It was the sound of conflict that aroused me once more tothe realities of life. For a moment I could neither place mysurroundings nor locate the sounds which had aroused me.And then from beyond the blank wall beside which I lay Iheard the shuffling of feet, the snarling of grim beasts, theclank of metal accoutrements, and the heavy breathing of a man.

As I rose to my feet I glanced hurriedly about the chamberin which I had just encountered such a warm reception. Theprisoners and the savage brutes rested in their chains by theopposite wall eyeing me with varying expressions of curiosity,sullen rage, surprise, and hope.

The latter emotion seemed plainly evident upon the handsomeand intelligent face of the young red Martian woman whose cryof warning had been instrumental in saving my life.

She was the perfect type of that remarkably beautiful racewhose outward appearance is identical with the more god-likeraces of Earth men, except that this higher race of Martiansis of a light reddish copper colour. As she was entirelyunadorned I could not even guess her station in life, thoughit was evident that she was either a prisoner or slave in herpresent environment.

It was several seconds before the sounds upon the oppositeside of the partition jolted my slowly returning faculties intoa realization of their probable import, and then of a sudden Igrasped the fact that they were caused by Tars Tarkas inwhat was evidently a desperate struggle with wild beasts orsavage men.

With a cry of encouragement I threw my weight against thesecret door, but as well have assayed the down-hurling of thecliffs themselves. Then I sought feverishly for the secret of therevolving panel, but my search was fruitless, and I was aboutto raise my longsword against the sullen gold when the youngwoman prisoner called out to me.

"Save thy sword, O Mighty Warrior, for thou shalt need itmore where it will avail to some purpose--shatter it notagainst senseless metal which yields better to the lightest fingertouch of one who knows its secret."

"Know you the secret of it then?" I asked.

"Yes; release me and I will give you entrance to the otherhorror chamber, if you wish. The keys to my fetters are uponthe first dead of thy foemen. But why would you returnto face again the fierce banth, or whatever other form ofdestruction they have loosed within that awful trap?"

"Because my friend fights there alone," I answered, as Ihastily sought and found the keys upon the carcass of thedead custodian of this grim chamber of horrors.

There were many keys upon the oval ring, but the fair Martian maidquickly selected that which sprung the great lock at her waist,and freed she hurried toward the secret panel.

Again she sought out a key upon the ring. This time a slender,needle-like affair which she inserted in an almost invisible holein the wall. Instantly the door swung upon its pivot, and thecontiguous section of the floor upon which I was standingcarried me with it into the chamber where Tars Tarkas fought.

The great Thark stood with his back against an angle of thewalls, while facing him in a semi-circle a half-dozen hugemonsters crouched waiting for an opening. Their blood-streaked heads and shoulders testified to the cause of theirwariness as well as to the swordsmanship of the green warriorwhose glossy hide bore the same mute but eloquent witness tothe ferocity of the attacks that he had so far withstood.

Sharp talons and cruel fangs had torn leg, arm, and breastliterally to ribbons. So weak was he from continued exertionand loss of blood that but for the supporting wall I doubtthat he even could have stood erect. But with the tenacity andindomitable courage of his kind he still faced his cruel andrelentless foes--the personification of that ancient proverb ofhis tribe: "Leave to a Thark his head and one hand andhe may yet conquer."

As he saw me enter, a grim smile touched those grim lipsof his, but whether the smile signified relief or merelyamusement at the sight of my own bloody and dishevelledcondition I do not know.

As I was about to spring into the conflict with my sharplong-sword I felt a gentle hand upon my shoulder and turningfound, to my surprise, that the young woman had followed meinto the chamber.

"Wait," she whispered, "leave them to me," and pushing me advanced,all defenceless and unarmed, upon the snarling banths.

When quite close to them she spoke a single Martian wordin low but peremptory tones. Like lightning the great beastswheeled upon her, and I looked to see her torn to piecesbefore I could reach her side, but instead the creatures slunkto her feet like puppies that expect a merited whipping.

Again she spoke to them, but in tones so low I could notcatch the words, and then she started toward the opposite sideof the chamber with the six mighty monsters trailing at heel.One by one she sent them through the secret panel into theroom beyond, and when the last had passed from the chamberwhere we stood in wide-eyed amazement she turned and smiledat us and then herself passed through, leaving us alone.

For a moment neither of us spoke. Then Tars Tarkas said:

"I heard the fighting beyond the partition through which youpassed, but I did not fear for you, John Carter, until I heardthe report of a revolver shot. I knew that there lived no manupon all Barsoom who could face you with naked steel and live,but the shot stripped the last vestige of hope from me,since you I knew to be without firearms. Tell me of it."

