Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars Chronicles 03 - Warlord of Mars

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11 The Pity of Plenty

12 "Follow the Rope!"

13 The Magnet Switch

14 The Tide of Battle

15 Rewards

16 The New Ruler.

that beloved heart? Time only would reveal the truth.

Six hundred and eighty-seven Martian days must come and go

before the cell's door would again come opposite the tunnel's end

where last I had seen my ever-beautiful Dejah Thoris.

Half of them had passed, or would on the morrow, yet vivid in my

memory, obliterating every event that had come before or after,

there remained the last scene before the gust of smoke blinded my

eyes and the narrow slit that had given me sight of the interior of

her cell closed between me and the Princess of Helium for a long

Martian year.

As if it were yesterday, I still saw the beautiful face of Phaidor,

daughter of Matai Shang, distorted with jealous rage and hatred as

she sprang forward with raised dagger upon the woman I loved.

I saw the red girl, Thuvia of Ptarth, leap forward to prevent the

hideous deed.

The smoke from the burning temple had come then to blot out

the tragedy, but in my ears rang the single shriek as the knife fell.

Then silence, and when the smoke had cleared, the revolving temple

had shut off all sight or sound from the chamber in which the three

beautiful women were imprisoned.

Much there had been to occupy my attention since that terrible

moment; but never for an instant had the memory of the thing

faded, and all the time that I could spare from the numerous duties

that had devolved upon me in the reconstruction of the government

of the First Born since our victorious fleet and land forces had

overwhelmed them, had been spent close to the grim shaft that held

the mother of my boy, Carthoris of Helium.

The race of blacks that for ages had worshiped Issus, the false

deity of Mars, had been left in a state of chaos by my revealment of

her as naught more than a wicked old woman. In their rage they

had torn her to pieces..From the high pinnacle of their egotism the

First Born had been

in it; but I would have none of it. My heart could never be with the

race that had heaped indignities upon my princess and my son.

At my suggestion Xodar became Jeddak of the First Born. He

had been a dator, or prince, until Issus had degraded him, so that

his fitness for the high office bestowed was unquestioned.

The peace of the Valley Dor thus assured, the green warriors

dispersed to their desolate sea bottoms, while we of Helium

returned to our own country. Here again was a throne offered me,

since no word had been received from the missing Jeddak of

Helium, Tardos Mors, grandfather of Dejah Thoris, or his son, Mors

Kajak, Jed of Helium, her father.

Over a year had elapsed since they had set out to explore the

northern hemisphere in search of Carthoris, and at last their

disheartened people had accepted as truth the vague rumors of

their death that had filtered in from the frozen region of the pole.

Once again I refused a throne, for I would not believe that the

mighty Tardos Mors, or his no less redoubtable son, was dead.

"Let one of their own blood rule you until they return," I said to

the assembled nobles of Helium, as I addressed them from the

Pedestal of Truth beside the Throne of Righteousness in the Temple

of Reward, from the very spot where I had stood a year before when

Zat Arras pronounced the sentence of death upon me.

As I spoke I stepped forward and laid my hand upon the

shoulder of Carthoris where he stood in the front rank of the circle

of nobles about me.

As one, the nobles and the people lifted their voices in a long

cheer of approbation. Ten thousand swords sprang on high from as

many scabbards, and the glorious fighting men of ancient Helium

hailed Carthoris Jeddak of Helium.

His tenure of office was to be for life or until his great-grandfather,

or grandfather, should return. Having thus.satisfactorily arranged

this important duty for Helium, I started the

ten short, muscular legs; but to me he was the embodiment of love

and loyalty.

The figure ahead was that of the black dator of the First Born,

Thurid, whose undying enmity I had earned that time I laid him low

with my bare hands in the courtyard of the Temple of Issus, and

bound him with his own harness before the noble men and women

who had but a moment before been extolling his prowess.

Like many of his fellows, he had apparently accepted the new

order of things with good grace, and had sworn fealty to Xodar, his

new ruler; but I knew that he hated me, and I was sure that in his

heart he envied and hated Xodar, so I had kept a watch upon his

comings and goings, to the end that of late I had become convinced

that he was occupied with some manner of intrigue.

Several times I had observed him leaving the walled city of the

First Born after dark, taking his way out into the cruel and horrible

Valley Dor, where no honest business could lead any man.

