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Page 44
She looked at me really horror struck.
"No, no," she cried, "you must not say such terribly sacrilegious
things--you must not even think them. Should they ever guess that
you entertained such frightful thoughts, should we chance to regain
the temples of the therns, they would mete out a frightful death
to you. Not even my--my--" Again she flushed, and started over.
"Not even I could save you."
I said no more. Evidently it was useless. She was even more
steeped in superstition than the Martians of the outer world. They
only worshipped a beautiful hope for a life of love and peace and
happiness in the hereafter. The therns worshipped the hideous plant
men and the apes, or at least they reverenced them as the abodes
of the departed spirits of their own dead.
At this point the door of our prison opened to admit Xodar.
He smiled pleasantly at me, and when he smiled his expression was
kindly--anything but cruel or vindictive.
"Since you cannot escape under any circumstances," he said, "I
cannot see the necessity for keeping you confined below. I will
cut your bonds and you may come on deck. You will witness something
very interesting, and as you never shall return to the outer world
it will do no harm to permit you to see it. You will see what
no other than the First Born and their slaves know the existence
of--the subterranean entrance to the Holy Land, to the real heaven
of Barsoom.
"It will be an excellent lesson for this daughter of the therns,"
he added, "for she shall see the Temple of Issus, and Issus,
perchance, shall embrace her."
Phaidor's head went high.
"What blasphemy is this, dog of a pirate?" she cried. "Issus would
wipe out your entire breed an' you ever came within sight of her
temple."
"You have much to learn, thern," replied Xodar, with an ugly smile,
"nor do I envy you the manner in which you will learn it."
As we came on deck I saw to my surprise that the vessel was passing
over a great field of snow and ice. As far as the eye could reach
in any direction naught else was visible.
There could be but one solution to the mystery. We were above the
south polar ice cap. Only at the poles of Mars is there ice or
snow upon the planet. No sign of life appeared below us. Evidently
we were too far south even for the great fur-bearing animals which
the Martians so delight in hunting.
Xodar was at my side as I stood looking out over the ship's rail.
"What course?" I asked him.
"A little west of south," he replied. "You will see the Otz Valley
directly. We shall skirt it for a few hundred miles."
"The Otz Valley!" I exclaimed; "but, man, is not there where lie
the domains of the therns from which I but just escaped?"
"Yes," answered Xodar. "You crossed this ice field last night in
the long chase that you led us. The Otz Valley lies in a mighty
depression at the south pole. It is sunk thousands of feet below
the level of the surrounding country, like a great round bowl. A
hundred miles from its northern boundary rise the Otz Mountains
which circle the inner Valley of Dor, in the exact centre of which
lies the Lost Sea of Korus. On the shore of this sea stands the
Golden Temple of Issus in the Land of the First Born. It is there
that we are bound."
As I looked I commenced to realize why it was that in all the ages
only one had escaped from the Valley Dor. My only wonder was that
even the one had been successful. To cross this frozen, wind-swept
waste of bleak ice alone and on foot would be impossible.
"Only by air boat could the journey be made," I finished aloud.
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