January 2, 2026 • 12 mins
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three Treachery. The day following the coming of vas
Kor to the palace of the Prince of Helium, great
excitement reigned throughout the Twin Cities, reaching its climax in
the palace of Carthoris. Word had come of the abduction
of Thuvia of Ptarth from her father's court, and with
(00:22):
it the veiled hint that the Prince of Helium might
be suspected of considerable knowledge of the act and the
whereabouts of the princess. In the council chamber of John Carter,
war Lord of Mars, was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium,
Moore's Kajak, his son jed of Lesser Helium, Carthoris, and
(00:44):
a score of the great nobles of the Empire. There
must be no war between Ptarth and Helium. My son
said John Carter, that you are innocent of the charge
that has been placed against you by insinuation. We well know,
but uvon Din must know it well too. There is
but one who may convince him, and that one be you.
(01:08):
You must hasten at once to the court of Ptarth,
and by your presence there as well as by your words,
assure him that his suspicions are groundless. Bear with you
the authority of the Warlord of Barsoom and of the
Jeddak of Helium, to offer every resource of the allied
powers to assist thuvan Din to recover his daughter and
(01:30):
punish her abductors, whomsoever they may be. Go. I know
that I do not need to urge upon you the
necessity for haste. Carthoris left the council chamber and hastened
to his palace. Here slaves were busy in a moment
setting things to rights for the departure of their master.
(01:52):
Several worked about the swift flier that would bear the
Prince of Helium rapidly toward Ptarth. At last all was done,
but two armed slaves remained on guard. The setting sun
hung low above the horizon. In a moment darkness would
envelop all. One of the guardsmen, a giant of a
(02:15):
fellow across whose right cheek there ran a thin scar
from temple to mouth, approached his companion. His gaze was
directed beyond and above his comrade. When he had come
quite close, he spoke, what strange craft is that? He asked?
The other turned about quickly to gaze heavenward. Scarce was
(02:37):
his back turned toward the giant than the short sword
of the latter was plunged beneath his left shoulder, blade
straight through his heart. Voiceless, the soldier sank in his tracks,
stone dead. Quickly, the murderer dragged the corpse into the
black shadows within the hangar. Then he returned to the flier.
(02:59):
Drawing a cunningly wrought key from his pocket pouch, he
removed the cover of the right hand dial of the
controlling destination compass. For a moment, he studied the construction
of the mechanism beneath. Then he returned the dial to
its place, set the pointer, and removed it again. To
note the resultant change in the position of the parts
(03:19):
affected by the act. A smile crossed his lips. With
a pair of cutters, he snipped off the projection which
extended through the dial from the external pointer. Now the
latter might be moved to any point upon the dial
without affecting the mechanism below. In other words, the eastern
hemisphere dial was useless. Now he turned his attention to
(03:44):
the western dial. This he set upon a certain point. Afterward,
he removed the cover of this dial also, and with
keen tool, cut the steel finger from the under side
of the pointer as quickly as possible. He replaced the
second dial cover and resumed his place on guard. To
all intents and purposes, the compass was as efficient as before,
(04:08):
but as a matter of fact, the moving of the
pointers upon the dials resulted now in no corresponding shift
of the mechanism beneath, and the device was set immovably
upon a destination of the slave's own choosing. Presently came Carthoris,
accompanied by but a handful of his gentlemen. He cast
(04:30):
but a casual glance upon the single slave who stood guard.
The fellow's thin, cruel lips and the sword cut that
ran from temple to mouth aroused the suggestion of an
unpleasant memory within him. He wondered where saran Tal had
found the man. Then the matter faded from his thoughts,
(04:50):
and in another moment the Prince of Helium was laughing
and chatting with his companions, though below the surface his
heart was cold with dread. For what contingent confronted Thuvia
of Ptarth, he could not even guess. First to his mind,
naturally had sprung the thought that Astok of Dusar had
(05:11):
stolen the fair Parthian, but almost simultaneously with the report
of the abduction had come news of the great feats
at Dusar in honor of the return of the Jeddak's
son to the court of his father. It could not
have been, he thought Carthoris, for on the very night
that Thuvia was taken, Astok had been in Dusar. And
(05:32):
yet he entered the flier, exchanging casual remarks with his
companions as he unlocked the mechanism of the compass and
set the pointer upon the capital city of Ptarth. With
a word of farewell, he touched the button which controlled
the repulsive rays, and as the flier rose lightly into
the air, the engine purred in answer to the touch
(05:55):
of his finger upon a second button, the propeller's word.
