CHAPTER XXI

Gods of Mars

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER XXI, GODS OF MARS by Edgar R. Burroughs
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THROUGH FLOOD AND FLAME


Yersted's information convinced me that there was no time
to be lost. I must reach the Temple of Issus secretly before
the forces under Tars Tarkas assaulted at dawn. Once within
its hated walls I was positive that I could overcome the
guards of Issus and bear away my Princess, for at my back
I would have a force ample for the occasion.

No sooner had Carthoris and the others joined me than
we commenced the transportation of our men through the
submerged passage to the mouth of the gangways which lead
from the submarine pool at the temple end of the watery
tunnel to the pits of Issus.

Many trips were required, but at last all stood safely
together again at the beginning of the end of our quest.
Five thousand strong we were, all seasoned fighting-men
of the most warlike race of the red men of Barsoom.

As Carthoris alone knew the hidden ways of the tunnels
we could not divide the party and attack the temple at
several points at once as would have been most desirable,
and so it was decided that he lead us all as quickly as
possible to a point near the temple's centre.

As we were about to leave the pool and enter the corridor,
an officer called my attention to the waters upon which
the submarine floated. At first they seemed to be merely
agitated as from the movement of some great body beneath the
surface, and I at once conjectured that another submarine
was rising to the surface in pursuit of us; but presently it
became apparent that the level of the waters was rising, not
with extreme rapidity, but very surely, and that soon they
would overflow the sides of the pool and submerge the floor
of the chamber.

For a moment I did not fully grasp the terrible import
of the slowly rising water. It was Carthoris who realized the
full meaning of the thing--its cause and the reason for it.

"Haste!" he cried. "If we delay, we all are lost. The pumps
of Omean have been stopped. They would drown us like rats
in a trap. We must reach the upper levels of the pits in
advance of the flood or we shall never reach them. Come."

"Lead the way, Carthoris," I cried. "We will follow."

At my command, the youth leaped into one of the corridors,
and in column of twos the soldiers followed him in good order,
each company entering the corridor only at the command of
its dwar, or captain.

Before the last company filed from the chamber the water
was ankle deep, and that the men were nervous was quite
evident. Entirely unaccustomed to water except in quantities
sufficient for drinking and bathing purposes the red Martians
instinctively shrank from it in such formidable depths and
menacing activity. That they were undaunted while it swirled
and eddied about their ankles, spoke well for their bravery
and their discipline.

I was the last to leave the chamber of the submarine, and
as I followed the rear of the column toward the corridor, I
moved through water to my knees. The corridor, too, was
flooded to the same depth, for its floor was on a level with
the floor of the chamber from which it led, nor was there
any perceptible rise for many yards.

The march of the troops through the corridor was as rapid
as was consistent with the number of men that moved
through so narrow a passage, but it was not ample to permit
us to gain appreciably on the pursuing tide. As the level of
the passage rose, so, too, did the waters rise until it soon
became apparent to me, who brought up the rear, that they
were gaining rapidly upon us. I could understand the reason
for this, as with the narrowing expanse of Omean as the waters
rose toward the apex of its dome, the rapidity of its rise would
increase in inverse ratio to the ever-lessening space to be filled.

Long ere the last of the column could hope to reach the
upper pits which lay above the danger point I was convinced
that the waters would surge after us in overwhelming volume,
and that fully half the expedition would be snuffed out.

As I cast about for some means of saving as many as
possible of the doomed men, I saw a diverging corridor
which seemed to rise at a steep angle at my right. The
waters were now swirling about my waist. The men directly
before me were quickly becoming panic-stricken. Something
must be done at once or they would rush forward upon their
fellows in a mad stampede that would result in trampling
down hundreds beneath the flood and eventually clogging the
passage beyond any hope of retreat for those in advance.

Raising my voice to its utmost, I shouted my command
to the dwars ahead of me.

"Call back the last twenty-five utans," I shouted.
"Here seems a way of escape. Turn back and follow me."

My orders were obeyed by nearer thirty utans, so that some
three thousand men came about and hastened into the teeth
of the flood to reach the corridor up which I directed them.

