CHAPTER XIX

THE MENACE OF THE DEAD

The night was still young when there came one to the entrance of the

banquet hall where O-Tar of Manator dined with his chiefs, and brushing

past the guards entered the great room with the insolence of a

privileged character, as in truth he was. As he approached the head of

the long board O-Tar took notice of him.

"Well, hoary one!" he cried. "What brings you out of your beloved and

stinking burrow again this day. We thought that the sight of the

multitude of living men at the games would drive you back to your

corpses as quickly as you could go."

The cackling laugh of I-Gos acknowledged the royal sally. "Ey, ey,

O-Tar," squeaked the ancient one, "I-Gos goes out not upon pleasure

bound; but when one does ruthlessly desecrate the dead of I-Gos,

vengeance must be had!"

"You refer to the act of the slave Turan?" demanded O-Tar.

"Turan, yes, and the slave Tara, who slipped beneath my hide a

murderous blade. Another fraction of an inch, O-Tar, and I-Gos' ancient

and wrinkled covering were even now in some apprentice tanner's hands,

ey, ey!"

"But they have again eluded us," cried O-Tar. "Even in the palace of

the great jeddak twice have they escaped the stupid knaves I call The

Jeddak's Guard." O-Tar had risen and was angrily emphasizing his words

with heavy blows upon the table, dealt with a golden goblet.

"Ey, O-Tar, they elude thy guard but not the wise old calot, I-Gos."

"What mean you? Speak!" commanded O-Tar.

"I know where they are hid," said the ancient taxidermist. "In the dust

of unused corridors their feet have betrayed them."

"You followed them? You have seen them?" demanded the jeddak.

"I followed them and I heard them speaking beyond a closed door,"

replied I-Gos; "but I did not see them."

"Where is that door?" cried O-Tar. "We will send at once and fetch

them," he looked about the table as though to decide to whom he would

entrust this duty. A dozen warrior chiefs arose and laid their hands

upon their swords.

"To the chambers of O-Mai the Cruel I traced them," squeaked I-Gos.

"There you will find them where the moaning Corphals pursue the

shrieking ghost of O-Mai; ey!" and he turned his eyes from O-Tar toward

the warriors who had arisen, only to discover that, to a man, they were

hurriedly resuming their seats.

The cackling laughter of I-Gos broke derisively the hush that had

fallen on the room. The warriors looked sheepishly at the food upon

their plates of gold. O-Tar snapped his fingers impatiently.

"Be there only cravens among the chiefs of Manator?" he cried.

"Repeatedly have these presumptuous slaves flouted the majesty of your

jeddak. Must I command one to go and fetch them?"

Slowly a chief arose and two others followed his example, though with

ill-concealed reluctance. "All, then, are not cowards," commented

O-Tar. "The duty is distasteful. Therefore all three of you shall go,

taking as many warriors as you wish."

"But do not ask for volunteers," interrupted I-Gos, "or you will go

alone."

The three chiefs turned and left the banquet hall, walking slowly like

doomed men to their fate.

Gahan and Tara remained in the chamber to which Tasor had led them, the

man brushing away the dust from a deep and comfortable bench where they

might rest in comparative comfort. He had found the ancient sleeping

silks and furs too far gone to be of any service, crumbling to powder

at a touch, thus removing any chance of making a comfortable bed for

the girl, and so the two sat together, talking in low tones, of the

adventures through which they already had passed and speculating upon

the future; planning means of escape and hoping Tasor would not be long

gone. They spoke of many things--of Hastor, and Helium, and Ptarth, and

finally the conversation reminded Tara of Gathol.

"You have served there?" she asked.

"Yes," replied Turan.

"I met Gahan the Jed of Gathol at my father's palace," she said, "the

very day before the storm snatched me from Helium--he was a

presumptuous fellow, magnificently trapped in platinum and diamonds.

