Latest / Daily Classic Sci Fi Books / 10 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter ten, the prison isle of Shador. In the outer gardens,
- 0:05Speaker 1: to which the guard now escorted me, I found Exodar
- 0:08Speaker 1: surrounded by a crowd of noble blacks. They were reviling
- 0:11Speaker 1: and cursing him. The men slapped his face, the woman
- 0:14Speaker 1: spat upon him. When I appeared, they turned their attentions
- 0:18Speaker 1: toward me. Ah, cried one, So this is the creature
- 0:21Speaker 1: who overcame the great Exodar bare handed. Let us see
- 0:24Speaker 1: how it was done. Let him find Third, suggested, a
- 0:28Speaker 1: beautiful woman, laughing. Third is a noble detour. Let third
- 0:32Speaker 1: show the dog what it means to face a real man. Yes, third,
- 0:36Speaker 1: Third cried A dozen voices. Here he is now, exclaimed another, and,
- 0:42Speaker 1: turning in the direction, indicated, I saw a huge black,
- 0:45Speaker 1: weighed down with resplendent ornaments and arms, advancing with noble
- 0:49Speaker 1: and gallant bearing toward us. What now, he cried? What
- 0:53Speaker 1: would you have? Thward? Quickly a dozen voices explain Thward
- 0:58Speaker 1: turned toward Exodar, his eyes narrowing to two nasty slits. Caelot,
- 1:03Speaker 1: he hissed, Ever, did I think you carried the heart
- 1:06Speaker 1: of a psoric in your putrid breast? Often have you
- 1:10Speaker 1: bested me in the secret councils of Issus. But now
- 1:13Speaker 1: in the field of war, where men are truly gaged,
- 1:16Speaker 1: your scabby heart hath revealed its sores to all the world. Calot,
- 1:20Speaker 1: I spurn you with my foot, and with the words
- 1:23Speaker 1: he turned to kick Exodar. My blood was up for minutes.
- 1:27Speaker 1: It had been boiling at the cowardly treatment that had
- 1:29Speaker 1: been according this once powerful comrade because he had fallen
- 1:33Speaker 1: from the favor of Issus. I had no love for Exodar,
- 1:37Speaker 1: but I cannot stand the sight of cowardly injustice and
- 1:39Speaker 1: persecution without seeing red as through a haze of bloody mist,
- 1:44Speaker 1: and doing things on the impulse of the moment that
- 1:46Speaker 1: I presume I never should do. After mature deliberation, I
- 1:50Speaker 1: was standing close beside Exodar, as through it swung his
- 1:53Speaker 1: foot for the cowardly kick. The degraded detor stood erect
- 1:57Speaker 1: and motionless as a carven image. He was prepared to
- 2:01Speaker 1: take whatever his former comrades had to offer in the
- 2:04Speaker 1: way of insults and reproaches, and take them in manly
- 2:07Speaker 1: silence and stoism. But his third's foot swung, so did mine,
- 2:11Speaker 1: and I caught him a painful blow upon the shin
- 2:14Speaker 1: bone that saved Exodar from this added ignomy. For a
- 2:18Speaker 1: moment there was tense silence. Then Thurid, with a roar
- 2:21Speaker 1: of rage, sprang for my throat, just as Exodar had
- 2:25Speaker 1: done upon the deck of the cruiser. The results were identical.
- 2:29Speaker 1: I ducked beneath his outstretched arms, and as he lunched
- 2:32Speaker 1: past me, planted a terrific right on the side of
- 2:35Speaker 1: his jaw. The big fellow spun around like a top,
- 2:38Speaker 1: his knees gave beneath him, and he crumpled to the
- 2:40Speaker 1: ground at my feet. The Blacks gazed in astonishment, first
- 2:44Speaker 1: at the still form of the proud detour lying there
- 2:48Speaker 1: in the ruby dust of the pathway, then at me,
- 2:50Speaker 1: as though they could not believe that such a thing
- 2:52Speaker 1: could be. You asked me to bind Thurid. I cried, behold,
- 2:58Speaker 1: and then I stooped beside the prostrate form, tore the
- 3:00Speaker 1: harness from it, and bound the fellow's arms and legs securely,
- 3:04Speaker 1: as you have done to Exodar. Now, do you, likewise,
- 3:07Speaker 1: to Thurid, take him before Issus, bound in his own harness,
- 3:11Speaker 1: that she may see with her own eyes, that there
- 3:13Speaker 1: be one among you. Now who is greater than the
- 3:15Speaker 1: first born? Who are you? Whispered the woman who had
- 3:19Speaker 1: first suggested that I attempt to bind Thurid. I am
- 3:23Speaker 1: a citizen of two worlds. Captain John Carter of Virginia,
- 3:27Speaker 1: Prince of the House of Tardos Mors Jeddak of Helium.