I did as he bade, and then together we sought the secretpanel through which I had just entered the apartment--theone at the opposite end of the room from that through whichthe girl had led her savage companions.

To our disappointment the panel eluded our every effort tonegotiate its secret lock. We felt that once beyond it wemight look with some little hope of success for a passage tothe outside world.

The fact that the prisoners within were securely chainedled us to believe that surely there must be an avenue ofescape from the terrible creatures which inhabited thisunspeakable place.

Again and again we turned from one door to another,from the baffling golden panel at one end of the chamber to itsmate at the other--equally baffling.

When we had about given up all hope one of the panelsturned silently toward us, and the young woman who had ledaway the banths stood once more beside us.

"Who are you?" she asked, "and what your mission, thatyou have the temerity to attempt to escape from the ValleyDor and the death you have chosen?"

"I have chosen no death, maiden," I replied. "I am not ofBarsoom, nor have I taken yet the voluntary pilgrimage uponthe River Iss. My friend here is Jeddak of all the Tharks,and though he has not yet expressed a desire to return tothe living world, I am taking him with me from the livinglie that hath lured him to this frightful place.

"I am of another world. I am John Carter, Prince of theHouse of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium. Perchance somefaint rumour of me may have leaked within the confines ofyour hellish abode."

She smiled.

"Yes," she replied, "naught that passes in the world we haveleft is unknown here. I have heard of you, many years ago.The therns have ofttimes wondered whither you had flown,since you had neither taken the pilgrimage, nor couldbe found upon the face of Barsoom."

"Tell me," I said, "and who be you, and why a prisoner,yet with power over the ferocious beasts of the place thatdenotes familiarity and authority far beyond that which mightbe expected of a prisoner or a slave?"

"Slave I am," she answered. "For fifteen years a slave inthis terrible place, and now that they have tired of me andbecome fearful of the power which my knowledge of their wayshas given me I am but recently condemned to die the death."

She shuddered.

"What death?" I asked.

"The Holy Therns eat human flesh," she answered me; "butonly that which has died beneath the sucking lips of a plantman--flesh from which the defiling blood of life has beendrawn. And to this cruel end I have been condemned. Itwas to be within a few hours, had your advent not caused aninterruption of their plans."

"Was it then Holy Therns who felt the weight of JohnCarter's hand?" I asked.

"Oh, no; those whom you laid low are lesser therns; butof the same cruel and hateful race. The Holy Therns abideupon the outer slopes of these grim hills, facing the broadworld from which they harvest their victims and their spoils.

"Labyrinthine passages connect these caves with the luxuriouspalaces of the Holy Therns, and through them pass upon theirmany duties the lesser therns, and hordes of slaves,and prisoners, and fierce beasts; the grim inhabitants ofthis sunless world.

"There be within this vast network of winding passagesand countless chambers men, women, and beasts who, bornwithin its dim and gruesome underworld, have never seenthe light of day--nor ever shall.

"They are kept to do the bidding of the race of therns; tofurnish at once their sport and their sustenance.

"Now and again some hapless pilgrim, drifting out uponthe silent sea from the cold Iss, escapes the plant men andthe great white apes that guard the Temple of Issus and fallsinto the remorseless clutches of the therns; or, as was mymisfortune, is coveted by the Holy Thern who chances to beupon watch in the balcony above the river where it issuesfrom the bowels of the mountains through the cliffs of goldto empty into the Lost Sea of Korus.

"All who reach the Valley Dor are, by custom, the rightfulprey of the plant men and the apes, while their arms andornaments become the portion of the therns; but if one escapesthe terrible denizens of the valley for even a few hoursthe therns may claim such a one as their own. And againthe Holy Thern on watch, should he see a victim he covets,often tramples upon the rights of the unreasoning brutes ofthe valley and takes his prize by foul means if he cannotgain it by fair.

"It is said that occasionally some deluded victim ofBarsoomian superstition will so far escape the clutches ofthe countless enemies that beset his path from the moment thathe emerges from the subterranean passage through which theIss flows for a thousand miles before it enters the Valley Doras to reach the very walls of the Temple of Issus; but whatfate awaits one there not even the Holy Therns may guess,for who has passed within those gilded walls never hasreturned to unfold the mysteries they have held since thebeginning of time.

"The Temple of Issus is to the therns what the ValleyDor is imagined by the peoples of the outer world to be tothem; it is the ultimate haven of peace, refuge, and happinessto which they pass after this life and wherein an eternity ofeternities is spent amidst the delights of the flesh which appealmost strongly to this race of mental giants and moral pygmies."