Never in my life saw I so gorgeous a harness as his, and you must well

know, Turan, that the splendor of all Barsoom passes through the court

at Helium; but in my mind I could not see so resplendent a creature

drawing that jeweled sword in mortal combat. I fear me that the Jed of

Gathol, though a pretty picture of a man, is little else."

In the dim light Tara did not perceive the wry expression upon the

half-averted face of her companion.

"You thought little then of the Jed of Gathol?" he asked.

"Then or now," she replied, and with a little laugh; "how it would

pique his vanity to know, if he might, that a poor panthan had won a

higher place in the regard of Tara of Helium," and she laid her fingers

gently upon his knee.

He seized the fingers in his and carried them to his lips. "O, Tara of

Helium," he cried. "Think you that I am a man of stone?" One arm

slipped about her shoulders and drew the yielding body toward him.

"May my first ancestor forgive me my weakness," she cried, as her arms

stole about his neck and she raised her panting lips to his. For long

they clung there in love's first kiss and then she pushed him away,

gently. "I love you, Turan," she half sobbed; "I love you so! It is my

only poor excuse for having done this wrong to Djor Kantos, whom now I

know I never loved, who knew not the meaning of love. And if you love

me as you say, Turan, your love must protect me from greater dishonor,

for I am but as clay in your hands."

Again he crushed her to him and then as suddenly released her, and

rising, strode rapidly to and fro across the chamber as though he

endeavored by violent exercise to master and subdue some evil spirit

that had laid hold upon him. Ringing through his brain and heart and

soul like some joyous paean were those words that had so altered the

world for Gahan of Gathol: "I love you, Turan; I love you so!" And it

had come so suddenly. He had thought that she felt for him only

gratitude for his loyalty and then, in an instant, her barriers were

all down, she was no longer a princess; but instead a--his reflections

were interrupted by a sound from beyond the closed door. His sandals of

zitidar hide had given forth no sound upon the marble floor he strode,

and as his rapid pacing carried him past the entrance to the chamber

there came faintly from the distance of the long corridor the sound of

metal on metal--the unmistakable herald of the approach of armed men.

For a moment Gahan listened intently, close to the door, until there

could be no doubt but that a party of warriors was approaching. From

what Tasor had told him he guessed correctly that they would be coming

to this portion of the palace but for a single purpose--to search for

Tara and himself--and it behooved him therefore to seek immediate means

for eluding them. The chamber in which they were had other doorways

beside that at which they had entered, and to one of these he must look

for some safer hiding place. Crossing to Tara he acquainted her with

his suspicion, leading her to one of the doors which they found

unsecured. Beyond it lay a dimly-lighted chamber at the threshold of

which they halted in consternation, drawing back quickly into the

chamber they had just quitted, for their first glance revealed four

warriors seated around a jetan board.

That their entrance had not been noted was attributed by Gahan to the

absorption of the two players and their friends in the game. Quietly

closing the door the fugitives moved silently to the next, which they

found locked. There was now but another door which they had not tried,

and this they approached quickly as they knew that the searching party

must be close to the chamber. To their chagrin they found this avenue

of escape barred.

Now indeed were they in a sorry plight, for should the searchers have

information leading them to this room they were lost. Again leading

Tara to the door behind which were the jetan players Gahan drew his

sword and waited, listening. The sound of the party in the corridor

came distinctly to their ears--they must be quite close, and doubtless

they were coming in force. Beyond the door were but four warriors who

might be readily surprised. There could, then, be but one choice and

acting upon it Gahan quietly opened the door again, stepped through

into the adjoining chamber, Tara's hand in his, and closed the door

behind them. The four at the jetan board evidently failed to hear them.

One player had either just made or was contemplating a move, for his

fingers grasped a piece that still rested upon the board. The other

three were watching his move. For an instant Gahan looked at them,

playing jetan there in the dim light of this forgotten and forbidden

chamber, and then a slow smile of understanding lighted his face.

"Come!" he said to Tara. "We have nothing to fear from these. For more

than five thousand years they have sat thus, a monument to the

handiwork of some ancient taxidermist."

