Life on other planets -- Fiction; Mars (Planet) -- Fiction; Science fiction
"They are coming!" he cried in a voice of terror. "They will tear me to
pieces."
"Who is coming?" I demanded.
"The people," he said. "They have forced the gates and they are coming.
Do you not hear them?"
So that was the noise that had attracted my attention--the hungry
hordes of Jahar searching out the author of their misery.
"The Jhama is outside that window," I said. "If you will come aboard
her as a prisoner of war, I will take you to the Warlord of Barsoom."
"He will kill me, too," wailed Tul Axtar.
"He should," I assured him.
He stood looking at me for a moment and I could see in his eyes and
the expression of his face the reflection of a dawning idea. His
countenance lightened. He looked almost hopeful. "I will come," he
said; "but first let me get one thing to take with me. It is in yonder
cabinet."
"Hasten," I said.
He went quickly to the cabinet, which was a tall affair reaching from
the floor almost to the ceiling, and when he opened the door it hid him
from our view.
As I waited I could hear the crash of weapons upon levels below and
the screams and shrieks and curses of men and I judged that the palace
guard was holding the mob, temporarily at least. Finally I became
impatient. "Hasten, Tul Axtar," I called, but there was no reply. Again
I called him, with the same result, and then I crossed the room to the
cabinet, but Tul Axtar was not behind the door.
The cabinet contained many drawers of different sizes, but there was
not one large enough to conceal a man, nor any through which he could
have passed to another apartment. Hastily I searched the room, but Tul
Axtar was nowhere to be found and then I chanced to glance at Sanoma
Tora. She was evidently trying to attract my attention, but she was
so terrified that she could not speak. With trembling fingers she was
pointing toward the window. I looked in that direction, but I could see
nothing.
"What is it? What are you trying to say, Sanoma Tora?" I demanded as I
rushed to her side.
"Gone!" she managed to say. "Gone!"
"Who is gone?" I demanded.
"Tul Axtar."
"Where? What do you mean?" I insisted.
"The hatch of the Jhama--I saw it open and close."
"But it cannot be possible. We have been standing here looking--" and
then a thought struck me that left me almost dazed. I turned to Sanoma
Tora. "The cloak of invisibility?" I whispered.
She nodded.
Almost in a single bound I crossed the room to the window and was
feeling for the deck of the Jhama. It was not there. The ship had gone.
Tul Axtar had taken it and Tavia was with him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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