Yersted's information convinced me that there was no timeto be lost. I must reach the Temple of Issus secretly beforethe forces under Tars Tarkas assaulted at dawn. Once withinits hated walls I was positive that I could overcome theguards of Issus and bear away my Princess, for at my backI would have a force ample for the occasion.

No sooner had Carthoris and the others joined me thanwe commenced the transportation of our men through thesubmerged passage to the mouth of the gangways which leadfrom the submarine pool at the temple end of the waterytunnel to the pits of Issus.

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

As Carthoris alone knew the hidden ways of the tunnelswe could not divide the party and attack the temple atseveral points at once as would have been most desirable,and so it was decided that he lead us all as quickly aspossible 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 whichthe submarine floated. At first they seemed to be merelyagitated as from the movement of some great body beneath thesurface, and I at once conjectured that another submarinewas rising to the surface in pursuit of us; but presently itbecame apparent that the level of the waters was rising, notwith extreme rapidity, but very surely, and that soon theywould overflow the sides of the pool and submerge the floorof the chamber.

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

"Haste!" he cried. "If we delay, we all are lost. The pumpsof Omean have been stopped. They would drown us like ratsin a trap. We must reach the upper levels of the pits inadvance 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 ofits dwar, or captain.

Before the last company filed from the chamber the waterwas ankle deep, and that the men were nervous was quiteevident. Entirely unaccustomed to water except in quantitiessufficient for drinking and bathing purposes the red Martiansinstinctively shrank from it in such formidable depths andmenacing activity. That they were undaunted while it swirledand eddied about their ankles, spoke well for their braveryand their discipline.

I was the last to leave the chamber of the submarine, andas I followed the rear of the column toward the corridor, Imoved through water to my knees. The corridor, too, wasflooded to the same depth, for its floor was on a level withthe floor of the chamber from which it led, nor was thereany perceptible rise for many yards.

The march of the troops through the corridor was as rapidas was consistent with the number of men that movedthrough so narrow a passage, but it was not ample to permitus to gain appreciably on the pursuing tide. As the level ofthe passage rose, so, too, did the waters rise until it soonbecame apparent to me, who brought up the rear, that theywere gaining rapidly upon us. I could understand the reasonfor this, as with the narrowing expanse of Omean as the watersrose toward the apex of its dome, the rapidity of its rise wouldincrease in inverse ratio to the ever-lessening space to be filled.

Long ere the last of the column could hope to reach theupper pits which lay above the danger point I was convincedthat 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 aspossible of the doomed men, I saw a diverging corridorwhich seemed to rise at a steep angle at my right. Thewaters were now swirling about my waist. The men directlybefore me were quickly becoming panic-stricken. Somethingmust be done at once or they would rush forward upon theirfellows in a mad stampede that would result in tramplingdown hundreds beneath the flood and eventually clogging thepassage beyond any hope of retreat for those in advance.

Raising my voice to its utmost, I shouted my commandto 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 somethree thousand men came about and hastened into the teethof the flood to reach the corridor up which I directed them.

As the first dwar passed in with his utan I cautioned himto listen closely for my commands, and under no circumstancesto venture into the open, or leave the pits for the templeproper until I should have come up with him, "or you knowthat I died before I could reach you."

The officer saluted and left me. The men filed rapidly pastme and entered the diverging corridor which I hoped wouldlead to safety. The water rose breast high. Men stumbled,floundered, and went down. Many I grasped and set upontheir feet again, but alone the work was greater than I couldcope with. Soldiers were being swept beneath the boilingtorrent, never to rise. At length the dwar of the 10th utantook a stand beside me. He was a valorous soldier, Gur Tusby name, and together we kept the now thoroughly frightenedtroops in the semblance of order and rescued many thatwould have drowned otherwise.

Djor Kantos, son of Kantos Kan, and a padwar of thefifth utan joined us when his utan reached the openingthrough which the men were fleeing. Thereafter not a manwas lost of all the hundreds that remained to pass from themain corridor to the branch.

As the last utan was filing past us the waters had risenuntil they surged about our necks, but we clasped handsand stood our ground until the last man had passed to thecomparative safety of the new passageway. Here we foundan immediate and steep ascent, so that within a hundredyards we had reached a point above the waters.