As his hand drew back, the speed lever, and Carthoris,
Prince of Helium, was off into the gorgeous Martian night,
beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars. Scarce had
the flier found its speed ere the man, wrapping his
(06:15):
sleeping silks and furs about him, stretched at full length
upon the narrow deck to sleep but sleep did not
come at once at his bidding. Instead, his thoughts ran
riot in his brain, driving sleep away. He recalled the
words of Thuvia of Ptarth, words that had half assured
(06:37):
him that she loved him. For when he had asked
her if she loved Kulan Tith, she had answered only
that she was promised to him. Now he saw that
her reply was opened to more than a single construction.
It might, of course mean that she did not love
Kulan Tith, and so by inference, be taken to mean
(06:59):
that she loved another. But what assurance was there that
the other was Carthoris of Helium. The more he thought
upon it, the more positive he became. That not only
was there no assurance in her words that she loved him,
but none either in any act of hers. No, the
fact was she did not love him, She loved another.
(07:24):
She had not been abducted, She had fled willingly with
her lover. With such pleasant thoughts filling him alternately with
despair and rage, Carthoris at last dropped into the sleep
of utter mental exhaustion. The breaking of the sudden dawn
found him still asleep. His flier was rushing swiftly above
(07:47):
a barren ochre plain, the world old bottom of a
long dead Martian sea. In the distance rose low hills.
Toward these the craft was headed. As it approached them,
a great promontory might have been seen from its deck,
stretching out into what had once been a mighty ocean,
(08:09):
and circling back once more to enclose the forgotten harbor
of a forgotten city, which still stretched back from its
deserted quays, an imposing pile of wondrous architecture of a
long dead past. The countless dismal windows, vacant and forlorn,
(08:29):
stared sightless from their marble walls, the whole sad city
taking on the semblance of scattered mounds of dead men's
sun bleached skulls, the casements having the appearance of eyeless sockets,
the portals grinning jaws. Closer came the flier, but now
(08:52):
its speed was diminishing. Yet this was not ptarth. Above
the central plot, it stopped, slowly, settling marsward, within a
hundred yards of the ground. It came to rest, floating
gently in the light air, and at the same instant
an alarm sounded at the sleeper's ear Carthoris sprang to
(09:16):
his feet. Below him, he looked to see the teeming
metropolis of Ptarth beside him. Already there should have been
an air patrol. He gazed about in bewildered astonishment. There
was indeed a great city, but it was not Ptarth.
No multitude surged through its broad avenues. No signs of
(09:40):
life broke the dead monotony of its deserted roof tops.
No gorgeous silks, no priceless firs lent life and color
to the cold marble and the gleaming air sight. No
patrol boat lay ready with its familiar challenge. Silent and empty,
lay the great city, empty and silent the surrounding air.
(10:04):
What had happened? Carthoris examined the dial of his compass.
The pointer was set upon Ptarth. Could the creature of
his genius have thus betrayed him? He would not believe it.
Quickly he unlocked the cover, turning it back upon its hinge.
(10:24):
A single glance showed him the truth, or at least
a part of it. The steel projection that communicated the
movement of the pointer upon the dial to the heart
of the mechanism beneath had been severed. Who could have
done the thing and why? Carthoris could not hazard even
a faint guess. But the thing now was to learn
(10:48):
in what portion of the world he was, and then
take up his interrupted journey once more. If it had
been the purpose of some enemy to delay him, he
had succeeded well, thought Carthoris, as he unlocked the cover
of the second dial, the first having shown that its
pointer had not been set at all. Beneath the second
(11:09):
dial he found the steel pin severed as in the other,
but the controlling mechanism had first been set for a
point upon the western hemisphere. He had just time to
judge his location roughly at some place southwest of Helium
and at a considerable distance from the Twin Cities, when
(11:29):
he was startled by a woman's scream beneath him. Leaning
over the side of the flier, he saw what appeared
to be a red woman being dragged across the plaza
by a huge green warrior, one of those fierce, cruel
denizens of the dead sea bottoms and deserted cities of
dying Mars. Carthoris waited to see no more. Reaching for
(11:54):
the control board, he sent his craft racing plummet like
toward the ground. The green Man was hurrying his captive
toward a huge thoat that browsed upon the ochre vegetation
of the once scarlet, gorgeous plaza. At the same instant,
a dozen Red warriors leaped from the entrance of a
nearby ersite palace, pursuing the abductor with naked swords and
(12:17):
shouts of rageful warning. Once the woman turned her face
upward toward the falling flier, and in the single swift
glance Carthoris saw that it was Thuvia of Ptarth. End
of Chapter three
Chapter three Treachery. The day following the coming of vas
Kor to the palace of the Prince of Helium, great
excitement reigned throughout the Twin Cities, reaching its climax in
the palace of Carthoris. Word had come of the abduction
of Thuvia of Ptarth from her father's court, and with
(00:22):
it the veiled hint that the Prince of Helium might
be suspected of considerable knowledge of the act and the
whereabouts of the princess. In the council chamber of John Carter,
war Lord of Mars, was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium,
Moore's Kajak, his son jed of Lesser Helium, Carthoris, and
(00:44):
a score of the great nobles of the Empire. There
must be no war between Ptarth and Helium. My son
said John Carter, that you are innocent of the charge
that has been placed against you by insinuation. We well know,
but uvon Din must know it well too. There is
but one who may convince him, and that one be you.
