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+FOREWORD
+
+
+To the Reader of this Work
+
+
+In submitting Captain Carter’s strange manuscript to you in book form,
+I believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will
+be of interest.
+
+My first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent
+at my father’s home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil
+war. I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the
+tall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.
+
+He seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the
+children with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward those
+pastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or he
+would sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with
+stories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world. We all
+loved him, and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.
+
+He was a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches over
+six feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the
+trained fighting man. His features were regular and clear cut, his hair
+black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray,
+reflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and
+initiative. His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of a
+typical southern gentleman of the highest type.
+
+His horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel and delight
+even in that country of magnificent horsemen. I have often heard my
+father caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only
+laugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back
+of a horse yet unfoaled.
+
+When the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some
+fifteen or sixteen years. When he returned it was without warning, and
+I was much surprised to note that he had not aged apparently a moment,
+nor had he changed in any other outward way. He was, when others were
+with him, the same genial, happy fellow we had known of old, but when
+he thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off into
+space, his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery;
+and at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I
+did not know until I read his manuscript years afterward.
+
+He told us that he had been prospecting and mining in Arizona part of
+the time since the war; and that he had been very successful was
+evidenced by the unlimited amount of money with which he was supplied.
+As to the details of his life during these years he was very reticent,
+in fact he would not talk of them at all.
+
+He remained with us for about a year and then went to New York, where
+he purchased a little place on the Hudson, where I visited him once a
+year on the occasions of my trips to the New York market—my father and
+I owning and operating a string of general stores throughout Virginia
+at that time. Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage,
+situated on a bluff overlooking the river, and during one of my last
+visits, in the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in
+writing, I presume now, upon this manuscript.
+
+He told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished
+me to take charge of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment
+in the safe which stood in his study, telling me I would find his will
+there and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself to
+carry out with absolute fidelity.
+
+After I had retired for the night I have seen him from my window
+standing in the moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the
+Hudson with his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal.
+I thought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood
+that he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.
+
+Several months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first
+of March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram from him asking me to
+come to him at once. I had always been his favorite among the younger
+generation of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.
+
+I arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the
+morning of March 4, 1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me
+out to Captain Carter’s he replied that if I was a friend of the
+Captain’s he had some very bad news for me; the Captain had been found
+dead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached
+to an adjoining property.
+
+For some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his
+place as quickly as possible, so that I could take charge of the body
+and of his affairs.
+
+I found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local
+police chief and several townspeople, assembled in his little study.
+The watchman related the few details connected with the finding of the
+body, which he said had been still warm when he came upon it. It lay,
+he said, stretched full length in the snow with the arms outstretched
+above the head toward the edge of the bluff, and when he showed me the
+spot it flashed upon me that it was the identical one where I had seen
+him on those other nights, with his arms raised in supplication to the
+skies.
+
+There were no marks of violence on the body, and with the aid of a
+local physician the coroner’s jury quickly reached a decision of death
+from heart failure. Left alone in the study, I opened the safe and
+withdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me I would
+find my instructions. They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have
+followed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.
+
+He directed that I remove his body to Virginia without embalming, and
+that he be laid in an open coffin within a tomb which he previously had
+had constructed and which, as I later learned, was well ventilated. The
+instructions impressed upon me that I must personally see that this was
+carried out just as he directed, even in secrecy if necessary.
+
+His property was left in such a way that I was to receive the entire
+income for twenty-five years, when the principal was to become mine.
+His further instructions related to this manuscript which I was to
+retain sealed and unread, just as I found it, for eleven years; nor was
+I to divulge its contents until twenty-one years after his death.
+
+A strange feature about the tomb, where his body still lies, is that
+the massive door is equipped with a single, huge gold-plated spring
+lock which can be opened _only from the inside_.
+
+Yours very sincerely,
+Edgar Rice Burroughs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+ON THE ARIZONA HILLS
+
+
+I am a very old man; how old I do not know. Possibly I am a hundred,
+possibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other
+men, nor do I remember any childhood. So far as I can recollect I have
+always been a man, a man of about thirty. I appear today as I did forty
+years and more ago, and yet I feel that I cannot go on living forever;
+that some day I shall die the real death from which there is no
+resurrection. I do not know why I should fear death, I who have died
+twice and am still alive; but yet I have the same horror of it as you
+who have never died, and it is because of this terror of death, I
+believe, that I am so convinced of my mortality.
+
+And because of this conviction I have determined to write down the
+story of the interesting periods of my life and of my death. I cannot
+explain the phenomena; I can only set down here in the words of an
+ordinary soldier of fortune a chronicle of the strange events that
+befell me during the ten years that my dead body lay undiscovered in an
+Arizona cave.
+
+I have never told this story, nor shall mortal man see this manuscript
+until after I have passed over for eternity. I know that the average
+human mind will not believe what it cannot grasp, and so I do not
+purpose being pilloried by the public, the pulpit, and the press, and
+held up as a colossal liar when I am but telling the simple truths
+which some day science will substantiate. Possibly the suggestions
+which I gained upon Mars, and the knowledge which I can set down in
+this chronicle, will aid in an earlier understanding of the mysteries
+of our sister planet; mysteries to you, but no longer mysteries to me.
+
+My name is John Carter; I am better known as Captain Jack Carter of
+Virginia. At the close of the Civil War I found myself possessed of
+several hundred thousand dollars (Confederate) and a captain’s
+commission in the cavalry arm of an army which no longer existed; the
+servant of a state which had vanished with the hopes of the South.
+Masterless, penniless, and with my only means of livelihood, fighting,
+gone, I determined to work my way to the southwest and attempt to
+retrieve my fallen fortunes in a search for gold.
+
+I spent nearly a year prospecting in company with another Confederate
+officer, Captain James K. Powell of Richmond. We were extremely
+fortunate, for late in the winter of 1865, after many hardships and
+privations, we located the most remarkable gold-bearing quartz vein
+that our wildest dreams had ever pictured. Powell, who was a mining
+engineer by education, stated that we had uncovered over a million
+dollars worth of ore in a trifle over three months.
+
+As our equipment was crude in the extreme we decided that one of us
+must return to civilization, purchase the necessary machinery and
+return with a sufficient force of men properly to work the mine.
+
+As Powell was familiar with the country, as well as with the mechanical
+requirements of mining we determined that it would be best for him to
+make the trip. It was agreed that I was to hold down our claim against
+the remote possibility of its being jumped by some wandering
+prospector.
+
+On March 3, 1866, Powell and I packed his provisions on two of our
+burros, and bidding me good-bye he mounted his horse, and started down
+the mountainside toward the valley, across which led the first stage of
+his journey.
+
+The morning of Powell’s departure was, like nearly all Arizona
+mornings, clear and beautiful; I could see him and his little pack
+animals picking their way down the mountainside toward the valley, and
+all during the morning I would catch occasional glimpses of them as
+they topped a hog back or came out upon a level plateau. My last sight
+of Powell was about three in the afternoon as he entered the shadows of
+the range on the opposite side of the valley.
+
+Some half hour later I happened to glance casually across the valley
+and was much surprised to note three little dots in about the same
+place I had last seen my friend and his two pack animals. I am not
+given to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself
+that all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his
+trail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure
+myself.
+
+Since we had entered the territory we had not seen a hostile Indian,
+and we had, therefore, become careless in the extreme, and were wont to
+ridicule the stories we had heard of the great numbers of these vicious
+marauders that were supposed to haunt the trails, taking their toll in
+lives and torture of every white party which fell into their merciless
+clutches.
+
+Powell, I knew, was well armed and, further, an experienced Indian
+fighter; but I too had lived and fought for years among the Sioux in
+the North, and I knew that his chances were small against a party of
+cunning trailing Apaches. Finally I could endure the suspense no
+longer, and, arming myself with my two Colt revolvers and a carbine, I
+strapped two belts of cartridges about me and catching my saddle horse,
+started down the trail taken by Powell in the morning.
+
+As soon as I reached comparatively level ground I urged my mount into a
+canter and continued this, where the going permitted, until, close upon
+dusk, I discovered the point where other tracks joined those of Powell.
+They were the tracks of unshod ponies, three of them, and the ponies
+had been galloping.
+
+I followed rapidly until, darkness shutting down, I was forced to await
+the rising of the moon, and given an opportunity to speculate on the
+question of the wisdom of my chase. Possibly I had conjured up
+impossible dangers, like some nervous old housewife, and when I should
+catch up with Powell would get a good laugh for my pains. However, I am
+not prone to sensitiveness, and the following of a sense of duty,
+wherever it may lead, has always been a kind of fetich with me
+throughout my life; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me
+by three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and
+powerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service my sword
+has been red many a time.
+
+About nine o’clock the moon was sufficiently bright for me to proceed
+on my way and I had no difficulty in following the trail at a fast
+walk, and in some places at a brisk trot until, about midnight, I
+reached the water hole where Powell had expected to camp. I came upon
+the spot unexpectedly, finding it entirely deserted, with no signs of
+having been recently occupied as a camp.
+
+I was interested to note that the tracks of the pursuing horsemen, for
+such I was now convinced they must be, continued after Powell with only
+a brief stop at the hole for water; and always at the same rate of
+speed as his.
+
+I was positive now that the trailers were Apaches and that they wished
+to capture Powell alive for the fiendish pleasure of the torture, so I
+urged my horse onward at a most dangerous pace, hoping against hope
+that I would catch up with the red rascals before they attacked him.
+
+Further speculation was suddenly cut short by the faint report of two
+shots far ahead of me. I knew that Powell would need me now if ever,
+and I instantly urged my horse to his topmost speed up the narrow and
+difficult mountain trail.
+
+I had forged ahead for perhaps a mile or more without hearing further
+sounds, when the trail suddenly debouched onto a small, open plateau
+near the summit of the pass. I had passed through a narrow, overhanging
+gorge just before entering suddenly upon this table land, and the sight
+which met my eyes filled me with consternation and dismay.
+
+The little stretch of level land was white with Indian tepees, and
+there were probably half a thousand red warriors clustered around some
+object near the center of the camp. Their attention was so wholly
+riveted to this point of interest that they did not notice me, and I
+easily could have turned back into the dark recesses of the gorge and
+made my escape with perfect safety. The fact, however, that this
+thought did not occur to me until the following day removes any
+possible right to a claim to heroism to which the narration of this
+episode might possibly otherwise entitle me.
+
+I do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes,
+because, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts
+have placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one
+where any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many
+hours later. My mind is evidently so constituted that I am
+subconsciously forced into the path of duty without recourse to
+tiresome mental processes. However that may be, I have never regretted
+that cowardice is not optional with me.
+
+In this instance I was, of course, positive that Powell was the center
+of attraction, but whether I thought or acted first I do not know, but
+within an instant from the moment the scene broke upon my view I had
+whipped out my revolvers and was charging down upon the entire army of
+warriors, shooting rapidly, and whooping at the top of my lungs.
+Singlehanded, I could not have pursued better tactics, for the red men,
+convinced by sudden surprise that not less than a regiment of regulars
+was upon them, turned and fled in every direction for their bows,
+arrows, and rifles.
+
+The view which their hurried routing disclosed filled me with
+apprehension and with rage. Under the clear rays of the Arizona moon
+lay Powell, his body fairly bristling with the hostile arrows of the
+braves. That he was already dead I could not but be convinced, and yet
+I would have saved his body from mutilation at the hands of the Apaches
+as quickly as I would have saved the man himself from death.
+
+Riding close to him I reached down from the saddle, and grasping his
+cartridge belt drew him up across the withers of my mount. A backward
+glance convinced me that to return by the way I had come would be more
+hazardous than to continue across the plateau, so, putting spurs to my
+poor beast, I made a dash for the opening to the pass which I could
+distinguish on the far side of the table land.
+
+The Indians had by this time discovered that I was alone and I was
+pursued with imprecations, arrows, and rifle balls. The fact that it is
+difficult to aim anything but imprecations accurately by moonlight,
+that they were upset by the sudden and unexpected manner of my advent,
+and that I was a rather rapidly moving target saved me from the various
+deadly projectiles of the enemy and permitted me to reach the shadows
+of the surrounding peaks before an orderly pursuit could be organized.
+
+My horse was traveling practically unguided as I knew that I had
+probably less knowledge of the exact location of the trail to the pass
+than he, and thus it happened that he entered a defile which led to the
+summit of the range and not to the pass which I had hoped would carry
+me to the valley and to safety. It is probable, however, that to this
+fact I owe my life and the remarkable experiences and adventures which
+befell me during the following ten years.
+
+My first knowledge that I was on the wrong trail came when I heard the
+yells of the pursuing savages suddenly grow fainter and fainter far off
+to my left.
+
+I knew then that they had passed to the left of the jagged rock
+formation at the edge of the plateau, to the right of which my horse
+had borne me and the body of Powell.
+
+I drew rein on a little level promontory overlooking the trail below
+and to my left, and saw the party of pursuing savages disappearing
+around the point of a neighboring peak.
+
+I knew the Indians would soon discover that they were on the wrong
+trail and that the search for me would be renewed in the right
+direction as soon as they located my tracks.
+
+I had gone but a short distance further when what seemed to be an
+excellent trail opened up around the face of a high cliff. The trail
+was level and quite broad and led upward and in the general direction I
+wished to go. The cliff arose for several hundred feet on my right, and
+on my left was an equal and nearly perpendicular drop to the bottom of
+a rocky ravine.
+
+I had followed this trail for perhaps a hundred yards when a sharp turn
+to the right brought me to the mouth of a large cave. The opening was
+about four feet in height and three to four feet wide, and at this
+opening the trail ended.
+
+It was now morning, and, with the customary lack of dawn which is a
+startling characteristic of Arizona, it had become daylight almost
+without warning.
+
+Dismounting, I laid Powell upon the ground, but the most painstaking
+examination failed to reveal the faintest spark of life. I forced water
+from my canteen between his dead lips, bathed his face and rubbed his
+hands, working over him continuously for the better part of an hour in
+the face of the fact that I knew him to be dead.
+
+I was very fond of Powell; he was thoroughly a man in every respect; a
+polished southern gentleman; a staunch and true friend; and it was with
+a feeling of the deepest grief that I finally gave up my crude
+endeavors at resuscitation.
+
+Leaving Powell’s body where it lay on the ledge I crept into the cave
+to reconnoiter. I found a large chamber, possibly a hundred feet in
+diameter and thirty or forty feet in height; a smooth and well-worn
+floor, and many other evidences that the cave had, at some remote
+period, been inhabited. The back of the cave was so lost in dense
+shadow that I could not distinguish whether there were openings into
+other apartments or not.
+
+As I was continuing my examination I commenced to feel a pleasant
+drowsiness creeping over me which I attributed to the fatigue of my
+long and strenuous ride, and the reaction from the excitement of the
+fight and the pursuit. I felt comparatively safe in my present location
+as I knew that one man could defend the trail to the cave against an
+army.
+
+I soon became so drowsy that I could scarcely resist the strong desire
+to throw myself on the floor of the cave for a few moments’ rest, but I
+knew that this would never do, as it would mean certain death at the
+hands of my red friends, who might be upon me at any moment. With an
+effort I started toward the opening of the cave only to reel drunkenly
+against a side wall, and from there slip prone upon the floor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+THE ESCAPE OF THE DEAD
+
+
+A sense of delicious dreaminess overcame me, my muscles relaxed, and I
+was on the point of giving way to my desire to sleep when the sound of
+approaching horses reached my ears. I attempted to spring to my feet
+but was horrified to discover that my muscles refused to respond to my
+will. I was now thoroughly awake, but as unable to move a muscle as
+though turned to stone. It was then, for the first time, that I noticed
+a slight vapor filling the cave. It was extremely tenuous and only
+noticeable against the opening which led to daylight. There also came
+to my nostrils a faintly pungent odor, and I could only assume that I
+had been overcome by some poisonous gas, but why I should retain my
+mental faculties and yet be unable to move I could not fathom.
+
+I lay facing the opening of the cave and where I could see the short
+stretch of trail which lay between the cave and the turn of the cliff
+around which the trail led. The noise of the approaching horses had
+ceased, and I judged the Indians were creeping stealthily upon me along
+the little ledge which led to my living tomb. I remember that I hoped
+they would make short work of me as I did not particularly relish the
+thought of the innumerable things they might do to me if the spirit
+prompted them.
+
+I had not long to wait before a stealthy sound apprised me of their
+nearness, and then a war-bonneted, paint-streaked face was thrust
+cautiously around the shoulder of the cliff, and savage eyes looked
+into mine. That he could see me in the dim light of the cave I was sure
+for the early morning sun was falling full upon me through the opening.
+
+The fellow, instead of approaching, merely stood and stared; his eyes
+bulging and his jaw dropped. And then another savage face appeared, and
+a third and fourth and fifth, craning their necks over the shoulders of
+their fellows whom they could not pass upon the narrow ledge. Each face
+was the picture of awe and fear, but for what reason I did not know,
+nor did I learn until ten years later. That there were still other
+braves behind those who regarded me was apparent from the fact that the
+leaders passed back whispered word to those behind them.
+
+Suddenly a low but distinct moaning sound issued from the recesses of
+the cave behind me, and, as it reached the ears of the Indians, they
+turned and fled in terror, panic-stricken. So frantic were their
+efforts to escape from the unseen thing behind me that one of the
+braves was hurled headlong from the cliff to the rocks below. Their
+wild cries echoed in the canyon for a short time, and then all was
+still once more.
+
+The sound which had frightened them was not repeated, but it had been
+sufficient as it was to start me speculating on the possible horror
+which lurked in the shadows at my back. Fear is a relative term and so
+I can only measure my feelings at that time by what I had experienced
+in previous positions of danger and by those that I have passed through
+since; but I can say without shame that if the sensations I endured
+during the next few minutes were fear, then may God help the coward,
+for cowardice is of a surety its own punishment.
+
+To be held paralyzed, with one’s back toward some horrible and unknown
+danger from the very sound of which the ferocious Apache warriors turn
+in wild stampede, as a flock of sheep would madly flee from a pack of
+wolves, seems to me the last word in fearsome predicaments for a man
+who had ever been used to fighting for his life with all the energy of
+a powerful physique.
+
+Several times I thought I heard faint sounds behind me as of somebody
+moving cautiously, but eventually even these ceased, and I was left to
+the contemplation of my position without interruption. I could but
+vaguely conjecture the cause of my paralysis, and my only hope lay in
+that it might pass off as suddenly as it had fallen upon me.
+
+Late in the afternoon my horse, which had been standing with dragging
+rein before the cave, started slowly down the trail, evidently in
+search of food and water, and I was left alone with my mysterious
+unknown companion and the dead body of my friend, which lay just within
+my range of vision upon the ledge where I had placed it in the early
+morning.
+
+From then until possibly midnight all was silence, the silence of the
+dead; then, suddenly, the awful moan of the morning broke upon my
+startled ears, and there came again from the black shadows the sound of
+a moving thing, and a faint rustling as of dead leaves. The shock to my
+already overstrained nervous system was terrible in the extreme, and
+with a superhuman effort I strove to break my awful bonds. It was an
+effort of the mind, of the will, of the nerves; not muscular, for I
+could not move even so much as my little finger, but none the less
+mighty for all that. And then something gave, there was a momentary
+feeling of nausea, a sharp click as of the snapping of a steel wire,
+and I stood with my back against the wall of the cave facing my unknown
+foe.
+
+And then the moonlight flooded the cave, and there before me lay my own
+body as it had been lying all these hours, with the eyes staring toward
+the open ledge and the hands resting limply upon the ground. I looked
+first at my lifeless clay there upon the floor of the cave and then
+down at myself in utter bewilderment; for there I lay clothed, and yet
+here I stood but naked as at the minute of my birth.
+
+The transition had been so sudden and so unexpected that it left me for
+a moment forgetful of aught else than my strange metamorphosis. My
+first thought was, is this then death! Have I indeed passed over
+forever into that other life! But I could not well believe this, as I
+could feel my heart pounding against my ribs from the exertion of my
+efforts to release myself from the anaesthesis which had held me. My
+breath was coming in quick, short gasps, cold sweat stood out from
+every pore of my body, and the ancient experiment of pinching revealed
+the fact that I was anything other than a wraith.
+
+Again was I suddenly recalled to my immediate surroundings by a
+repetition of the weird moan from the depths of the cave. Naked and
+unarmed as I was, I had no desire to face the unseen thing which
+menaced me.
+
+My revolvers were strapped to my lifeless body which, for some
+unfathomable reason, I could not bring myself to touch. My carbine was
+in its boot, strapped to my saddle, and as my horse had wandered off I
+was left without means of defense. My only alternative seemed to lie in
+flight and my decision was crystallized by a recurrence of the rustling
+sound from the thing which now seemed, in the darkness of the cave and
+to my distorted imagination, to be creeping stealthily upon me.
+
+Unable longer to resist the temptation to escape this horrible place I
+leaped quickly through the opening into the starlight of a clear
+Arizona night. The crisp, fresh mountain air outside the cave acted as
+an immediate tonic and I felt new life and new courage coursing through
+me. Pausing upon the brink of the ledge I upbraided myself for what now
+seemed to me wholly unwarranted apprehension. I reasoned with myself
+that I had lain helpless for many hours within the cave, yet nothing
+had molested me, and my better judgment, when permitted the direction
+of clear and logical reasoning, convinced me that the noises I had
+heard must have resulted from purely natural and harmless causes;
+probably the conformation of the cave was such that a slight breeze had
+caused the sounds I heard.
+
+I decided to investigate, but first I lifted my head to fill my lungs
+with the pure, invigorating night air of the mountains. As I did so I
+saw stretching far below me the beautiful vista of rocky gorge, and
+level, cacti-studded flat, wrought by the moonlight into a miracle of
+soft splendor and wondrous enchantment.