"The Temple of Issus is, I take it, a heaven within aheaven," I said. "Let us hope that there it will be meted tothe therns as they have meted it here unto others."

"Who knows?" the girl murmured.

"The therns, I judge from what you have said, are noless mortal than we; and yet have I always heard them spokenof with the utmost awe and reverence by the people ofBarsoom, as one might speak of the gods themselves."

"The therns are mortal," she replied. "They die from thesame causes as you or I might: those who do not live theirallotted span of life, one thousand years, when by the authorityof custom they may take their way in happiness through thelong tunnel that leads to Issus.

"Those who die before are supposed to spend the balanceof their allotted time in the image of a plant man, and itis for this reason that the plant men are held sacred by thetherns, since they believe that each of these hideous creatureswas formerly a thern."

"And should a plant man die?" I asked.

"Should he die before the expiration of the thousand yearsfrom the birth of the thern whose immortality abides withinhim then the soul passes into a great white ape, but shouldthe ape die short of the exact hour that terminates the thousandyears the soul is for ever lost and passes for all eternityinto the carcass of the slimy and fearsome silian whose wrigglingthousands seethe the silent sea beneath the hurtling moons whenthe sun has gone and strange shapes walk through the Valley Dor."

"We sent several Holy Therns to the silians to-day, then,"said Tars Tarkas, laughing.

"And so will your death be the more terrible when it comes,"said the maiden. "And come it will--you cannot escape."

"One has escaped, centuries ago," I reminded her, "andwhat has been done may be done again."

"It is useless even to try," she answered hopelessly.

"But try we shall," I cried, and you shall go with us, if you wish."

"To be put to death by mine own people, and rendermy memory a disgrace to my family and my nation? APrince of the House of Tardos Mors should know betterthan to suggest such a thing."

Tars Tarkas listened in silence, but I could feel his eyesriveted upon me and I knew that he awaited my answer as one mightlisten to the reading of his sentence by the foreman of a jury.

What I advised the girl to do would seal our fate as well, since if I bowed to the inevitable decree of age-old superstition we mustall remain and meet our fate in some horrible form within this awfulabode of horror and cruelty.

"We have the right to escape if we can," I answered."Our own moral senses will not be offended if we succeed,for we know that the fabled life of love and peace in theblessed Valley of Dor is a rank and wicked deception. Weknow that the valley is not sacred; we know that the HolyTherns are not holy; that they are a race of cruel andheartless mortals, knowing no more of the real life to comethan we do.

"Not only is it our right to bend every effort to escape--it is a solemn duty from which we should not shrink eventhough we know that we should be reviled and tortured byour own peoples when we returned to them.

"Only thus may we carry the truth to those without, and thoughthe likelihood of our narrative being given credence is,I grant you, remote, so wedded are mortals to their stupidinfatuation for impossible superstitions, we should becraven cowards indeed were we to shirk the plain dutywhich confronts us.

"Again there is a chance that with the weight of the testimonyof several of us the truth of our statements may be accepted,and at least a compromise effected which will result in thedispatching of an expedition of investigation to thishideous mockery of heaven."

Both the girl and the green warrior stood silent in thought forsome moments. The former it was who eventually broke the silence.

"Never had I considered the matter in that light before,"she said. "Indeed would I give my life a thousand times if Icould but save a single soul from the awful life that I haveled in this cruel place. Yes, you are right, and I will go withyou as far as we can go; but I doubt that we ever shall escape."

I turned an inquiring glance toward the Thark.

"To the gates of Issus, or to the bottom of Korus," spoke thegreen warrior; "to the snows to the north or to the snowsto the south, Tars Tarkas follows where John Carter leads.I have spoken."

"Come, then," I cried, "we must make the start, for wecould not be further from escape than we now are in theheart of this mountain and within the four walls of thischamber of death."

"Come, then," said the girl, "but do not flatter yourself that youcan find no worse place than this within the territory of the therns."

So saying she swung the secret panel that separated usfrom the apartment in which I had found her, and we steppedthrough once more into the presence of the other prisoners.

There were in all ten red Martians, men and women, andwhen we had briefly explained our plan they decided to joinforces with us, though it was evident that it was with someconsiderable misgivings that they thus tempted fate byopposing an ancient superstition, even though each knewthrough cruel experience the fallacy of its entire fabric.

Thuvia, the girl whom I had first freed, soon had theothers at liberty. Tars Tarkas and I stripped the bodies of thetwo therns of their weapons, which included swords, daggers,and two revolvers of the curious and deadly type manufacturedby the red Martians.

