and a kind of short-handled war-axe, were almost helpless beneath the savage mounted green men at close quarters; but at a distance their sharp arrows did fully as much execution as the radium projectiles of the green men.
But if the warriors themselves were outclassed, not so their savage companions, the fierce banths. Scarce had the two lines come together when hundreds of these appalling creatures had leaped among the Torquasians, dragging warriors from their thoats-dragging down the huge thoats themselves, and bringing consternation to all before them.
The numbers of the citizenry, too, was to their advantage, for it seemed that scarce a warrior fell but his place was taken by a score more, in such a constant stream did they pour from the city's great gate.
And so it came, what with the ferocity of the banths and the numbers of the bowmen, that at last the Torquasians fell back, until presently the platform upon which stood Carthoris and Thuvia lay directly in the centre of the fight.
That neither was struck by a bullet or an arrow seemed a miracle to both; but at last the tide had rolled completely past them, so that they were alone between the fighters and the city, except for the dying and the dead, and a score or so of growling banths, less well trained than their fellows, who prowled among the corpses seeking meat.
To Carthoris the strangest part of the battle had been the terrific toll taken by the bowmen with their relatively puny weapons. Nowhere that he could see was there a single wounded green man, but the corpses of their dead lay thick upon the field of battle.
Death seemed to follow instantly the slightest pinprick of a bowman's arrow, nor apparently did one ever miss its goal. There could be but one explanation: the missiles were poison-tipped.
Presently the sounds of conflict died in the distant forest. Quiet reigned, broken only by the growling of the devouring banths. Carthoris turned toward Thuvia of Ptarth. As yet neither had spoken.
«Where are we, Thuvia?» he asked.
The girl looked at him questioningly. His very presence had seemed to proclaim a guilty knowledge of her abduction. How else might he have known the destination of the flier that brought her!
«Who should know better than the Prince of Helium?» she asked in return. «Did he not come hither of his own free will?»
«From Aaanthor I came voluntarily upon the trail of the green man who had stolen you, Thuvia,» he replied; «but from the time I left Helium until I awoke above Aaanthor I thought myself bound for Ptarth.
«It had been intimated that I had guilty knowledge of your abduction,» he explained simply, «and I was hastening to the jeddak, your father, to convince him of the falsity of the charge, and to give my service to your recovery. Before I left Helium some one tampered with my compass, so that it bore me to Aaanthor instead of to Ptarth. That is all. You believe me?»
«But the warriors who stole me from the garden!» she exclaimed. «After we arrived at Aaanthor they wore the metal of the Prince of Helium. When they took me they were trapped in Dusarian harness. There seemed but a single explanation. Whoever dared the outrage wished to put the onus upon another, should he be detected in the act; but once safely away from Ptarth he felt safe in having his minions return to their own harness.»
«You believe that I did this thing, Thuvia?» he asked.
«Ah, Carthoris,» she replied sadly, «I did not wish to believe it; but when everything pointed to you-even then I would not believe it.»
«I did not do it, Thuvia,» he said. «But let me be entirely honest with you. As much as I love your father, as much as I respect Kulan Tith, to whom you are betrothed, as well as I know the frightful consequences that must have followed such an act of mine, hurling into war, as it would, three of the greatest nations of Barsoom-yet, notwithstanding all this, I should not have hesitated to take you thus, Thuvia of Ptarth, had you even hinted that it would not have displeased YOU.
«But you did nothing of the kind, and so I am here, not in my own service, but in yours, and in the service of the man to whom you are promised, to save you for him, if it lies within the power of man to do so,» he concluded, almost bitterly.
Thuvia of Ptarth looked into his face for several moments. Her breast was rising and falling as though to some resistless emotion. She half took a step toward him. Her lips parted as though to speak-swiftly and impetuously.
And then she conquered whatever had moved her.
«The future acts of the Prince of Helium,» she said coldly, «must constitute the proof of his past honesty of purpose.»
Carthoris was hurt by the girl's tone, as much as by the doubt as to his integrity which her words implied.
He had half hoped that she might hint that his love would be acceptable-certainly there was due him at least a little gratitude for his recent acts in her behalf; but the best he received was cold skepticism.
The Prince of Helium shrugged his broad shoulders. The girl noted it, and the little smile that touched his lips, so that it became her turn to be hurt.
Of course she had not meant to hurt him. He might have known that after what he had said she could not do anything to encourage him! But he need not have made his indifference quite so palpable. The men of Helium were noted for their gallantry-not for boorishness. Possibly it was the Earth blood that flowed in his veins.
How could she know that the shrug was but Carthoris' way of attempting, by physical effort, to cast blighting sorrow from his heart, or that the smile upon his lips was the fighting smile of his father with which the son gave outward evidence of the determination he had reached to submerge his own great love in his efforts to save Thuvia of Ptarth for another, because he believed that she loved this other!
He reverted to his original question.
«Where are we?» he asked. «I do not know.»
«Nor I,» replied the girl. «Those who stole me from Ptarth spoke among themselves of Aaanthor, so that I thought it possible that the ancient city to which they took me was that famous ruin; but where we may be now I have no idea.»
«When the bowmen return we shall doubtless learn all that there is to know,» said Carthoris. «Let us hope that they prove friendly. What race may they be? Only in the most ancient of our legends and in the mural paintings of the deserted cities of the dead sea-bottoms are depicted such a race of auburn-haired, fair-skinned people. Can it be that we have stumbled upon a surviving city of the past which all Barsoom believes buried beneath the ages?»
Thuvia was looking toward the forest into which the green men and the pursuing bowmen had disappeared. From a great distance came the hideous cries of banths, and an occasional shot.
«It is strange that they do not return,» said the girl.
«One would expect to see the wounded limping or being carried back to the city,» replied Carthoris, with a puzzled frown. «But how about the wounded nearer the city? Have they carried them within?»
Both turned their eyes toward the field between them and the walled city, where the fighting had been most furious.
There were the banths, still growling about their hideous feast.
Carthoris looked at Thuvia in astonishment. Then he pointed toward the field.
«Where are they?» he whispered. «WHAT HAS BECOME OF THEIR DEAD AND WOUNDED?»
VI The Jeddak of Lothar
The girl looked her incredulity.
«They lay in piles,» she murmured. «There were thousands of them but a minute ago.»
«And now,» continued Carthoris, «there remain but the banths and the carcasses of the green men.»
«They must have sent forth and carried the dead bowmen away while we were talking,» said the girl.
«It is impossible!» replied Carthoris. «Thousands of dead lay there upon the field but a moment since. It would have required many hours to have removed them. The thing is uncanny.»