+
+Few western wonders are more inspiring than the beauties of an Arizona
+moonlit landscape; the silvered mountains in the distance, the strange
+lights and shadows upon hog back and arroyo, and the grotesque details
+of the stiff, yet beautiful cacti form a picture at once enchanting and
+inspiring; as though one were catching for the first time a glimpse of
+some dead and forgotten world, so different is it from the aspect of
+any other spot upon our earth.
+
+As I stood thus meditating, I turned my gaze from the landscape to the
+heavens where the myriad stars formed a gorgeous and fitting canopy for
+the wonders of the earthly scene. My attention was quickly riveted by a
+large red star close to the distant horizon. As I gazed upon it I felt
+a spell of overpowering fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and
+for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of irresistible
+enchantment. As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call
+across the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, to draw me as the
+lodestone attracts a particle of iron.
+
+My longing was beyond the power of opposition; I closed my eyes,
+stretched out my arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myself
+drawn with the suddenness of thought through the trackless immensity of
+space. There was an instant of extreme cold and utter darkness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+MY ADVENT ON MARS
+
+
+I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape. I knew that I was
+on Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness. I
+was not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told
+me as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you
+that you are upon Earth. You do not question the fact; neither did I.
+
+I found myself lying prone upon a bed of yellowish, mosslike vegetation
+which stretched around me in all directions for interminable miles. I
+seemed to be lying in a deep, circular basin, along the outer verge of
+which I could distinguish the irregularities of low hills.
+
+It was midday, the sun was shining full upon me and the heat of it was
+rather intense upon my naked body, yet no greater than would have been
+true under similar conditions on an Arizona desert. Here and there were
+slight outcroppings of quartz-bearing rock which glistened in the
+sunlight; and a little to my left, perhaps a hundred yards, appeared a
+low, walled enclosure about four feet in height. No water, and no other
+vegetation than the moss was in evidence, and as I was somewhat thirsty
+I determined to do a little exploring.
+
+Springing to my feet I received my first Martian surprise, for the
+effort, which on Earth would have brought me standing upright, carried
+me into the Martian air to the height of about three yards. I alighted
+softly upon the ground, however, without appreciable shock or jar. Now
+commenced a series of evolutions which even then seemed ludicrous in
+the extreme. I found that I must learn to walk all over again, as the
+muscular exertion which carried me easily and safely upon Earth played
+strange antics with me upon Mars.
+
+Instead of progressing in a sane and dignified manner, my attempts to
+walk resulted in a variety of hops which took me clear of the ground a
+couple of feet at each step and landed me sprawling upon my face or
+back at the end of each second or third hop. My muscles, perfectly
+attuned and accustomed to the force of gravity on Earth, played the
+mischief with me in attempting for the first time to cope with the
+lesser gravitation and lower air pressure on Mars.
+
+I was determined, however, to explore the low structure which was the
+only evidence of habitation in sight, and so I hit upon the unique plan
+of reverting to first principles in locomotion, creeping. I did fairly
+well at this and in a few moments had reached the low, encircling wall
+of the enclosure.
+
+There appeared to be no doors or windows upon the side nearest me, but
+as the wall was but about four feet high I cautiously gained my feet
+and peered over the top upon the strangest sight it had ever been given
+me to see.
+
+The roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four or five inches
+in thickness, and beneath this were several hundred large eggs,
+perfectly round and snowy white. The eggs were nearly uniform in size
+being about two and one-half feet in diameter.
+
+Five or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatures which sat
+blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity.
+They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six
+legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an
+intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms
+or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a
+trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could
+be directed either forward or back and also independently of each
+other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or
+in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
+
+The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were
+small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these
+young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center
+of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.
+
+There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light
+yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon,
+this color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in
+the female. Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of
+proportion to their bodies as in the case of the young.
+
+The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while the pupil is
+dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth. These latter
+add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and terrible
+countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which end
+about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located. The whiteness
+of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most
+gleaming of china. Against the dark background of their olive skins
+their tusks stand out in a most striking manner, making these weapons
+present a singularly formidable appearance.
+
+Most of these details I noted later, for I was given but little time to
+speculate on the wonders of my new discovery. I had seen that the eggs
+were in the process of hatching, and as I stood watching the hideous
+little monsters break from their shells I failed to note the approach
+of a score of full-grown Martians from behind me.
+
+Coming, as they did, over the soft and soundless moss, which covers
+practically the entire surface of Mars with the exception of the frozen
+areas at the poles and the scattered cultivated districts, they might
+have captured me easily, but their intentions were far more sinister.
+It was the rattling of the accouterments of the foremost warrior which
+warned me.
+
+On such a little thing my life hung that I often marvel that I escaped
+so easily. Had not the rifle of the leader of the party swung from its
+fastenings beside his saddle in such a way as to strike against the
+butt of his great metal-shod spear I should have snuffed out without
+ever knowing that death was near me. But the little sound caused me to
+turn, and there upon me, not ten feet from my breast, was the point of
+that huge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleaming metal,
+and held low at the side of a mounted replica of the little devils I
+had been watching.
+
+But how puny and harmless they now looked beside this huge and terrific
+incarnation of hate, of vengeance and of death. The man himself, for
+such I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on Earth,
+would have weighed some four hundred pounds. He sat his mount as we sit
+a horse, grasping the animal’s barrel with his lower limbs, while the
+hands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at the side of
+his mount; his two left arms were outstretched laterally to help
+preserve his balance, the thing he rode having neither bridle or reins
+of any description for guidance.
+
+And his mount! How can earthly words describe it! It towered ten feet
+at the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad flat tail,
+larger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out
+behind while running; a gaping mouth which split its head from its
+snout to its long, massive neck.
+
+Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark
+slate color and exceeding smooth and glossy. Its belly was white, and
+its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid
+yellow at the feet. The feet themselves were heavily padded and
+nailless, which fact had also contributed to the noiselessness of their
+approach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is a
+characteristic feature of the fauna of Mars. The highest type of man
+and one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have
+well-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in
+existence there.
+
+Behind this first charging demon trailed nineteen others, similar in
+all respects, but, as I learned later, bearing individual
+characteristics peculiar to themselves; precisely as no two of us are
+identical although we are all cast in a similar mold. This picture, or
+rather materialized nightmare, which I have described at length, made
+but one terrible and swift impression on me as I turned to meet it.
+
+Unarmed and naked as I was, the first law of nature manifested itself
+in the only possible solution of my immediate problem, and that was to
+get out of the vicinity of the point of the charging spear.
+Consequently I gave a very earthly and at the same time superhuman leap
+to reach the top of the Martian incubator, for such I had determined it
+must be.
+
+My effort was crowned with a success which appalled me no less than it
+seemed to surprise the Martian warriors, for it carried me fully thirty
+feet into the air and landed me a hundred feet from my pursuers and on
+the opposite side of the enclosure.
+
+I alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap, and turning
+saw my enemies lined up along the further wall. Some were surveying me
+with expressions which I afterward discovered marked extreme
+astonishment, and the others were evidently satisfying themselves that
+I had not molested their young.
+
+They were conversing together in low tones, and gesticulating and
+pointing toward me. Their discovery that I had not harmed the little
+Martians, and that I was unarmed, must have caused them to look upon me
+with less ferocity; but, as I was to learn later, the thing which
+weighed most in my favor was my exhibition of hurdling.
+
+While the Martians are immense, their bones are very large and they are
+muscled only in proportion to the gravitation which they must overcome.
+The result is that they are infinitely less agile and less powerful, in
+proportion to their weight, than an Earth man, and I doubt that were
+one of them suddenly to be transported to Earth he could lift his own
+weight from the ground; in fact, I am convinced that he could not do
+so.
+
+My feat then was as marvelous upon Mars as it would have been upon
+Earth, and from desiring to annihilate me they suddenly looked upon me
+as a wonderful discovery to be captured and exhibited among their
+fellows.
+
+The respite my unexpected agility had given me permitted me to
+formulate plans for the immediate future and to note more closely the
+appearance of the warriors, for I could not disassociate these people
+in my mind from those other warriors who, only the day before, had been
+pursuing me.
+
+I noted that each was armed with several other weapons in addition to
+the huge spear which I have described. The weapon which caused me to
+decide against an attempt at escape by flight was what was evidently a
+rifle of some description, and which I felt, for some reason, they were
+peculiarly efficient in handling.
+
+These rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, which I learned
+later was a very light and intensely hard growth much prized on Mars,
+and entirely unknown to us denizens of Earth. The metal of the barrel
+is an alloy composed principally of aluminum and steel which they have
+learned to temper to a hardness far exceeding that of the steel with
+which we are familiar. The weight of these rifles is comparatively
+little, and with the small caliber, explosive, radium projectiles which
+they use, and the great length of the barrel, they are deadly in the
+extreme and at ranges which would be unthinkable on Earth. The
+theoretic effective radius of this rifle is three hundred miles, but
+the best they can do in actual service when equipped with their
+wireless finders and sighters is but a trifle over two hundred miles.
+
+This is quite far enough to imbue me with great respect for the Martian
+firearm, and some telepathic force must have warned me against an
+attempt to escape in broad daylight from under the muzzles of twenty of
+these death-dealing machines.
+
+The Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned and rode away
+in the direction from which they had come, leaving one of their number
+alone by the enclosure. When they had covered perhaps two hundred yards
+they halted, and turning their mounts toward us sat watching the
+warrior by the enclosure.
+
+He was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me, and was
+evidently the leader of the band, as I had noted that they seemed to
+have moved to their present position at his direction. When his force
+had come to a halt he dismounted, threw down his spear and small arms,
+and came around the end of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed
+and as naked as I, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head,
+limbs, and breast.
+
+When he was within about fifty feet of me he unclasped an enormous
+metal armlet, and holding it toward me in the open palm of his hand,
+addressed me in a clear, resonant voice, but in a language, it is
+needless to say, I could not understand. He then stopped as though
+waiting for my reply, pricking up his antennae-like ears and cocking
+his strange-looking eyes still further toward me.
+
+As the silence became painful I concluded to hazard a little
+conversation on my own part, as I had guessed that he was making
+overtures of peace. The throwing down of his weapons and the
+withdrawing of his troop before his advance toward me would have
+signified a peaceful mission anywhere on Earth, so why not, then, on
+Mars!
+
+Placing my hand over my heart I bowed low to the Martian and explained
+to him that while I did not understand his language, his actions spoke
+for the peace and friendship that at the present moment were most dear
+to my heart. Of course I might have been a babbling brook for all the
+intelligence my speech carried to him, but he understood the action
+with which I immediately followed my words.
+
+Stretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took the armlet from his
+open palm, clasping it about my arm above the elbow; smiled at him and
+stood waiting. His wide mouth spread into an answering smile, and
+locking one of his intermediary arms in mine we turned and walked back
+toward his mount. At the same time he motioned his followers to
+advance. They started toward us on a wild run, but were checked by a
+signal from him. Evidently he feared that were I to be really
+frightened again I might jump entirely out of the landscape.
+
+He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me that I would ride
+behind one of them, and then mounted his own animal. The fellow
+designated reached down two or three hands and lifted me up behind him
+on the glossy back of his mount, where I hung on as best I could by the
+belts and straps which held the Martian’s weapons and ornaments.
+
+The entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away toward the range of
+hills in the distance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+A PRISONER
+
+
+We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very
+rapidly. We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one of
+Mars’ long-dead seas, in the bottom of which my encounter with the
+Martians had taken place.
+
+In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after
+traversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far extremity
+of which was a low table land upon which I beheld an enormous city.
+Toward this we galloped, entering it by what appeared to be a ruined
+roadway leading out from the city, but only to the edge of the table
+land, where it ended abruptly in a flight of broad steps.
+
+Upon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the buildings were
+deserted, and while not greatly decayed had the appearance of not
+having been tenanted for years, possibly for ages. Toward the center of
+the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the buildings
+immediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten hundred
+creatures of the same breed as my captors, for such I now considered
+them despite the suave manner in which I had been trapped.
+
+With the exception of their ornaments all were naked. The women varied
+in appearance but little from the men, except that their tusks were
+much larger in proportion to their height, in some instances curving
+nearly to their high-set ears. Their bodies were smaller and lighter in
+color, and their fingers and toes bore the rudiments of nails, which
+were entirely lacking among the males. The adult females ranged in
+height from ten to twelve feet.
+
+The children were light in color, even lighter than the women, and all
+looked precisely alike to me, except that some were taller than others;
+older, I presumed.
+
+I saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any appreciable
+difference in their appearance from the age of maturity, about forty,
+until, at about the age of one thousand years, they go voluntarily upon
+their last strange pilgrimage down the river Iss, which leads no living
+Martian knows whither and from whose bosom no Martian has ever
+returned, or would be allowed to live did he return after once
+embarking upon its cold, dark waters.
+
+Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease, and
+possibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage. The other nine
+hundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in hunting, in
+aviation and in war; but perhaps by far the greatest death loss comes
+during the age of childhood, when vast numbers of the little Martians
+fall victims to the great white apes of Mars.
+
+The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity is
+about three hundred years, but would be nearer the one-thousand mark
+were it not for the various means leading to violent death. Owing to
+the waning resources of the planet it evidently became necessary to
+counteract the increasing longevity which their remarkable skill in
+therapeutics and surgery produced, and so human life has come to be
+considered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced by their dangerous
+sports and the almost continual warfare between the various
+communities.
+
+There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of
+population, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the fact
+that no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a weapon of
+destruction.
+
+As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we were
+immediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures who seemed anxious
+to pluck me from my seat behind my guard. A word from the leader of the
+party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across the plaza
+to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye has rested
+upon.
+
+The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It was constructed
+of gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant stones which
+sparkled and scintillated in the sunlight. The main entrance was some
+hundred feet in width and projected from the building proper to form a
+huge canopy above the entrance hall. There was no stairway, but a
+gentle incline to the first floor of the building opened into an
+enormous chamber encircled by galleries.
+
+On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carved
+wooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty or fifty male
+Martians around the steps of a rostrum. On the platform proper squatted
+an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments, gay-colored
+feathers and beautifully wrought leather trappings ingeniously set with
+precious stones. From his shoulders depended a short cape of white fur
+lined with brilliant scarlet silk.
+
+What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the hall in
+which they were congregated was the fact that the creatures were
+entirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other furnishings;
+these being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas the
+great bulks of the Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the
+chairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for their long legs.
+Evidently, then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild and
+grotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen, but the evidences of
+extreme antiquity which showed all around me indicated that these
+buildings might have belonged to some long-extinct and forgotten race
+in the dim antiquity of Mars.
+
+Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a sign
+from the leader I had been lowered to the ground. Again locking his arm
+in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber. There were few
+formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain. My captor
+merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for him as he
+advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of my
+escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the ruler followed
+by his title.
+
+At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to
+me, but later I came to know that this was the customary greeting
+between green Martians. Had the men been strangers, and therefore
+unable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged ornaments,
+had their missions been peaceful—otherwise they would have exchanged
+shots, or have fought out their introduction with some other of their
+various weapons.
+
+My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the vice-chieftain
+of the community, and a man of great ability as a statesman and
+warrior. He evidently explained briefly the incidents connected with
+his expedition, including my capture, and when he had concluded the
+chieftain addressed me at some length.
+
+I replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that
+neither of us could understand the other; but I noticed that when I
+smiled slightly on concluding, he did likewise. This fact, and the
+similar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced me
+that we had at least something in common; the ability to smile,
+therefore to laugh; denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn that
+the Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian laugh is
+a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.
+
+The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variance
+with our conceptions of incitants to merriment. The death agonies of a
+fellow being are, to these strange creatures, provocative of the
+wildest hilarity, while their chief form of commonest amusement is to
+inflict death on their prisoners of war in various ingenious and
+horrible ways.
+
+The assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely, feeling my
+muscles and the texture of my skin. The principal chieftain then
+evidently signified a desire to see me perform, and, motioning me to
+follow, he started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza.
+
+Now, I had made no attempt to walk, since my first signal failure,
+except while tightly grasping Tars Tarkas’ arm, and so now I went
+skipping and flitting about among the desks and chairs like some
+monstrous grasshopper. After bruising myself severely, much to the
+amusement of the Martians, I again had recourse to creeping, but this
+did not suit them and I was roughly jerked to my feet by a towering
+fellow who had laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.
+
+As he banged me down upon my feet his face was bent close to mine and I
+did the only thing a gentleman might do under the circumstances of
+brutality, boorishness, and lack of consideration for a stranger’s
+rights; I swung my fist squarely to his jaw and he went down like a
+felled ox. As he sunk to the floor I wheeled around with my back toward
+the nearest desk, expecting to be overwhelmed by the vengeance of his
+fellows, but determined to give them as good a battle as the unequal
+odds would permit before I gave up my life.
+
+My fears were groundless, however, as the other Martians, at first
+struck dumb with wonderment, finally broke into wild peals of laughter
+and applause. I did not recognize the applause as such, but later, when
+I had become acquainted with their customs, I learned that I had won
+what they seldom accord, a manifestation of approbation.
+
+The fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor did any of
+his mates approach him. Tars Tarkas advanced toward me, holding out one
+of his arms, and we thus proceeded to the plaza without further mishap.
+I did not, of course, know the reason for which we had come to the
+open, but I was not long in being enlightened. They first repeated the
+word “sak” a number of times, and then Tars Tarkas made several jumps,
+repeating the same word before each leap; then, turning to me, he said,
+“sak!” I saw what they were after, and gathering myself together I
+“sakked” with such marvelous success that I cleared a good hundred and
+fifty feet; nor did I, this time, lose my equilibrium, but landed
+squarely upon my feet without falling. I then returned by easy jumps of
+twenty-five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.
+
+My exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser Martians,
+and they immediately broke into demands for a repetition, which the
+chieftain then ordered me to make; but I was both hungry and thirsty,
+and determined on the spot that my only method of salvation was to
+demand the consideration from these creatures which they evidently
+would not voluntarily accord. I therefore ignored the repeated commands
+to “sak,” and each time they were made I motioned to my mouth and
+rubbed my stomach.
+
+Tars Tarkas and the chief exchanged a few words, and the former,
+calling to a young female among the throng, gave her some instructions
+and motioned me to accompany her. I grasped her proffered arm and
+together we crossed the plaza toward a large building on the far side.
+
+My fair companion was about eight feet tall, having just arrived at
+maturity, but not yet to her full height. She was of a light
+olive-green color, with a smooth, glossy hide. Her name, as I afterward
+learned, was Sola, and she belonged to the retinue of Tars Tarkas. She
+conducted me to a spacious chamber in one of the buildings fronting on
+the plaza, and which, from the litter of silks and furs upon the floor,
+I took to be the sleeping quarters of several of the natives.
+
+The room was well lighted by a number of large windows and was
+beautifully decorated with mural paintings and mosaics, but upon all
+there seemed to rest that indefinable touch of the finger of antiquity
+which convinced me that the architects and builders of these wondrous
+creations had nothing in common with the crude half-brutes which now
+occupied them.
+
+Sola motioned me to be seated upon a pile of silks near the center of
+the room, and, turning, made a peculiar hissing sound, as though
+signaling to someone in an adjoining room. In response to her call I
+obtained my first sight of a new Martian wonder. It waddled in on its
+ten short legs, and squatted down before the girl like an obedient
+puppy. The thing was about the size of a Shetland pony, but its head
+bore a slight resemblance to that of a frog, except that the jaws were
+equipped with three rows of long, sharp tusks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+I ELUDE MY WATCH DOG
+
+
+Sola stared into the brute’s wicked-looking eyes, muttered a word or
+two of command, pointed to me, and left the chamber. I could not but
+wonder what this ferocious-looking monstrosity might do when left alone
+in such close proximity to such a relatively tender morsel of meat; but
+my fears were groundless, as the beast, after surveying me intently for
+a moment, crossed the room to the only exit which led to the street,
+and lay down full length across the threshold.
+
+This was my first experience with a Martian watch dog, but it was
+destined not to be my last, for this fellow guarded me carefully during
+the time I remained a captive among these green men; twice saving my
+life, and never voluntarily being away from me a moment.
+
+While Sola was away I took occasion to examine more minutely the room
+in which I found myself captive. The mural painting depicted scenes of
+rare and wonderful beauty; mountains, rivers, lake, ocean, meadow,
+trees and flowers, winding roadways, sun-kissed gardens—scenes which
+might have portrayed earthly views but for the different colorings of
+the vegetation. The work had evidently been wrought by a master hand,
+so subtle the atmosphere, so perfect the technique; yet nowhere was
+there a representation of a living animal, either human or brute, by
+which I could guess at the likeness of these other and perhaps extinct
+denizens of Mars.
+
+While I was allowing my fancy to run riot in wild conjecture on the
+possible explanation of the strange anomalies which I had so far met
+with on Mars, Sola returned bearing both food and drink. These she
+placed on the floor beside me, and seating herself a short ways off
+regarded me intently. The food consisted of about a pound of some solid
+substance of the consistency of cheese and almost tasteless, while the
+liquid was apparently milk from some animal. It was not unpleasant to
+the taste, though slightly acid, and I learned in a short time to prize
+it very highly. It came, as I later discovered, not from an animal, as
+there is only one mammal on Mars and that one very rare indeed, but
+from a large plant which grows practically without water, but seems to
+distill its plentiful supply of milk from the products of the soil, the
+moisture of the air, and the rays of the sun. A single plant of this
+species will give eight or ten quarts of milk per day.
+
+After I had eaten I was greatly invigorated, but feeling the need of
+rest I stretched out upon the silks and was soon asleep. I must have
+slept several hours, as it was dark when I awoke, and I was very cold.
+I noticed that someone had thrown a fur over me, but it had become
+partially dislodged and in the darkness I could not see to replace it.