As they approached more closely they saw that the lifelike figures were

coated with dust, but that otherwise the skin was in as fine a state of

preservation as the most recent of I-Gos' groups, and then they heard

the door of the chamber they had quitted open and knew that the

searchers were close upon them. Across the room they saw the opening of

what appeared to be a corridor and which investigation proved to be a

short passageway, terminating in a chamber in the center of which was

an ornate sleeping dais. This room, like the others, was but poorly

lighted, time having dimmed the radiance of its bulbs and coated them

with dust. A glance showed that it was hung with heavy goods and

contained considerable massive furniture in addition to the sleeping

platform, a second glance at which revealed what appeared to be the

form of a man lying partially on the floor and partially on the dais.

No doorways were visible other than that at which they had entered,

though both knew that others might be concealed by the hangings.

Gahan, his curiosity aroused by the legends surrounding this portion of

the palace, crossed to the dais to examine the figure that apparently

had fallen from it, to find the dried and shrivelled corpse of a man

lying upon his back on the floor with arms outstretched and fingers

stiffly outspread. One of his feet was doubled partially beneath him,

while the other was still entangled in the sleeping silks and furs upon

the dais. After five thousand years the expression of the withered face

and the eyeless sockets retained the aspect of horrid fear to such an

extent, that Gahan knew that he was looking upon the body of O-Mai the

Cruel.

Suddenly Tara, who stood close beside him, clutched his arm and pointed

toward a far corner of the room. Gahan looked and looking felt the

hairs upon his neck rising. He threw his left arm about the girl and

with bared sword stood between her and the hangings that they watched,

and then slowly Gahan of Gathol backed away, for in this grim and

somber chamber, which no human foot had trod for five thousand years

and to which no breath of wind might enter, the heavy hangings in the

far corner had moved. Not gently had they moved as a draught might have

moved them had there been a draught, but suddenly they had bulged out

as though pushed against from behind. To the opposite corner backed

Gahan until they stood with their backs against the hangings there, and

then hearing the approach of their pursuers across the chamber beyond

Gahan pushed Tara through the hangings and, following her, kept open

with his left hand, which he had disengaged from the girl's grasp, a

tiny opening through which he could view the apartment and the doorway

upon the opposite side through which the pursuers would enter, if they

came this far.

Behind the hangings there was a space of about three feet in width

between them and the wall, making a passageway entirely around the

room, broken only by the single entrance opposite them; this being a

common arrangement especially in the sleeping apartments of the rich

and powerful upon Barsoom. The purposes of this arrangement were

several. The passageway afforded a station for guards in the same room

with their master without intruding entirely upon his privacy; it

concealed secret exits from the chamber; it permitted the occupant of

the room to hide eavesdroppers and assassins for use against enemies

that he might lure to his chamber.

The three chiefs with a dozen warriors had had no difficulty in

following the tracks of the fugitives through the dust of the corridors

and chambers they had traversed. To enter this portion of the palace at

all had required all the courage they possessed, and now that they were

within the very chambers of O-Mai their nerves were pitched to the

highest key--another turn and they would snap; for the people of

Manator are filled with weird superstitions. As they entered the outer

chamber they moved slowly, with drawn swords, no one seeming anxious to

take the lead, and the twelve warriors hanging back in unconcealed and

shameless terror, while the three chiefs, spurred on by fear of O-Tar

and by pride, pressed together for mutual encouragement as they slowly

crossed the dimly-lighted room.

Following the tracks of Gahan and Tara they found that though each

doorway had been approached only one threshold had been crossed and

this door they gingerly opened, revealing to their astonished gaze the

four warriors at the jetan table. For a moment they were on the verge

of flight, for though they knew what they were, coming as they did upon

them in this mysterious and haunted suite, they were as startled as

though they had beheld the very ghosts of the departed. But they

presently regained their courage sufficiently to cross this chamber too

and enter the short passageway that led to the ancient sleeping

apartment of O-Mai the Cruel. They did not know that this awful chamber

lay just before them, or it were doubtful that they would have

proceeded farther; but they saw that those they sought had come this

way and so they followed, but within the gloomy interior of the chamber

they halted, the three chiefs urging their followers, in low whispers,

to close in behind them, and there just within the entrance they stood

until, their eyes becoming accustomed to the dim light, one of them

pointed suddenly to the thing lying upon the floor with one foot

tangled in the coverings of the dais.

