Thuvia Maid of Mars | Page 8

or down, as
the oncoming vessel is upon a lower or higher plane than herself.
"In aggravated cases, that is when the obstructions are many, or of such a nature as to
deflect the bow more than forty-five degrees in any direction, or when the craft has
reached its destination and dropped to within a hundred yards of the ground, the
mechanism brings her to a full stop, at the same time sounding a loud alarm which will
instantly awaken the pilot. You see I have anticipated almost every contingency."
Thuvan Dihn smiled his appreciation of the marvellous device. The forward servant
pushed almost to the flier's side. His eyes were narrowed to slits.
"All but one," he said.
The nobles looked at him in astonishment, and one of them grasped the fellow none too
gently by the shoulder to push him back to his proper place. Carthoris raised his hand.
"Wait," he urged. "Let us hear what the man has to say--no creation of mortal mind is
perfect. Perchance he has detected a weakness that it will be well to know at once. Come,
my good fellow, and what may be the one contingency I have overlooked?"
As he spoke Carthoris observed the servant closely for the first time. He saw a man of
giant stature and handsome, as are all those of the race of Martian red men; but the
fellow's lips were thin and cruel, and across one cheek was the faint, white line of a
sword-cut from the right temple to the corner of the mouth.

"Come," urged the Prince of Helium. "Speak!"
The man hesitated. It was evident that he regretted the temerity that had made him the
centre of interested observation. But at last, seeing no alternative, he spoke.
"It might be tampered with," he said, "by an enemy."
Carthoris drew a small key from his leathern pocket-pouch.
"Look at this," he said, handing it to the man. "If you know aught of locks, you will know
that the mechanism which this unlooses is beyond the cunning of a picker of locks. It
guards the vitals of the instrument from crafty tampering. Without it an enemy must half
wreck the device to reach its heart, leaving his handiwork apparent to the most casual
observer."
The servant took the key, glanced at it shrewdly, and then as he made to return it to
Carthoris dropped it upon the marble flagging. Turning to look for it he planted the sole
of his sandal full upon the glittering object. For an instant he bore all his weight upon the
foot that covered the key, then he stepped back and with an exclamation as of pleasure
that he had found it, stooped, recovered it, and returned it to the Heliumite. Then he
dropped back to his station behind the nobles and was forgotten.
A moment later Carthoris had made his adieux to Thuvan Dihn and his nobles, and with
lights twinkling had risen into the star-shot void of the Martian night.

CHAPTER II
SLAVERY

As the ruler of Ptarth, followed by his courtiers, descended from the landing-stage above
the palace, the servants dropped into their places in the rear of their royal or noble
masters, and behind the others one lingered to the last. Then quickly stooping he snatched
the sandal from his right foot, slipping it into his pocket-pouch.
When the party had come to the lower levels, and the jeddak had dispersed them by a
sign, none noticed that the forward fellow who had drawn so much attention to himself
before the Prince of Helium departed, was no longer among the other servants.
To whose retinue he had been attached none had thought to inquire, for the followers of a
Martian noble are many, coming and going at the whim of their master, so that a new
face is scarcely ever questioned, as the fact that a man has passed within the palace walls
is considered proof positive that his loyalty to the jeddak is beyond question, so rigid is
the examination of each who seeks service with the nobles of the court.

A good rule that, and only relaxed by courtesy in favour of the retinue of visiting royalty
from a friendly foreign power.
It was late in the morning of the next day that a giant serving man in the harness of the
house of a great Ptarth noble passed out into the city from the palace gates. Along one
broad avenue and then another he strode briskly until he had passed beyond the district of
the nobles and had come to the place of shops. Here he sought a pretentious building that
rose spire-like toward the heavens, its outer walls elaborately wrought with delicate
carvings and intricate mosaics.
It was the Palace of