- 3:31Speaker 1: Take this man to your Goddess, as I have said,
- 3:33Speaker 1: and tell her too that as I have done to
- 3:36Speaker 1: Exidar and Thurid, so also can I do to the
- 3:38Speaker 1: mightiest of her detours with naked hands, with long sword
- 3:42Speaker 1: or with short sword. I challenged the flower of her
- 3:45Speaker 1: fighting men to combat. Come, said the officer who was
- 3:48Speaker 1: guarding me back to Shador. My orders are imperative. There
- 3:52Speaker 1: is to be no delay. Exodar, come you also. There
- 3:56Speaker 1: was little of disrespect in the tone that the man
- 3:59Speaker 1: used in addressing either Exodar or myself. It was evident
- 4:03Speaker 1: that he felt less content for the former detor, since
- 4:05Speaker 1: he had witnessed the ease with which I disposed of
- 4:08Speaker 1: the powerful Thurid. That his respect for me was greater
- 4:11Speaker 1: than it should have been for a slave was quite
- 4:14Speaker 1: apparent from the fact that during the balance of the
- 4:16Speaker 1: return journey he walked Or stood always behind me, a
- 4:20Speaker 1: drawn short sword in his hand. The return to the
- 4:23Speaker 1: Sea of Omen was uneventful. We dropped down to the
- 4:26Speaker 1: awful shaft in the same car that had brought us
- 4:29Speaker 1: to the surface. There we entered the submarine, taking the
- 4:32Speaker 1: long dive to the tunnel far beneath the upper world,
- 4:35Speaker 1: then through the tunnel and up again to the pool
- 4:37Speaker 1: from which we had had our first introduction to the
- 4:40Speaker 1: wonderful passageway from Omean to the Temple of Issus. From
- 4:44Speaker 1: the aisle of the submarine, we were transported on a
- 4:46Speaker 1: small cruiser to the distant isle of Shador. Here we
- 4:50Speaker 1: found a small stone prison and a guard of a
- 4:52Speaker 1: half a dozen blacks. There was no ceremony wasted in
- 4:56Speaker 1: completing our incarceration. One of the blacks opened the door
- 4:59Speaker 1: of the prison with a huge key. We walked in.
- 5:02Speaker 1: The door closed behind us, The lock grated, and with
- 5:05Speaker 1: the sound there swept over me again that terrible feeling
- 5:08Speaker 1: of hopelessness that I had felt in the chamber of
- 5:10Speaker 1: Mystery in the golden cliff beneath the gardens of the
- 5:13Speaker 1: Holy Thurns. Then tars Tarkas had been with me, But
- 5:17Speaker 1: now I was utterly alone in so far as friendly
- 5:20Speaker 1: companionship was concerned. I fell to wondering about the fate
- 5:23Speaker 1: of the great Thark and of his beautiful companion, the
- 5:26Speaker 1: girl Thuvia. Even should they, by some miracle have escaped
- 5:30Speaker 1: and been received and spared by a friendly nation. What
- 5:33Speaker 1: hope had I of the succor which I knew they
- 5:35Speaker 1: would gladly extend if it lay in their power. They
- 5:39Speaker 1: could not guess my whereabouts or my fate, for none
- 5:42Speaker 1: on all Barsoom even dreamed of such a place as this,
- 5:46Speaker 1: Nor would it have advantaged me any had they known
- 5:49Speaker 1: the exact location of my prison, For who could hope
- 5:52Speaker 1: to penetrate to this buried sea in the face of
- 5:55Speaker 1: the mighty navy of the first born? No, my case
- 5:59Speaker 1: was hopeless. Well I would make the best of it,
- 6:02Speaker 1: And rising, I swept aside the brooding despair that had
- 6:05Speaker 1: been endeavoring to claim me with the idea of exploring
- 6:08Speaker 1: my prison, I started to look around. Exodar sat with
- 6:12Speaker 1: bowed head upon a low stone bench near the center
- 6:15Speaker 1: of the room in which we were. He had not
- 6:18Speaker 1: spoken since Issus had degraded him. The building was roofless,
- 6:22Speaker 1: the walls rising to a height of about thirty feet.