"Look!" he gasped. "It is the corpse of O-Mai! Ancestor of ancestors!

we are in the forbidden chamber." Simultaneously there came from behind

the hangings beyond the grewsome dead a hollow moan followed by a

piercing scream, and the hangings shook and bellied before their eyes.

With one accord, chieftains and warriors, they turned and bolted for

the doorway; a narrow doorway, where they jammed, fighting and

screaming in an effort to escape. They threw away their swords and

clawed at one another to make a passage for escape; those behind

climbed upon the shoulders of those in front; and some fell and were

trampled upon; but at last they all got through, and, the swiftest

first, they bolted across the two intervening chambers to the outer

corridor beyond, nor did they halt their mad retreat before they

stumbled, weak and trembling, into the banquet hall of O-Tar. At sight

of them the warriors who had remained with the jeddak leaped to their

feet with drawn swords, thinking that their fellows were pursued by

many enemies; but no one followed them into the room, and the three

chieftains came and stood before O-Tar with bowed heads and trembling

knees.

"Well?" demanded the jeddak. "What ails you? Speak!"

"O-Tar," cried one of them when at last he could master his voice.

"When have we three failed you in battle or combat? Have our swords

been not always among the foremost in defense of your safety and your

honor?"

"Have I denied this?" demanded O-Tar.

"Listen, then, O Jeddak, and judge us with leniency. We followed the

two slaves to the apartments of O-Mai the Cruel. We entered the

accursed chambers and still we did not falter. We came at last to that

horrid chamber no human eye had scanned before in fifty centuries and

we looked upon the dead face of O-Mai lying as he has lain for all this

time. To the very death chamber of O-Mai the Cruel we came and yet we

were ready to go farther; when suddenly there broke upon our horrified

ears the moans and the shrieking that mark these haunted chambers and

the hangings moved and rustled in the dead air. O-Tar, it was more than

human nerves could endure. We turned and fled. We threw away our swords

and fought with one another to escape. With sorrow, but without shame,

I tell it, for there be no man in all Manator that would not have done

the same. If these slaves be Corphals they are safe among their fellow

ghosts. If they be not Corphals, then already are they dead in the

chambers of O-Mai, and there may they rot for all of me, for I would

not return to that accursed spot for the harness of a jeddak and the

half of Barsoom for an empire. I have spoken."

O-Tar knitted his scowling brows. "Are all my chieftains cowards and

cravens?" he demanded presently in sneering tones.

From among those who had not been of the searching party a chieftain

arose and turned a scowling face upon O-Tar.

"The jeddak knows," he said, "that in the annals of Manator her jeddaks

have ever been accounted the bravest of her warriors. Where my jeddak

leads I will follow, nor may any jeddak call me a coward or a craven

unless I refuse to go where he dares to go. I have spoken."

After he had resumed his seat there was a painful silence, for all knew

that the speaker had challenged the courage of O-Tar the Jeddak of

Manator and all awaited the reply of their ruler. In every mind was the

same thought--O-Tar must lead them at once to the chamber of O-Mai the

Cruel, or accept forever the stigma of cowardice, and there could be no

coward upon the throne of Manator. That they all knew and that O-Tar

knew, as well.

But O-Tar hesitated. He looked about upon the faces of those around him

at the banquet board; but he saw only the grim visages of relentless

warriors. There was no trace of leniency in the face of any. And then

his eyes wandered to a small entrance at one side of the great chamber.

An expression of relief expunged the scowl of anxiety from his features.

"Look!" he exclaimed. "See who has come!"