+Suddenly a hand reached out and pulled the fur over me, shortly
+afterwards adding another to my covering.
+
+I presumed that my watchful guardian was Sola, nor was I wrong. This
+girl alone, among all the green Martians with whom I came in contact,
+disclosed characteristics of sympathy, kindliness, and affection; her
+ministrations to my bodily wants were unfailing, and her solicitous
+care saved me from much suffering and many hardships.
+
+As I was to learn, the Martian nights are extremely cold, and as there
+is practically no twilight or dawn, the changes in temperature are
+sudden and most uncomfortable, as are the transitions from brilliant
+daylight to darkness. The nights are either brilliantly illumined or
+very dark, for if neither of the two moons of Mars happen to be in the
+sky almost total darkness results, since the lack of atmosphere, or,
+rather, the very thin atmosphere, fails to diffuse the starlight to any
+great extent; on the other hand, if both of the moons are in the
+heavens at night the surface of the ground is brightly illuminated.
+
+Both of Mars’ moons are vastly nearer her than is our moon to Earth;
+the nearer moon being but about five thousand miles distant, while the
+further is but little more than fourteen thousand miles away, against
+the nearly one-quarter million miles which separate us from our moon.
+The nearer moon of Mars makes a complete revolution around the planet
+in a little over seven and one-half hours, so that she may be seen
+hurtling through the sky like some huge meteor two or three times each
+night, revealing all her phases during each transit of the heavens.
+
+The further moon revolves about Mars in something over thirty and
+one-quarter hours, and with her sister satellite makes a nocturnal
+Martian scene one of splendid and weird grandeur. And it is well that
+nature has so graciously and abundantly lighted the Martian night, for
+the green men of Mars, being a nomadic race without high intellectual
+development, have but crude means for artificial lighting; depending
+principally upon torches, a kind of candle, and a peculiar oil lamp
+which generates a gas and burns without a wick.
+
+This last device produces an intensely brilliant far-reaching white
+light, but as the natural oil which it requires can only be obtained by
+mining in one of several widely separated and remote localities it is
+seldom used by these creatures whose only thought is for today, and
+whose hatred for manual labor has kept them in a semi-barbaric state
+for countless ages.
+
+After Sola had replenished my coverings I again slept, nor did I awaken
+until daylight. The other occupants of the room, five in number, were
+all females, and they were still sleeping, piled high with a motley
+array of silks and furs. Across the threshold lay stretched the
+sleepless guardian brute, just as I had last seen him on the preceding
+day; apparently he had not moved a muscle; his eyes were fairly glued
+upon me, and I fell to wondering just what might befall me should I
+endeavor to escape.
+
+I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and
+experiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone. It
+therefore now occurred to me that the surest way of learning the exact
+attitude of this beast toward me would be to attempt to leave the room.
+I felt fairly secure in my belief that I could escape him should he
+pursue me once I was outside the building, for I had begun to take
+great pride in my ability as a jumper. Furthermore, I could see from
+the shortness of his legs that the brute himself was no jumper and
+probably no runner.
+
+Slowly and carefully, therefore, I gained my feet, only to see that my
+watcher did the same; cautiously I advanced toward him, finding that by
+moving with a shuffling gait I could retain my balance as well as make
+reasonably rapid progress. As I neared the brute he backed cautiously
+away from me, and when I had reached the open he moved to one side to
+let me pass. He then fell in behind me and followed about ten paces in
+my rear as I made my way along the deserted street.
+
+Evidently his mission was to protect me only, I thought, but when we
+reached the edge of the city he suddenly sprang before me, uttering
+strange sounds and baring his ugly and ferocious tusks. Thinking to
+have some amusement at his expense, I rushed toward him, and when
+almost upon him sprang into the air, alighting far beyond him and away
+from the city. He wheeled instantly and charged me with the most
+appalling speed I had ever beheld. I had thought his short legs a bar
+to swiftness, but had he been coursing with greyhounds the latter would
+have appeared as though asleep on a door mat. As I was to learn, this
+is the fleetest animal on Mars, and owing to its intelligence, loyalty,
+and ferocity is used in hunting, in war, and as the protector of the
+Martian man.
+
+I quickly saw that I would have difficulty in escaping the fangs of the
+beast on a straightaway course, and so I met his charge by doubling in
+my tracks and leaping over him as he was almost upon me. This maneuver
+gave me a considerable advantage, and I was able to reach the city
+quite a bit ahead of him, and as he came tearing after me I jumped for
+a window about thirty feet from the ground in the face of one of the
+buildings overlooking the valley.
+
+Grasping the sill I pulled myself up to a sitting posture without
+looking into the building, and gazed down at the baffled animal beneath
+me. My exultation was short-lived, however, for scarcely had I gained a
+secure seat upon the sill than a huge hand grasped me by the neck from
+behind and dragged me violently into the room. Here I was thrown upon
+my back, and beheld standing over me a colossal ape-like creature,
+white and hairless except for an enormous shock of bristly hair upon
+its head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+A FIGHT THAT WON FRIENDS
+
+
+The thing, which more nearly resembled our earthly men than it did the
+Martians I had seen, held me pinioned to the ground with one huge foot,
+while it jabbered and gesticulated at some answering creature behind
+me. This other, which was evidently its mate, soon came toward us,
+bearing a mighty stone cudgel with which it evidently intended to brain
+me.
+
+The creatures were about ten or fifteen feet tall, standing erect, and
+had, like the green Martians, an intermediary set of arms or legs,
+midway between their upper and lower limbs. Their eyes were close
+together and non-protruding; their ears were high set, but more
+laterally located than those of the Martians, while their snouts and
+teeth were strikingly like those of our African gorilla. Altogether
+they were not unlovely when viewed in comparison with the green
+Martians.
+
+The cudgel was swinging in the arc which ended upon my upturned face
+when a bolt of myriad-legged horror hurled itself through the doorway
+full upon the breast of my executioner. With a shriek of fear the ape
+which held me leaped through the open window, but its mate closed in a
+terrific death struggle with my preserver, which was nothing less than
+my faithful watch-thing; I cannot bring myself to call so hideous a
+creature a dog.
+
+As quickly as possible I gained my feet and backing against the wall I
+witnessed such a battle as it is vouchsafed few beings to see. The
+strength, agility, and blind ferocity of these two creatures is
+approached by nothing known to earthly man. My beast had an advantage
+in his first hold, having sunk his mighty fangs far into the breast of
+his adversary; but the great arms and paws of the ape, backed by
+muscles far transcending those of the Martian men I had seen, had
+locked the throat of my guardian and slowly were choking out his life,
+and bending back his head and neck upon his body, where I momentarily
+expected the former to fall limp at the end of a broken neck.
+
+In accomplishing this the ape was tearing away the entire front of its
+breast, which was held in the vise-like grip of the powerful jaws. Back
+and forth upon the floor they rolled, neither one emitting a sound of
+fear or pain. Presently I saw the great eyes of my beast bulging
+completely from their sockets and blood flowing from its nostrils. That
+he was weakening perceptibly was evident, but so also was the ape,
+whose struggles were growing momentarily less.
+
+Suddenly I came to myself and, with that strange instinct which seems
+ever to prompt me to my duty, I seized the cudgel, which had fallen to
+the floor at the commencement of the battle, and swinging it with all
+the power of my earthly arms I crashed it full upon the head of the
+ape, crushing his skull as though it had been an eggshell.
+
+Scarcely had the blow descended when I was confronted with a new
+danger. The ape’s mate, recovered from its first shock of terror, had
+returned to the scene of the encounter by way of the interior of the
+building. I glimpsed him just before he reached the doorway and the
+sight of him, now roaring as he perceived his lifeless fellow stretched
+upon the floor, and frothing at the mouth, in the extremity of his
+rage, filled me, I must confess, with dire forebodings.
+
+I am ever willing to stand and fight when the odds are not too
+overwhelmingly against me, but in this instance I perceived neither
+glory nor profit in pitting my relatively puny strength against the
+iron muscles and brutal ferocity of this enraged denizen of an unknown
+world; in fact, the only outcome of such an encounter, so far as I
+might be concerned, seemed sudden death.
+
+I was standing near the window and I knew that once in the street I
+might gain the plaza and safety before the creature could overtake me;
+at least there was a chance for safety in flight, against almost
+certain death should I remain and fight however desperately.
+
+It is true I held the cudgel, but what could I do with it against his
+four great arms Even should I break one of them with my first blow,
+for I figured that he would attempt to ward off the cudgel, he could
+reach out and annihilate me with the others before I could recover for
+a second attack.
+
+In the instant that these thoughts passed through my mind I had turned
+to make for the window, but my eyes alighting on the form of my
+erstwhile guardian threw all thoughts of flight to the four winds. He
+lay gasping upon the floor of the chamber, his great eyes fastened upon
+me in what seemed a pitiful appeal for protection. I could not
+withstand that look, nor could I, on second thought, have deserted my
+rescuer without giving as good an account of myself in his behalf as he
+had in mine.
+
+Without more ado, therefore, I turned to meet the charge of the
+infuriated bull ape. He was now too close upon me for the cudgel to
+prove of any effective assistance, so I merely threw it as heavily as I
+could at his advancing bulk. It struck him just below the knees,
+eliciting a howl of pain and rage, and so throwing him off his balance
+that he lunged full upon me with arms wide stretched to ease his fall.
+
+Again, as on the preceding day, I had recourse to earthly tactics, and
+swinging my right fist full upon the point of his chin I followed it
+with a smashing left to the pit of his stomach. The effect was
+marvelous, for, as I lightly sidestepped, after delivering the second
+blow, he reeled and fell upon the floor doubled up with pain and
+gasping for wind. Leaping over his prostrate body, I seized the cudgel
+and finished the monster before he could regain his feet.
+
+As I delivered the blow a low laugh rang out behind me, and, turning, I
+beheld Tars Tarkas, Sola, and three or four warriors standing in the
+doorway of the chamber. As my eyes met theirs I was, for the second
+time, the recipient of their zealously guarded applause.
+
+My absence had been noted by Sola on her awakening, and she had quickly
+informed Tars Tarkas, who had set out immediately with a handful of
+warriors to search for me. As they had approached the limits of the
+city they had witnessed the actions of the bull ape as he bolted into
+the building, frothing with rage.
+
+They had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible
+that his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts and had witnessed
+my short but decisive battle with him. This encounter, together with my
+set-to with the Martian warrior on the previous day and my feats of
+jumping placed me upon a high pinnacle in their regard. Evidently
+devoid of all the finer sentiments of friendship, love, or affection,
+these people fairly worship physical prowess and bravery, and nothing
+is too good for the object of their adoration as long as he maintains
+his position by repeated examples of his skill, strength, and courage.
+
+Sola, who had accompanied the searching party of her own volition, was
+the only one of the Martians whose face had not been twisted in
+laughter as I battled for my life. She, on the contrary, was sober with
+apparent solicitude and, as soon as I had finished the monster, rushed
+to me and carefully examined my body for possible wounds or injuries.
+Satisfying herself that I had come off unscathed she smiled quietly,
+and, taking my hand, started toward the door of the chamber.
+
+Tars Tarkas and the other warriors had entered and were standing over
+the now rapidly reviving brute which had saved my life, and whose life
+I, in turn, had rescued. They seemed to be deep in argument, and
+finally one of them addressed me, but remembering my ignorance of his
+language turned back to Tars Tarkas, who, with a word and gesture, gave
+some command to the fellow and turned to follow us from the room.
+
+There seemed something menacing in their attitude toward my beast, and
+I hesitated to leave until I had learned the outcome. It was well I did
+so, for the warrior drew an evil looking pistol from its holster and
+was on the point of putting an end to the creature when I sprang
+forward and struck up his arm. The bullet striking the wooden casing of
+the window exploded, blowing a hole completely through the wood and
+masonry.
+
+I then knelt down beside the fearsome-looking thing, and raising it to
+its feet motioned for it to follow me. The looks of surprise which my
+actions elicited from the Martians were ludicrous; they could not
+understand, except in a feeble and childish way, such attributes as
+gratitude and compassion. The warrior whose gun I had struck up looked
+enquiringly at Tars Tarkas, but the latter signed that I be left to my
+own devices, and so we returned to the plaza with my great beast
+following close at heel, and Sola grasping me tightly by the arm.
+
+I had at least two friends on Mars; a young woman who watched over me
+with motherly solicitude, and a dumb brute which, as I later came to
+know, held in its poor ugly carcass more love, more loyalty, more
+gratitude than could have been found in the entire five million green
+Martians who rove the deserted cities and dead sea bottoms of Mars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+CHILD-RAISING ON MARS
+
+
+After a breakfast, which was an exact replica of the meal of the
+preceding day and an index of practically every meal which followed
+while I was with the green men of Mars, Sola escorted me to the plaza,
+where I found the entire community engaged in watching or helping at
+the harnessing of huge mastodonian animals to great three-wheeled
+chariots. There were about two hundred and fifty of these vehicles,
+each drawn by a single animal, any one of which, from their appearance,
+might easily have drawn the entire wagon train when fully loaded.
+
+The chariots themselves were large, commodious, and gorgeously
+decorated. In each was seated a female Martian loaded with ornaments of
+metal, with jewels and silks and furs, and upon the back of each of the
+beasts which drew the chariots was perched a young Martian driver. Like
+the animals upon which the warriors were mounted, the heavier draft
+animals wore neither bit nor bridle, but were guided entirely by
+telepathic means.
+
+This power is wonderfully developed in all Martians, and accounts
+largely for the simplicity of their language and the relatively few
+spoken words exchanged even in long conversations. It is the universal
+language of Mars, through the medium of which the higher and lower
+animals of this world of paradoxes are able to communicate to a greater
+or less extent, depending upon the intellectual sphere of the species
+and the development of the individual.
+
+As the cavalcade took up the line of march in single file, Sola dragged
+me into an empty chariot and we proceeded with the procession toward
+the point by which I had entered the city the day before. At the head
+of the caravan rode some two hundred warriors, five abreast, and a like
+number brought up the rear, while twenty-five or thirty outriders
+flanked us on either side.
+
+Every one but myself—men, women, and children—were heavily armed, and
+at the tail of each chariot trotted a Martian hound, my own beast
+following closely behind ours; in fact, the faithful creature never
+left me voluntarily during the entire ten years I spent on Mars. Our
+way led out across the little valley before the city, through the
+hills, and down into the dead sea bottom which I had traversed on my
+journey from the incubator to the plaza. The incubator, as it proved,
+was the terminal point of our journey this day, and, as the entire
+cavalcade broke into a mad gallop as soon as we reached the level
+expanse of sea bottom, we were soon within sight of our goal.
+
+On reaching it the chariots were parked with military precision on the
+four sides of the enclosure, and half a score of warriors, headed by
+the enormous chieftain, and including Tars Tarkas and several other
+lesser chiefs, dismounted and advanced toward it. I could see Tars
+Tarkas explaining something to the principal chieftain, whose name, by
+the way, was, as nearly as I can translate it into English, Lorquas
+Ptomel, Jed; jed being his title.
+
+I was soon appraised of the subject of their conversation, as, calling
+to Sola, Tars Tarkas signed for her to send me to him. I had by this
+time mastered the intricacies of walking under Martian conditions, and
+quickly responding to his command I advanced to the side of the
+incubator where the warriors stood.
+
+As I reached their side a glance showed me that all but a very few eggs
+had hatched, the incubator being fairly alive with the hideous little
+devils. They ranged in height from three to four feet, and were moving
+restlessly about the enclosure as though searching for food.
+
+As I came to a halt before him, Tars Tarkas pointed over the incubator
+and said, “Sak.” I saw that he wanted me to repeat my performance of
+yesterday for the edification of Lorquas Ptomel, and, as I must confess
+that my prowess gave me no little satisfaction, I responded quickly,
+leaping entirely over the parked chariots on the far side of the
+incubator. As I returned, Lorquas Ptomel grunted something at me, and
+turning to his warriors gave a few words of command relative to the
+incubator. They paid no further attention to me and I was thus
+permitted to remain close and watch their operations, which consisted
+in breaking an opening in the wall of the incubator large enough to
+permit of the exit of the young Martians.
+
+On either side of this opening the women and the younger Martians, both
+male and female, formed two solid walls leading out through the
+chariots and quite away into the plain beyond. Between these walls the
+little Martians scampered, wild as deer; being permitted to run the
+full length of the aisle, where they were captured one at a time by the
+women and older children; the last in the line capturing the first
+little one to reach the end of the gauntlet, her opposite in the line
+capturing the second, and so on until all the little fellows had left
+the enclosure and been appropriated by some youth or female. As the
+women caught the young they fell out of line and returned to their
+respective chariots, while those who fell into the hands of the young
+men were later turned over to some of the women.
+
+I saw that the ceremony, if it could be dignified by such a name, was
+over, and seeking out Sola I found her in our chariot with a hideous
+little creature held tightly in her arms.
+
+The work of rearing young, green Martians consists solely in teaching
+them to talk, and to use the weapons of warfare with which they are
+loaded down from the very first year of their lives. Coming from eggs
+in which they have lain for five years, the period of incubation, they
+step forth into the world perfectly developed except in size. Entirely
+unknown to their mothers, who, in turn, would have difficulty in
+pointing out the fathers with any degree of accuracy, they are the
+common children of the community, and their education devolves upon the
+females who chance to capture them as they leave the incubator.
+
+Their foster mothers may not even have had an egg in the incubator, as
+was the case with Sola, who had not commenced to lay, until less than a
+year before she became the mother of another woman’s offspring. But
+this counts for little among the green Martians, as parental and filial
+love is as unknown to them as it is common among us. I believe this
+horrible system which has been carried on for ages is the direct cause
+of the loss of all the finer feelings and higher humanitarian instincts
+among these poor creatures. From birth they know no father or mother
+love, they know not the meaning of the word home; they are taught that
+they are only suffered to live until they can demonstrate by their
+physique and ferocity that they are fit to live. Should they prove
+deformed or defective in any way they are promptly shot; nor do they
+see a tear shed for a single one of the many cruel hardships they pass
+through from earliest infancy.
+
+I do not mean that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or
+intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless
+struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of
+which have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional
+life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.
+
+By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each
+species, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the birth
+rate to merely offset the loss by death.
+
+Each adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each year,
+and those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity tests are
+hidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where the temperature
+is too low for incubation. Every year these eggs are carefully examined
+by a council of twenty chieftains, and all but about one hundred of the
+most perfect are destroyed out of each yearly supply. At the end of
+five years about five hundred almost perfect eggs have been chosen from
+the thousands brought forth. These are then placed in the almost
+air-tight incubators to be hatched by the sun’s rays after a period of
+another five years. The hatching which we had witnessed today was a
+fairly representative event of its kind, all but about one per cent of
+the eggs hatching in two days. If the remaining eggs ever hatched we
+knew nothing of the fate of the little Martians. They were not wanted,
+as their offspring might inherit and transmit the tendency to prolonged
+incubation, and thus upset the system which has maintained for ages and
+which permits the adult Martians to figure the proper time for return
+to the incubators, almost to an hour.
+
+The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or
+no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes. The result of
+such a catastrophe would mean no children in the community for another
+five years. I was later to witness the results of the discovery of an
+alien incubator.
+
+The community of which the green Martians with whom my lot was cast
+formed a part was composed of some thirty thousand souls. They roamed
+an enormous tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty and eighty
+degrees south latitude, and bounded on the east and west by two large
+fertile tracts. Their headquarters lay in the southwest corner of this
+district, near the crossing of two of the so-called Martian canals.
+
+As the incubator had been placed far north of their own territory in a
+supposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area, we had before us a
+tremendous journey, concerning which I, of course, knew nothing.
+
+After our return to the dead city I passed several days in comparative
+idleness. On the day following our return all the warriors had ridden
+forth early in the morning and had not returned until just before
+darkness fell. As I later learned, they had been to the subterranean
+vaults in which the eggs were kept and had transported them to the
+incubator, which they had then walled up for another five years, and
+which, in all probability, would not be visited again during that
+period.
+
+The vaults which hid the eggs until they were ready for the incubator
+were located many miles south of the incubator, and would be visited
+yearly by the council of twenty chieftains. Why they did not arrange to
+build their vaults and incubators nearer home has always been a mystery
+to me, and, like many other Martian mysteries, unsolved and unsolvable
+by earthly reasoning and customs.
+
+Sola’s duties were now doubled, as she was compelled to care for the
+young Martian as well as for me, but neither one of us required much
+attention, and as we were both about equally advanced in Martian
+education, Sola took it upon herself to train us together.
+
+Her prize consisted in a male about four feet tall, very strong and
+physically perfect; also, he learned quickly, and we had considerable
+amusement, at least I did, over the keen rivalry we displayed. The
+Martian language, as I have said, is extremely simple, and in a week I
+could make all my wants known and understand nearly everything that was
+said to me. Likewise, under Sola’s tutelage, I developed my telepathic
+powers so that I shortly could sense practically everything that went
+on around me.
+
+What surprised Sola most in me was that while I could catch telepathic
+messages easily from others, and often when they were not intended for
+me, no one could read a jot from my mind under any circumstances. At
+first this vexed me, but later I was very glad of it, as it gave me an
+undoubted advantage over the Martians.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+A FAIR CAPTIVE FROM THE SKY
+
+
+The third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home,
+but scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the open
+ground before the city than orders were given for an immediate and
+hasty return. As though trained for years in this particular evolution,
+the green Martians melted like mist into the spacious doorways of the
+nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes, the entire
+cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors was nowhere to be
+seen.
+
+Sola and I had entered a building upon the front of the city, in fact,
+the same one in which I had had my encounter with the apes, and,
+wishing to see what had caused the sudden retreat, I mounted to an
+upper floor and peered from the window out over the valley and the
+hills beyond; and there I saw the cause of their sudden scurrying to
+cover. A huge craft, long, low, and gray-painted, swung slowly over the
+crest of the nearest hill. Following it came another, and another, and
+another, until twenty of them, swinging low above the ground, sailed
+slowly and majestically toward us.