- 6:25Speaker 1: Half Way up were a couple of small, heavily barred windows.
- 6:29Speaker 1: The prison was divided into several rooms by partitions twenty
- 6:32Speaker 1: feet high. There was no one in the room which
- 6:34Speaker 1: we occupied, but two doors which led to other rooms
- 6:37Speaker 1: were opened. I entered one of these rooms, but found
- 6:40Speaker 1: it vacant. Thus I continued through several of the chambers,
- 6:43Speaker 1: until in the last one I found a young red
- 6:46Speaker 1: Martian boy sleeping upon the stone bench, which constituted the
- 6:49Speaker 1: only furniture of any of the prison cells. Evidently he
- 6:53Speaker 1: was the only other prisoner. As he slept, I leaned
- 6:56Speaker 1: over and looked at him. There was something strangely familiar
- 6:59Speaker 1: about his face, and yet I could not place him.
- 7:02Speaker 1: His features were very regular, and like the proportions of
- 7:05Speaker 1: his graceful limbs and body, beautiful in the extreme. He
- 7:09Speaker 1: was very light in color for a red man, but
- 7:12Speaker 1: in other respects he seemed a typical specimen of this
- 7:14Speaker 1: handsome race. I did not awaken him, for sleep in
- 7:18Speaker 1: prison is such a priceless boon that I have seen
- 7:21Speaker 1: men transformed into raging brutes when robbed by one of
- 7:24Speaker 1: their fellow prisoners of a few precious moments of it.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Returning to my own cell, I found Exodar still sitting
- 7:30Speaker 1: in the same position in which I had left him. Man,
- 7:34Speaker 1: I cried, it will profit you nothing to mope. Thus
- 7:37Speaker 1: it were no disgrace to be bested by John Carter.
- 7:40Speaker 1: You have seen that in the ease with which I
- 7:43Speaker 1: accounted for thurid you knew it before, when on the
- 7:46Speaker 1: cruiser's deck you saw me slay three of your comrades.
- 7:49Speaker 1: I would that you had despatched me at the same time.
- 7:52Speaker 1: He said, come, come, I cried, there is hope yet
- 7:56Speaker 1: neither of us is dead. We are great fighters. Why
- 7:59Speaker 1: not win to free He looked at me in amazement.
- 8:02Speaker 1: You know not of what you speak, he replied. Issus
- 8:05Speaker 1: is omnipotent. Issus is omniscient. She hears now the words
- 8:11Speaker 1: you speak. She knows the thoughts you think. It is
- 8:14Speaker 1: sacrilege even to dream of breaking her commands. Rot Exodar,
- 8:19Speaker 1: I ejaculated impatiently. He sprang to his feet in horror.
- 8:23Speaker 1: The curse of Issus will fall upon you, he cried.
- 8:26Speaker 1: In another instant. You will be smitten down, rithing to
- 8:29Speaker 1: your death in horrible agony. Do you believe that, Exodar,
- 8:34Speaker 1: I asked, of course, who would dare doubt? I doubt, yes,
- 8:39Speaker 1: And further I deny, I said, why, Exodar, you tell
- 8:43Speaker 1: me that she even knows my thoughts? The Red men
- 8:46Speaker 1: have all had that power for ages, and another wonderful power.
