The Chessmen of Mars | Page 7

five oceans of old Barsoom. As the ocean receded Gathol
crept down the sides of the mountain, the summit of which was the island upon which she
had been built, until today she covers the slopes from summit to base, while the bowels of
the great hill are honeycombed with the galleries of her mines. Entirely surrounding us is
a great salt marsh, which protects us from invasion by land, while the rugged and
ofttimes vertical topography of our mountain renders the landing of hostile airships a
precarious undertaking."
"That, and your brave warriors?" suggested the girl.
Gahan smiled. "We do not speak of that except to enemies," he said, "and then with
tongues of steel rather than of flesh."
"But what practice in the art of war has a people which nature has thus protected from
attack?" asked Tara of Helium, who had liked the young jed's answer to her previous
question, but yet in whose mind persisted a vague conviction of the possible effeminacy
of her companion, induced, doubtless, by the magnificence of his trappings and weapons
which carried a suggestion of splendid show rather than grim utility.
"Our natural barriers, while they have doubtless saved us from defeat on countless
occasions, have not by any means rendered us immune from attack," he explained, "for
so great is the wealth of Gathol's diamond treasury that there yet may be found those who
will risk almost certain defeat in an effort to loot our unconquered city; so thus we find
occasional practice in the exercise of arms; but there is more to Gathol than the mountain
city. My country extends from Polodona (Equator) north ten karads and from the tenth
karad west of Horz to the twentieth west, including thus a million square haads, the
greater proportion of which is fine grazing land where run our great herds of thoats and
zitidars.
"Surrounded as we are by predatory enemies our herdsmen must indeed be warriors or
we should have no herds, and you may be assured they get plenty of fighting. Then there

is our constant need of workers in the mines. The Gatholians consider themselves a race
of warriors and as such prefer not to labor in the mines. The law is, however, that each
male Gatholian shall give an hour a day in labor to the government. That is practically the
only tax that is levied upon them. They prefer however, to furnish a substitute to perform
this labor, and as our own people will not hire out for labor in the mines it has been
necessary to obtain slaves, and I do not need to tell you that slaves are not won without
fighting. We sell these slaves in the public market, the proceeds going, half and half, to
the government and the warriors who bring them in. The purchasers are credited with the
amount of labor performed by their particular slaves. At the end of a year a good slave
will have performed the labor tax of his master for six years, and if slaves are plentiful he
is freed and permitted to return to his own people."
"You fight in platinum and diamonds?" asked Tara, indicating his gorgeous trappings
with a quizzical smile.
Gahan laughed. "We are a vain people," he admitted, good-naturedly, "and it is possible
that we place too much value on personal appearances. We vie with one another in the
splendor of our accoutrements when trapped for the observance of the lighter duties of
life, though when we take the field our leather is the plainest I ever have seen worn by
fighting men of Barsoom. We pride ourselves, too, upon our physical beauty, and
especially upon the beauty of our women. May I dare to say, Tara of Helium, that I am
hoping for the day when you will visit Gathol that my people may see one who is really
beautiful?"
"The women of Helium are taught to frown with displeasure upon the tongue of the
flatterer," rejoined the girl, but Gahan, Jed of Gathol, observed that she smiled as she said
it.
A bugle sounded, clear and sweet, above the laughter and the talk. "The Dance of
Barsoom!" exclaimed the young warrior. "I claim you for it, Tara of Helium."
The girl glanced in the direction of the bench where she had last seen Djor Kantos. He
was not in sight. She inclined her head in assent to the claim of the Gatholian. Slaves
were passing among the guests, distributing small musical instruments of a single string.
Upon each instrument were characters which indicated the pitch and length of its tone.
The instruments were of skeel, the string of gut, and were shaped to fit the left forearm of
the dancer, to which it was strapped. There was also a