Tonight he moved quickly along the edge of the forest until well

beyond sight or sound of the city, then he turned across the

crimson sward toward the shore of the Lost Sea of Korus.

The rays of the nearer moon, swinging low across the valley,

touched his jewel-incrusted harness with a thousand changing

lights and glanced from the glossy ebony of his smooth hide. Twice

he turned his head back toward the forest, after the manner of one

who is upon an evil errand, though he must have felt quite safe

from pursuit.

I did not dare follow him there beneath the moonlight, since it

best suited my plans not to interrupt his--I wished him to reach his

destination unsuspecting, that I might learn just where that

destination lay and the business that awaited the night prowler

there..So it was that I remained hidden until after Thurid had

disappeared over the edge of the steep bank beside the sea a

quarter of a mile away. Then, with Woola following, I hastened

from beneath the Golden Cliffs to empty into Korus, to which for

countless ages had been borne the deluded and unhappy Martians

of the outer world upon the voluntary pilgrimage to this false

heaven.

The plant men, with their blood-sucking hands, and the

monstrous white apes that make Dor hideous by day, were hidden

in their lairs for the night.

There was no longer a Holy Thern upon the balcony in the

Golden Cliffs above the Iss to summon them with weird cry to the

victims floating down to their maws upon the cold, broad bosom of

ancient Iss.

The navies of Helium and the First Born had cleared the

fortresses and the temples of the therns when they had refused to

surrender and accept the new order of things that had swept their

false religion from long-suffering Mars.

In a few isolated countries they still retained their age-old power;

but Matai Shang, their hekkador, Father of Therns, had been driven

from his temple. Strenuous had been our endeavors to capture

him; but with a few of the faithful he had escaped, and was in

hiding--where we knew not.

As I came cautiously to the edge of the low cliff overlooking the

Lost Sea of Korus I saw Thurid pushing out upon the bosom of the

shimmering water in a small skiff--one of those strangely wrought

craft of unthinkable age which the Holy Therns, with their

organization of priests and lesser therns, were wont to distribute

along the banks of the Iss, that the long journey of their victims

might be facilitated.

Drawn up on the beach below me were a score of similar boats,

each with its long pole, at one end of which was a pike, at the

other.a paddle. Thurid was hugging the shore, and as he passed out

sight round a near-by promontory I shoved one of the boats into the

intent upon forcing his craft up the river to have any eyes for what

might be transpiring behind him. He hugged the shore where the

current was less strong.

Presently he came to the dark cavernous portal in the face of the

Golden Cliffs, through which the river poured. On into the Stygian

darkness beyond he urged his craft.

It seemed hopeless to attempt to follow him here where I could

not see my hand before my face, and I was almost on the point of

giving up the pursuit and drifting back to the mouth of the river,

there to await his return, when a sudden bend showed a faint

luminosity ahead.

My quarry was plainly visible again, and in the increasing light

from the phosphorescent rock that lay embedded in great patches

in the roughly arched roof of the cavern I had no difficulty in

following him.

It was my first trip upon the bosom of Iss, and the things I saw

there will live forever in my memory.

Terrible as they were, they could not have commenced to

approximate the horrible conditions which must have obtained

before Tars Tarkas, the great green warrior, Xodar, the black dator,

and I brought the light of truth to the outer world and stopped the

mad rush of millions upon the voluntary pilgrimage to what they

believed would end in a beautiful valley of peace and happiness and

love.

Even now the low islands which dotted the broad stream were

choked with the skeletons and half devoured carcasses of those

who, through fear or a sudden awakening to the truth, had halted

almost at the completion of their journey.

In the awful stench of these frightful charnel isles haggard

maniacs screamed and gibbered and fought among the

torn.remnants of their grisly feasts; while on those which contained

but

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摘要：

11ThePityofPlenty12"FollowtheRope!"13TheMagnetSwitch14TheTideofBattle15Rewards16TheNewRuler.thatbelovedheart?Timeonlywouldrevealthetruth.Sixhundredandeighty-sevenMartiandaysmustcomeandgobeforethecell'sdoorwouldagaincomeoppositethetunnel'sendwherelastIhadseenmyever-beautifulDejahThoris.Halfofthemhadp...

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Edgar Rice Burroughs - Mars Chronicles 03 - Warlord of Mars

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