+
+Each carried a strange banner swung from stem to stern above the upper
+works, and upon the prow of each was painted some odd device that
+gleamed in the sunlight and showed plainly even at the distance at
+which we were from the vessels. I could see figures crowding the
+forward decks and upper works of the air craft. Whether they had
+discovered us or simply were looking at the deserted city I could not
+say, but in any event they received a rude reception, for suddenly and
+without warning the green Martian warriors fired a terrific volley from
+the windows of the buildings facing the little valley across which the
+great ships were so peacefully advancing.
+
+Instantly the scene changed as by magic; the foremost vessel swung
+broadside toward us, and bringing her guns into play returned our fire,
+at the same time moving parallel to our front for a short distance and
+then turning back with the evident intention of completing a great
+circle which would bring her up to position once more opposite our
+firing line; the other vessels followed in her wake, each one opening
+upon us as she swung into position. Our own fire never diminished, and
+I doubt if twenty-five per cent of our shots went wild. It had never
+been given me to see such deadly accuracy of aim, and it seemed as
+though a little figure on one of the craft dropped at the explosion of
+each bullet, while the banners and upper works dissolved in spurts of
+flame as the irresistible projectiles of our warriors mowed through
+them.
+
+The fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I afterward
+learned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley, which caught
+the ship’s crews entirely unprepared and the sighting apparatus of the
+guns unprotected from the deadly aim of our warriors.
+
+It seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for his
+fire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare. For example,
+a proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct their fire
+entirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus of the big
+guns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends to the smaller
+guns in the same way; others pick off the gunners; still others the
+officers; while certain other quotas concentrate their attention upon
+the other members of the crew, upon the upper works, and upon the
+steering gear and propellers.
+
+Twenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailing
+off in the direction from which it had first appeared. Several of the
+craft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the control
+of their depleted crews. Their fire had ceased entirely and all their
+energies seemed focused upon escape. Our warriors then rushed up to the
+roofs of the buildings which we occupied and followed the retreating
+armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly fire.
+
+One by one, however, the ships managed to dip below the crests of the
+outlying hills until only one barely moving craft was in sight. This
+had received the brunt of our fire and seemed to be entirely unmanned,
+as not a moving figure was visible upon her decks. Slowly she swung
+from her course, circling back toward us in an erratic and pitiful
+manner. Instantly the warriors ceased firing, for it was quite apparent
+that the vessel was entirely helpless, and, far from being in a
+position to inflict harm upon us, she could not even control herself
+sufficiently to escape.
+
+As she neared the city the warriors rushed out upon the plain to meet
+her, but it was evident that she still was too high for them to hope to
+reach her decks. From my vantage point in the window I could see the
+bodies of her crew strewn about, although I could not make out what
+manner of creatures they might be. Not a sign of life was manifest upon
+her as she drifted slowly with the light breeze in a southeasterly
+direction.
+
+She was drifting some fifty feet above the ground, followed by all but
+some hundred of the warriors who had been ordered back to the roofs to
+cover the possibility of a return of the fleet, or of reinforcements.
+It soon became evident that she would strike the face of the buildings
+about a mile south of our position, and as I watched the progress of
+the chase I saw a number of warriors gallop ahead, dismount and enter
+the building she seemed destined to touch.
+
+As the craft neared the building, and just before she struck, the
+Martian warriors swarmed upon her from the windows, and with their
+great spears eased the shock of the collision, and in a few moments
+they had thrown out grappling hooks and the big boat was being hauled
+to ground by their fellows below.
+
+After making her fast, they swarmed the sides and searched the vessel
+from stem to stern. I could see them examining the dead sailors,
+evidently for signs of life, and presently a party of them appeared
+from below dragging a little figure among them. The creature was
+considerably less than half as tall as the green Martian warriors, and
+from my balcony I could see that it walked erect upon two legs and
+surmised that it was some new and strange Martian monstrosity with
+which I had not as yet become acquainted.
+
+They removed their prisoner to the ground and then commenced a
+systematic rifling of the vessel. This operation required several
+hours, during which time a number of the chariots were requisitioned to
+transport the loot, which consisted in arms, ammunition, silks, furs,
+jewels, strangely carved stone vessels, and a quantity of solid foods
+and liquids, including many casks of water, the first I had seen since
+my advent upon Mars.
+
+After the last load had been removed the warriors made lines fast to
+the craft and towed her far out into the valley in a southwesterly
+direction. A few of them then boarded her and were busily engaged in
+what appeared, from my distant position, as the emptying of the
+contents of various carboys upon the dead bodies of the sailors and
+over the decks and works of the vessel.
+
+This operation concluded, they hastily clambered over her sides,
+sliding down the guy ropes to the ground. The last warrior to leave the
+deck turned and threw something back upon the vessel, waiting an
+instant to note the outcome of his act. As a faint spurt of flame rose
+from the point where the missile struck he swung over the side and was
+quickly upon the ground. Scarcely had he alighted than the guy ropes
+were simultaneously released, and the great warship, lightened by the
+removal of the loot, soared majestically into the air, her decks and
+upper works a mass of roaring flames.
+
+Slowly she drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as the
+flames ate away her wooden parts and diminished the weight upon her.
+Ascending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, until
+finally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance. The sight was
+awe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floating
+funeral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastes
+of the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifying
+the life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whose
+unfriendly hands fate had carried it.
+
+Much depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to the
+street. The scene I had witnessed seemed to mark the defeat and
+annihilation of the forces of a kindred people, rather than the routing
+by our green warriors of a horde of similar, though unfriendly,
+creatures. I could not fathom the seeming hallucination, nor could I
+free myself from it; but somewhere in the innermost recesses of my soul
+I felt a strange yearning toward these unknown foemen, and a mighty
+hope surged through me that the fleet would return and demand a
+reckoning from the green warriors who had so ruthlessly and wantonly
+attacked it.
+
+Close at my heel, in his now accustomed place, followed Woola, the
+hound, and as I emerged upon the street Sola rushed up to me as though
+I had been the object of some search on her part. The cavalcade was
+returning to the plaza, the homeward march having been given up for
+that day; nor, in fact, was it recommenced for more than a week, owing
+to the fear of a return attack by the air craft.
+
+Lorquas Ptomel was too astute an old warrior to be caught upon the open
+plains with a caravan of chariots and children, and so we remained at
+the deserted city until the danger seemed passed.
+
+As Sola and I entered the plaza a sight met my eyes which filled my
+whole being with a great surge of mingled hope, fear, exultation, and
+depression, and yet most dominant was a subtle sense of relief and
+happiness; for just as we neared the throng of Martians I caught a
+glimpse of the prisoner from the battle craft who was being roughly
+dragged into a nearby building by a couple of green Martian females.
+
+And the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure,
+similar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life. She did
+not see me at first, but just as she was disappearing through the
+portal of the building which was to be her prison she turned, and her
+eyes met mine. Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her
+every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and
+lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair,
+caught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure. Her skin was of a
+light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her
+cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a
+strangely enhancing effect.
+
+She was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied
+her; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely
+naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect
+and symmetrical figure.
+
+As her gaze rested on me her eyes opened wide in astonishment, and she
+made a little sign with her free hand; a sign which I did not, of
+course, understand. Just a moment we gazed upon each other, and then
+the look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified her face as
+she discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled with
+loathing and contempt. I realized I had not answered her signal, and
+ignorant as I was of Martian customs, I intuitively felt that she had
+made an appeal for succor and protection which my unfortunate ignorance
+had prevented me from answering. And then she was dragged out of my
+sight into the depths of the deserted edifice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+I LEARN THE LANGUAGE
+
+
+As I came back to myself I glanced at Sola, who had witnessed this
+encounter and I was surprised to note a strange expression upon her
+usually expressionless countenance. What her thoughts were I did not
+know, for as yet I had learned but little of the Martian tongue; enough
+only to suffice for my daily needs.
+
+As I reached the doorway of our building a strange surprise awaited me.
+A warrior approached bearing the arms, ornaments, and full
+accouterments of his kind. These he presented to me with a few
+unintelligible words, and a bearing at once respectful and menacing.
+
+Later, Sola, with the aid of several of the other women, remodeled the
+trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they completed the
+work I went about garbed in all the panoply of war.
+
+From then on Sola instructed me in the mysteries of the various
+weapons, and with the Martian young I spent several hours each day
+practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet proficient with all the
+weapons, but my great familiarity with similar earthly weapons made me
+an unusually apt pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner.
+
+The training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by
+the women, who not only attend to the education of the young in the
+arts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who
+produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They
+make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of
+value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare they form a
+part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even
+greater intelligence and ferocity than the men.
+
+The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in
+strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the
+laws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency. They are
+unfettered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have
+been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring
+a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the
+culprit’s peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but
+seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law. In one
+respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.
+
+I did not see the prisoner again for several days subsequent to our
+first encounter, and then only to catch a fleeting glimpse of her as
+she was being conducted to the great audience chamber where I had had
+my first meeting with Lorquas Ptomel. I could not but note the
+unnecessary harshness and brutality with which her guards treated her;
+so different from the almost maternal kindliness which Sola manifested
+toward me, and the respectful attitude of the few green Martians who
+took the trouble to notice me at all.
+
+I had observed on the two occasions when I had seen her that the
+prisoner exchanged words with her guards, and this convinced me that
+they spoke, or at least could make themselves understood by a common
+language. With this added incentive I nearly drove Sola distracted by
+my importunities to hasten on my education and within a few more days I
+had mastered the Martian tongue sufficiently well to enable me to carry
+on a passable conversation and to fully understand practically all that
+I heard.
+
+At this time our sleeping quarters were occupied by three or four
+females and a couple of the recently hatched young, beside Sola and her
+youthful ward, myself, and Woola the hound. After they had retired for
+the night it was customary for the adults to carry on a desultory
+conversation for a short time before lapsing into sleep, and now that I
+could understand their language I was always a keen listener, although
+I never proffered any remarks myself.
+
+On the night following the prisoner’s visit to the audience chamber the
+conversation finally fell upon this subject, and I was all ears on the
+instant. I had feared to question Sola relative to the beautiful
+captive, as I could not but recall the strange expression I had noted
+upon her face after my first encounter with the prisoner. That it
+denoted jealousy I could not say, and yet, judging all things by
+mundane standards as I still did, I felt it safer to affect
+indifference in the matter until I learned more surely Sola’s attitude
+toward the object of my solicitude.
+
+Sarkoja, one of the older women who shared our domicile, had been
+present at the audience as one of the captive’s guards, and it was
+toward her the question turned.
+
+“When,” asked one of the women, “will we enjoy the death throes of the
+red one or does Lorquas Ptomel, Jed, intend holding her for ransom”
+
+“They have decided to carry her with us back to Thark, and exhibit her
+last agonies at the great games before Tal Hajus,” replied Sarkoja.
+
+“What will be the manner of her going out” inquired Sola. “She is very
+small and very beautiful; I had hoped that they would hold her for
+ransom.”
+
+Sarkoja and the other women grunted angrily at this evidence of
+weakness on the part of Sola.
+
+“It is sad, Sola, that you were not born a million years ago,” snapped
+Sarkoja, “when all the hollows of the land were filled with water, and
+the peoples were as soft as the stuff they sailed upon. In our day we
+have progressed to a point where such sentiments mark weakness and
+atavism. It will not be well for you to permit Tars Tarkas to learn
+that you hold such degenerate sentiments, as I doubt that he would care
+to entrust such as you with the grave responsibilities of maternity.”
+
+“I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in this red woman,”
+retorted Sola. “She has never harmed us, nor would she should we have
+fallen into her hands. It is only the men of her kind who war upon us,
+and I have ever thought that their attitude toward us is but the
+reflection of ours toward them. They live at peace with all their
+fellows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at
+peace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the
+red men, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst
+themselves. Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from the
+time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of the river
+of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us to an unknown,
+but at least no more frightful and terrible existence! Fortunate indeed
+is he who meets his end in an early death. Say what you please to Tars
+Tarkas, he can mete out no worse fate to me than a continuation of the
+horrible existence we are forced to lead in this life.”
+
+This wild outbreak on the part of Sola so greatly surprised and shocked
+the other women, that, after a few words of general reprimand, they all
+lapsed into silence and were soon asleep. One thing the episode had
+accomplished was to assure me of Sola’s friendliness toward the poor
+girl, and also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in
+falling into her hands rather than those of some of the other females.
+I knew that she was fond of me, and now that I had discovered that she
+hated cruelty and barbarity I was confident that I could depend upon
+her to aid me and the girl captive to escape, provided of course that
+such a thing was within the range of possibilities.
+
+I did not even know that there were any better conditions to escape to,
+but I was more than willing to take my chances among people fashioned
+after my own mold rather than to remain longer among the hideous and
+bloodthirsty green men of Mars. But where to go, and how, was as much
+of a puzzle to me as the age-old search for the spring of eternal life
+has been to earthly men since the beginning of time.
+
+I decided that at the first opportunity I would take Sola into my
+confidence and openly ask her to aid me, and with this resolution
+strong upon me I turned among my silks and furs and slept the dreamless
+and refreshing sleep of Mars.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+CHAMPION AND CHIEF
+
+
+Early the next morning I was astir. Considerable freedom was allowed
+me, as Sola had informed me that so long as I did not attempt to leave
+the city I was free to go and come as I pleased. She had warned me,
+however, against venturing forth unarmed, as this city, like all other
+deserted metropolises of an ancient Martian civilization, was peopled
+by the great white apes of my second day’s adventure.
+
+In advising me that I must not leave the boundaries of the city Sola
+had explained that Woola would prevent this anyway should I attempt it,
+and she warned me most urgently not to arouse his fierce nature by
+ignoring his warnings should I venture too close to the forbidden
+territory. His nature was such, she said, that he would bring me back
+into the city dead or alive should I persist in opposing him;
+“preferably dead,” she added.
+
+On this morning I had chosen a new street to explore when suddenly I
+found myself at the limits of the city. Before me were low hills
+pierced by narrow and inviting ravines. I longed to explore the country
+before me, and, like the pioneer stock from which I sprang, to view
+what the landscape beyond the encircling hills might disclose from the
+summits which shut out my view.
+
+It also occurred to me that this would prove an excellent opportunity
+to test the qualities of Woola. I was convinced that the brute loved
+me; I had seen more evidences of affection in him than in any other
+Martian animal, man or beast, and I was sure that gratitude for the
+acts that had twice saved his life would more than outweigh his loyalty
+to the duty imposed upon him by cruel and loveless masters.
+
+As I approached the boundary line Woola ran anxiously before me, and
+thrust his body against my legs. His expression was pleading rather
+than ferocious, nor did he bare his great tusks or utter his fearful
+guttural warnings. Denied the friendship and companionship of my kind,
+I had developed considerable affection for Woola and Sola, for the
+normal earthly man must have some outlet for his natural affections,
+and so I decided upon an appeal to a like instinct in this great brute,
+sure that I would not be disappointed.
+
+I had never petted nor fondled him, but now I sat upon the ground and
+putting my arms around his heavy neck I stroked and coaxed him, talking
+in my newly acquired Martian tongue as I would have to my hound at
+home, as I would have talked to any other friend among the lower
+animals. His response to my manifestation of affection was remarkable
+to a degree; he stretched his great mouth to its full width, baring the
+entire expanse of his upper rows of tusks and wrinkling his snout until
+his great eyes were almost hidden by the folds of flesh. If you have
+ever seen a collie smile you may have some idea of Woola’s facial
+distortion.
+
+He threw himself upon his back and fairly wallowed at my feet; jumped
+up and sprang upon me, rolling me upon the ground by his great weight;
+then wriggling and squirming around me like a playful puppy presenting
+its back for the petting it craves. I could not resist the
+ludicrousness of the spectacle, and holding my sides I rocked back and
+forth in the first laughter which had passed my lips in many days; the
+first, in fact, since the morning Powell had left camp when his horse,
+long unused, had precipitately and unexpectedly bucked him off
+headforemost into a pot of frijoles.
+
+My laughter frightened Woola, his antics ceased and he crawled
+pitifully toward me, poking his ugly head far into my lap; and then I
+remembered what laughter signified on Mars—torture, suffering, death.
+Quieting myself, I rubbed the poor old fellow’s head and back, talked
+to him for a few minutes, and then in an authoritative tone commanded
+him to follow me, and arising started for the hills.
+
+There was no further question of authority between us; Woola was my
+devoted slave from that moment hence, and I his only and undisputed
+master. My walk to the hills occupied but a few minutes, and I found
+nothing of particular interest to reward me. Numerous brilliantly
+colored and strangely formed wild flowers dotted the ravines and from
+the summit of the first hill I saw still other hills stretching off
+toward the north, and rising, one range above another, until lost in
+mountains of quite respectable dimensions; though I afterward found
+that only a few peaks on all Mars exceed four thousand feet in height;
+the suggestion of magnitude was merely relative.
+
+My morning’s walk had been large with importance to me for it had
+resulted in a perfect understanding with Woola, upon whom Tars Tarkas
+relied for my safe keeping. I now knew that while theoretically a
+prisoner I was virtually free, and I hastened to regain the city limits
+before the defection of Woola could be discovered by his erstwhile
+masters. The adventure decided me never again to leave the limits of my
+prescribed stamping grounds until I was ready to venture forth for good
+and all, as it would certainly result in a curtailment of my liberties,
+as well as the probable death of Woola, were we to be discovered.
+
+On regaining the plaza I had my third glimpse of the captive girl. She
+was standing with her guards before the entrance to the audience
+chamber, and as I approached she gave me one haughty glance and turned
+her back full upon me. The act was so womanly, so earthly womanly, that
+though it stung my pride it also warmed my heart with a feeling of
+companionship; it was good to know that someone else on Mars beside
+myself had human instincts of a civilized order, even though the
+manifestation of them was so painful and mortifying.
+
+Had a green Martian woman desired to show dislike or contempt she
+would, in all likelihood, have done it with a sword thrust or a
+movement of her trigger finger; but as their sentiments are mostly
+atrophied it would have required a serious injury to have aroused such
+passions in them. Sola, let me add, was an exception; I never saw her
+perform a cruel or uncouth act, or fail in uniform kindliness and good
+nature. She was indeed, as her fellow Martian had said of her, an
+atavism; a dear and precious reversion to a former type of loved and
+loving ancestor.
+
+Seeing that the prisoner seemed the center of attraction I halted to
+view the proceedings. I had not long to wait for presently Lorquas
+Ptomel and his retinue of chieftains approached the building and,
+signing the guards to follow with the prisoner entered the audience
+chamber. Realizing that I was a somewhat favored character, and also
+convinced that the warriors did not know of my proficiency in their
+language, as I had plead with Sola to keep this a secret on the grounds
+that I did not wish to be forced to talk with the men until I had
+perfectly mastered the Martian tongue, I chanced an attempt to enter
+the audience chamber and listen to the proceedings.
+
+The council squatted upon the steps of the rostrum, while below them
+stood the prisoner and her two guards. I saw that one of the women was
+Sarkoja, and thus understood how she had been present at the hearing of
+the preceding day, the results of which she had reported to the
+occupants of our dormitory last night. Her attitude toward the captive
+was most harsh and brutal. When she held her, she sunk her rudimentary
+nails into the poor girl’s flesh, or twisted her arm in a most painful
+manner. When it was necessary to move from one spot to another she
+either jerked her roughly, or pushed her headlong before her. She
+seemed to be venting upon this poor defenseless creature all the
+hatred, cruelty, ferocity, and spite of her nine hundred years, backed
+by unguessable ages of fierce and brutal ancestors.
+
+The other woman was less cruel because she was entirely indifferent; if
+the prisoner had been left to her alone, and fortunately she was at
+night, she would have received no harsh treatment, nor, by the same
+token would she have received any attention at all.
+
+As Lorquas Ptomel raised his eyes to address the prisoner they fell on
+me and he turned to Tars Tarkas with a word, and gesture of impatience.
+Tars Tarkas made some reply which I could not catch, but which caused
+Lorquas Ptomel to smile; after which they paid no further attention to
+me.
+
+“What is your name” asked Lorquas Ptomel, addressing the prisoner.
+
+“Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak of Helium.”
+
+“And the nature of your expedition” he continued.
+
+“It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father’s
+father, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take
+atmospheric density tests,” replied the fair prisoner, in a low,
+well-modulated voice.
+
+“We were unprepared for battle,” she continued, “as we were on a
+peaceful mission, as our banners and the colors of our craft denoted.
+The work we were doing was as much in your interests as in ours, for
+you know full well that were it not for our labors and the fruits of
+our scientific operations there would not be enough air or water on
+Mars to support a single human life. For ages we have maintained the
+air and water supply at practically the same point without an
+appreciable loss, and we have done this in the face of the brutal and
+ignorant interference of you green men.
+
+“Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows.
+Must you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little
+above the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you! A people without
+written language, without art, without homes, without love; the victims
+of eons of the horrible community idea. Owning everything in common,
+even to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in
+common. You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves.
+Come back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light
+of kindliness and fellowship. The way is open to you, you will find the
+hands of the red men stretched out to aid you. Together we may do still
+more to regenerate our dying planet. The granddaughter of the greatest
+and mightiest of the red jeddaks has asked you. Will you come”
+
+Lorquas Ptomel and the warriors sat looking silently and intently at
+the young woman for several moments after she had ceased speaking. What
+was passing in their minds no man may know, but that they were moved I
+truly believe, and if one man high among them had been strong enough to
+rise above custom, that moment would have marked a new and mighty era
+for Mars.