We distributed the weapons as far as they would go amongour followers, giving the firearms to two of the women;Thuvia being one so armed.

With the latter as our guide we set off rapidly but cautiouslythrough a maze of passages, crossing great chambers hewn fromthe solid metal of the cliff, following winding corridors,ascending steep inclines, and now and again concealing ourselvesin dark recesses at the sound of approaching footsteps.

Our destination, Thuvia said, was a distant storeroomwhere arms and ammunition in plenty might be found.From there she was to lead us to the summit of the cliffs,from where it would require both wondrous wit and mightyfighting to win our way through the very heart of thestronghold of the Holy Therns to the world without.

"And even then, O Prince," she cried, "the arm of theHoly Thern is long. It reaches to every nation of Barsoom.His secret temples are hidden in the heart of every community. Wherever we go should we escape we shall find that word of ourcoming has preceded us, and death awaits us before we maypollute the air with our blasphemies."

We had proceeded for possibly an hour without seriousinterruption, and Thuvia had just whispered to me that wewere approaching our first destination, when on entering agreat chamber we came upon a man, evidently a thern.

He wore in addition to his leathern trappings and jewelledornaments a great circlet of gold about his brow in the exactcentre of which was set an immense stone, the exact counterpartof that which I had seen upon the breast of the little oldman at the atmosphere plant nearly twenty years before.

It is the one priceless jewel of Barsoom. Only two areknown to exist, and these were worn as the insignia of theirrank and position by the two old men in whose charge wasplaced the operation of the great engines which pump theartificial atmosphere to all parts of Mars from the hugeatmosphere plant, the secret to whose mighty portals placedin my possession the ability to save from immediate extinctionthe life of a whole world.

The stone worn by the thern who confronted us was ofabout the same size as that which I had seen before; an inchin diameter I should say. It scintillated nine different anddistinct rays; the seven primary colours of our earthly prismand the two rays which are unknown upon Earth, but whosewondrous beauty is indescribable.

As the thern saw us his eyes narrowed to two nasty slits.

"Stop!" he cried. "What means this, Thuvia?"

For answer the girl raised her revolver and fired point-blank at him. Without a sound he sank to the earth, dead.

"Beast!" she hissed. "After all these years I am at last revenged."

Then as she turned toward me, evidently with a word of explanationon her lips, her eyes suddenly widened as they rested upon me,and with a little exclamation she started toward me.

"O Prince," she cried, "Fate is indeed kind to us. The wayis still difficult, but through this vile thing upon the floorwe may yet win to the outer world. Notest thou not theremarkable resemblance between this Holy Thern and thyself?"

The man was indeed of my precise stature, nor were hiseyes and features unlike mine; but his hair was a mass offlowing yellow locks, like those of the two I had killed,while mine is black and close cropped.

"What of the resemblance?" I asked the girl Thuvia. "Doyou wish me with my black, short hair to pose as a yellow-haired priest of this infernal cult?"

She smiled, and for answer approached the body of theman she had slain, and kneeling beside it removed the circletof gold from the forehead, and then to my utter amazementlifted the entire scalp bodily from the corpse's head.

Rising, she advanced to my side and placing the yellowwig over my black hair, crowned me with the golden circletset with the magnificent gem.

"Now don his harness, Prince," she said, "and you may passwhere you will in the realms of the therns, for Sator Throgwas a Holy Thern of the Tenth Cycle, and mighty among his kind."

As I stooped to the dead man to do her bidding I notedthat not a hair grew upon his head, which was quite asbald as an egg.

"They are all thus from birth," explained Thuvia noting mysurprise. "The race from which they sprang were crownedwith a luxuriant growth of golden hair, but for many agesthe present race has been entirely bald. The wig, however,has come to be a part of their apparel, and so important a partdo they consider it that it is cause for the deepest disgracewere a thern to appear in public without it."

In another moment I stood garbed in the habiliments of a Holy Thern.

At Thuvia's suggestion two of the released prisoners borethe body of the dead thern upon their shoulders with us aswe continued our journey toward the storeroom, which wereached without further mishap.

Here the keys which Thuvia bore from the dead thern ofthe prison vault were the means of giving us immediateentrance to the chamber, and very quickly we werethoroughly outfitted with arms and ammunition.

By this time I was so thoroughly fagged out that I couldgo no further, so I threw myself upon the floor, bidding TarsTarkas to do likewise, and cautioning two of the releasedprisoners to keep careful watch.

In an instant I was asleep.