mercy. We were few; they were many. Horz became our last city of refuge, and our only hope of survival lay in preventing the outside world from knowing that we existed; therefore, for ages we have slain every stranger who came to Horz and saw an Orovar, that no man might go away and betray our presence to our enemies.
'Now you will understand that no matter how deeply we must regret the necessity, it is obvious that we cannot let you live.'
'I can understand,' I said, 'that you might feel it necessary to destroy an enemy; but I see no reason for destroying a friend. However, that is for you to decide.'
'It is already decided, my friend,' said the Jeddak. 'You must die.'
'Just a moment, O Jeddak!' exclaimed Pan Dan Chee. 'Before you pass final judgment, consider this alternative. If he remains here in Horz, he cannot carry word to our enemies. We owe him a debt of gratitude. Permit him then to live, but always within the walls of the citadel.'
There were nods of approval from the others present, and I saw by his quickly darting eyes that Ho Ran Kim had noticed them. He cleared his throat. 'Perhaps that is something that should be given thought,' he said. 'I shall reserve judgment until the morrow. I do so largely because of my love for you, Pan Dan Chee; inasmuch as, because it was due to your importunities that this man is here, you must suffer whatever fate is ordained for him.'
Pan Dan Chee was certainly surprised, nor could he hide the fact; but he took the blow like a man. 'I shall consider it an honor,' he said, 'to share any fate that may be meted to John Carter, Warlord of Barsoom.'
'Well said, Pan Dan Chee!' exclaimed the Jeddak. 'My admiration for you increases as does the bitterness of my sorrow when I contemplate the almost inescapable conviction that on the morrow you die.'
Pan Dan Chee bowed. 'I thank your majesty for your deep concern,' he said. 'The remembrance of it will glorify last my hours.'
The Jeddak turned his eyes upon Lan Sohn Wen, and held them for what seemed a full minute. I would have laid ten to one that Ho Ran Kim was about to cause himself further untold grief by condemning Lan Sohn Wen to death. I think Lan Sohn Wen thought the same thing. He looked worried.
'Lan Sohn Wen,' said Ho Ran Kim, 'you will conduct these two to the pits and leave them there for the night. See that they have good food and every possible comfort, for they are my honored guests.'
'But the pits, your majesty!' exclaimed Lan Sohn Wen. 'They have never been used within the memory of man. I do not even know that I can find the entrance to them.'
'That is so,' said Ho Ran Kim, thoughtfully. 'Even if you found them they might prove very dirty and uncomfortable. Perhaps it would be kinder to destroy John Carter and Pan Dan Chee at once.'
'Wait, majesty,' said Pan Dan Chee. 'I know where lies the entrance to the pits. I have been in them. They can easily be made most comfortable. I would not think of altering your plans or causing you immediately the deep grief of sorrowing over the untimely passing of John Carter and myself. Come, Lan Sohn Wen! I will lead the way to the pits of Horz!'
Chapter 5
It was a good thing for me that Pan Dan Chee was a fast talker. Before Ho Ran Kim could formulate any objections we were out of the audience chamber and on our way to the pits of Horz, and I can tell you that I was glad to be out of sight of that kindly and considerate tyrant. There was no telling when some new humanitarian urge might influence him to order our heads lopped off instanter.
The entrance to the pits of Horz was in a small, windowless building near the rear wall of the citadel. It was closed by massive gates that creaked on corroded hinges as two of the warriors who had accompanied us pushed them open.
'It is dark in there,' said Pan Dan Chee. 'We'll break our necks without a light.'
Lan Sohn Wen, being a good fellow, sent one of his men for some torches; and when he returned, Pan Dan Chee and I entered the gloomy cavern.
We had taken but a few steps toward the head of a rock-hewn ramp that ran downward into Stygian darkness, when Lan Sohn Wen cried, 'Wait! Where is the key to these gates?'
'The keeper of the keys of some great jeddak who lived thousands of years ago may have known,' replied Pan Dan Chee, 'but I don't.'
'But how am I going to lock you in?' demanded Lan Sohn Wen.
'The Jeddak didn't tell you to lock us in,' said Pan Dan Chee. 'He said to take us to the pits and leave us there for the night. I distinctly recall his very words.'
Lan Sohn Wen was in a quandary, but at last he hit upon an avenue of escape.
'Come,' he said, 'I shall take you back to the Jeddak and explain that there are no keys; then it will be up to him.'
'And you know what he will do!' said Pan Dan Chee.
'What?' asked Lan Sohn Wen.
'He will order us destroyed at once. Come, Lan Sohn Wen, do not condemn us to immediate death. Post a guard here at the gates, with orders to kill us if we try to escape.'
Lan Sohn Wen considered this for a moment, and finally nodded his head in acquiescence. 'That is an excellent plan,' he said, and then he detailed two warriors to stand guard; and arranged for their relief, after which he wished us good night and departed with his warriors.
I have never seen such courteous and considerate people as the Orovars; it might almost be a pleasure to have one's throat slit by one of them, he would be so polite about it. They are the absolute opposites of their hereditary enemies, the green men; for these are endowed with neither courtesy, consideration, nor kindness. They are cold, cruel, abysmal brutes to whom love is unknown and whose creed is hate. Nevertheless, the pits of Horz was not a pleasant place. The dust of ages lay upon the ramp down which we walked. From its end a corridor stretched away beyond the limits of our torchlight. It was a wide corridor, with doors opening from it on either side. These, I presumed, were the dungeons where ancient jeddaks had confined their enemies. I asked Pan Dan Chee.
'Probably,' he said, 'though our jeddaks have never used them.'
'Have they never had enemies?' I asked.
'Certainly, but they have considered it cruel to imprison men in dark holes like this; so they have always destroyed them immediately they were suspected of being enemies.'
'Then why are the pits here?' I demanded.
'Oh, they were built when the city was built, perhaps a million years ago, perhaps more. It just chanced that the citadel was built around the entrance.'
I glanced into one of the dungeons. A mouldering skeleton lay upon the floor, the rusted irons that had secured it to the wall lying among its bones. In the next dungeon were three skeletons and two magnificently carved, metal bound chests. As Pan Dan Chee raised the lid of one of them I could scarce repress a gasp of astonishment and admiration. The chest was filled with magnificent gems in settings of elaborate beauty, specimens of forgotten arts, the handicraft of master craftsmen who had lived a million years ago. I think that nothing that I had ever seen before had so impressed me. And it was depressing, for these jewels had been worn by lovely women and brave men who had disappeared into an oblivion so complete that not even a memory of them remained.
My reverie was interrupted by the sound of shuffling feet behind me. I wheeled; and, instinctively, my hand flew to where the hilt of a sword should have been but was not. Facing me, and ready to spring upon me, was the largest ulsio I had ever seen.
These Martian rats are fierce and unlovely things. They are many legged and hairless, their hide resembling that of a new-born mouse in repulsiveness. Their eyes are small and close set and almost hidden in deep, fleshy apertures. Their most ferocious and repulsive features, however, are their jaws, the entire bony structure of which protrudes several inches beyond the flesh, revealing five sharp, spadelike teeth in each jaw, the whole suggesting the appearance of a rotting face from which much of the flesh has sloughed away. Ordinarily they are about the size of an Airedale terrier, but the thing that leaped for me in the pits of Horz that day was as
