Part 2 (1/2)

While it lasted it was indeed as joyous a conflict as I ever had experienced Twice at least I savedsteel only by the wondrous agility hich ravity and air pressure upon Mars

Yet even so I caloomy corridor beneath Mars's southern pole, for Lakor played a trick uponupon two planets I never before had witnessed the like of

The other thern was engaginghi fro able to penetrate his uard to reach a vulnerable spot for the brief instant that would have been sufficient to send him to his ancestors

It was then that Lakor quickly unslung a belt from his harness, and as I stepped back to parry a wicked thrust he lashed one end of it about my left ankle so that it wound there for an instant, while he jerked suddenly upon the other end, throwingpanthers, they were upon me; but they had reckoned without Woola, and before ever a blade touchedembodiment of a thousand demons hurtled above my prostrate forine, if you can, a huge grizzly with ten legs arlikethree rows of long, white tusks Then endow this creature of your iility and ferocity of a half-starved Bengal tiger and the strength of a span of bulls, and you will have some faint conception of Woola in action

Before I could call hile blow of one hty paw, and had literally torn the other thern to ribbons; yet when I spoke to hi to deserve censure and chastise the long years that had passed since that first day upon Mars when the green jed of the Tharks had placed hiuard over me, and I had won his love and loyalty from the cruel and loveless masters of his former life, yet I believe he would have subht have inflicted upon him, so wondrous was his affection for old upon the brow of Lakor proclaimed him a Holy Thern, while his coh froleaned that he had reached the Ninth Cycle, which is but one below that of the Holy Therns

As I stood for a ht, there recurred to me the memory of that other occasion upon which I had , the Holy Thern whom Thuvia of Ptarth had slain, and now it occurred to s for the sa from his bald pate and transferred it and the circlet, as well as all his harness, to my own person

Woola did not approve of the rowled oe head he at length becae, and atthe corridor in the direction we had been going when our progress had been interrupted by the therns

We ment of conversation I had overheard I kept abreast of Woola that we ht appear suddenly ahead to menace us, and well it was that ere forewarned

At the bottoht of narrow steps the corridor turned sharply back upon itself, iinal direction, so that at that point it for of which debouched suddenly into a large chahted, and the floor of which was completely covered by venomous snakes and loathsome reptiles

To have attempted to cross that floor would have been to court instant death, and for a ed Then it occurred towith their party must have crossed it, and so there was a way

Had it not been for the fortunate accident by which I overheard even so small a portion of the therns' conversation we should have blundered at least a step or two into that wriggling le step would have been all-sufficient to have sealed our doom

These were the only reptiles I had ever seen upon Barsoom, but I knew from their similarity to the fossilized remains of supposedly extinct species I had seen in the museums of Helium that they coenera, as well as others undiscovered

A ation of monsters had never before assailed my vision It would be futile to attempt to describe the which they possess in common with any creature of the past or present hich you are familiar--even their venom is of an unearthly virulence that, by comparison, would leworm

As they spied me there was a concerted rush by those nearest the entrance where we stood, but a line of radiuht them to a sudden halt--evidently they dared not cross that line of light

I had been quite sure that they would not venture beyond the roouessed at what deterred them The sih which we had just come was sufficient assurance that they did not venture there

I drew Woola out of haran a careful survey of as much of the Chamber of Reptiles as I could see froht of its interior I gradually allery at the far end of the apart as close to the threshold as I dared, I followed this gallery withthat it circled the roo the upper edge of the entrance to which we had coallery not a foot above my head In an instant I had leaped to it and called Woola after me

Here there were no reptiles--the as clear to the opposite side of the hideous chamber--and a moment later Woola and I dropped down to safety in the corridor beyond

Not ten minutes later we came into a vast circular apartold in the strange hieroglyphics of the First Born

Froe circular column extended to the floor, and as I watched I saw that it slowly revolved

I had reached the base of the Temple of the Sun!

Somewhere above hter of Matai Shang, and Thuvia of Ptarth But how to reach thehty prison, was still a baffling riddle

Slowly I circled the great shaft, looking for a ress Part way around I found a tiny radium flash torch, and as I examined it in mild curiosity as to its presence there in this almost inaccessible and unknown spot, I cania of the house of Thurid jewel-inset in its ht, as I slipped the bauble into the pocket-pouch which hung from my harness Then I continued my search for the entrance, which I knewto search, for almost ily inlaid in the shaft's base that it ht have passed unnoticed by a less keen or careful observer

There was the door that would lead me within the prison, but where was the ain and again I went carefully over every square inch of its surface, but the most that I could find was a tiny pinhole a little above and to the right of the door's center--a pinhole that seemed only an accident of manufacture or an imperfection of material

Into this minute aperture I attempted to peer, but whether it was but a fraction of an inch deep or passed coht showed beyond it I put ht negligible results

During these experi intently at the door, and as lance fell upon him it occurred to me to test the correctness of ress to the te, Father of Therns

Turning away abruptly, I called to him to follow me For a ging at my harness to draw me back I walked on, however, some distance froht see precisely what he would do Then I perht back to that baffling portal he dragged azing straight at its shi+ning surface For an hour I worked to solve the mystery of the combination that would open the way before me

Carefully I recalled every circumstance of my pursuit of Thurid, and inal belief--that Thurid had coe and passed through the door that barred ress, unaided from within But how had he accomplished it?

I recalled the incident of the Chamber of Mystery in the Golden Cliffs that tieon of the therns, and she had taken a slender, needle-like key fro back into the Chaht for his life with the great banths Such a tiny keyhole as now defied me had opened the way to the intricate lock in that other door

Hastily I duround before ht yet fashi+on a key that would give ress to the teeneous collection of odds and ends that is always to be found in the pocket-pouch of a Martian warrior my hand fell upon the emblazoned radium flash torch of the black dator

As I was about to lay the thing aside as of no value in e characters roughly and freshly scratched upon the soft gold of the case

Casual curiosity prompted me to decipher the to my mind There were three sets of characters, one below another: 3 |--| 50 T 1 |--| 1 X 9 |--| 25 T

For only an instant my curiosity was piqued, and then I replaced the torch in ers had not unclasped from it when there rushed to my memory the recollection of the conversation between Lakor and his companion when the lesser thern had quoted the words of Thurid and scoffed at theht? Let the light shi+ne with the intensity of three radium units for fifty tals”--ah, there was the first line of characters upon the torch's metal case--3--50 T; ”and for one xat let it shi+ne with the intensity of one radium unit”--there was the second line; ”and then for twenty-five tals with nine units”

The forht I knew, and, seizing a powerful lass from the litter of my pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a careful examination of the marble immediately about the pinhole in the door I could have cried aloud in exultation when my scrutiny disclosed the almost invisible incrustation of particles of carbonized electrons which are thrown off by these Martian torches

It was evident that for countless ages radium torches had been applied to this pinhole, and for what purpose there could be but a single answer--the ht rays; and I, John Carter, Prince of Helium, held the combination in my hand--scratched by the hand of my enemy upon his own torch case

In a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomian chronometer--a delicate instrument that records the tals and xats and zodes of Martian ti crystalmy operations carefully, I held the torch to the sht by means of the thumb-lever upon the side of the case

For fifty tals I let three units of light shi+ne full in the pinhole, then one unit for one xat, and for twenty-five tals nine units Those last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-five seconds of ly interminable intervals of time?