+
+I saw Tars Tarkas rise to speak, and on his face was such an expression
+as I had never seen upon the countenance of a green Martian warrior. It
+bespoke an inward and mighty battle with self, with heredity, with
+age-old custom, and as he opened his mouth to speak, a look almost of
+benignity, of kindliness, momentarily lighted up his fierce and
+terrible countenance.
+
+What words of moment were to have fallen from his lips were never
+spoken, as just then a young warrior, evidently sensing the trend of
+thought among the older men, leaped down from the steps of the rostrum,
+and striking the frail captive a powerful blow across the face, which
+felled her to the floor, placed his foot upon her prostrate form and
+turning toward the assembled council broke into peals of horrid,
+mirthless laughter.
+
+For an instant I thought Tars Tarkas would strike him dead, nor did the
+aspect of Lorquas Ptomel augur any too favorably for the brute, but the
+mood passed, their old selves reasserted their ascendency, and they
+smiled. It was portentous however that they did not laugh aloud, for
+the brute’s act constituted a side-splitting witticism according to the
+ethics which rule green Martian humor.
+
+That I have taken moments to write down a part of what occurred as that
+blow fell does not signify that I remained inactive for any such length
+of time. I think I must have sensed something of what was coming, for I
+realize now that I was crouched as for a spring as I saw the blow aimed
+at her beautiful, upturned, pleading face, and ere the hand descended I
+was halfway across the hall.
+
+Scarcely had his hideous laugh rang out but once, when I was upon him.
+The brute was twelve feet in height and armed to the teeth, but I
+believe that I could have accounted for the whole roomful in the
+terrific intensity of my rage. Springing upward, I struck him full in
+the face as he turned at my warning cry and then as he drew his
+short-sword I drew mine and sprang up again upon his breast, hooking
+one leg over the butt of his pistol and grasping one of his huge tusks
+with my left hand while I delivered blow after blow upon his enormous
+chest.
+
+He could not use his short-sword to advantage because I was too close
+to him, nor could he draw his pistol, which he attempted to do in
+direct opposition to Martian custom which says that you may not fight a
+fellow warrior in private combat with any other than the weapon with
+which you are attacked. In fact he could do nothing but make a wild and
+futile attempt to dislodge me. With all his immense bulk he was little
+if any stronger than I, and it was but the matter of a moment or two
+before he sank, bleeding and lifeless, to the floor.
+
+Dejah Thoris had raised herself upon one elbow and was watching the
+battle with wide, staring eyes. When I had regained my feet I raised
+her in my arms and bore her to one of the benches at the side of the
+room.
+
+Again no Martian interfered with me, and tearing a piece of silk from
+my cape I endeavored to staunch the flow of blood from her nostrils. I
+was soon successful as her injuries amounted to little more than an
+ordinary nosebleed, and when she could speak she placed her hand upon
+my arm and looking up into my eyes, said
+
+“Why did you do it You who refused me even friendly recognition in the
+first hour of my peril! And now you risk your life and kill one of your
+companions for my sake. I cannot understand. What strange manner of man
+are you, that you consort with the green men, though your form is that
+of my race, while your color is little darker than that of the white
+ape Tell me, are you human, or are you more than human”
+
+“It is a strange tale,” I replied, “too long to attempt to tell you
+now, and one which I so much doubt the credibility of myself that I
+fear to hope that others will believe it. Suffice it, for the present,
+that I am your friend, and, so far as our captors will permit, your
+protector and your servant.”
+
+“Then you too are a prisoner But why, then, those arms and the regalia
+of a Tharkian chieftain What is your name Where your country”
+
+“Yes, Dejah Thoris, I too am a prisoner; my name is John Carter, and I
+claim Virginia, one of the United States of America, Earth, as my home;
+but why I am permitted to wear arms I do not know, nor was I aware that
+my regalia was that of a chieftain.”
+
+We were interrupted at this juncture by the approach of one of the
+warriors, bearing arms, accoutrements and ornaments, and in a flash one
+of her questions was answered and a puzzle cleared up for me. I saw
+that the body of my dead antagonist had been stripped, and I read in
+the menacing yet respectful attitude of the warrior who had brought me
+these trophies of the kill the same demeanor as that evinced by the
+other who had brought me my original equipment, and now for the first
+time I realized that my blow, on the occasion of my first battle in the
+audience chamber had resulted in the death of my adversary.
+
+The reason for the whole attitude displayed toward me was now apparent;
+I had won my spurs, so to speak, and in the crude justice, which always
+marks Martian dealings, and which, among other things, has caused me to
+call her the planet of paradoxes, I was accorded the honors due a
+conqueror; the trappings and the position of the man I killed. In
+truth, I was a Martian chieftain, and this I learned later was the
+cause of my great freedom and my toleration in the audience chamber.
+
+As I had turned to receive the dead warrior’s chattels I had noticed
+that Tars Tarkas and several others had pushed forward toward us, and
+the eyes of the former rested upon me in a most quizzical manner.
+Finally he addressed me
+
+“You speak the tongue of Barsoom quite readily for one who was deaf and
+dumb to us a few short days ago. Where did you learn it, John Carter”
+
+“You, yourself, are responsible, Tars Tarkas,” I replied, “in that you
+furnished me with an instructress of remarkable ability; I have to
+thank Sola for my learning.”
+
+“She has done well,” he answered, “but your education in other respects
+needs considerable polish. Do you know what your unprecedented temerity
+would have cost you had you failed to kill either of the two chieftains
+whose metal you now wear”
+
+“I presume that that one whom I had failed to kill, would have killed
+me,” I answered, smiling.
+
+“No, you are wrong. Only in the last extremity of self-defense would a
+Martian warrior kill a prisoner; we like to save them for other
+purposes,” and his face bespoke possibilities that were not pleasant to
+dwell upon.
+
+“But one thing can save you now,” he continued. “Should you, in
+recognition of your remarkable valor, ferocity, and prowess, be
+considered by Tal Hajus as worthy of his service you may be taken into
+the community and become a full-fledged Tharkian. Until we reach the
+headquarters of Tal Hajus it is the will of Lorquas Ptomel that you be
+accorded the respect your acts have earned you. You will be treated by
+us as a Tharkian chieftain, but you must not forget that every chief
+who ranks you is responsible for your safe delivery to our mighty and
+most ferocious ruler. I am done.”
+
+“I hear you, Tars Tarkas,” I answered. “As you know I am not of
+Barsoom; your ways are not my ways, and I can only act in the future as
+I have in the past, in accordance with the dictates of my conscience
+and guided by the standards of mine own people. If you will leave me
+alone I will go in peace, but if not, let the individual Barsoomians
+with whom I must deal either respect my rights as a stranger among you,
+or take whatever consequences may befall. Of one thing let us be sure,
+whatever may be your ultimate intentions toward this unfortunate young
+woman, whoever would offer her injury or insult in the future must
+figure on making a full accounting to me. I understand that you
+belittle all sentiments of generosity and kindliness, but I do not, and
+I can convince your most doughty warrior that these characteristics are
+not incompatible with an ability to fight.”
+
+Ordinarily I am not given to long speeches, nor ever before had I
+descended to bombast, but I had guessed at the keynote which would
+strike an answering chord in the breasts of the green Martians, nor was
+I wrong, for my harangue evidently deeply impressed them, and their
+attitude toward me thereafter was still further respectful.
+
+Tars Tarkas himself seemed pleased with my reply, but his only comment
+was more or less enigmatical—“And I think I know Tal Hajus, Jeddak of
+Thark.”
+
+I now turned my attention to Dejah Thoris, and assisting her to her
+feet I turned with her toward the exit, ignoring her hovering guardian
+harpies as well as the inquiring glances of the chieftains. Was I not
+now a chieftain also! Well, then, I would assume the responsibilities
+of one. They did not molest us, and so Dejah Thoris, Princess of
+Helium, and John Carter, gentleman of Virginia, followed by the
+faithful Woola, passed through utter silence from the audience chamber
+of Lorquas Ptomel, Jed among the Tharks of Barsoom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+WITH DEJAH THORIS
+
+
+As we reached the open the two female guards who had been detailed to
+watch over Dejah Thoris hurried up and made as though to assume custody
+of her once more. The poor child shrank against me and I felt her two
+little hands fold tightly over my arm. Waving the women away, I
+informed them that Sola would attend the captive hereafter, and I
+further warned Sarkoja that any more of her cruel attentions bestowed
+upon Dejah Thoris would result in Sarkoja’s sudden and painful demise.
+
+My threat was unfortunate and resulted in more harm than good to Dejah
+Thoris, for, as I learned later, men do not kill women upon Mars, nor
+women, men. So Sarkoja merely gave us an ugly look and departed to
+hatch up deviltries against us.
+
+I soon found Sola and explained to her that I wished her to guard Dejah
+Thoris as she had guarded me; that I wished her to find other quarters
+where they would not be molested by Sarkoja, and I finally informed her
+that I myself would take up my quarters among the men.
+
+Sola glanced at the accouterments which were carried in my hand and
+slung across my shoulder.
+
+“You are a great chieftain now, John Carter,” she said, “and I must do
+your bidding, though indeed I am glad to do it under any circumstances.
+The man whose metal you carry was young, but he was a great warrior,
+and had by his promotions and kills won his way close to the rank of
+Tars Tarkas, who, as you know, is second to Lorquas Ptomel only. You
+are eleventh, there are but ten chieftains in this community who rank
+you in prowess.”
+
+“And if I should kill Lorquas Ptomel” I asked.
+
+“You would be first, John Carter; but you may only win that honor by
+the will of the entire council that Lorquas Ptomel meet you in combat,
+or should he attack you, you may kill him in self-defense, and thus win
+first place.”
+
+I laughed, and changed the subject. I had no particular desire to kill
+Lorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed among the Tharks.
+
+I accompanied Sola and Dejah Thoris in a search for new quarters, which
+we found in a building nearer the audience chamber and of far more
+pretentious architecture than our former habitation. We also found in
+this building real sleeping apartments with ancient beds of highly
+wrought metal swinging from enormous gold chains depending from the
+marble ceilings. The decoration of the walls was most elaborate, and,
+unlike the frescoes in the other buildings I had examined, portrayed
+many human figures in the compositions. These were of people like
+myself, and of a much lighter color than Dejah Thoris. They were clad
+in graceful, flowing robes, highly ornamented with metal and jewels,
+and their luxuriant hair was of a beautiful golden and reddish bronze.
+The men were beardless and only a few wore arms. The scenes depicted
+for the most part, a fair-skinned, fair-haired people at play.
+
+Dejah Thoris clasped her hands with an exclamation of rapture as she
+gazed upon these magnificent works of art, wrought by a people long
+extinct; while Sola, on the other hand, apparently did not see them.
+
+We decided to use this room, on the second floor and overlooking the
+plaza, for Dejah Thoris and Sola, and another room adjoining and in the
+rear for the cooking and supplies. I then dispatched Sola to bring the
+bedding and such food and utensils as she might need, telling her that
+I would guard Dejah Thoris until her return.
+
+As Sola departed Dejah Thoris turned to me with a faint smile.
+
+“And whereto, then, would your prisoner escape should you leave her,
+unless it was to follow you and crave your protection, and ask your
+pardon for the cruel thoughts she has harbored against you these past
+few days”
+
+“You are right,” I answered, “there is no escape for either of us
+unless we go together.”
+
+“I heard your challenge to the creature you call Tars Tarkas, and I
+think I understand your position among these people, but what I cannot
+fathom is your statement that you are not of Barsoom.”
+
+“In the name of my first ancestor, then,” she continued, “where may you
+be from You are like unto my people, and yet so unlike. You speak my
+language, and yet I heard you tell Tars Tarkas that you had but learned
+it recently. All Barsoomians speak the same tongue from the ice-clad
+south to the ice-clad north, though their written languages differ.
+Only in the valley Dor, where the river Iss empties into the lost sea
+of Korus, is there supposed to be a different language spoken, and,
+except in the legends of our ancestors, there is no record of a
+Barsoomian returning up the river Iss, from the shores of Korus in the
+valley of Dor. Do not tell me that you have thus returned! They would
+kill you horribly anywhere upon the surface of Barsoom if that were
+true; tell me it is not!”
+
+Her eyes were filled with a strange, weird light; her voice was
+pleading, and her little hands, reached up upon my breast, were pressed
+against me as though to wring a denial from my very heart.
+
+“I do not know your customs, Dejah Thoris, but in my own Virginia a
+gentleman does not lie to save himself; I am not of Dor; I have never
+seen the mysterious Iss; the lost sea of Korus is still lost, so far as
+I am concerned. Do you believe me”
+
+And then it struck me suddenly that I was very anxious that she should
+believe me. It was not that I feared the results which would follow a
+general belief that I had returned from the Barsoomian heaven or hell,
+or whatever it was. Why was it, then! Why should I care what she
+thought I looked down at her; her beautiful face upturned, and her
+wonderful eyes opening up the very depth of her soul; and as my eyes
+met hers I knew why, and—I shuddered.
+
+A similar wave of feeling seemed to stir her; she drew away from me
+with a sigh, and with her earnest, beautiful face turned up to mine,
+she whispered “I believe you, John Carter; I do not know what a
+‘gentleman’ is, nor have I ever heard before of Virginia; but on
+Barsoom no man lies; if he does not wish to speak the truth he is
+silent. Where is this Virginia, your country, John Carter” she asked,
+and it seemed that this fair name of my fair land had never sounded
+more beautiful than as it fell from those perfect lips on that far-gone
+day.
+
+“I am of another world,” I answered, “the great planet Earth, which
+revolves about our common sun and next within the orbit of your
+Barsoom, which we know as Mars. How I came here I cannot tell you, for
+I do not know; but here I am, and since my presence has permitted me to
+serve Dejah Thoris I am glad that I am here.”
+
+She gazed at me with troubled eyes, long and questioningly. That it was
+difficult to believe my statement I well knew, nor could I hope that
+she would do so however much I craved her confidence and respect. I
+would much rather not have told her anything of my antecedents, but no
+man could look into the depth of those eyes and refuse her slightest
+behest.
+
+Finally she smiled, and, rising, said “I shall have to believe even
+though I cannot understand. I can readily perceive that you are not of
+the Barsoom of today; you are like us, yet different—but why should I
+trouble my poor head with such a problem, when my heart tells me that I
+believe because I wish to believe!”
+
+It was good logic, good, earthly, feminine logic, and if it satisfied
+her I certainly could pick no flaws in it. As a matter of fact it was
+about the only kind of logic that could be brought to bear upon my
+problem. We fell into a general conversation then, asking and answering
+many questions on each side. She was curious to learn of the customs of
+my people and displayed a remarkable knowledge of events on Earth. When
+I questioned her closely on this seeming familiarity with earthly
+things she laughed, and cried out
+
+“Why, every school boy on Barsoom knows the geography, and much
+concerning the fauna and flora, as well as the history of your planet
+fully as well as of his own. Can we not see everything which takes
+place upon Earth, as you call it; is it not hanging there in the
+heavens in plain sight”
+
+This baffled me, I must confess, fully as much as my statements had
+confounded her; and I told her so. She then explained in general the
+instruments her people had used and been perfecting for ages, which
+permit them to throw upon a screen a perfect image of what is
+transpiring upon any planet and upon many of the stars. These pictures
+are so perfect in detail that, when photographed and enlarged, objects
+no greater than a blade of grass may be distinctly recognized. I
+afterward, in Helium, saw many of these pictures, as well as the
+instruments which produced them.
+
+“If, then, you are so familiar with earthly things,” I asked, “why is
+it that you do not recognize me as identical with the inhabitants of
+that planet”
+
+She smiled again as one might in bored indulgence of a questioning
+child.
+
+“Because, John Carter,” she replied, “nearly every planet and star
+having atmospheric conditions at all approaching those of Barsoom,
+shows forms of animal life almost identical with you and me; and,
+further, Earth men, almost without exception, cover their bodies with
+strange, unsightly pieces of cloth, and their heads with hideous
+contraptions the purpose of which we have been unable to conceive;
+while you, when found by the Tharkian warriors, were entirely
+undisfigured and unadorned.
+
+“The fact that you wore no ornaments is a strong proof of your
+un-Barsoomian origin, while the absence of grotesque coverings might
+cause a doubt as to your earthliness.”
+
+I then narrated the details of my departure from the Earth, explaining
+that my body there lay fully clothed in all the, to her, strange
+garments of mundane dwellers. At this point Sola returned with our
+meager belongings and her young Martian protege, who, of course, would
+have to share the quarters with them.
+
+Sola asked us if we had had a visitor during her absence, and seemed
+much surprised when we answered in the negative. It seemed that as she
+had mounted the approach to the upper floors where our quarters were
+located, she had met Sarkoja descending. We decided that she must have
+been eavesdropping, but as we could recall nothing of importance that
+had passed between us we dismissed the matter as of little consequence,
+merely promising ourselves to be warned to the utmost caution in the
+future.
+
+Dejah Thoris and I then fell to examining the architecture and
+decorations of the beautiful chambers of the building we were
+occupying. She told me that these people had presumably flourished over
+a hundred thousand years before. They were the early progenitors of her
+race, but had mixed with the other great race of early Martians, who
+were very dark, almost black, and also with the reddish yellow race
+which had flourished at the same time.
+
+These three great divisions of the higher Martians had been forced into
+a mighty alliance as the drying up of the Martian seas had compelled
+them to seek the comparatively few and always diminishing fertile
+areas, and to defend themselves, under new conditions of life, against
+the wild hordes of green men.
+
+Ages of close relationship and intermarrying had resulted in the race
+of red men, of which Dejah Thoris was a fair and beautiful daughter.
+During the ages of hardships and incessant warring between their own
+various races, as well as with the green men, and before they had
+fitted themselves to the changed conditions, much of the high
+civilization and many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians had
+become lost; but the red race of today has reached a point where it
+feels that it has made up in new discoveries and in a more practical
+civilization for all that lies irretrievably buried with the ancient
+Barsoomians, beneath the countless intervening ages.
+
+These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race,
+but during the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of readjustment
+to new conditions, not only did their advancement and production cease
+entirely, but practically all their archives, records, and literature
+were lost.
+
+Dejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legends concerning this
+lost race of noble and kindly people. She said that the city in which
+we were camping was supposed to have been a center of commerce and
+culture known as Korad. It had been built upon a beautiful, natural
+harbor, landlocked by magnificent hills. The little valley on the west
+front of the city, she explained, was all that remained of the harbor,
+while the pass through the hills to the old sea bottom had been the
+channel through which the shipping passed up to the city’s gates.
+
+The shores of the ancient seas were dotted with just such cities, and
+lesser ones, in diminishing numbers, were to be found converging toward
+the center of the oceans, as the people had found it necessary to
+follow the receding waters until necessity had forced upon them their
+ultimate salvation, the so-called Martian canals.
+
+We had been so engrossed in exploration of the building and in our
+conversation that it was late in the afternoon before we realized it.
+We were brought back to a realization of our present conditions by a
+messenger bearing a summons from Lorquas Ptomel directing me to appear
+before him forthwith. Bidding Dejah Thoris and Sola farewell, and
+commanding Woola to remain on guard, I hastened to the audience
+chamber, where I found Lorquas Ptomel and Tars Tarkas seated upon the
+rostrum.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+A PRISONER WITH POWER
+
+
+As I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and,
+fixing his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus
+
+“You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by
+your prowess won a high position among us. Be that as it may, you are
+not one of us; you owe us no allegiance.
+
+“Your position is a peculiar one,” he continued; “you are a prisoner
+and yet you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and
+yet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill
+a mighty warrior with one blow of your fist. And now you are reported
+to have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of another race;
+a prisoner who, from her own admission, half believes you are returned
+from the valley of Dor. Either one of these accusations, if proved,
+would be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we are a just
+people and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark, if Tal Hajus
+so commands.
+
+“But,” he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, “if you run off with
+the red girl it is I who shall have to account to Tal Hajus; it is I
+who shall have to face Tars Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right to
+command, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better man, for
+such is the custom of the Tharks.
+
+“I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule supreme the
+greatest of the lesser communities among the green men; we do not wish
+to fight between ourselves; and so if you were dead, John Carter, I
+should be glad. Under two conditions only, however, may you be killed
+by us without orders from Tal Hajus; in personal combat in
+self-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended in
+an attempt to escape.
+
+“As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of these
+two excuses for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility. The
+safe delivery of the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatest
+importance. Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such a
+capture; she is the granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks,
+who is also our bitterest enemy. I have spoken. The red girl told us
+that we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we are a
+just and truthful race. You may go.”
+
+Turning, I left the audience chamber. So this was the beginning of
+Sarkoja’s persecution! I knew that none other could be responsible for
+this report which had reached the ears of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly,
+and now I recalled those portions of our conversation which had touched
+upon escape and upon my origin.
+
+Sarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas’ oldest and most trusted female.
+As such she was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior had
+the confidence of Lorquas Ptomel to such an extent as did his ablest
+lieutenant, Tars Tarkas.
+
+However, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind,
+my audience with Lorquas Ptomel only served to center my every faculty
+on this subject. Now, more than before, the absolute necessity for
+escape, in so far as Dejah Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me,
+for I was convinced that some horrible fate awaited her at the
+headquarters of Tal Hajus.
+
+As described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated personification
+of all the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which he had
+descended. Cold, cunning, calculating; he was, also, in marked contrast
+to most of his fellows, a slave to that brute passion which the waning
+demands for procreation upon their dying planet has almost stilled in
+the Martian breast.
+
+The thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into the clutches
+of such an abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me. Far better
+that we save friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did
+those brave frontier women of my lost land, who took their own lives
+rather than fall into the hands of the Indian braves.
+
+As I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tars Tarkas
+approached me on his way from the audience chamber. His demeanor toward
+me was unchanged, and he greeted me as though we had not just parted a
+few moments before.
