Break

for the open and the sea of Korus. With your mighty sword arm you

may yet win to the Golden Cliffs and the templed gardens of the

Holy Therns. There tell your story to Matai Shang, my father. He

will keep you, and together you may find a way to rescue me. Fly

while there is yet a bare chance for flight."

But that was not my mission, nor could I see much to be preferred

in the cruel hospitality of the Holy Therns to that of the First

Born.

"Down with Issus!" I shouted, and together the boy and I took

up the fight once more. Two blacks went down with our swords in

their vitals, and we stood face to face with Issus. As my sword

went up to end her horrid career her paralysis left her, and with

an ear-piercing shriek she turned to flee. Directly behind her a

black gulf suddenly yawned in the flooring of the dais. She sprang

for the opening with the youth and I close at her heels. Her

scattered guard rallied at her cry and rushed for us. A blow fell

upon the head of the youth. He staggered and would have fallen,

but I caught him in my left arm and turned to face an infuriated

mob of religious fanatics crazed by the affront I had put upon their

goddess, just as Issus disappeared into the black depths beneath

me.

CHAPTER XII

DOOMED TO DIE

For an instant I stood there before they fell upon me, but the

first rush of them forced me back a step or two. My foot felt for

the floor but found only empty space. I had backed into the pit

which had received Issus. For a second I toppled there upon the

brink. Then I too with the boy still tightly clutched in my arms

pitched backward into the black abyss.

We struck a polished chute, the opening above us closed as magically

as it had opened, and we shot down, unharmed, into a dimly lighted

apartment far below the arena.

As I rose to my feet the first thing I saw was the malignant countenance

of Issus glaring at me through the heavy bars of a grated door at

one side of the chamber.

"Rash mortal!" she shrilled. "You shall pay the awful penalty for

your blasphemy in this secret cell. Here you shall lie alone and

in darkness with the carcass of your accomplice festering in its

rottenness by your side, until crazed by loneliness and hunger you

feed upon the crawling maggots that were once a man."

That was all. In another instant she was gone, and the dim light

which had filled the cell faded into Cimmerian blackness.

"Pleasant old lady," said a voice at my side.

"Who speaks?" I asked.

"'Tis I, your companion, who has had the honour this day of fighting

shoulder to shoulder with the greatest warrior that ever wore metal

upon Barsoom."

"I thank God that you are not dead," I said. "I feared for that

nasty cut upon your head."

"It but stunned me," he replied. "A mere scratch."

"Maybe it were as well had it been final," I said. "We seem to be

in a pretty fix here with a splendid chance of dying of starvation

and thirst."

"Where are we?"

"Beneath the arena," I replied. "We tumbled down the shaft that

swallowed Issus as she was almost at our mercy."

He laughed a low laugh of pleasure and relief, and then reaching

out through the inky blackness he sought my shoulder and pulled my

ear close to his mouth.

"Nothing could be better," he whispered. "There are secrets within

the secrets of Issus of which Issus herself does not dream."

"What do you mean?"

"I laboured with the other slaves a year since in the remodelling

of these subterranean galleries, and at that time we found below

these an ancient system of corridors and chambers that had been

sealed up for ages. The blacks in charge of the work explored

them, taking several of us along to do whatever work there might

be occasion for. I know the entire system perfectly.

"There are miles of corridors honeycombing the ground beneath the

gardens and the temple itself, and there is one passage that leads

down to and connects with the lower regions that open on the water

shaft that gives passage to Omean.

"If we can reach the submarine undetected we may yet make the sea

in which there are many islands where the blacks never go. There

we may live for a time, and who knows what may transpire to aid us

to escape?"

He had spoken all in a low whisper, evidently fearing spying ears

even here, and so I answered him in the same subdued tone.

"Lead back to Shador, my friend," I whispered. "Xodar, the black,

is there. We were to attempt our escape together, so I cannot

desert him."

"No," said the boy, "one cannot desert a friend. It were better

to be recaptured ourselves than that."

Then he commenced groping his way about the floor of the dark

chamber searching for the trap that led to the corridors beneath.

At length he summoned me by a low, "S-s-t," and I crept toward the

sound of his voice to find him kneeling on the brink of an opening

in the floor.

"There is a drop here of about ten feet," he whispered.