- 8:50Speaker 1: They can shut their minds so that none may read
- 8:52Speaker 1: their thoughts. I learned the first secret years ago. The
- 8:55Speaker 1: other I never had to learn, since upon all barsoom
- 8:59Speaker 1: is none who can what passes in the secret chambers
- 9:01Speaker 1: of my brain. Your Goddess cannot read my thoughts, nor
- 9:05Speaker 1: can she read yours when you are out of sight,
- 9:08Speaker 1: unless you will it. Had she been able to read mine,
- 9:11Speaker 1: I am afraid that her pride would have suffered a
- 9:13Speaker 1: rather severe shock when I turned, at her command to
- 9:16Speaker 1: gaze upon the holy vision of her radiant face. What
- 9:19Speaker 1: do you mean, he whispered in an affrighted voice, so
- 9:23Speaker 1: low that I could scarcely hear him. I mean that
- 9:26Speaker 1: I thought her the most repulsive and vilely hideous creature
- 9:29Speaker 1: my eyes ever had rested upon. For a moment, he
- 9:32Speaker 1: eyed me in horror, stricken amazement, and then with a
- 9:35Speaker 1: cry of blasphemer he sprang upon me. I did not
- 9:39Speaker 1: wish to strike him again, nor was it necessary, since
- 9:42Speaker 1: he was unarmed and therefore quite harmless to me. As
- 9:45Speaker 1: he came, I grasped his left wrist with my left hand, and,
- 9:49Speaker 1: swinging my right arm about his left shoulder, caught him
- 9:52Speaker 1: beneath the chin with my elbow and bore him backward
- 9:55Speaker 1: across my thigh. There he hung helpless for a moment,
- 9:58Speaker 1: glaring up at me in impotent rage. Exodar, I said,
- 10:02Speaker 1: let us be friends for a year. Possibly we may
- 10:06Speaker 1: be forced to live together in the narrow confines of
- 10:08Speaker 1: this tiny room. I am sorry to have offended you,
- 10:12Speaker 1: but I could not dream that one who had suffered
- 10:14Speaker 1: from cruel injustice of Issus still could believe her divine.
- 10:19Speaker 1: I will say a few more words, Exodar, with no
- 10:21Speaker 1: intent to wound your feelings further, but rather that you
- 10:24Speaker 1: may give thought to the fact that while we live,
- 10:27Speaker 1: we are still more the arbiters of our own fate
- 10:29Speaker 1: than is any god. Issus you see, has not struck
- 10:33Speaker 1: me dead, nor is she rescuing her faithful Exodar from
- 10:37Speaker 1: the clutches of the unbeliever who defamed her fair beauty. No, Exidar,
- 10:42Speaker 1: your Issus is a mortal old woman once out of
- 10:45Speaker 1: her clutches, and she cannot harm you. With your knowledge
- 10:48Speaker 1: of this strange land and my knowledge of the outer world,
- 10:51Speaker 1: two such fighting men as you and I should be
- 10:54Speaker 1: able to win our way to freedom, even though we
- 10:56Speaker 1: died in the attempt. Would not our memories be fairer
- 10:59Speaker 1: than as though we remained in servile fear to be
- 11:02Speaker 1: butchered by a cruel and unjust tyrant. Call her goddess
- 11:06Speaker 1: or mortal as you will. As I finished, I raised
- 11:10Speaker 1: Exoter to his feet and released him. He did not
- 11:13Speaker 1: renew the attack upon me, nor did he speak. Instead,
- 11:16Speaker 1: he walked toward the bench, and, sinking down upon it,
- 11:19Speaker 1: remained lost in deep thought for hours. A long time afterward,
- 11:23Speaker 1: I heard a soft sound at the doorway leading to
- 11:25Speaker 1: one of the other apartments, and looking up, beheld the
- 11:28Speaker 1: red Martian youth gazing intently at us. Koor. I cried,
- 11:33Speaker 1: after the Red Martian manner of greeting Kowor, He replied,
- 11:36Speaker 1: what do you hear? I await my death, I presume,
- 11:40Speaker 1: I replied, with a weary smile. He too smiled, a
- 11:43Speaker 1: brave and winning smile. I also, he said, mine will
- 11:47Speaker 1: come soon. I looked upon the radiant beauty of Issus
- 11:50Speaker 1: nearly a year since it has always been a source