+
+“Where are your quarters, John Carter” he asked.
+
+“I have selected none,” I replied. “It seemed best that I quartered
+either by myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting an
+opportunity to ask your advice. As you know,” and I smiled, “I am not
+yet familiar with all the customs of the Tharks.”
+
+“Come with me,” he directed, and together we moved off across the plaza
+to a building which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Sola
+and her charges.
+
+“My quarters are on the first floor of this building,” he said, “and
+the second floor also is fully occupied by warriors, but the third
+floor and the floors above are vacant; you may take your choice of
+these.
+
+“I understand,” he continued, “that you have given up your woman to the
+red prisoner. Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, but
+you can fight well enough to do about as you please, and so, if you
+wish to give your woman to a captive, it is your own affair; but as a
+chieftain you should have those to serve you, and in accordance with
+our customs you may select any or all the females from the retinues of
+the chieftains whose metal you now wear.”
+
+I thanked him, but assured him that I could get along very nicely
+without assistance except in the matter of preparing food, and so he
+promised to send women to me for this purpose and also for the care of
+my arms and the manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would be
+necessary. I suggested that they might also bring some of the sleeping
+silks and furs which belonged to me as spoils of combat, for the nights
+were cold and I had none of my own.
+
+He promised to do so, and departed. Left alone, I ascended the winding
+corridor to the upper floors in search of suitable quarters. The
+beauties of the other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, I
+was soon lost in a tour of investigation and discovery.
+
+I finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this brought
+me nearer to Dejah Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor of
+the adjoining building, and it flashed upon me that I could rig up some
+means of communication whereby she might signal me in case she needed
+either my services or my protection.
+
+Adjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other
+sleeping and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor.
+The windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which
+formed the center of the square made by the buildings which faced the
+four contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the quartering
+of the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying the
+adjoining buildings.
+
+While the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like
+vegetation which blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet
+numerous fountains, statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptions
+bore witness to the beauty which the court must have presented in
+bygone times, when graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whom
+stern and unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes,
+but from all except the vague legends of their descendants.
+
+One could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian
+vegetation which once filled this scene with life and color; the
+graceful figures of the beautiful women, the straight and handsome men;
+the happy frolicking children—all sunlight, happiness and peace. It was
+difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages of darkness,
+cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of culture and
+humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the final composite
+race which now is dominant upon Mars.
+
+My thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young females
+bearing loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and
+casks of food and drink, including considerable loot from the air
+craft. All this, it seemed, had been the property of the two chieftains
+I had slain, and now, by the customs of the Tharks, it had become mine.
+At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the back rooms, and
+then departed, only to return with a second load, which they advised me
+constituted the balance of my goods. On the second trip they were
+accompanied by ten or fifteen other women and youths, who, it seemed,
+formed the retinues of the two chieftains.
+
+They were not their families, nor their wives, nor their servants; the
+relationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that it
+is most difficult to describe. All property among the green Martians is
+owned in common by the community, except the personal weapons,
+ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals. These alone
+can one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more of these
+than are required for his actual needs. The surplus he holds merely as
+custodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the community
+as necessity demands.
+
+The women and children of a man’s retinue may be likened to a military
+unit for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of
+instruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their
+continual roamings and their unending strife with other communities and
+with the red Martians. His women are in no sense wives. The green
+Martians use no word corresponding in meaning with this earthly word.
+Their mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is directed
+without reference to natural selection. The council of chieftains of
+each community control the matter as surely as the owner of a Kentucky
+racing stud directs the scientific breeding of his stock for the
+improvement of the whole.
+
+In theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but
+the results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the
+community interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of the
+mother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy,
+loveless, mirthless existence.
+
+It is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both men
+and women, with the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; but
+better far a finer balance of human characteristics even at the expense
+of a slight and occasional loss of chastity.
+
+Finding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whether
+I would or not, I made the best of it and directed them to find
+quarters on the upper floors, leaving the third floor to me. One of the
+girls I charged with the duties of my simple cuisine, and directed the
+others to take up the various activities which had formerly constituted
+their vocations. Thereafter I saw little of them, nor did I care to.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+LOVE-MAKING ON MARS
+
+
+Following the battle with the air ships, the community remained within
+the city for several days, abandoning the homeward march until they
+could feel reasonably assured that the ships would not return; for to
+be caught on the open plains with a cavalcade of chariots and children
+was far from the desire of even so warlike a people as the green
+Martians.
+
+During our period of inactivity, Tars Tarkas had instructed me in many
+of the customs and arts of war familiar to the Tharks, including
+lessons in riding and guiding the great beasts which bore the warriors.
+These creatures, which are known as thoats, are as dangerous and
+vicious as their masters, but when once subdued are sufficiently
+tractable for the purposes of the green Martians.
+
+Two of these animals had fallen to me from the warriors whose metal I
+wore, and in a short time I could handle them quite as well as the
+native warriors. The method was not at all complicated. If the thoats
+did not respond with sufficient celerity to the telepathic instructions
+of their riders they were dealt a terrific blow between the ears with
+the butt of a pistol, and if they showed fight this treatment was
+continued until the brutes either were subdued, or had unseated their
+riders.
+
+In the latter case it became a life and death struggle between the man
+and the beast. If the former were quick enough with his pistol he might
+live to ride again, though upon some other beast; if not, his torn and
+mangled body was gathered up by his women and burned in accordance with
+Tharkian custom.
+
+My experience with Woola determined me to attempt the experiment of
+kindness in my treatment of my thoats. First I taught them that they
+could not unseat me, and even rapped them sharply between the ears to
+impress upon them my authority and mastery. Then, by degrees, I won
+their confidence in much the same manner as I had adopted countless
+times with my many mundane mounts. I was ever a good hand with animals,
+and by inclination, as well as because it brought more lasting and
+satisfactory results, I was always kind and humane in my dealings with
+the lower orders. I could take a human life, if necessary, with far
+less compunction than that of a poor, unreasoning, irresponsible brute.
+
+In the course of a few days my thoats were the wonder of the entire
+community. They would follow me like dogs, rubbing their great snouts
+against my body in awkward evidence of affection, and respond to my
+every command with an alacrity and docility which caused the Martian
+warriors to ascribe to me the possession of some earthly power unknown
+on Mars.
+
+“How have you bewitched them” asked Tars Tarkas one afternoon, when he
+had seen me run my arm far between the great jaws of one of my thoats
+which had wedged a piece of stone between two of his teeth while
+feeding upon the moss-like vegetation within our court yard.
+
+“By kindness,” I replied. “You see, Tars Tarkas, the softer sentiments
+have their value, even to a warrior. In the height of battle as well as
+upon the march I know that my thoats will obey my every command, and
+therefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced, and I am a better warrior
+for the reason that I am a kind master. Your other warriors would find
+it to the advantage of themselves as well as of the community to adopt
+my methods in this respect. Only a few days since you, yourself, told
+me that these great brutes, by the uncertainty of their tempers, often
+were the means of turning victory into defeat, since, at a crucial
+moment, they might elect to unseat and rend their riders.”
+
+“Show me how you accomplish these results,” was Tars Tarkas’ only
+rejoinder.
+
+And so I explained as carefully as I could the entire method of
+training I had adopted with my beasts, and later he had me repeat it
+before Lorquas Ptomel and the assembled warriors. That moment marked
+the beginning of a new existence for the poor thoats, and before I left
+the community of Lorquas Ptomel I had the satisfaction of observing a
+regiment of as tractable and docile mounts as one might care to see.
+The effect on the precision and celerity of the military movements was
+so remarkable that Lorquas Ptomel presented me with a massive anklet of
+gold from his own leg, as a sign of his appreciation of my service to
+the horde.
+
+On the seventh day following the battle with the air craft we again
+took up the march toward Thark, all probability of another attack being
+deemed remote by Lorquas Ptomel.
+
+During the days just preceding our departure I had seen but little of
+Dejah Thoris, as I had been kept very busy by Tars Tarkas with my
+lessons in the art of Martian warfare, as well as in the training of my
+thoats. The few times I had visited her quarters she had been absent,
+walking upon the streets with Sola, or investigating the buildings in
+the near vicinity of the plaza. I had warned them against venturing far
+from the plaza for fear of the great white apes, whose ferocity I was
+only too well acquainted with. However, since Woola accompanied them on
+all their excursions, and as Sola was well armed, there was
+comparatively little cause for fear.
+
+On the evening before our departure I saw them approaching along one of
+the great avenues which lead into the plaza from the east. I advanced
+to meet them, and telling Sola that I would take the responsibility for
+Dejah Thoris’ safekeeping, I directed her to return to her quarters on
+some trivial errand. I liked and trusted Sola, but for some reason I
+desired to be alone with Dejah Thoris, who represented to me all that I
+had left behind upon Earth in agreeable and congenial companionship.
+There seemed bonds of mutual interest between us as powerful as though
+we had been born under the same roof rather than upon different
+planets, hurtling through space some forty-eight million miles apart.
+
+That she shared my sentiments in this respect I was positive, for on my
+approach the look of pitiful hopelessness left her sweet countenance to
+be replaced by a smile of joyful welcome, as she placed her little
+right hand upon my left shoulder in true red Martian salute.
+
+“Sarkoja told Sola that you had become a true Thark,” she said, “and
+that I would now see no more of you than of any of the other warriors.”
+
+“Sarkoja is a liar of the first magnitude,” I replied, “notwithstanding
+the proud claim of the Tharks to absolute verity.”
+
+Dejah Thoris laughed.
+
+“I knew that even though you became a member of the community you would
+not cease to be my friend; ‘A warrior may change his metal, but not his
+heart,’ as the saying is upon Barsoom.”
+
+“I think they have been trying to keep us apart,” she continued, “for
+whenever you have been off duty one of the older women of Tars Tarkas’
+retinue has always arranged to trump up some excuse to get Sola and me
+out of sight. They have had me down in the pits below the buildings
+helping them mix their awful radium powder, and make their terrible
+projectiles. You know that these have to be manufactured by artificial
+light, as exposure to sunlight always results in an explosion. You have
+noticed that their bullets explode when they strike an object Well,
+the opaque, outer coating is broken by the impact, exposing a glass
+cylinder, almost solid, in the forward end of which is a minute
+particle of radium powder. The moment the sunlight, even though
+diffused, strikes this powder it explodes with a violence which nothing
+can withstand. If you ever witness a night battle you will note the
+absence of these explosions, while the morning following the battle
+will be filled at sunrise with the sharp detonations of exploding
+missiles fired the preceding night. As a rule, however, non-exploding
+projectiles are used at night.”[1]
+
+ [1] I have used the word radium in describing this powder because in
+ the light of recent discoveries on Earth I believe it to be a mixture
+ of which radium is the base. In Captain Carter’s manuscript it is
+ mentioned always by the name used in the written language of Helium
+ and is spelled in hieroglyphics which it would be difficult and
+ useless to reproduce.
+
+
+While I was much interested in Dejah Thoris’ explanation of this
+wonderful adjunct to Martian warfare, I was more concerned by the
+immediate problem of their treatment of her. That they were keeping her
+away from me was not a matter for surprise, but that they should
+subject her to dangerous and arduous labor filled me with rage.
+
+“Have they ever subjected you to cruelty and ignominy, Dejah Thoris” I
+asked, feeling the hot blood of my fighting ancestors leap in my veins
+as I awaited her reply.
+
+“Only in little ways, John Carter,” she answered. “Nothing that can
+harm me outside my pride. They know that I am the daughter of ten
+thousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry straight back without a
+break to the builder of the first great waterway, and they, who do not
+even know their own mothers, are jealous of me. At heart they hate
+their horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for
+everything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can
+attain. Let us pity them, my chieftain, for even though we die at their
+hands we can afford them pity, since we are greater than they and they
+know it.”
+
+Had I known the significance of those words “my chieftain,” as applied
+by a red Martian woman to a man, I should have had the surprise of my
+life, but I did not know at that time, nor for many months thereafter.
+Yes, I still had much to learn upon Barsoom.
+
+“I presume it is the better part of wisdom that we bow to our fate with
+as good grace as possible, Dejah Thoris; but I hope, nevertheless, that
+I may be present the next time that any Martian, green, red, pink, or
+violet, has the temerity to even so much as frown on you, my princess.”
+
+Dejah Thoris caught her breath at my last words, and gazed upon me with
+dilated eyes and quickening breath, and then, with an odd little laugh,
+which brought roguish dimples to the corners of her mouth, she shook
+her head and cried
+
+“What a child! A great warrior and yet a stumbling little child.”
+
+“What have I done now” I asked, in sore perplexity.
+
+“Some day you shall know, John Carter, if we live; but I may not tell
+you. And I, the daughter of Mors Kajak, son of Tardos Mors, have
+listened without anger,” she soliloquized in conclusion.
+
+Then she broke out again into one of her gay, happy, laughing moods;
+joking with me on my prowess as a Thark warrior as contrasted with my
+soft heart and natural kindliness.
+
+“I presume that should you accidentally wound an enemy you would take
+him home and nurse him back to health,” she laughed.
+
+“That is precisely what we do on Earth,” I answered. “At least among
+civilized men.”
+
+This made her laugh again. She could not understand it, for, with all
+her tenderness and womanly sweetness, she was still a Martian, and to a
+Martian the only good enemy is a dead enemy; for every dead foeman
+means so much more to divide between those who live.
+
+I was very curious to know what I had said or done to cause her so much
+perturbation a moment before and so I continued to importune her to
+enlighten me.
+
+“No,” she exclaimed, “it is enough that you have said it and that I
+have listened. And when you learn, John Carter, and if I be dead, as
+likely I shall be ere the further moon has circled Barsoom another
+twelve times, remember that I listened and that I—smiled.”
+
+It was all Greek to me, but the more I begged her to explain the more
+positive became her denials of my request, and, so, in very
+hopelessness, I desisted.
+
+Day had now given away to night and as we wandered along the great
+avenue lighted by the two moons of Barsoom, and with Earth looking down
+upon us out of her luminous green eye, it seemed that we were alone in
+the universe, and I, at least, was content that it should be so.
+
+The chill of the Martian night was upon us, and removing my silks I
+threw them across the shoulders of Dejah Thoris. As my arm rested for
+an instant upon her I felt a thrill pass through every fiber of my
+being such as contact with no other mortal had even produced; and it
+seemed to me that she had leaned slightly toward me, but of that I was
+not sure. Only I knew that as my arm rested there across her shoulders
+longer than the act of adjusting the silk required she did not draw
+away, nor did she speak. And so, in silence, we walked the surface of a
+dying world, but in the breast of one of us at least had been born that
+which is ever oldest, yet ever new.
+
+I loved Dejah Thoris. The touch of my arm upon her naked shoulder had
+spoken to me in words I would not mistake, and I knew that I had loved
+her since the first moment that my eyes had met hers that first time in
+the plaza of the dead city of Korad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+A DUEL TO THE DEATH
+
+
+My first impulse was to tell her of my love, and then I thought of the
+helplessness of her position wherein I alone could lighten the burdens
+of her captivity, and protect her in my poor way against the thousands
+of hereditary enemies she must face upon our arrival at Thark. I could
+not chance causing her additional pain or sorrow by declaring a love
+which, in all probability she did not return. Should I be so
+indiscreet, her position would be even more unbearable than now, and
+the thought that she might feel that I was taking advantage of her
+helplessness, to influence her decision was the final argument which
+sealed my lips.
+
+“Why are you so quiet, Dejah Thoris” I asked. “Possibly you would
+rather return to Sola and your quarters.”
+
+“No,” she murmured, “I am happy here. I do not know why it is that I
+should always be happy and contented when you, John Carter, a stranger,
+are with me; yet at such times it seems that I am safe and that, with
+you, I shall soon return to my father’s court and feel his strong arms
+about me and my mother’s tears and kisses on my cheek.”
+
+“Do people kiss, then, upon Barsoom” I asked, when she had explained
+the word she used, in answer to my inquiry as to its meaning.
+
+“Parents, brothers, and sisters, yes; and,” she added in a low,
+thoughtful tone, “lovers.”
+
+“And you, Dejah Thoris, have parents and brothers and sisters”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And a—lover”
+
+She was silent, nor could I venture to repeat the question.
+
+“The man of Barsoom,” she finally ventured, “does not ask personal
+questions of women, except his mother, and the woman he has fought for
+and won.”
+
+“But I have fought—” I started, and then I wished my tongue had been
+cut from my mouth; for she turned even as I caught myself and ceased,
+and drawing my silks from her shoulder she held them out to me, and
+without a word, and with head held high, she moved with the carriage of
+the queen she was toward the plaza and the doorway of her quarters.
+
+I did not attempt to follow her, other than to see that she reached the
+building in safety, but, directing Woola to accompany her, I turned
+disconsolately and entered my own house. I sat for hours cross-legged,
+and cross-tempered, upon my silks meditating upon the queer freaks
+chance plays upon us poor devils of mortals.
+
+So this was love! I had escaped it for all the years I had roamed the
+five continents and their encircling seas; in spite of beautiful women
+and urging opportunity; in spite of a half-desire for love and a
+constant search for my ideal, it had remained for me to fall furiously
+and hopelessly in love with a creature from another world, of a species
+similar possibly, yet not identical with mine. A woman who was hatched
+from an egg, and whose span of life might cover a thousand years; whose
+people had strange customs and ideas; a woman whose hopes, whose
+pleasures, whose standards of virtue and of right and wrong might vary
+as greatly from mine as did those of the green Martians.
+
+Yes, I was a fool, but I was in love, and though I was suffering the
+greatest misery I had ever known I would not have had it otherwise for
+all the riches of Barsoom. Such is love, and such are lovers wherever
+love is known.
+
+To me, Dejah Thoris was all that was perfect; all that was virtuous and
+beautiful and noble and good. I believed that from the bottom of my
+heart, from the depth of my soul on that night in Korad as I sat
+cross-legged upon my silks while the nearer moon of Barsoom raced
+through the western sky toward the horizon, and lighted up the gold and
+marble, and jeweled mosaics of my world-old chamber, and I believe it
+today as I sit at my desk in the little study overlooking the Hudson.
+Twenty years have intervened; for ten of them I lived and fought for
+Dejah Thoris and her people, and for ten I have lived upon her memory.
+
+The morning of our departure for Thark dawned clear and hot, as do all
+Martian mornings except for the six weeks when the snow melts at the
+poles.
+
+I sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing chariots, but she
+turned her shoulder to me, and I could see the red blood mount to her
+cheek. With the foolish inconsistency of love I held my peace when I
+might have pled ignorance of the nature of my offense, or at least the
+gravity of it, and so have effected, at worst, a half conciliation.
+
+
+[Illustration I sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing
+chariots.]
+
+
+My duty dictated that I must see that she was comfortable, and so I
+glanced into her chariot and rearranged her silks and furs. In doing so
+I noted with horror that she was heavily chained by one ankle to the
+side of the vehicle.
+
+“What does this mean” I cried, turning to Sola.
+
+“Sarkoja thought it best,” she answered, her face betokening her
+disapproval of the procedure.
+
+Examining the manacles I saw that they fastened with a massive spring
+lock.
+
+“Where is the key, Sola Let me have it.”
+
+“Sarkoja wears it, John Carter,” she answered.
+
+I turned without further word and sought out Tars Tarkas, to whom I
+vehemently objected to the unnecessary humiliations and cruelties, as
+they seemed to my lover’s eyes, that were being heaped upon Dejah
+Thoris.
+
+“John Carter,” he answered, “if ever you and Dejah Thoris escape the
+Tharks it will be upon this journey. We know that you will not go
+without her. You have shown yourself a mighty fighter, and we do not
+wish to manacle you, so we hold you both in the easiest way that will
+yet ensure security. I have spoken.”
+
+I saw the strength of his reasoning at a flash, and knew that it was
+futile to appeal from his decision, but I asked that the key be taken
+from Sarkoja and that she be directed to leave the prisoner alone in
+future.
+
+“This much, Tars Tarkas, you may do for me in return for the friendship
+that, I must confess, I feel for you.”
+
+“Friendship” he replied. “There is no such thing, John Carter; but
+have your will. I shall direct that Sarkoja cease to annoy the girl,
+and I myself will take the custody of the key.”
+
+“Unless you wish me to assume the responsibility,” I said, smiling.
+
+He looked at me long and earnestly before he spoke.
+
+“Were you to give me your word that neither you nor Dejah Thoris would
+attempt to escape until after we have safely reached the court of Tal
+Hajus you might have the key and throw the chains into the river Iss.”
+
+“It were better that you held the key, Tars Tarkas,” I replied
+
+He smiled, and said no more, but that night as we were making camp I
+saw him unfasten Dejah Thoris’ fetters himself.
+
+With all his cruel ferocity and coldness there was an undercurrent of
+something in Tars Tarkas which he seemed ever battling to subdue. Could
+it be a vestige of some human instinct come back from an ancient
+forbear to haunt him with the horror of his people’s ways!
+
+As I was approaching Dejah Thoris’ chariot I passed Sarkoja, and the
+black, venomous look she accorded me was the sweetest balm I had felt
+for many hours. Lord, how she hated me! It bristled from her so
+palpably that one might almost have cut it with a sword.
+
+A few moments later I saw her deep in conversation with a warrior named
+Zad; a big, hulking, powerful brute, but one who had never made a kill
+among his own chieftains, and so was still an _o mad_, or man with one
+name; he could win a second name only with the metal of some chieftain.
+It was this custom which entitled me to the names of either of the
+chieftains I had killed; in fact, some of the warriors addressed me as
+Dotar Sojat, a combination of the surnames of the two warrior
+chieftains whose metal I had taken, or, in other words, whom I had
+slain in fair fight.
