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Page 29
The declining sun lighted brilliantly the eastern banks of Korus,
the crimson sward, the gorgeous forest. Beneath the trees we saw
feeding many herds of plant men. The adults stood aloft upon their
toes and their mighty tails, their talons pruning every 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.
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