"I know that she is not dead," I replied. "She is mated with one of my most trusted officers and is safe in Helium."
Jad-han was overcome with happiness when he learned that his sister still lived.
"Now," he said, "if I could escape from here and return to Amhor to avenge my father, I would die happy."
"Your father has been avenged," I told him. "Jal Had is dead."
"I am sorry that it was not given to me to kill him," said Jad-han.
"You have been here a year," I said, "and you must know something of the customs of the people. Can you tell us what fate may lie in store for us?"
"There are several possibilities," he replied. "You may be worked as slaves, in which event you will be treated badly, but may be permitted to live for years; or you may be saved solely for the games which are held in a great stadium. There you will fight with men or beasts for the edification of the First Born. On the other hand, you may be summarily executed at any moment. All depends upon the mental vagaries of Doxus, Jeddak of The First Born, who I think is a little mad."
"If the silly examination they gave us is any criterion," said Llana, "they are all mad."
"Don't be too sure of that," Jad-han advised. "If you realized the purpose of that examination, you would understand that it was never devised by any unsound mind. Did you see the dead men as you entered the valley?"
"Yes, but what have they to do with the examination?"
"They took that same examination; that is why they lie dead out there."
"I do not understand," I said. "Please explain."
"The machines to which you were connected recorded hundreds of your reflexes; and automatically recorded your own individual nerve index, which is unlike that of any other creature in the world.
"The master machine, which you did not see and never will, generates short wave vibrations which can be keyed exactly to your individual nerve index. When that is done you have such a severe paralytic stroke that you die almost instantly."
"But why all that just to destroy a few slaves?" demanded Pan Dan Chee.
"It is not for that alone," explained Jad-han. "Perhaps that was one of the initial purposes to prevent prisoners from escaping and spreading word of this beautiful valley on a dying planet. You can imagine that almost any country would wish to possess it. But it has another purpose; it keeps Doxus supreme.
"Every adult in the valley has had his nerve index recorded, and is at the mercy of his jeddak. You don't have to leave the valley to be exterminated. An enemy of the jeddak might be sitting in his own home some day, when the thing would find him out and destroy him. Doxus is the only adult in Kamtol whose index has not been recorded; and he and one other man, Myr-lo, are the only ones who know exactly where the master machine is located, or how to operate it. It is said to be very delicate and that it can be irreparably damaged in an instant-and can never be replaced."
"Why couldn't it be replaced?" asked Llana.
"The inventor of it is dead," replied Jad-han. "It is said that he hated Doxus because of the purpose to which the jeddak had put his invention and that Doxus had him assassinated through fear of him. Myr-lo, who succeeded him, has not the genius to design another such machine."
Chapter 6
That night, after Llana had fallen asleep, Jad-han, Pan Dan Chee, and I were conversing in whispers; so as not to disturb her.
"It is too bad," said Jad-han, who had been looking at the sleeping girl; "it is too bad that she is so beautiful."
"What do you mean?" asked Pan Dan Chee.
"This afternoon you asked me what your fate might be; and I told you what the possibilities might be, but those were the possibilities for you two men. For the girl-" He looked sorrowfully at Llana and shook his head; he did not need to say more.
The next day a number of the First Born came down into our cell to examine us, as one might examine cattle that one purposed buying. Among them was one of the jeddak's officers, upon whom devolved the duty of selling prisoners into slavery for the highest amounts he could obtain.
One of the nobles immediately took a fancy to Llana and made an offer for her.
They haggled over the price for some time, but in the end the noble got her.
Pan Dan Chee and I were grief-stricken as they led Llana of Gathol away, for we knew that we should never see her again. Although her father is Jed of Gathol, in her veins flows the blood of Helium; and the women of Helium know how to act when an unkind Providence reserves for them the fate for which we knew Llana of Gathol was intended.
"Oh! to be chained to a wall and without a sword when a thing like this happens," exclaimed Pan Dan Chee.
"I know how you feel," I said; "but we are not dead yet, Pan Dan Chee; and our chance may come yet."
"If it does, we will make them pay," he said.
Two nobles were bidding for me, and at last I was knocked down to a dator named Xaxak. My fetters were removed, and the jeddak's agent warned me to be a good and docile slave.
Xaxak had a couple of warriors with him, and they walked on either side of me as we left the pits. I was the object of considerable curiosity, as we made our way toward Xaxak's palace, which stood near that of the jeddak. My white skin and gray eyes always arouse comment in cities where I am not known. Of course, I am bronzed by exposure to the sun, but even so my skin is not the copper red of the red men of Barsoom.
Before I was to be taken to the slaves' quarters of the palace, Xaxak questioned me. "What is your name?" he asked.
"Dotar Sojat," I replied. It is the name given me by the green Martians who captured me when I first came to Mars, being the names of the first two green Martians I had killed in duels; and is in the nature of an honorable title. A man with one name, an o-mad, is not considered very highly. I was always glad that they stopped with two names, for had I had to assume the name of every green Martian warrior I had killed in a duel it would have taken an hour to pronounce them all.
"Did you say dator?" asked Xaxak. "Don't tell me that you are a prince!"
"I said Dotar," I replied. I hadn't given my real name; because I had reason to believe that it was well known to the First Born, who had good reason to hate me for what I had done to them in the Valley Dor.
"Where are you from?" he asked.
"I have no country," I said; "I am a panthan."
As these soldiers of fortune have no fixed abode, wandering about from city to city offering their services and their swords to whoever will employ them, they are the only men who can go with impunity into almost any Martian city.
"Oh, a panthan," he said. "I suppose you think you are pretty good with a sword."
"I have met worse," I replied.
"If I thought you were any good, I would enter you in the Lesser Games," he said; "but you cost me a lot of money, and I'd hate to take the chance of your being killed."
"I don't think you need worry about that," I told him.
"You are pretty sure of yourself," he said. "Well, let's see what you can do. Take him out into the garden," he directed the two warriors. Xaxak followed us out to an open patch of sand.
"Give him your sword," he said to one of the warriors; and, to the other, "Engage him, Ptang; but not to the death;" then he turned to me. "It is not to the death, slave, you understand. I merely wish to see how good you are. Either one of you may draw blood, but don't kill."
Ptang, like all the other Black Pirates of Barsoom whom I have met, was an excellent swordsman-cool, quick, and deadly. He came toward me with a faint, supercilious smile on his lips.