- 11:53Speaker 1: of keen. Wonder to me that I did not drop
- 11:55Speaker 1: dead at the first sight of that hideous countenance and
- 11:58Speaker 1: her belly by my first ancestor. But never was there
- 12:03Speaker 1: so grotesque a figure in all the universe that they
- 12:06Speaker 1: should call such a one Goddess of life, eternal Goddess
- 12:09Speaker 1: of Death, mother of the Nearer Moon, and fifty other
- 12:13Speaker 1: equally impossible titles. Is quite beyond me. How came you here,
- 12:18Speaker 1: I asked, It is very simple. I was flying a
- 12:21Speaker 1: one man air scout far to the south when the
- 12:24Speaker 1: brilliant idea occurred to me that I should like to
- 12:27Speaker 1: search for the lost Sea of Chorus, which tradition places
- 12:30Speaker 1: near to the South Pole. I must have inherited from
- 12:33Speaker 1: my father a wild lust for adventure, as well as
- 12:36Speaker 1: a hollow where my bump of reverence should be. I
- 12:39Speaker 1: had reached the area of eternal ice when my prop
- 12:42Speaker 1: propeller jammed, and I dropped to the ground to make repairs.
- 12:46Speaker 1: Before I knew it, the air was black with fliers,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and a hundred of those first born devils were leaping
- 12:50Speaker 1: to the ground. All about me with drawn swords they
- 12:54Speaker 1: made for me. But before I went down beneath them,
- 12:56Speaker 1: they had tasted of the steel my father's sword, and
- 12:59Speaker 1: I had gain even such an account of myself, as
- 13:01Speaker 1: I know, would have pleased my sire, had he lived
- 13:04Speaker 1: to witness it. Your father is dead, I asked. He
- 13:07Speaker 1: died before the shell broke. To let me step out
- 13:09Speaker 1: into a world that has been very good to me.
- 13:12Speaker 1: But for the sorrow that I have never the honor
- 13:14Speaker 1: to know my father, I have been very happy. My
- 13:17Speaker 1: only sorrow now is that my mother must mourn me
- 13:20Speaker 1: as she has for ten long years mourned my father.
- 13:23Speaker 1: Who was your father? I asked. He was about to
- 13:26Speaker 1: reply when the outer door of our prison opened, and
- 13:28Speaker 1: a burly guard entered and ordered him to his own
- 13:31Speaker 1: quarters for the night, locking the door after him as
- 13:34Speaker 1: he passed through into the further chamber. It is Issius's
- 13:39Speaker 1: wish that you two be confined in the same room,
- 13:41Speaker 1: said the guard, when he had returned to oursells. This
- 13:44Speaker 1: cowardly slave of a slave is to serve you well,
- 13:47Speaker 1: he said to me, indicating Exodar with a wave of
- 13:50Speaker 1: his hand. If he does not you are to beat
- 13:53Speaker 1: him into submission. It is Ishus's wish that you heap
- 13:56Speaker 1: upon him every indignity and degradation of which you can can.
- 14:01Speaker 1: With these words, he left us. Exodar still sat with
- 14:04Speaker 1: his face buried in his hands. I walked aside and
- 14:07Speaker 1: placed my hand upon his shoulder. Exodar, I said, you
- 14:11Speaker 1: have heard the commands of Issus, but you need not
- 14:14Speaker 1: fear that I should attempt to put them into execution.
- 14:17Speaker 1: You are a brave man, Exodar. It is your own
- 14:20Speaker 1: affair if you wish to be persecuted and humiliated. But
- 14:24Speaker 1: were I you, I should assert my manhood and defy
- 14:27Speaker 1: my enemies. I have been thinking very hard, John Carter,
- 14:31Speaker 1: he said, of all the new ideas you gave me
- 14:34Speaker 1: a few hours since, little by little, I have been
- 14:37Speaker 1: piecing together the things that you said which sounded blasphemous
- 14:40Speaker 1: to me, then with the things that I have seen
- 14:43Speaker 1: in my past life and dared not even think about
- 14:45Speaker 1: for fear of bringing down upon me the wrath of Issus.