As the first dwar passed in with his utan I cautioned him
to listen closely for my commands, and under no circumstances
to venture into the open, or leave the pits for the temple
proper until I should have come up with him, "or you know
that I died before I could reach you."

The officer saluted and left me. The men filed rapidly past
me and entered the diverging corridor which I hoped would
lead to safety. The water rose breast high. Men stumbled,
floundered, and went down. Many I grasped and set upon
their feet again, but alone the work was greater than I could
cope with. Soldiers were being swept beneath the boiling
torrent, never to rise. At length the dwar of the 10th utan
took a stand beside me. He was a valorous soldier, Gur Tus
by name, and together we kept the now thoroughly frightened
troops in the semblance of order and rescued many that
would have drowned otherwise.

Djor Kantos, son of Kantos Kan, and a padwar of the
fifth utan joined us when his utan reached the opening
through which the men were fleeing. Thereafter not a man
was lost of all the hundreds that remained to pass from the
main corridor to the branch.

As the last utan was filing past us the waters had risen
until they surged about our necks, but we clasped hands
and stood our ground until the last man had passed to the
comparative safety of the new passageway. Here we found
an immediate and steep ascent, so that within a hundred
yards we had reached a point above the waters.

For a few minutes we continued rapidly up the steep
grade, which I hoped would soon bring us quickly to
the upper pits that let into the Temple of Issus. But I was
to meet with a cruel disappointment.

Suddenly I heard a cry of "fire" far ahead, followed almost
at once by cries of terror and the loud commands of dwars
and padwars who were evidently attempting to direct their
men away from some grave danger. At last the report
came back to us. "They have fired the pits ahead."
"We are hemmed in by flames in front and flood behind."
"Help, John Carter; we are suffocating," and then there
swept back upon us at the rear a wave of dense smoke
that sent us, stumbling and blinded, into a choking retreat.

There was naught to do other than seek a new avenue of
escape. The fire and smoke were to be feared a thousand
times over the water, and so I seized upon the first gallery
which led out of and up from the suffocating smoke that
was engulfing us.

Again I stood to one side while the soldiers hastened through
on the new way. Some two thousand must have passed at a rapid run,
when the stream ceased, but I was not sure that all had been rescued
who had not passed the point of origin of the flames, and so to assure
myself that no poor devil was left behind to die a horrible death,
unsuccoured, I ran quickly up the gallery in the direction of the
flames which I could now see burning with a dull glow far ahead.

It was hot and stifling work, but at last I reached a
point where the fire lit up the corridor sufficiently
for me to see that no soldier of Helium lay between me
and the conflagration--what was in it or upon the far side
I could not know, nor could any man have passed through
that seething hell of chemicals and lived to learn.

Having satisfied my sense of duty, I turned and ran rapidly
back to the corridor through which my men had passed.
To my horror, however, I found that my retreat in this
direction had been blocked--across the mouth of the corridor
stood a massive steel grating that had evidently been lowered
from its resting-place above for the purpose of effectually
cutting off my escape.

That our principal movements were known to the First
Born I could not have doubted, in view of the attack of
the fleet upon us the day before, nor could the stopping
of the pumps of Omean at the psychological moment have
been due to chance, nor the starting of a chemical
combustion within the one corridor through which we
were advancing upon the Temple of Issus been due to
aught than well-calculated design.

And now the dropping of the steel gate to pen me effectually
between fire and flood seemed to indicate that invisible
eyes were upon us at every moment. What chance had I,
then, to rescue Dejah Thoris were I to be compelled to fight
foes who never showed themselves. A thousand times I berated
myself for being drawn into such a trap as I might
have known these pits easily could be. Now I saw that it
would have been much better to have kept our force intact
and made a concerted attack upon the temple from the valley
side, trusting to chance and our great fighting ability to
have overwhelmed the First Born and compelled the safe
delivery of Dejah Thoris to me.

The smoke from the fire was forcing me further and further
back down the corridor toward the waters which I could hear
surging through the darkness. With my men had gone the
last torch, nor was this corridor lighted by the radiance
of phosphorescent rock as were those of the lower levels.
It was this fact that assured me that I was not far from
the upper pits which lie directly beneath the temple.