+
+As Sarkoja talked with Zad he cast occasional glances in my direction,
+while she seemed to be urging him very strongly to some action. I paid
+little attention to it at the time, but the next day I had good reason
+to recall the circumstances, and at the same time gain a slight insight
+into the depths of Sarkoja’s hatred and the lengths to which she was
+capable of going to wreak her horrid vengeance on me.
+
+Dejah Thoris would have none of me again on this evening, and though I
+spoke her name she neither replied, nor conceded by so much as the
+flutter of an eyelid that she realized my existence. In my extremity I
+did what most other lovers would have done; I sought word from her
+through an intimate. In this instance it was Sola whom I intercepted in
+another part of camp.
+
+“What is the matter with Dejah Thoris” I blurted out at her. “Why will
+she not speak to me”
+
+Sola seemed puzzled herself, as though such strange actions on the part
+of two humans were quite beyond her, as indeed they were, poor child.
+
+“She says you have angered her, and that is all she will say, except
+that she is the daughter of a jed and the granddaughter of a jeddak and
+she has been humiliated by a creature who could not polish the teeth of
+her grandmother’s sorak.”
+
+I pondered over this report for some time, finally asking, “What might
+a sorak be, Sola”
+
+“A little animal about as big as my hand, which the red Martian women
+keep to play with,” explained Sola.
+
+Not fit to polish the teeth of her grandmother’s cat! I must rank
+pretty low in the consideration of Dejah Thoris, I thought; but I could
+not help laughing at the strange figure of speech, so homely and in
+this respect so earthly. It made me homesick, for it sounded very much
+like “not fit to polish her shoes.” And then commenced a train of
+thought quite new to me. I began to wonder what my people at home were
+doing. I had not seen them for years. There was a family of Carters in
+Virginia who claimed close relationship with me; I was supposed to be a
+great uncle, or something of the kind equally foolish. I could pass
+anywhere for twenty-five to thirty years of age, and to be a great
+uncle always seemed the height of incongruity, for my thoughts and
+feelings were those of a boy. There were two little kiddies in the
+Carter family whom I had loved and who had thought there was no one on
+Earth like Uncle Jack; I could see them just as plainly, as I stood
+there under the moonlit skies of Barsoom, and I longed for them as I
+had never longed for any mortals before. By nature a wanderer, I had
+never known the true meaning of the word home, but the great hall of
+the Carters had always stood for all that the word did mean to me, and
+now my heart turned toward it from the cold and unfriendly peoples I
+had been thrown amongst. For did not even Dejah Thoris despise me! I
+was a low creature, so low in fact that I was not even fit to polish
+the teeth of her grandmother’s cat; and then my saving sense of humor
+came to my rescue, and laughing I turned into my silks and furs and
+slept upon the moon-haunted ground the sleep of a tired and healthy
+fighting man.
+
+We broke camp the next day at an early hour and marched with only a
+single halt until just before dark. Two incidents broke the tediousness
+of the march. About noon we espied far to our right what was evidently
+an incubator, and Lorquas Ptomel directed Tars Tarkas to investigate
+it. The latter took a dozen warriors, including myself, and we raced
+across the velvety carpeting of moss to the little enclosure.
+
+It was indeed an incubator, but the eggs were very small in comparison
+with those I had seen hatching in ours at the time of my arrival on
+Mars.
+
+Tars Tarkas dismounted and examined the enclosure minutely, finally
+announcing that it belonged to the green men of Warhoon and that the
+cement was scarcely dry where it had been walled up.
+
+“They cannot be a day’s march ahead of us,” he exclaimed, the light of
+battle leaping to his fierce face.
+
+The work at the incubator was short indeed. The warriors tore open the
+entrance and a couple of them, crawling in, soon demolished all the
+eggs with their short-swords. Then remounting we dashed back to join
+the cavalcade. During the ride I took occasion to ask Tars Tarkas if
+these Warhoons whose eggs we had destroyed were a smaller people than
+his Tharks.
+
+“I noticed that their eggs were so much smaller than those I saw
+hatching in your incubator,” I added.
+
+He explained that the eggs had just been placed there; but, like all
+green Martian eggs, they would grow during the five-year period of
+incubation until they obtained the size of those I had seen hatching on
+the day of my arrival on Barsoom. This was indeed an interesting piece
+of information, for it had always seemed remarkable to me that the
+green Martian women, large as they were, could bring forth such
+enormous eggs as I had seen the four-foot infants emerging from. As a
+matter of fact, the new-laid egg is but little larger than an ordinary
+goose egg, and as it does not commence to grow until subjected to the
+light of the sun the chieftains have little difficulty in transporting
+several hundreds of them at one time from the storage vaults to the
+incubators.
+
+Shortly after the incident of the Warhoon eggs we halted to rest the
+animals, and it was during this halt that the second of the day’s
+interesting episodes occurred. I was engaged in changing my riding
+cloths from one of my thoats to the other, for I divided the day’s work
+between them, when Zad approached me, and without a word struck my
+animal a terrific blow with his long-sword.
+
+I did not need a manual of green Martian etiquette to know what reply
+to make, for, in fact, I was so wild with anger that I could scarcely
+refrain from drawing my pistol and shooting him down for the brute he
+was; but he stood waiting with drawn long-sword, and my only choice was
+to draw my own and meet him in fair fight with his choice of weapons or
+a lesser one.
+
+This latter alternative is always permissible, therefore I could have
+used my short-sword, my dagger, my hatchet, or my fists had I wished,
+and been entirely within my rights, but I could not use firearms or a
+spear while he held only his long-sword.
+
+I chose the same weapon he had drawn because I knew he prided himself
+upon his ability with it, and I wished, if I worsted him at all, to do
+it with his own weapon. The fight that followed was a long one and
+delayed the resumption of the march for an hour. The entire community
+surrounded us, leaving a clear space about one hundred feet in diameter
+for our battle.
+
+Zad first attempted to rush me down as a bull might a wolf, but I was
+much too quick for him, and each time I side-stepped his rushes he
+would go lunging past me, only to receive a nick from my sword upon his
+arm or back. He was soon streaming blood from a half dozen minor
+wounds, but I could not obtain an opening to deliver an effective
+thrust. Then he changed his tactics, and fighting warily and with
+extreme dexterity, he tried to do by science what he was unable to do
+by brute strength. I must admit that he was a magnificent swordsman,
+and had it not been for my greater endurance and the remarkable agility
+the lesser gravitation of Mars lent me I might not have been able to
+put up the creditable fight I did against him.
+
+We circled for some time without doing much damage on either side; the
+long, straight, needle-like swords flashing in the sunlight, and
+ringing out upon the stillness as they crashed together with each
+effective parry. Finally Zad, realizing that he was tiring more than I,
+evidently decided to close in and end the battle in a final blaze of
+glory for himself; just as he rushed me a blinding flash of light
+struck full in my eyes, so that I could not see his approach and could
+only leap blindly to one side in an effort to escape the mighty blade
+that it seemed I could already feel in my vitals. I was only partially
+successful, as a sharp pain in my left shoulder attested, but in the
+sweep of my glance as I sought to again locate my adversary, a sight
+met my astonished gaze which paid me well for the wound the temporary
+blindness had caused me. There, upon Dejah Thoris’ chariot stood three
+figures, for the purpose evidently of witnessing the encounter above
+the heads of the intervening Tharks. There were Dejah Thoris, Sola, and
+Sarkoja, and as my fleeting glance swept over them a little tableau was
+presented which will stand graven in my memory to the day of my death.
+
+As I looked, Dejah Thoris turned upon Sarkoja with the fury of a young
+tigress and struck something from her upraised hand; something which
+flashed in the sunlight as it spun to the ground. Then I knew what had
+blinded me at that crucial moment of the fight, and how Sarkoja had
+found a way to kill me without herself delivering the final thrust.
+Another thing I saw, too, which almost lost my life for me then and
+there, for it took my mind for the fraction of an instant entirely from
+my antagonist; for, as Dejah Thoris struck the tiny mirror from her
+hand, Sarkoja, her face livid with hatred and baffled rage, whipped out
+her dagger and aimed a terrific blow at Dejah Thoris; and then Sola,
+our dear and faithful Sola, sprang between them; the last I saw was the
+great knife descending upon her shielding breast.
+
+My enemy had recovered from his thrust and was making it extremely
+interesting for me, so I reluctantly gave my attention to the work in
+hand, but my mind was not upon the battle.
+
+We rushed each other furiously time after time, ’til suddenly, feeling
+the sharp point of his sword at my breast in a thrust I could neither
+parry nor escape, I threw myself upon him with outstretched sword and
+with all the weight of my body, determined that I would not die alone
+if I could prevent it. I felt the steel tear into my chest, all went
+black before me, my head whirled in dizziness, and I felt my knees
+giving beneath me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+SOLA TELLS ME HER STORY
+
+
+When consciousness returned, and, as I soon learned, I was down but a
+moment, I sprang quickly to my feet searching for my sword, and there I
+found it, buried to the hilt in the green breast of Zad, who lay stone
+dead upon the ochre moss of the ancient sea bottom. As I regained my
+full senses I found his weapon piercing my left breast, but only
+through the flesh and muscles which cover my ribs, entering near the
+center of my chest and coming out below the shoulder. As I had lunged I
+had turned so that his sword merely passed beneath the muscles,
+inflicting a painful but not dangerous wound.
+
+Removing the blade from my body I also regained my own, and turning my
+back upon his ugly carcass, I moved, sick, sore, and disgusted, toward
+the chariots which bore my retinue and my belongings. A murmur of
+Martian applause greeted me, but I cared not for it.
+
+Bleeding and weak I reached my women, who, accustomed to such
+happenings, dressed my wounds, applying the wonderful healing and
+remedial agents which make only the most instantaneous of death blows
+fatal. Give a Martian woman a chance and death must take a back seat.
+They soon had me patched up so that, except for weakness from loss of
+blood and a little soreness around the wound, I suffered no great
+distress from this thrust which, under earthly treatment, undoubtedly
+would have put me flat on my back for days.
+
+As soon as they were through with me I hastened to the chariot of Dejah
+Thoris, where I found my poor Sola with her chest swathed in bandages,
+but apparently little the worse for her encounter with Sarkoja, whose
+dagger it seemed had struck the edge of one of Sola’s metal breast
+ornaments and, thus deflected, had inflicted but a slight flesh wound.
+
+As I approached I found Dejah Thoris lying prone upon her silks and
+furs, her lithe form wracked with sobs. She did not notice my presence,
+nor did she hear me speaking with Sola, who was standing a short
+distance from the vehicle.
+
+“Is she injured” I asked of Sola, indicating Dejah Thoris by an
+inclination of my head.
+
+“No,” she answered, “she thinks that you are dead.”
+
+“And that her grandmother’s cat may now have no one to polish its
+teeth” I queried, smiling.
+
+“I think you wrong her, John Carter,” said Sola. “I do not understand
+either her ways or yours, but I am sure the granddaughter of ten
+thousand jeddaks would never grieve like this over any who held but the
+highest claim upon her affections. They are a proud race, but they are
+just, as are all Barsoomians, and you must have hurt or wronged her
+grievously that she will not admit your existence living, though she
+mourns you dead.
+
+“Tears are a strange sight upon Barsoom,” she continued, “and so it is
+difficult for me to interpret them. I have seen but two people weep in
+all my life, other than Dejah Thoris; one wept from sorrow, the other
+from baffled rage. The first was my mother, years ago before they
+killed her; the other was Sarkoja, when they dragged her from me
+today.”
+
+“Your mother!” I exclaimed, “but, Sola, you could not have known your
+mother, child.”
+
+“But I did. And my father also,” she added. “If you would like to hear
+the strange and un-Barsoomian story come to the chariot tonight, John
+Carter, and I will tell you that of which I have never spoken in all my
+life before. And now the signal has been given to resume the march, you
+must go.”
+
+“I will come tonight, Sola,” I promised. “Be sure to tell Dejah Thoris
+I am alive and well. I shall not force myself upon her, and be sure
+that you do not let her know I saw her tears. If she would speak with
+me I but await her command.”
+
+Sola mounted the chariot, which was swinging into its place in line,
+and I hastened to my waiting thoat and galloped to my station beside
+Tars Tarkas at the rear of the column.
+
+We made a most imposing and awe-inspiring spectacle as we strung out
+across the yellow landscape; the two hundred and fifty ornate and
+brightly colored chariots, preceded by an advance guard of some two
+hundred mounted warriors and chieftains riding five abreast and one
+hundred yards apart, and followed by a like number in the same
+formation, with a score or more of flankers on either side; the fifty
+extra mastodons, or heavy draught animals, known as zitidars, and the
+five or six hundred extra thoats of the warriors running loose within
+the hollow square formed by the surrounding warriors. The gleaming
+metal and jewels of the gorgeous ornaments of the men and women,
+duplicated in the trappings of the zitidars and thoats, and
+interspersed with the flashing colors of magnificent silks and furs and
+feathers, lent a barbaric splendor to the caravan which would have
+turned an East Indian potentate green with envy.
+
+The enormous broad tires of the chariots and the padded feet of the
+animals brought forth no sound from the moss-covered sea bottom; and so
+we moved in utter silence, like some huge phantasmagoria, except when
+the stillness was broken by the guttural growling of a goaded zitidar,
+or the squealing of fighting thoats. The green Martians converse but
+little, and then usually in monosyllables, low and like the faint
+rumbling of distant thunder.
+
+We traversed a trackless waste of moss which, bending to the pressure
+of broad tire or padded foot, rose up again behind us, leaving no sign
+that we had passed. We might indeed have been the wraiths of the
+departed dead upon the dead sea of that dying planet for all the sound
+or sign we made in passing. It was the first march of a large body of
+men and animals I had ever witnessed which raised no dust and left no
+spoor; for there is no dust upon Mars except in the cultivated
+districts during the winter months, and even then the absence of high
+winds renders it almost unnoticeable.
+
+We camped that night at the foot of the hills we had been approaching
+for two days and which marked the southern boundary of this particular
+sea. Our animals had been two days without drink, nor had they had
+water for nearly two months, not since shortly after leaving Thark;
+but, as Tars Tarkas explained to me, they require but little and can
+live almost indefinitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, and which,
+he told me, holds in its tiny stems sufficient moisture to meet the
+limited demands of the animals.
+
+After partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like food and vegetable
+milk I sought out Sola, whom I found working by the light of a torch
+upon some of Tars Tarkas’ trappings. She looked up at my approach, her
+face lighting with pleasure and with welcome.
+
+“I am glad you came,” she said; “Dejah Thoris sleeps and I am lonely.
+Mine own people do not care for me, John Carter; I am too unlike them.
+It is a sad fate, since I must live my life amongst them, and I often
+wish that I were a true green Martian woman, without love and without
+hope; but I have known love and so I am lost.
+
+“I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of my parents.
+From what I have learned of you and the ways of your people I am sure
+that the tale will not seem strange to you, but among green Martians it
+has no parallel within the memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do
+our legends hold many similar tales.
+
+“My mother was rather small, in fact too small to be allowed the
+responsibilities of maternity, as our chieftains breed principally for
+size. She was also less cold and cruel than most green Martian women,
+and caring little for their society, she often roamed the deserted
+avenues of Thark alone, or went and sat among the wild flowers that
+deck the nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wishes which I
+believe I alone among Tharkian women today may understand, for am I not
+the child of my mother
+
+“And there among the hills she met a young warrior, whose duty it was
+to guard the feeding zitidars and thoats and see that they roamed not
+beyond the hills. They spoke at first only of such things as interest a
+community of Tharks, but gradually, as they came to meet more often,
+and, as was now quite evident to both, no longer by chance, they talked
+about themselves, their likes, their ambitions and their hopes. She
+trusted him and told him of the awful repugnance she felt for the
+cruelties of their kind, for the hideous, loveless lives they must ever
+lead, and then she waited for the storm of denunciation to break from
+his cold, hard lips; but instead he took her in his arms and kissed
+her.
+
+“They kept their love a secret for six long years. She, my mother, was
+of the retinue of the great Tal Hajus, while her lover was a simple
+warrior, wearing only his own metal. Had their defection from the
+traditions of the Tharks been discovered both would have paid the
+penalty in the great arena before Tal Hajus and the assembled hordes.
+
+“The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a great glass vessel upon
+the highest and most inaccessible of the partially ruined towers of
+ancient Thark. Once each year my mother visited it for the five long
+years it lay there in the process of incubation. She dared not come
+oftener, for in the mighty guilt of her conscience she feared that her
+every move was watched. During this period my father gained great
+distinction as a warrior and had taken the metal from several
+chieftains. His love for my mother had never diminished, and his own
+ambition in life was to reach a point where he might wrest the metal
+from Tal Hajus himself, and thus, as ruler of the Tharks, be free to
+claim her as his own, as well as, by the might of his power, protect
+the child which otherwise would be quickly dispatched should the truth
+become known.
+
+“It was a wild dream, that of wresting the metal from Tal Hajus in five
+short years, but his advance was rapid, and he soon stood high in the
+councils of Thark. But one day the chance was lost forever, in so far
+as it could come in time to save his loved ones, for he was ordered
+away upon a long expedition to the ice-clad south, to make war upon the
+natives there and despoil them of their furs, for such is the manner of
+the green Barsoomian; he does not labor for what he can wrest in battle
+from others.
+
+“He was gone for four years, and when he returned all had been over for
+three; for about a year after his departure, and shortly before the
+time for the return of an expedition which had gone forth to fetch the
+fruits of a community incubator, the egg had hatched. Thereafter my
+mother continued to keep me in the old tower, visiting me nightly and
+lavishing upon me the love the community life would have robbed us both
+of. She hoped, upon the return of the expedition from the incubator, to
+mix me with the other young assigned to the quarters of Tal Hajus, and
+thus escape the fate which would surely follow discovery of her sin
+against the ancient traditions of the green men.
+
+“She taught me rapidly the language and customs of my kind, and one
+night she told me the story I have told to you up to this point,
+impressing upon me the necessity for absolute secrecy and the great
+caution I must exercise after she had placed me with the other young
+Tharks to permit no one to guess that I was further advanced in
+education than they, nor by any sign to divulge in the presence of
+others my affection for her, or my knowledge of my parentage; and then
+drawing me close to her she whispered in my ear the name of my father.
+
+“And then a light flashed out upon the darkness of the tower chamber,
+and there stood Sarkoja, her gleaming, baleful eyes fixed in a frenzy
+of loathing and contempt upon my mother. The torrent of hatred and
+abuse she poured out upon her turned my young heart cold in terror.
+That she had heard the entire story was apparent, and that she had
+suspected something wrong from my mother’s long nightly absences from
+her quarters accounted for her presence there on that fateful night.
+
+“One thing she had not heard, nor did she know, the whispered name of
+my father. This was apparent from her repeated demands upon my mother
+to disclose the name of her partner in sin, but no amount of abuse or
+threats could wring this from her, and to save me from needless torture
+she lied, for she told Sarkoja that she alone knew nor would she ever
+tell her child.
+
+“With final imprecations, Sarkoja hastened away to Tal Hajus to report
+her discovery, and while she was gone my mother, wrapping me in the
+silks and furs of her night coverings, so that I was scarcely
+noticeable, descended to the streets and ran wildly away toward the
+outskirts of the city, in the direction which led to the far south, out
+toward the man whose protection she might not claim, but on whose face
+she wished to look once more before she died.
+
+“As we neared the city’s southern extremity a sound came to us from
+across the mossy flat, from the direction of the only pass through the
+hills which led to the gates, the pass by which caravans from either
+north or south or east or west would enter the city. The sounds we
+heard were the squealing of thoats and the grumbling of zitidars, with
+the occasional clank of arms which announced the approach of a body of
+warriors. The thought uppermost in her mind was that it was my father
+returned from his expedition, but the cunning of the Thark held her
+from headlong and precipitate flight to greet him.
+
+“Retreating into the shadows of a doorway she awaited the coming of the
+cavalcade which shortly entered the avenue, breaking its formation and
+thronging the thoroughfare from wall to wall. As the head of the
+procession passed us the lesser moon swung clear of the overhanging
+roofs and lit up the scene with all the brilliancy of her wondrous
+light. My mother shrank further back into the friendly shadows, and
+from her hiding place saw that the expedition was not that of my
+father, but the returning caravan bearing the young Tharks. Instantly
+her plan was formed, and as a great chariot swung close to our hiding
+place she slipped stealthily in upon the trailing tailboard, crouching
+low in the shadow of the high side, straining me to her bosom in a
+frenzy of love.
+
+“She knew, what I did not, that never again after that night would she
+hold me to her breast, nor was it likely we would ever look upon each
+other’s face again. In the confusion of the plaza she mixed me with the
+other children, whose guardians during the journey were now free to
+relinquish their responsibility. We were herded together into a great
+room, fed by women who had not accompanied the expedition, and the next
+day we were parceled out among the retinues of the chieftains.
+
+“I never saw my mother after that night. She was imprisoned by Tal
+Hajus, and every effort, including the most horrible and shameful
+torture, was brought to bear upon her to wring from her lips the name
+of my father; but she remained steadfast and loyal, dying at last
+amidst the laughter of Tal Hajus and his chieftains during some awful
+torture she was undergoing.
+
+“I learned afterwards that she told them that she had killed me to save
+me from a like fate at their hands, and that she had thrown my body to
+the white apes. Sarkoja alone disbelieved her, and I feel to this day
+that she suspects my true origin, but does not dare expose me, at the
+present, at all events, because she also guesses, I am sure, the
+identity of my father.
+
+“When he returned from his expedition and learned the story of my
+mother’s fate I was present as Tal Hajus told him; but never by the
+quiver of a muscle did he betray the slightest emotion; only he did not
+laugh as Tal Hajus gleefully described her death struggles. From that
+moment on he was the cruelest of the cruel, and I am awaiting the day
+when he shall win the goal of his ambition, and feel the carcass of Tal
+Hajus beneath his foot, for I am as sure that he but waits the
+opportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance, and that his great love is
+as strong in his breast as when it first transfigured him nearly forty
+years ago, as I am that we sit here upon the edge of a world-old ocean
+while sensible people sleep, John Carter.”
