Chapter 4: The Great Games Of Maroom

I threw in my lot with the green men who were, it evolved, enroute to Maroom, the capital of this country, to enroll in the Great Games. It is difficult for me to find a parallel on our own planet for these Great Games. What transpired at them, as I was to learn only too well and shortly, was this. The blood-thirsty citizens of Maroom flock to a large stadium and there witness various fellows fighting one another and also great and ferocious beasts, of which there are many on this depression-torn planet. Should a poor mendicant triumph in one of these gruesome contests he is awarded a cash prize. This explains why the down-and-out of Mars flock to Maroom.

To Maroom then my new friends and I made our way. For although on Mars I was now called Yar Sud, or Shorty, I still vowed that I would beat any man or beast I came up against in fair combat. Especially if there was money involved.

We had hardly reached the suburbs of the great and decadent capital when I heard a girl screaming in a tone that indicated her very honor was at stake. Borrowing a sword from Yex Zurb I jumped from my riding position just to the rear of his saddle and ran toward the scene of the struggle.

My green acquaintances had informed me that the green men were not the only race on Mars. There was also a pink skinned human type much like myself only taller. Still I was not prepared as I dived into the murky, sward-choked alley between two crumbling ruins to see before me a girl of striking beauty of figure being pummeled by a large pink man in a leather suit.

"One kiss is all I request," the man pleaded in a slimy voice that was far from manly.

"One will lead to another," the girl responded in a tone I admired. "Soon you will require other favors."

"One little kiss. By Zarg (their idea of God)! If you don't kiss me quickly, Dina Taurus, I will have you locked away where kissing is out of the question."

"Lock if you will," said the brave girl. "For kiss you I never shall."

I waited to hear no more. "Stand, sir!" I cried. "The young lady does not wish to be kissed."

The man was nearly eight feet high, though it was evident that his pursuit of physical gratification left little room for a careful program of physical fitness. "Beat it, Yar Sud," he bellowed. "Do you dare to interfere with a Yax-Tarkas on his appointed rounds?"

"I don't know what a Yax-Tarkas is," I replied, "But I know that my blade will cut you down if you don't depart this woman's side at once."

His only reply was an angry grunt. He then came at me with sword drawn. In my student days in Paris I had astounded my teachers with my ability as a foilsman. Fortunately, on Mars they fence in the Parisian manner and I was soon able to run the pleasure-bent Yax-Tarkas through and then dispose of his body in a pit beneath the ruins.

When I returned to the heavy-breathing girl I suddenly gasped. "Isis!" I cried. For she, indeed, it was.

"My name is Dina Taurus," she replied. "I do thank you for aiding me. For your kind act, though, I fear you will incur the wrath of all Maroom."

"My own Isis," I continued. "Whom I have not seen for nearly two dozen reincarnations. Don't you remember me? Have you forgotten Egypt, my love?"

"You speak, sir, of love," the girl said in a tender voice. "I was about to bring up the topic myself. I feel somehow that even though you are shorter than most you are a man I could someday marry and kiss freely. I fear I have never met you before."

"Look, look," I said, beginning to draw a map of the solar system in the dust of the alley with the tip of my recently engored sword. "Look there." I proceeded to explain where the planet Earth was in relation to Mars and then where Egypt had been. I told of our great love on that spot. "No wonder I haven't been able to find you again," I concluded. "You've been reincarnating here on another planet. Be that as it may, Isis, we are together again."

"As you talk and as I look at your handsome face it comes upon me more strongly that I am fond of you. Isis, however, I am not. Dina Taurus, a simple shopgirl, is who I am. As Dina Taurus I sincerely hope you will find your way clear to love me."

She was my own Isis and yet she had no recollection of it. I determined to court her under whatever name she was using. Once you have loved a woman such as Isis it is hard to shake the habit. "Dina Taurus you shall be," I smiled. "Dina Taurus, I love you and ask your leave to pay court to you."

"My leave you have had since the moment you leaped into this fetid alley," she replied tenderly. "Tell me, by the way, what is your name?"

"My name is Lowell Hawthorne."

From behind us a grim voice spoke, "Lowell Hawthorne, we take you prisoner in the name of the City and County of Maroom."

A dozen heavily armed men had approached us quietly while we had talked of love. "What is the charge?"

"Killing a Yax-Tarkas and throwing him in a pit. Come along with us."

To my new found Dina Taurus I whispered, "Just what is a Yax-Tarkas, my love?"

"The talent agent for the Great Games," she gasped as the lawmen carted me away.

That is how I came to be sentenced to fight in the arena of Maroom.