How helpless we all were, our helplessness all the more accentuated by the psychological effect of this mysterious and uncanny attack.
My earthly muscles quickly brought me to Zanda's side. As I reached out to seize her and stop her progress toward the castle door, something seized one of my ankles; and I went down. I felt hands upon me-many hands. My sword was torn from my grasp; my other weapons were snatched away.
I fought, perhaps never as I have fought before. I felt the bodies of my antagonists pressing against me. I felt their hands as they touched me and their fists as they struck me; but I saw no one, yet my own blows landed upon solid flesh. That was something. It gave me a little greater sense of equality than before; but I could not understand why, if I felt these creatures, I could not see them.
At least, however, it partially explained the strange actions of Zanda. Her seeming convulsions had been her struggles against these unseen assailants. Now they were carrying her toward the doorway; and as I battled futilely against great odds, I saw her disappear within the castle.
Then the things, whatever they were that assailed me, overpowered me by numbers.
I knew that there were very many of them, because there were so many, many hands upon me.
They bound my wrists behind my back and jerked me roughly to my feet.
I cannot accurately describe my sensations; the unreality of all that had occurred in those few moments left me dazed and uncertain. For at least once in my life, I seemed wholly deprived of the power to reason, possibly because the emergency was so utterly foreign to anything that I had ever before experienced.
Not even the phantom bowmen of Lothar could have presented so unique a situation, for these were visible when they attacked.
As I was jerked to my feet, I glanced about for Jat Or and saw him near me, his hands similarly trussed behind his back.
Now I felt myself being pushed toward the doorway through which Zanda had disappeared, and near me was Jat Or moving in the same direction.
"Can you see anyone, my prince?" he asked.
"I can see you," I replied.
"What diabolical force is this that has seized us?" he demanded.
"I don't know," I replied, "but I feel hands upon me and the warmth of bodies around me."
"I guess we are done for, my prince," he said.
"Done for?" I exclaimed. "We still live."
"No, I do not mean that," he said; "I mean that as far as ever returning to Barsoom is concerned, we might as well give up all hope. They have our ship. Do you think that even if we escape them, we shall ever see it again, or at least be able to repossess it? No, my friend, as far as Barsoom is concerned we are as good as dead."
The ship! In the excitement of what I had just passed through I had momentarily forgotten the ship. I glanced toward it. I thought that I saw the rope ladder move as though to the weight of an unseen body ascending it.
The ship! It was our only hope of ever again returning to Barsoom, and it was in the hands of this mysterious unseen foe. It must be saved.
There was a way! I centered my thoughts upon the mechanical brain-I directed it to rise and wait above the castle, out of harm's way, until I gave it further commands.
Then the invisible menace dragged me through the doorway into the interior of the castle. I could not know if the brain had responded to my directions.
Was I never to know?
CHAPTER XVII. THE CAT-MAN
My thoughts were still centered upon the brain in the nose of Fal Sivas's ship as I was being conducted through a wide corridor in the castle. I was depressed by the fear that I might not have been able to impart my controlling directions to it at so great a distance or while my brain was laboring under the stress and excitement of the moment. The ship meant so much to us all, and was so necessary to the rescue of Dejah Thoris, that the thought of losing it was a stunning blow; yet presently I realized that worrying about it would do no good, and so I expelled these subversive thoughts from my mind.
Raising my eyes, I saw Jat Or moving along the corridor near me. As he caught my eyes upon him, he shook his head and smiled ruefully.
"It looks as though our adventure on Thuria might be short-lived," he said.
I nodded. "The future doesn't look any too bright," I admitted. "I have never been in such a situation before, where I could neither see my enemy nor communicate with him."
"Nor hear him," added Jat Or. "Except for the feel of hands on my arms and the knowledge that some force is dragging me along this corridor, I am not conscious of the presence of any but ourselves here. The mystery of it leaves me with a sense of utter futility."
"But eventually we must find someone whom we can see and against whom we can pit our own brains and fighting ability on a more equable basis, for this castle and what we see about us indicate the presence of creatures not unlike ourselves. Notice, for instance, the benches and divans along the walls of this corridor.
"They must have been intended for creatures like ourselves. The beautiful mosaics that decorate the walls, the gorgeous rugs and skins upon the floor-these things are here to satisfy a love of beauty that is a peculiar attribute of the human mind, nor could they have been conceived or produced except by human hands under the guidance of human brains."
"Your deductions are faultless," replied Jat Or, "but where are the people?"
"There lies the mystery," I replied. "I can well believe that our future depends upon its solution."
"While I am concerned with all these questions," said Jat Or presently, "I am more concerned with the fate of Zanda. I wonder what they have done with her."
That, of course, I could not answer, although the fact that she had been separated from us caused me no little concern.
At the end of the corridor, we were conducted up a wide and ornate staircase to the next level of the castle; and presently we were led into a large room-a vast chamber in which we saw at the far end a single, lonely figure.
It was Zanda. She was standing before a dais upon which were two large ornate throne chairs.
The room was gorgeous, almost barbaric in its decoration. Gold and precious stones encrusted floor and walls. They had been fabricated into an amazing design by some master artist who had had at his disposal rare gems such as I had never seen either upon earth or upon Barsoom.
The invisible force that propelled us conducted us to Zanda's side; and there the three of us stood, facing the dais and the empty throne chairs.
But I wondered if they were empty. I had that same strange feeling that I had noticed in the courtyard, of being surrounded by a multitude of people, of having many eyes fixed upon me; yet I saw none and I heard no sound.
We stood there before the dais for several minutes, and then we were dragged away and conducted from the room. Along another corridor we were taken, a narrower corridor, and up a winding stairway which Jat Or had some little difficulty in negotiating. Such contrivances were new to him, as stairways are not used on Mars, where inclined ramps lead from one level of a building to another.
I had once tried to introduce stairways in my palace in Helium; but so many of my household and my friends came near breaking their necks on them, that I eventually replaced them with ramps.
After ascending several levels, Zanda was separated from us and taken along a diverging corridor; and, at another level above, Jat Or was dragged away from me.
None of us had spoken since we had entered the great throne room, and I think that now that we were being separated words seemed wholly inadequate in the hopelessness of our situation.
Now I was quite alone; but yet up and up I climbed, guided by those invisible hands upon my arms. Where were they taking me? To what fate had they taken my companions? Somewhere in this great castle was the princess whom I had crossed the void to find, yet never had she seemed farther away from me than at this minute; never had our separation seemed so utterly complete and final.