(01:08):
You must hasten at once to the court of Ptarth,
and by your presence there as well as by your words,
assure him that his suspicions are groundless. Bear with you
the authority of the Warlord of Barsoom and of the
Jeddak of Helium, to offer every resource of the allied
powers to assist thuvan Din to recover his daughter and
(01:30):
punish her abductors, whomsoever they may be. Go. I know
that I do not need to urge upon you the
necessity for haste. Carthoris left the council chamber and hastened
to his palace. Here slaves were busy in a moment
setting things to rights for the departure of their master.
(01:52):
Several worked about the swift flier that would bear the
Prince of Helium rapidly toward Ptarth. At last all was done,
but two armed slaves remained on guard. The setting sun
hung low above the horizon. In a moment darkness would
envelop all. One of the guardsmen, a giant of a
(02:15):
fellow across whose right cheek there ran a thin scar
from temple to mouth, approached his companion. His gaze was
directed beyond and above his comrade. When he had come
quite close, he spoke, what strange craft is that? He asked?
The other turned about quickly to gaze heavenward. Scarce was
(02:37):
his back turned toward the giant than the short sword
of the latter was plunged beneath his left shoulder, blade
straight through his heart. Voiceless, the soldier sank in his tracks,
stone dead. Quickly, the murderer dragged the corpse into the
black shadows within the hangar. Then he returned to the flier.
(02:59):
Drawing a cunningly wrought key from his pocket pouch, he
removed the cover of the right hand dial of the
controlling destination compass. For a moment, he studied the construction
of the mechanism beneath. Then he returned the dial to
its place, set the pointer, and removed it again. To
note the resultant change in the position of the parts
(03:19):
affected by the act. A smile crossed his lips. With
a pair of cutters, he snipped off the projection which
extended through the dial from the external pointer. Now the
latter might be moved to any point upon the dial
without affecting the mechanism below. In other words, the eastern
hemisphere dial was useless. Now he turned his attention to
(03:44):
the western dial. This he set upon a certain point. Afterward,
he removed the cover of this dial also, and with
keen tool, cut the steel finger from the under side
of the pointer as quickly as possible. He replaced the
second dial cover and resumed his place on guard. To
all intents and purposes, the compass was as efficient as before,
(04:08):
but as a matter of fact, the moving of the
pointers upon the dials resulted now in no corresponding shift
of the mechanism beneath, and the device was set immovably
upon a destination of the slave's own choosing. Presently came Carthoris,
accompanied by but a handful of his gentlemen. He cast
(04:30):
but a casual glance upon the single slave who stood guard.
The fellow's thin, cruel lips and the sword cut that
ran from temple to mouth aroused the suggestion of an
unpleasant memory within him. He wondered where saran Tal had
found the man. Then the matter faded from his thoughts,
(04:50):
and in another moment the Prince of Helium was laughing
and chatting with his companions, though below the surface his
heart was cold with dread. For what contingent confronted Thuvia
of Ptarth, he could not even guess. First to his mind,
naturally had sprung the thought that Astok of Dusar had
(05:11):
stolen the fair Parthian, but almost simultaneously with the report
of the abduction had come news of the great feats
at Dusar in honor of the return of the Jeddak's
son to the court of his father. It could not
have been, he thought Carthoris, for on the very night
that Thuvia was taken, Astok had been in Dusar. And
(05:32):
yet he entered the flier, exchanging casual remarks with his
companions as he unlocked the mechanism of the compass and
set the pointer upon the capital city of Ptarth. With
a word of farewell, he touched the button which controlled
the repulsive rays, and as the flier rose lightly into
the air, the engine purred in answer to the touch
(05:55):
of his finger upon a second button, the propeller's word.
