"11 - John Carter of Mars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burroughs Edgar Rice)

that Dejah Thoris might be in danger.
And where was Tars Tarkas? Pew Mogel must have captured him, too. Carter
suddenly sprang to his feet.
One of the ersite slabs at his back had moved! He waited. Nothing came out.
Cautiously, he approached the rock and shoved it with his foot. The slab moved
slightly inward. Now Carter shoved the stone with all his tremendous strength.
Inch by inch he moved it until finally there was enough room for him to squeeze
his body through.
He was still in utter darkness, but his groping fingers revealed to him that he
was in a corridor between two walls. Perhaps this was the way out of his prison!
Carefully he shoved the stone back into position, leaving no trace of his
disappearance from the room. The corridor in which he found himself was so low
that he was forced to crawl on hands and knees. The low corridor had the stench
of age, as if it had been unused for a long time.
Gradually the tunnel sloped more and more downward. Many little side-passages
branched off from the main tunnel. There was no light, no noise. Only a faint,
pungent odor beginning to fill the air.
Now it was growing lighter. The earthman realized that he must be in the
subterranean caverns of the palace. The dim light was caused by the
phosphorescent radium glow that is used on all Mars for radiation.
The source of this faint light the earthman suddenly discovered. It was shining
through a cleft in the wall ahead. Pushing aside another loose stone, John
Carter crawled forth into a chamber. He drew in his breath sharply.
Facing him was a warrior with drawn sword, the point of which was almost
touching the breast of the earthman!
John Carter leaped back with the speed of lightning, whipped out his own sword
and struck at the other's weapon.
The arm of the red man fell from his body to the floor where it dissolved into
dust. The ancient sword clattered on the cobblestones.
Carter could see now that the warrior had been leaning against the wall,
balanced there precariously for ages, his sword arm extending in front of him
just a it had stiffened long ago in death. The loss of the arm overbalanced the
torso which toppled to the floor and there dissolved into a heap of ash-like
dust!
In an adjoining chamber there were a score of women, beautiful girls, chained
together by collars of gold around their necks. They sat at a table where they
had been eating, and the food was still before them. They had been the
prisoners, the slaves of the rulers of the long-dead city. The dry, motionless
air combined with some gaseous secretion from the walls and dungeons had
preserved their beauty through the ages.
The earthman had traversed some little distance down a musty corridor when he
became aware of something scraping behind him. Whirling into a side corridor he
looked back. Gleaming eyes were coming toward him. They followed him as he
backed into the tunnel.
Now again came the scraping, repeated this time farther ahead in the tunnel.
Other eyes shone ahead of him.
John Carter ran forward, his sword-point extended. The eyes ahead retreated, but
those in back of him started to close in.
It was very dark now, but far ahead the earthman could see a faint gleam of
light filtering into the tunnel.