Finally I felt the lapping waters about my feet. The smoke
was thick behind me. My suffering was intense. There seemed
but one thing to do, and that to choose the easier death
which confronted me, and so I moved on down the corridor
until the cold waters of Omean closed about me, and I swam
on through utter blackness toward--what?

The instinct of self-preservation is strong even when one,
unafraid and in the possession of his highest reasoning
faculties, knows that death--positive and unalterable--lies
just ahead. And so I swam slowly on, waiting for my head
to touch the top of the corridor, which would mean that I
had reached the limit of my flight and the point where I
must sink for ever to an unmarked grave.

But to my surprise I ran against a blank wall before I
reached a point where the waters came to the roof of the
corridor. Could I be mistaken? I felt around. No, I had
come to the main corridor, and still there was a breathing
space between the surface of the water and the rocky
ceiling above. And then I turned up the main corridor in
the direction that Carthoris and the head of the column had
passed a half-hour before. On and on I swam, my heart
growing lighter at every stroke, for I knew that I was
approaching closer and closer to the point where there
would be no chance that the waters ahead could be deeper
than they were about me. I was positive that I must soon
feel the solid floor beneath my feet again and that once
more my chance would come to reach the Temple of Issus
and the side of the fair prisoner who languished there.

But even as hope was at its highest I felt the sudden shock
of contact as my head struck the rocks above. The worst,
then, had come to me. I had reached one of those rare
places where a Martian tunnel dips suddenly to a lower level.
Somewhere beyond I knew that it rose again, but of what value
was that to me, since I did not know how great the distance that
it maintained a level entirely beneath the surface of the water!

There was but a single forlorn hope, and I took it. Filling
my lungs with air, I dived beneath the surface and swam
through the inky, icy blackness on and on along the submerged
gallery. Time and time again I rose with upstretched
hand, only to feel the disappointing rocks close above me.

Not for much longer would my lungs withstand the strain
upon them. I felt that I must soon succumb, nor was there
any retreating now that I had gone this far. I knew positively
that I could never endure to retrace my path now to the point
from which I had felt the waters close above my head. Death
stared me in the face, nor ever can I recall a time that I so
distinctly felt the icy breath from his dead lips upon my brow.

One more frantic effort I made with my fast ebbing strength.
Weakly I rose for the last time--my tortured lungs gasped for
the breath that would fill them with a strange and numbing element,
but instead I felt the revivifying breath of life-giving air surge
through my starving nostrils into my dying lungs. I was saved.

A few more strokes brought me to a point where my feet
touched the floor, and soon thereafter I was above the
water level entirely, and racing like mad along the corridor
searching for the first doorway that would lead me to Issus.
If I could not have Dejah Thoris again I was at least
determined to avenge her death, nor would any life satisfy
me other than that of the fiend incarnate who was the cause
of such immeasurable suffering upon Barsoom.

Sooner than I had expected I came to what appeared to
me to be a sudden exit into the temple above. It was at the
right side of the corridor, which ran on, probably, to other
entrances to the pile above.

To me one point was as good as another. What knew I
where any of them led! And so without waiting to be again
discovered and thwarted, I ran quickly up the short, steep
incline and pushed open the doorway at its end.

The portal swung slowly in, and before it could be
slammed against me I sprang into the chamber beyond.
Although not yet dawn, the room was brilliantly lighted.
Its sole occupant lay prone upon a low couch at the further side,
apparently in sleep. From the hangings and sumptuous furniture
of the room I judged it to be a living-room of some priestess,
possibly of Issus herself.

At the thought the blood tingled through my veins. What,
indeed, if fortune had been kind enough to place the hideous
creature alone and unguarded in my hands. With her as
hostage I could force acquiescence to my every demand.
Cautiously I approached the recumbent figure, on noiseless feet.
Closer and closer I came to it, but I had crossed but little
more than half the chamber when the figure stirred, and, as
I sprang, rose and faced me.

At first an expression of terror overspread the features of the woman
who confronted me--then startled incredulity-- hope--thanksgiving.

My heart pounded within my breast as I advanced toward
her--tears came to my eyes--and the words that would have
poured forth in a perfect torrent choked in my throat as I
opened my arms and took into them once more the woman
I loved--Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.