All Story Magazine, December 1913 — page 152: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

862 There were three sets of characters, one below another : 3 |p [iaok rj—| IZ | oar For only an instant my curiosity was piqued, and then I replaced the torch in my pocket-pouch, but my fingers had not unclasped from about it when there rushed from my memory the recollec- tion of the conversation between Lakor and his companion when the lesser thern had quoted the words of Thurid and scoffed at them: “ And what think you of the ridiculous matter of the light?’ “ Let the light shine with the intensity of three radium units for - fifty tals ’"—ah, there was the first line of characters upon the torch’s metal case—3—s0 I’: “and for one zat let it shine with the intensity of one ra- dium unit ”’—there was the second line; ““and then for twenty-five tals, nine units.” The formula was complete; but— what did it mean? IT thought I knew, and, seizing a powerful magnifying-glass from the litter of my pocket-pouch, I applied myself to a careful examination of the marble immediately about the pinhole in the door. I could have cried aloud in exultation when my scrutiny disclosed the almost invisible incrustation of par- ticles of carbonized electrons which are thrown off by these Martian torches. It was evident that for countless ages radium torches had been applied to this pinhole,.and for what purpose there could be but a single answer— the mechanism of the lock was actu- ated by light-rays; and I, John Carter, Prince of Helium, held the combination in my hand—scratched by the hand of my enemy upon his own torch-case. In a cylindrical bracelet of gold about my wrist was my Barsoomian chro- nometer—a delicate instrument that records the tals and zats and zodes of Martian time, presenting them to view beneath a strong crystal much after the manner of an earthly odometer. THE ALL-STORY MAGAZINE. Timing my operations carefully, I held the torch to the small aperture in the door, regulating the intensity of the light by means of the thumb-lever upon the side of the case, For fifty tals I let three units of light shine full into the pinhole, then one unit for one zat, and for twenty-five tals nine units. Those last twenty-five tals were the longest twenty-five sec- onds of my life. Would the lock click at the end of those seemingly intermi- nable intervals of time? Twenty-three! Twenty-four! Twen- ty-five! I shut off the light with a snap. For seven tals I waited—there had been no appreciable effect upon the lock’s mechanism. Could it be that my theory was entirely wrong? Hold! Wad the nervous strain re- sulted in a hallucination, or did the door really move? Slowly the solid stone sank noiselessly back into the temple wall—-there was no hallucination here. Back and back it slid for ten feet until it had disclosed at its right a nar- row doorway leading into a dark and narrow corridor that paralleled the outer wall. Scarcely was the entrance uncovered than Woola and I had leaped through—then the door slipped quietly back into place. Down the corridor at some distance I saw the faint reflection of a light, and toward this we made our way. At the point where the Hight shone was a sharp turn, and a little distance beyond this a brilliantly lighted chamber. Here we discovered a spiral stair- way leading up from the center of the circular room. Immediately I knew that we had reached the center of the base of the Temple of the Sun —the spiral run- way led upward past the inner walls of the prison cells. Somewhere above me was Dejah Thoris, unless Thurid ‘and Matai Shang had already succeed- ed in stealing her away. We had scarcely started up the run- way when Woola suddenly displayed the wildest excitement. He leaped comnliclooolkks. .com