CHAPTER XII

A Princess of Mars

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER XII, A PRINCESS OF MARS by Edgar R. Burroughs
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A PRISONER WITH POWER


As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance,
and, fixing his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:

"You have been with us a few days, yet during that time
you have by your prowess won a high position among us.
Be that as it may, you are not one of us; you owe us no
allegiance.

"Your position is a peculiar one," he continued; "you are
a prisoner and yet you give commands which must be obeyed;
you are an alien and yet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you
are a midget and yet you can kill a mighty warrior with one
blow of your fist. And now you are reported to have been
plotting to escape with another prisoner of another race; a
prisoner who, from her own admission, half believes you are
returned from the valley of Dor. Either one of these accusations,
if proved, would be sufficient grounds for your execution,
but we are a just people and you shall have a trial on our
return to Thark, if Tal Hajus so commands.

"But," he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, "if you
run off with the red girl it is I who shall have to account to
Tal Hajus; it is I who shall have to face Tars Tarkas, and
either demonstrate my right to command, or the metal from
my dead carcass will go to a better man, for such is the
custom of the Tharks.

"I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule
supreme the greatest of the lesser communities among the
green men; we do not wish to fight between ourselves; and so
if you were dead, John Carter, I should be glad. Under two
conditions only, however, may you be killed by us without
orders from Tal Hajus; in personal combat in self-defense,
should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended in an
attempt to escape.

"As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only
await one of these two excuses for ridding ourselves of so
great a responsibility. The safe delivery of the red girl to
Tal Hajus is of the greatest importance. Not in a thousand
years have the Tharks made such a capture; she is the
granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks, who is also
our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red girl told us that
we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we
are a just and truthful race. You may go."

Turning, I left the audience chamber. So this was the
beginning of Sarkoja's persecution! I knew that none other
could be responsible for this report which had reached the
ears of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly, and now I recalled those
portions of our conversation which had touched upon escape
and upon my origin.

Sarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas' oldest and most
trusted female. As such she was a mighty power behind the
throne, for no warrior had the confidence of Lorquas Ptomel
to such an extent as did his ablest lieutenant, Tars Tarkas.

However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape
from my mind, my audience with Lorquas Ptomel only served
to center my every faculty on this subject. Now, more than
before, the absolute necessity for escape, in so far as Dejah
Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me, for I was
convinced that some horrible fate awaited her at the
headquarters of Tal Hajus.

As described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated
personification of all the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and
brutality from which he had descended. Cold, cunning,
calculating; he was, also, in marked contrast to most of his
fellows, a slave to that brute passion which the waning
demands for procreation upon their dying planet has almost
stilled in the Martian breast.

The thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into
the clutches of such an abysmal atavism started the cold
sweat upon me. Far better that we save friendly bullets for
ourselves at the last moment, as did those brave frontier
women of my lost land, who took their own lives rather than
fall into the hands of the Indian braves.

As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings
Tars Tarkas approached me on his way from the audience
chamber. His demeanor toward me was unchanged, and he
greeted me as though we had not just parted a few
moments before.

"Where are your quarters, John Carter?" he asked.

"I have selected none," I replied. "It seemed best that I
quartered either by myself or among the other warriors, and
I was awaiting an opportunity to ask your advice. As you
know," and I smiled, "I am not yet familiar with all the
customs of the Tharks."

"Come with me," he directed, and together we moved off
across the plaza to a building which I was glad to see
adjoined that occupied by Sola and her charges.

"My quarters are on the first floor of this building," he
said, "and the second floor also is fully occupied by warriors,
but the third floor and the floors above are vacant; you may
take your choice of these.

"I understand," he continued, "that you have given up
your woman to the red prisoner. Well, as you have said,
your ways are not our ways, but you can fight well enough
to do about as you please, and so, if you wish to give your
woman to a captive, it is your own affair; but as a chieftain
you should have those to serve you, and in accordance with
our customs you may select any or all the females from the
retinues of the chieftains whose metal you now wear."

I thanked him, but assured him that I could get alone
very nicely without assistance except in the matter of
preparing food, and so he promised to send women to me for
this purpose and also for the care of my arms and the
manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would be
necessary. I suggested that they might also bring some of
the sleeping silks and furs which belonged to me as spoils of
combat, for the nights were cold and I had none of my own.

He promised to do so, and departed. Left alone, I ascended
the winding corridor to the upper floors in search of
suitable quarters. The beauties of the other buildings were
repeated in this, and, as usual, I was soon lost in a tour of
investigation and discovery.

I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because
this brought me nearer to Dejah Thoris, whose apartment
was on the second floor of the adjoining building, and it
flashed upon me that I could rig up some means of communication
whereby she might signal me in case she needed either my
services or my protection.

Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing
rooms, and other sleeping and living apartments, in all some
ten rooms on this floor. The windows of the back rooms
overlooked an enormous court, which formed the center of
the square made by the buildings which faced the four
contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the
quartering of the various animals belonging to the warriors
occupying the adjoining buildings.

While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow,
moss-like vegetation which blankets practically the entire
surface of Mars, yet numerous fountains, statuary, benches,
and pergola-like contraptions bore witness to the beauty
which the court must have presented in bygone times, when
graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whom stern and
unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes,
but from all except the vague legends of their descendants.

One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant
Martian vegetation which once filled this scene with life
and color; the graceful figures of the beautiful women, the
straight and handsome men; the happy frolicking children--
all sunlight, happiness and peace. It was difficult to realize
that they had gone; down through ages of darkness, cruelty,
and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of culture and
humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the final
composite race which now is dominant upon Mars.

My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several
young females bearing loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels,
cooking utensils, and casks of food and drink, including
considerable loot from the air craft. All this, it seemed, had
been the property of the two chieftains I had slain, and now,
by the customs of the Tharks, it had become mine. At my
direction they placed the stuff in one of the back rooms, and
then departed, only to return with a second load, which
they advised me constituted the balance of my goods. On the
second trip they were accompanied by ten or fifteen other
women and youths, who, it seemed, formed the retinues of
the two chieftains.

They were not their families, nor their wives, nor their
servants; the relationship was peculiar, and so unlike
anything known to us that it is most difficult to describe.
All property among the green Martians is owned in common by
the community, except the personal weapons, ornaments and
sleeping silks and furs of the individuals. These alone can
one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more
of these than are required for his actual needs. The surplus
he holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to the
younger members of the community as necessity demands.

The women and children of a man's retinue may be likened
to a military unit for which he is responsible in various
ways, as in matters of instruction, discipline, sustenance, and
the exigencies of their continual roamings and their unending
strife with other communities and with the red Martians.
His women are in no sense wives. The green Martians use no
word corresponding in meaning with this earthly word. Their
mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is
directed without reference to natural selection. The council
of chieftains of each community control the matter as surely as
the owner of a Kentucky racing stud directs the scientific
breeding of his stock for the improvement of the whole.

In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with
theories, but the results of ages of this unnatural practice,
coupled with the community interest in the offspring being
held paramount to that of the mother, is shown in the cold,
cruel creatures, and their gloomy, loveless, mirthless existence.

It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous,
both men and women, with the exception of such degenerates
as Tal Hajus; but better far a finer balance of human
characteristics even at the expense of a slight and
occasional loss of chastity.

Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures,
whether I would or not, I made the best of it and directed
them to find quarters on the upper floors, leaving the
third floor to me. One of the girls I charged with the duties
of my simple cuisine, and directed the others to take up
the various activities which had formerly constituted their
vocations. Thereafter I saw little of them, nor did I care to.