Free The Gods Of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs Page B

available leaf and twig.
It was then that I understood the careful trimming of the trees which
had led me to form the mistaken idea when first I opened my eyes upon
the grove that it was the playground of a civilized people.
    As we watched, our eyes wandered to the rolling Iss, which issued from
the base of the cliffs beneath us. Presently there emerged from the
mountain a canoe laden with lost souls from the outer world. There
were a dozen of them. All were of the highly civilized and cultured
race of red men who are dominant on Mars.
    The eyes of the herald upon the balcony beneath us fell upon the doomed
party as soon as did ours. He raised his head and leaning far out over
the low rail that rimmed his dizzy perch, voiced the shrill, weird wail
that called the demons of this hellish place to the attack.
    For an instant the brutes stood with stiffly erected ears, then they
poured from the grove toward the river’s bank, covering the distance
with great, ungainly leaps.
    The party had landed and was standing on the sward as the awful horde
came in sight. There was a brief and futile effort of defence. Then
silence as the huge, repulsive shapes covered the bodies of their
victims and scores of sucking mouths fastened themselves to the flesh
of their prey.
    I turned away in disgust.
    “Their part is soon over,” said Thuvia. “The great white apes get the
flesh when the plant men have drained the arteries. Look, they are
coming now.”
    As I turned my eyes in the direction the girl indicated, I saw a dozen
of the great white monsters running across the valley toward the river
bank. Then the sun went down and darkness that could almost be felt
engulfed us.
    Thuvia lost no time in leading us toward the corridor which winds back
and forth up through the cliffs toward the surface thousands of feet
above the level on which we had been.
    Twice great banths, wandering loose through the galleries, blocked our
progress, but in each instance Thuvia spoke a low word of command and
the snarling beasts slunk sullenly away.
    “If you can dissolve all our obstacles as easily as you master these
fierce brutes I can see no difficulties in our way,” I said to the
girl, smiling. “How do you do it?”
    She laughed, and then shuddered.
    “I do not quite know,” she said. “When first I came here I angered
Sator Throg, because I repulsed him. He ordered me to be thrown into
one of the great pits in the inner gardens. It was filled with banths.
In my own country I had been accustomed to command. Something in my
voice, I do not know what, cowed the beasts as they sprang to attack me.
    “Instead of tearing me to pieces, as Sator Throg had desired, they
fawned at my feet. So greatly were Sator Throg and his friends amused
by the sight that they kept me to train and handle the terrible
creatures. I know them all by name. There are many of them wandering
through these lower regions. They are the scavengers. Many prisoners
die here in their chains. The banths solve the problem of sanitation,
at least in this respect.
    “In the gardens and temples above they are kept in pits. The therns
fear them. It is because of the banths that they seldom venture below
ground except as their duties call them.”
    An idea occurred to me, suggested by what Thuvia had just said.
    “Why not take a number of banths and set them loose before us above
ground?” I asked.
    Thuvia laughed.
    “It would distract attention from us, I am sure,” she said.
    She commenced calling in a low singsong voice that was half purr. She
continued this as we wound our tedious way through the maze of
subterranean passages and chambers.
    Presently soft, padded feet sounded close behind us, and as I turned I
saw a pair of great, green eyes shining in the dark shadows at our
rear. From a diverging tunnel a sinuous, tawny form crept stealthily
toward us.
    Low growls and angry snarls assailed our ears on every side as we
hastened on and one by one the ferocious creatures answered the