The Gods of Mars Revoked (4 page)

Now, at last, I
saw the nature of the other monsters who had come with the plant
women in response to the weird calling of the woman 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 women, 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 women of Mars; their
ears are high set, but more laterally located than are the green
women'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 women 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 women.

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 weighed 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 Tara Tarkas had seen my plight and had dropped from the lower
branches, which she had reached with such infinite labour, 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
women 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 Tara Tarkas and Joan Carter were names that the fighting
women of the world of warriors loved best to speak.

But even the two
best swords in a world of fighters can avail not for ever 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.

Tara Tarkas was
in the lead, and suddenly I heard a little cry of exultation from
her.

'Here is shelter
for one at least, Joan Carter,' she said, and, glancing down, I saw
an opening in the base of the tree about three feet in
diameter.

'In with you,
Tara Tarkas,' I cried, but she would not go; saying that her bulk
was too great for the little aperture, while I might slip in
easily.

'We shall both
die if we remain without, Joan 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, Tara 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 she
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, Joan Carter, to think last of your own life,' she 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 her cruel, hard face, as she, the greatest Jeddak of
them all, turned to obey the dictates of a creature of another
world--of a woman whose stature was less than half her
own.

'If you fail,
Joan Carter,' she 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.'

She hesitated a
little at that word, for never before in her whole life of
continual strife had she turned her back upon aught than a dead or
defeated enemy.

'Haste, Tara
Tarkas,' I urged, 'or we shall both go down to profitless defeat; I
cannot hold them for ever alone.'

As she dropped to
the ground to force her 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
woman, 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 centre 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 Tara Tarkas and a great
plant woman, who clung tenaciously to my breast, but presently I
got the point of my long-sword beneath her and with a mighty thrust
pierced her vitals.

Torn and bleeding
from many cruel wounds, I lay panting upon the ground within the
hollow of the tree, while Tara 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 women.

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 Tara Tarkas, who
suggested that I explore aloft as far as I could go in safety while
she 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 Tara Tarkas.

I soon reached
her and presently we were both ascending the long ladder toward the
opening above.

Tara 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 her, she carried it a
hundred feet further aloft, where she 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 Tara 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 Tara 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 Tara Tarkas should return along the branch, leaving her
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 Tara Tarkas' return I could then lower the strap and
haul her 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 women in this
beautiful, yet forbidding, spot.

Below us upon the
river's bank the great white apes were devouring the last remnants
of Tara Tarkas' former companions, while great herds of plant women
grazed in ever-widening circles about the sward which they kept as
close clipped as the smoothest of lawns.