- 14:49Speaker 1: I believe now that she is a fraud, no more
- 14:52Speaker 1: divine than you or I more. I am willing to
- 14:55Speaker 1: concede that the first born are no holier than the
- 14:58Speaker 1: holy thurns, nor the holy theurns more holy than the
- 15:01Speaker 1: red men. The whole fabric of our religion is based
- 15:05Speaker 1: on superstitious belief in lies that have been foisted upon
- 15:08Speaker 1: us for ages by those directly above us, to whose
- 15:11Speaker 1: personal profit and aggrandizement it was to have us continue
- 15:15Speaker 1: to believe as they wished us to believe. I am
- 15:17Speaker 1: ready to cast off the ties that have bound me.
- 15:20Speaker 1: I am ready to defy Issus herself. But what will
- 15:23Speaker 1: it avail us be the first born gods or mortals.
- 15:27Speaker 1: They are a powerful race, and we are as fast
- 15:30Speaker 1: in their clutches as though we were already dead. There
- 15:33Speaker 1: is no escape. I have escaped from bad plights in
- 15:36Speaker 1: the past, my friend, I replied, Nor while life is
- 15:40Speaker 1: in me, shall I despair of escaping from the Isle
- 15:42Speaker 1: of Shador and the sea of Omean. But we cannot
- 15:46Speaker 1: escape even from the four walls of our prison. Urged Exodar.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Test this flint like surface, he cried, smiting the solid
- 15:53Speaker 1: rock that confined us. And look upon this polished surface.
- 15:57Speaker 1: None could cling to it to reach the top. I smiled.
- 16:02Speaker 1: That is the least of our troubles. Exodar, I replied,
- 16:05Speaker 1: I will guarantee to scale the wall and take you
- 16:08Speaker 1: with me, if you will help with your knowledge of
- 16:10Speaker 1: the customs here to appoint the best time for the attempt,
- 16:14Speaker 1: and guide me to the shaft that lets from the
- 16:16Speaker 1: dome of this abysmal sea to the light of God's
- 16:19Speaker 1: pure air above. Night time is the best and offers
- 16:23Speaker 1: the only slender chance we have. For then men sleep,
- 16:26Speaker 1: and only a dozing watch nods in the tops of
- 16:29Speaker 1: the battleship. No watch is kept upon the cruisers in
- 16:32Speaker 1: the smaller craft. The watchers upon the larger vessels see
- 16:36Speaker 1: to all about them. It is night now, But I exclaimed,
- 16:40Speaker 1: it is not dark. How can it be night? Then
- 16:43Speaker 1: he smiled, you forget, He said that we are far
- 16:47Speaker 1: below ground. The light of the sun never penetrates here.
- 16:50Speaker 1: There are no moons and no stars reflected in the
- 16:53Speaker 1: bosom of Omean. The phosphorate light you now see pervading
- 16:57Speaker 1: this great subtraining vault emanates from the rocks that form
- 17:01Speaker 1: its dome. It is always thus upon Omean, just as
- 17:04Speaker 1: the billows are always as you see them, rolling, ever
- 17:07Speaker 1: rolling over a windless sea. At the appointed hour of night,
- 17:11Speaker 1: upon the world above. The men whose duties hold them
- 17:14Speaker 1: here sleep, But the light is ever the same. It
- 17:18Speaker 1: will make escape more difficult, I said, And then I
- 17:21Speaker 1: shrugged my shoulders. For what pray is the pleasure of
- 17:24Speaker 1: doing any easy thing? Let us sleep on it to night,
- 17:27Speaker 1: said Exodar. A plan may come with our awakening. So
- 17:31Speaker 1: we threw ourselves upon the hard stone floor of our
- 17:34Speaker 1: prison and slept the sleep of tired men. End of
- 17:38Speaker 1: Chapter ten.