it much and I would forget it; but I have sought to
appease the wrath of my worst enemies. I have been very kind and
indulgent with them."
"You, too, read the voiceless message in the air?" demanded the jeddak.
E-Thas was palpably uneasy and he did not reply.
"Why did you not come to me with your apprehensions?" demanded O-Tar.
"Be this loyalty?"
"I feared, O mighty jeddak!" replied E-Thas. "I feared that you would
not understand and that you would be angry."
"What know you? Speak the whole truth!" commanded O-Tar.
"There is much unrest among the chieftains and the warriors," replied
E-Thas. "Even those who were your friends fear the power of those who
speak against you."
"What say they?" growled the jeddak.
"They say that you are afraid to enter the apartments of O-Mai in
search of the slave Turan--oh, do not be angry with me, Jeddak; it is
but what they say that I repeat. I, your loyal E-Thas, believe no such
foul slander."
"No, no; why should I fear?" demanded O-Tar. "We do not know that he is
there. Did not my chiefs go thither and see nothing of him?"
"But they say that you did not go," pursued E-Thas, "and that they will
have none of a coward upon the throne of Manator."
"They said that treason?" O-Tar almost shouted.
"They said that and more, great jeddak," answered the major-domo. "They
said that not only did you fear to enter the chambers of O-Mai, but
that you feared the slave Turan, and they blame you for your treatment
of A-Kor, whom they all believe to have been murdered at your command.
They were fond of A-Kor and there are many now who say aloud that A-Kor
would have made a wondrous jeddak."
"They dare?" screamed O-Tar. "They dare suggest the name of a slave's
bastard for the throne of O-Tar!"
"He is your son, O-Tar," E-Thas reminded him, "nor is there a more
beloved man in Manator--I but speak to you of facts which may not be
ignored, and I dare do so because only when you realize the truth may
you seek a cure for the ills that draw about your throne."
O-Tar had slumped down upon his bench--suddenly he looked shrunken and
tired and old. "Cursed be the day," he cried, "that saw those three
strangers enter the city of Manator. Would that U-Dor had been spared
to me. He was strong--my enemies feared him; but he is gone--dead at
the hands of that hateful slave, Turan; may the curse of Issus be upon
him!"
"My jeddak, what shall we do?" begged E-Thas. "Cursing the slave will
not solve your problems."
"But the great feast and the marriage is but three days off," pleaded
O-Tar. "It shall be a great gala occasion. The warriors and the chiefs
all know that--it is the custom. Upon that day gifts and honors shall
be bestowed. Tell me, who are most bitter against me? I will send you
among them and let it be known that I am planning rewards for their
past services to the throne. We will make jeds of chiefs and chiefs of
warriors, and grant them palaces and slaves. Eh, E-Thas?"
The other shook his head. "It will not do, O-Tar. They will have
nothing of your gifts or honors. I have heard them say as much."
"What do they want?" demanded O-Tar.
"They want a jeddak as brave as the bravest," replied E-Thas, though
his knees shook as he said it.
"They think I am a coward?" cried the jeddak.
"They say you are afraid to go to the apartments of O-mai the Cruel."
For a long time O-Tar sat, his head sunk upon his breast, staring
blankly at the floor.
"Tell them," he said at last in a hollow voice that sounded not at all
like the voice of a great jeddak; "tell them that I will go to the
chambers of O-Mai and search for Turan the slave."