As his hand drew back, the speed lever, and Carthoris,
Prince of Helium, was off into the gorgeous Martian night,
beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars. Scarce had
the flier found its speed ere the man, wrapping his
(06:15):
sleeping silks and furs about him, stretched at full length
upon the narrow deck to sleep but sleep did not
come at once at his bidding. Instead, his thoughts ran
riot in his brain, driving sleep away. He recalled the
words of Thuvia of Ptarth, words that had half assured
(06:37):
him that she loved him. For when he had asked
her if she loved Kulan Tith, she had answered only
that she was promised to him. Now he saw that
her reply was opened to more than a single construction.
It might, of course mean that she did not love
Kulan Tith, and so by inference, be taken to mean
(06:59):
that she loved another. But what assurance was there that
the other was Carthoris of Helium. The more he thought
upon it, the more positive he became. That not only
was there no assurance in her words that she loved him,
but none either in any act of hers. No, the
fact was she did not love him, She loved another.
(07:24):
She had not been abducted, She had fled willingly with
her lover. With such pleasant thoughts filling him alternately with
despair and rage, Carthoris at last dropped into the sleep
of utter mental exhaustion. The breaking of the sudden dawn
found him still asleep. His flier was rushing swiftly above
(07:47):
a barren ochre plain, the world old bottom of a
long dead Martian sea. In the distance rose low hills.
Toward these the craft was headed. As it approached them,
a great promontory might have been seen from its deck,
stretching out into what had once been a mighty ocean,
(08:09):
and circling back once more to enclose the forgotten harbor
of a forgotten city, which still stretched back from its
deserted quays, an imposing pile of wondrous architecture of a
long dead past. The countless dismal windows, vacant and forlorn,
(08:29):
stared sightless from their marble walls, the whole sad city
taking on the semblance of scattered mounds of dead men's
sun bleached skulls, the casements having the appearance of eyeless sockets,
the portals grinning jaws. Closer came the flier, but now
(08:52):
its speed was diminishing. Yet this was not ptarth. Above
the central plot, it stopped, slowly, settling marsward, within a
hundred yards of the ground. It came to rest, floating
gently in the light air, and at the same instant
an alarm sounded at the sleeper's ear Carthoris sprang to
(09:16):
his feet. Below him, he looked to see the teeming
metropolis of Ptarth beside him. Already there should have been
an air patrol. He gazed about in bewildered astonishment. There
was indeed a great city, but it was not Ptarth.
No multitude surged through its broad avenues. No signs of
(09:40):
life broke the dead monotony of its deserted roof tops.
No gorgeous silks, no priceless firs lent life and color
to the cold marble and the gleaming air sight. No
patrol boat lay ready with its familiar challenge. Silent and empty,
lay the great city, empty and silent the surrounding air.
(10:04):
What had happened? Carthoris examined the dial of his compass.
The pointer was set upon Ptarth. Could the creature of
his genius have thus betrayed him? He would not believe it.
Quickly he unlocked the cover, turning it back upon its hinge.
(10:24):
A single glance showed him the truth, or at least
a part of it. The steel projection that communicated the
movement of the pointer upon the dial to the heart
of the mechanism beneath had been severed. Who could have
done the thing and why? Carthoris could not hazard even
a faint guess. But the thing now was to learn
(10:48):
in what portion of the world he was, and then
take up his interrupted journey once more. If it had
been the purpose of some enemy to delay him, he
had succeeded well, thought Carthoris, as he unlocked the cover
of the second dial, the first having shown that its
pointer had not been set at all. Beneath the second
(11:09):
dial he found the steel pin severed as in the other,
but the controlling mechanism had first been set for a
point upon the western hemisphere. He had just time to
judge his location roughly at some place southwest of Helium
and at a considerable distance from the Twin Cities, when
(11:29):
he was startled by a woman's scream beneath him. Leaning
over the side of the flier, he saw what appeared
to be a red woman being dragged across the plaza
by a huge green warrior, one of those fierce, cruel
denizens of the dead sea bottoms and deserted cities of
dying Mars. Carthoris waited to see no more. Reaching for
(11:54):
the control board, he sent his craft racing plummet like
toward the ground. The green Man was hurrying his captive
toward a huge thoat that browsed upon the ochre vegetation
of the once scarlet, gorgeous plaza. At the same instant,
a dozen Red warriors leaped from the entrance of a
nearby ersite palace, pursuing the abductor with naked swords and
(12:17):
shouts of rageful warning. Once the woman turned her face
upward toward the falling flier, and in the single swift
glance Carthoris saw that it was Thuvia of Ptarth. End
of Chapter three
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