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

Suddenly I heard a cry of "fire" far ahead, followed almostat once by cries of terror and the loud commands of dwarsand padwars who were evidently attempting to direct theirmen away from some grave danger. At last the reportcame 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 thereswept back upon us at the rear a wave of dense smokethat sent us, stumbling and blinded, into a choking retreat.

There was naught to do other than seek a new avenue ofescape. The fire and smoke were to be feared a thousandtimes over the water, and so I seized upon the first gallerywhich led out of and up from the suffocating smoke thatwas engulfing us.

Again I stood to one side while the soldiers hastened throughon 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 rescuedwho had not passed the point of origin of the flames, and so to assuremyself that no poor devil was left behind to die a horrible death,unsuccoured, I ran quickly up the gallery in the direction of theflames which I could now see burning with a dull glow far ahead.

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

Having satisfied my sense of duty, I turned and ran rapidlyback to the corridor through which my men had passed.To my horror, however, I found that my retreat in thisdirection had been blocked--across the mouth of the corridorstood a massive steel grating that had evidently been loweredfrom its resting-place above for the purpose of effectuallycutting off my escape.

That our principal movements were known to the FirstBorn I could not have doubted, in view of the attack ofthe fleet upon us the day before, nor could the stoppingof the pumps of Omean at the psychological moment havebeen due to chance, nor the starting of a chemicalcombustion within the one corridor through which wewere advancing upon the Temple of Issus been due toaught than well-calculated design.

And now the dropping of the steel gate to pen me effectuallybetween fire and flood seemed to indicate that invisibleeyes were upon us at every moment. What chance had I,then, to rescue Dejah Thoris were I to be compelled to fightfoes who never showed themselves. A thousand times I beratedmyself for being drawn into such a trap as I mighthave known these pits easily could be. Now I saw that itwould have been much better to have kept our force intactand made a concerted attack upon the temple from the valleyside, trusting to chance and our great fighting ability tohave overwhelmed the First Born and compelled the safedelivery of Dejah Thoris to me.

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

Finally I felt the lapping waters about my feet. The smokewas thick behind me. My suffering was intense. There seemedbut one thing to do, and that to choose the easier deathwhich confronted me, and so I moved on down the corridoruntil the cold waters of Omean closed about me, and I swamon through utter blackness toward--what?

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

But to my surprise I ran against a blank wall before Ireached a point where the waters came to the roof of thecorridor. Could I be mistaken? I felt around. No, I hadcome to the main corridor, and still there was a breathingspace between the surface of the water and the rockyceiling above. And then I turned up the main corridor inthe direction that Carthoris and the head of the column hadpassed a half-hour before. On and on I swam, my heartgrowing lighter at every stroke, for I knew that I wasapproaching closer and closer to the point where therewould be no chance that the waters ahead could be deeperthan they were about me. I was positive that I must soonfeel the solid floor beneath my feet again and that oncemore my chance would come to reach the Temple of Issusand the side of the fair prisoner who languished there.

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

There was but a single forlorn hope, and I took it. Fillingmy lungs with air, I dived beneath the surface and swamthrough the inky, icy blackness on and on along the submergedgallery. Time and time again I rose with upstretchedhand, only to feel the disappointing rocks close above me.

Not for much longer would my lungs withstand the strainupon them. I felt that I must soon succumb, nor was thereany retreating now that I had gone this far. I knew positivelythat I could never endure to retrace my path now to the pointfrom which I had felt the waters close above my head. Deathstared me in the face, nor ever can I recall a time that I sodistinctly 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 forthe breath that would fill them with a strange and numbing element,but instead I felt the revivifying breath of life-giving air surgethrough my starving nostrils into my dying lungs. I was saved.

A few more strokes brought me to a point where my feettouched the floor, and soon thereafter I was above thewater level entirely, and racing like mad along the corridorsearching for the first doorway that would lead me to Issus.If I could not have Dejah Thoris again I was at leastdetermined to avenge her death, nor would any life satisfyme other than that of the fiend incarnate who was the causeof such immeasurable suffering upon Barsoom.

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

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

The portal swung slowly in, and before it could beslammed 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 furnitureof 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 hideouscreature alone and unguarded in my hands. With her ashostage 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 littlemore than half the chamber when the figure stirred, and, asI sprang, rose and faced me.

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

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