+
+“And your father, Sola, is he with us now” I asked.
+
+“Yes,” she replied, “but he does not know me for what I am, nor does he
+know who betrayed my mother to Tal Hajus. I alone know my father’s
+name, and only I and Tal Hajus and Sarkoja know that it was she who
+carried the tale that brought death and torture upon her he loved.”
+
+We sat silent for a few moments, she wrapped in the gloomy thoughts of
+her terrible past, and I in pity for the poor creatures whom the
+heartless, senseless customs of their race had doomed to loveless lives
+of cruelty and of hate. Presently she spoke.
+
+“John Carter, if ever a real man walked the cold, dead bosom of Barsoom
+you are one. I know that I can trust you, and because the knowledge may
+someday help you or him or Dejah Thoris or myself, I am going to tell
+you the name of my father, nor place any restrictions or conditions
+upon your tongue. When the time comes, speak the truth if it seems best
+to you. I trust you because I know that you are not cursed with the
+terrible trait of absolute and unswerving truthfulness, that you could
+lie like one of your own Virginia gentlemen if a lie would save others
+from sorrow or suffering. My father’s name is Tars Tarkas.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+WE PLAN ESCAPE
+
+
+The remainder of our journey to Thark was uneventful. We were twenty
+days upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms and passing through or
+around a number of ruined cities, mostly smaller than Korad. Twice we
+crossed the famous Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our
+earthly astronomers. When we approached these points a warrior would be
+sent far ahead with a powerful field glass, and if no great body of red
+Martian troops was in sight we would advance as close as possible
+without chance of being seen and then camp until dark, when we would
+slowly approach the cultivated tract, and, locating one of the
+numerous, broad highways which cross these areas at regular intervals,
+creep silently and stealthily across to the arid lands upon the other
+side. It required five hours to make one of these crossings without a
+single halt, and the other consumed the entire night, so that we were
+just leaving the confines of the high-walled fields when the sun broke
+out upon us.
+
+Crossing in the darkness, as we did, I was unable to see but little,
+except as the nearer moon, in her wild and ceaseless hurtling through
+the Barsoomian heavens, lit up little patches of the landscape from
+time to time, disclosing walled fields and low, rambling buildings,
+presenting much the appearance of earthly farms. There were many trees,
+methodically arranged, and some of them were of enormous height; there
+were animals in some of the enclosures, and they announced their
+presence by terrified squealings and snortings as they scented our
+queer, wild beasts and wilder human beings.
+
+Only once did I perceive a human being, and that was at the
+intersection of our crossroad with the wide, white turnpike which cuts
+each cultivated district longitudinally at its exact center. The fellow
+must have been sleeping beside the road, for, as I came abreast of him,
+he raised upon one elbow and after a single glance at the approaching
+caravan leaped shrieking to his feet and fled madly down the road,
+scaling a nearby wall with the agility of a scared cat. The Tharks paid
+him not the slightest attention; they were not out upon the warpath,
+and the only sign that I had that they had seen him was a quickening of
+the pace of the caravan as we hastened toward the bordering desert
+which marked our entrance into the realm of Tal Hajus.
+
+Not once did I have speech with Dejah Thoris, as she sent no word to me
+that I would be welcome at her chariot, and my foolish pride kept me
+from making any advances. I verily believe that a man’s way with women
+is in inverse ratio to his prowess among men. The weakling and the
+saphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the
+fighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding
+in the shadows like some frightened child.
+
+Just thirty days after my advent upon Barsoom we entered the ancient
+city of Thark, from whose long-forgotten people this horde of green men
+have stolen even their name. The hordes of Thark number some thirty
+thousand souls, and are divided into twenty-five communities. Each
+community has its own jed and lesser chieftains, but all are under the
+rule of Tal Hajus, Jeddak of Thark. Five communities make their
+headquarters at the city of Thark, and the balance are scattered among
+other deserted cities of ancient Mars throughout the district claimed
+by Tal Hajus.
+
+We made our entry into the great central plaza early in the afternoon.
+There were no enthusiastic friendly greetings for the returned
+expedition. Those who chanced to be in sight spoke the names of
+warriors or women with whom they came in direct contact, in the formal
+greeting of their kind, but when it was discovered that they brought
+two captives a greater interest was aroused, and Dejah Thoris and I
+were the centers of inquiring groups.
+
+We were soon assigned to new quarters, and the balance of the day was
+devoted to settling ourselves to the changed conditions. My home now
+was upon an avenue leading into the plaza from the south, the main
+artery down which we had marched from the gates of the city. I was at
+the far end of the square and had an entire building to myself. The
+same grandeur of architecture which was so noticeable a characteristic
+of Korad was in evidence here, only, if that were possible, on a larger
+and richer scale. My quarters would have been suitable for housing the
+greatest of earthly emperors, but to these queer creatures nothing
+about a building appealed to them but its size and the enormity of its
+chambers; the larger the building, the more desirable; and so Tal Hajus
+occupied what must have been an enormous public building, the largest
+in the city, but entirely unfitted for residence purposes; the next
+largest was reserved for Lorquas Ptomel, the next for the jed of a
+lesser rank, and so on to the bottom of the list of five jeds. The
+warriors occupied the buildings with the chieftains to whose retinues
+they belonged; or, if they preferred, sought shelter among any of the
+thousands of untenanted buildings in their own quarter of town; each
+community being assigned a certain section of the city. The selection
+of building had to be made in accordance with these divisions, except
+in so far as the jeds were concerned, they all occupying edifices which
+fronted upon the plaza.
+
+When I had finally put my house in order, or rather seen that it had
+been done, it was nearing sunset, and I hastened out with the intention
+of locating Sola and her charges, as I had determined upon having
+speech with Dejah Thoris and trying to impress on her the necessity of
+our at least patching up a truce until I could find some way of aiding
+her to escape. I searched in vain until the upper rim of the great red
+sun was just disappearing behind the horizon and then I spied the ugly
+head of Woola peering from a second-story window on the opposite side
+of the very street where I was quartered, but nearer the plaza.
+
+Without waiting for a further invitation I bolted up the winding runway
+which led to the second floor, and entering a great chamber at the
+front of the building was greeted by the frenzied Woola, who threw his
+great carcass upon me, nearly hurling me to the floor; the poor old
+fellow was so glad to see me that I thought he would devour me, his
+head split from ear to ear, showing his three rows of tusks in his
+hobgoblin smile.
+
+Quieting him with a word of command and a caress, I looked hurriedly
+through the approaching gloom for a sign of Dejah Thoris, and then, not
+seeing her, I called her name. There was an answering murmur from the
+far corner of the apartment, and with a couple of quick strides I was
+standing beside her where she crouched among the furs and silks upon an
+ancient carved wooden seat. As I waited she rose to her full height and
+looking me straight in the eye said
+
+“What would Dotar Sojat, Thark, of Dejah Thoris his captive”
+
+“Dejah Thoris, I do not know how I have angered you. It was furtherest
+from my desire to hurt or offend you, whom I had hoped to protect and
+comfort. Have none of me if it is your will, but that you must aid me
+in effecting your escape, if such a thing be possible, is not my
+request, but my command. When you are safe once more at your father’s
+court you may do with me as you please, but from now on until that day
+I am your master, and you must obey and aid me.”
+
+She looked at me long and earnestly and I thought that she was
+softening toward me.
+
+“I understand your words, Dotar Sojat,” she replied, “but you I do not
+understand. You are a queer mixture of child and man, of brute and
+noble. I only wish that I might read your heart.”
+
+“Look down at your feet, Dejah Thoris; it lies there now where it has
+lain since that other night at Korad, and where it will ever lie
+beating alone for you until death stills it forever.”
+
+She took a little step toward me, her beautiful hands outstretched in a
+strange, groping gesture.
+
+“What do you mean, John Carter” she whispered. “What are you saying to
+me”
+
+“I am saying what I had promised myself that I would not say to you, at
+least until you were no longer a captive among the green men; what from
+your attitude toward me for the past twenty days I had thought never to
+say to you; I am saying, Dejah Thoris, that I am yours, body and soul,
+to serve you, to fight for you, and to die for you. Only one thing I
+ask of you in return, and that is that you make no sign, either of
+condemnation or of approbation of my words until you are safe among
+your own people, and that whatever sentiments you harbor toward me they
+be not influenced or colored by gratitude; whatever I may do to serve
+you will be prompted solely from selfish motives, since it gives me
+more pleasure to serve you than not.”
+
+“I will respect your wishes, John Carter, because I understand the
+motives which prompt them, and I accept your service no more willingly
+than I bow to your authority; your word shall be my law. I have twice
+wronged you in my thoughts and again I ask your forgiveness.”
+
+Further conversation of a personal nature was prevented by the entrance
+of Sola, who was much agitated and wholly unlike her usual calm and
+possessed self.
+
+“That horrible Sarkoja has been before Tal Hajus,” she cried, “and from
+what I heard upon the plaza there is little hope for either of you.”
+
+“What do they say” inquired Dejah Thoris.
+
+“That you will be thrown to the wild calots [dogs] in the great arena
+as soon as the hordes have assembled for the yearly games.”
+
+“Sola,” I said, “you are a Thark, but you hate and loathe the customs
+of your people as much as we do. Will you not accompany us in one
+supreme effort to escape I am sure that Dejah Thoris can offer you a
+home and protection among her people, and your fate can be no worse
+among them than it must ever be here.”
+
+“Yes,” cried Dejah Thoris, “come with us, Sola, you will be better off
+among the red men of Helium than you are here, and I can promise you
+not only a home with us, but the love and affection your nature craves
+and which must always be denied you by the customs of your own race.
+Come with us, Sola; we might go without you, but your fate would be
+terrible if they thought you had connived to aid us. I know that even
+that fear would not tempt you to interfere in our escape, but we want
+you with us, we want you to come to a land of sunshine and happiness,
+amongst a people who know the meaning of love, of sympathy, and of
+gratitude. Say that you will, Sola; tell me that you will.”
+
+“The great waterway which leads to Helium is but fifty miles to the
+south,” murmured Sola, half to herself; “a swift thoat might make it in
+three hours; and then to Helium it is five hundred miles, most of the
+way through thinly settled districts. They would know and they would
+follow us. We might hide among the great trees for a time, but the
+chances are small indeed for escape. They would follow us to the very
+gates of Helium, and they would take toll of life at every step; you do
+not know them.”
+
+“Is there no other way we might reach Helium” I asked. “Can you not
+draw me a rough map of the country we must traverse, Dejah Thoris”
+
+“Yes,” she replied, and taking a great diamond from her hair she drew
+upon the marble floor the first map of Barsoomian territory I had ever
+seen. It was crisscrossed in every direction with long straight lines,
+sometimes running parallel and sometimes converging toward some great
+circle. The lines, she said, were waterways; the circles, cities; and
+one far to the northwest of us she pointed out as Helium. There were
+other cities closer, but she said she feared to enter many of them, as
+they were not all friendly toward Helium.
+
+
+[Illustration She drew upon the marble floor the first map of
+Barsoomian territory I had ever seen.]
+
+
+Finally, after studying the map carefully in the moonlight which now
+flooded the room, I pointed out a waterway far to the north of us which
+also seemed to lead to Helium.
+
+“Does not this pierce your grandfather’s territory” I asked.
+
+“Yes,” she answered, “but it is two hundred miles north of us; it is
+one of the waterways we crossed on the trip to Thark.”
+
+“They would never suspect that we would try for that distant waterway,”
+I answered, “and that is why I think that it is the best route for our
+escape.”
+
+Sola agreed with me, and it was decided that we should leave Thark this
+same night; just as quickly, in fact, as I could find and saddle my
+thoats. Sola was to ride one and Dejah Thoris and I the other; each of
+us carrying sufficient food and drink to last us for two days, since
+the animals could not be urged too rapidly for so long a distance.
+
+I directed Sola to proceed with Dejah Thoris along one of the less
+frequented avenues to the southern boundary of the city, where I would
+overtake them with the thoats as quickly as possible; then, leaving
+them to gather what food, silks, and furs we were to need, I slipped
+quietly to the rear of the first floor, and entered the courtyard,
+where our animals were moving restlessly about, as was their habit,
+before settling down for the night.
+
+In the shadows of the buildings and out beneath the radiance of the
+Martian moons moved the great herd of thoats and zitidars, the latter
+grunting their low gutturals and the former occasionally emitting the
+sharp squeal which denotes the almost habitual state of rage in which
+these creatures passed their existence. They were quieter now, owing to
+the absence of man, but as they scented me they became more restless
+and their hideous noise increased. It was risky business, this entering
+a paddock of thoats alone and at night; first, because their increasing
+noisiness might warn the nearby warriors that something was amiss, and
+also because for the slightest cause, or for no cause at all some great
+bull thoat might take it upon himself to lead a charge upon me.
+
+Having no desire to awaken their nasty tempers upon such a night as
+this, where so much depended upon secrecy and dispatch, I hugged the
+shadows of the buildings, ready at an instant’s warning to leap into
+the safety of a nearby door or window. Thus I moved silently to the
+great gates which opened upon the street at the back of the court, and
+as I neared the exit I called softly to my two animals. How I thanked
+the kind providence which had given me the foresight to win the love
+and confidence of these wild dumb brutes, for presently from the far
+side of the court I saw two huge bulks forcing their way toward me
+through the surging mountains of flesh.
+
+They came quite close to me, rubbing their muzzles against my body and
+nosing for the bits of food it was always my practice to reward them
+with. Opening the gates I ordered the two great beasts to pass out, and
+then slipping quietly after them I closed the portals behind me.
+
+I did not saddle or mount the animals there, but instead walked quietly
+in the shadows of the buildings toward an unfrequented avenue which led
+toward the point I had arranged to meet Dejah Thoris and Sola. With the
+noiselessness of disembodied spirits we moved stealthily along the
+deserted streets, but not until we were within sight of the plain
+beyond the city did I commence to breathe freely. I was sure that Sola
+and Dejah Thoris would find no difficulty in reaching our rendezvous
+undetected, but with my great thoats I was not so sure for myself, as
+it was quite unusual for warriors to leave the city after dark; in fact
+there was no place for them to go within any but a long ride.
+
+I reached the appointed meeting place safely, but as Dejah Thoris and
+Sola were not there I led my animals into the entrance hall of one of
+the large buildings. Presuming that one of the other women of the same
+household may have come in to speak to Sola, and so delayed their
+departure, I did not feel any undue apprehension until nearly an hour
+had passed without a sign of them, and by the time another half hour
+had crawled away I was becoming filled with grave anxiety. Then there
+broke upon the stillness of the night the sound of an approaching
+party, which, from the noise, I knew could be no fugitives creeping
+stealthily toward liberty. Soon the party was near me, and from the
+black shadows of my entranceway I perceived a score of mounted
+warriors, who, in passing, dropped a dozen words that fetched my heart
+clean into the top of my head.
+
+“He would likely have arranged to meet them just without the city, and
+so—” I heard no more, they had passed on; but it was enough. Our plan
+had been discovered, and the chances for escape from now on to the
+fearful end would be small indeed. My one hope now was to return
+undetected to the quarters of Dejah Thoris and learn what fate had
+overtaken her, but how to do it with these great monstrous thoats upon
+my hands, now that the city probably was aroused by the knowledge of my
+escape was a problem of no mean proportions.
+
+Suddenly an idea occurred to me, and acting on my knowledge of the
+construction of the buildings of these ancient Martian cities with a
+hollow court within the center of each square, I groped my way blindly
+through the dark chambers, calling the great thoats after me. They had
+difficulty in negotiating some of the doorways, but as the buildings
+fronting the city’s principal exposures were all designed upon a
+magnificent scale, they were able to wriggle through without sticking
+fast; and thus we finally made the inner court where I found, as I had
+expected, the usual carpet of moss-like vegetation which would provide
+their food and drink until I could return them to their own enclosure.
+That they would be as quiet and contented here as elsewhere I was
+confident, nor was there but the remotest possibility that they would
+be discovered, as the green men had no great desire to enter these
+outlying buildings, which were frequented by the only thing, I believe,
+which caused them the sensation of fear—the great white apes of
+Barsoom.
+
+Removing the saddle trappings, I hid them just within the rear doorway
+of the building through which we had entered the court, and, turning
+the beasts loose, quickly made my way across the court to the rear of
+the buildings upon the further side, and thence to the avenue beyond.
+Waiting in the doorway of the building until I was assured that no one
+was approaching, I hurried across to the opposite side and through the
+first doorway to the court beyond; thus, crossing through court after
+court with only the slight chance of detection which the necessary
+crossing of the avenues entailed, I made my way in safety to the
+courtyard in the rear of Dejah Thoris’ quarters.
+
+Here, of course, I found the beasts of the warriors who quartered in
+the adjacent buildings, and the warriors themselves I might expect to
+meet within if I entered; but, fortunately for me, I had another and
+safer method of reaching the upper story where Dejah Thoris should be
+found, and, after first determining as nearly as possible which of the
+buildings she occupied, for I had never observed them before from the
+court side, I took advantage of my relatively great strength and
+agility and sprang upward until I grasped the sill of a second-story
+window which I thought to be in the rear of her apartment. Drawing
+myself inside the room I moved stealthily toward the front of the
+building, and not until I had quite reached the doorway of her room was
+I made aware by voices that it was occupied.
+
+I did not rush headlong in, but listened without to assure myself that
+it was Dejah Thoris and that it was safe to venture within. It was well
+indeed that I took this precaution, for the conversation I heard was in
+the low gutturals of men, and the words which finally came to me proved
+a most timely warning. The speaker was a chieftain and he was giving
+orders to four of his warriors.
+
+“And when he returns to this chamber,” he was saying, “as he surely
+will when he finds she does not meet him at the city’s edge, you four
+are to spring upon him and disarm him. It will require the combined
+strength of all of you to do it if the reports they bring back from
+Korad are correct. When you have him fast bound bear him to the vaults
+beneath the jeddak’s quarters and chain him securely where he may be
+found when Tal Hajus wishes him. Allow him to speak with none, nor
+permit any other to enter this apartment before he comes. There will be
+no danger of the girl returning, for by this time she is safe in the
+arms of Tal Hajus, and may all her ancestors have pity upon her, for
+Tal Hajus will have none; the great Sarkoja has done a noble night’s
+work. I go, and if you fail to capture him when he comes, I commend
+your carcasses to the cold bosom of Iss.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+A COSTLY RECAPTURE
+
+
+As the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment by the door
+where I was standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard
+enough to fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned
+to the courtyard by the way I had come. My plan of action was formed
+upon the instant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenue upon
+the opposite side I soon stood within the courtyard of Tal Hajus.
+
+The brilliantly lighted apartments of the first floor told me where
+first to seek, and advancing to the windows I peered within. I soon
+discovered that my approach was not to be the easy thing I had hoped,
+for the rear rooms bordering the court were filled with warriors and
+women. I then glanced up at the stories above, discovering that the
+third was apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entrance to
+the building from that point. It was the work of but a moment for me to
+reach the windows above, and soon I had drawn myself within the
+sheltering shadows of the unlighted third floor.
+
+Fortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping
+noiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovered a light in the
+apartments ahead of me. Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I
+discovered that it was but an opening upon an immense inner chamber
+which towered from the first floor, two stories below me, to the
+dome-like roof of the building, high above my head. The floor of this
+great circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors and women,
+and at one end was a great raised platform upon which squatted the most
+hideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon. He had all the cold, hard,
+cruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and
+debased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for
+many years. There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon his bestial
+countenance, while his enormous bulk spread itself out upon the
+platform where he squatted like some huge devil fish, his six limbs
+accentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling manner.
+
+But the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah Thoris
+and Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of him as he
+let his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her beautiful
+figure. She was speaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor could
+I make out the low grumbling of his reply. She stood there erect before
+him, her head high held, and even at the distance I was from them I
+could read the scorn and disgust upon her face as she let her haughty
+glance rest without sign of fear upon him. She was indeed the proud
+daughter of a thousand jeddaks, every inch of her dear, precious little
+body; so small, so frail beside the towering warriors around her, but
+in her majesty dwarfing them into insignificance; she was the mightiest
+figure among them and I verily believe that they felt it.
+
+Presently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and that
+the prisoners be left alone before him. Slowly the chieftains, the
+warriors and the women melted away into the shadows of the surrounding
+chambers, and Dejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before the jeddak of
+the Tharks.
+
+One chieftain alone had hesitated before departing; I saw him standing
+in the shadows of a mighty column, his fingers nervously toying with
+the hilt of his great-sword and his cruel eyes bent in implacable
+hatred upon Tal Hajus. It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his
+thoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing upon
+his face. He was thinking of that other woman who, forty years ago, had
+stood before this beast, and could I have spoken a word into his ear at
+that moment the reign of Tal Hajus would have been over; but finally he
+also strode from the room, not knowing that he left his own daughter at
+the mercy of the creature he most loathed.
+
+Tal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating his intentions,
+hurried to the winding runway which led to the floors below. No one was
+near to intercept me, and I reached the main floor of the chamber
+unobserved, taking my station in the shadow of the same column that
+Tars Tarkas had but just deserted. As I reached the floor Tal Hajus was
+speaking.
+
+“Princess of Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom from your people
+would I but return you to them unharmed, but a thousand times rather
+would I watch that beautiful face writhe in the agony of torture; it
+shall be long drawn out, that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were
+all too short to show the love I harbor for your race. The terrors of
+your death shall haunt the slumbers of the red men through all the ages
+to come; they will shudder in the shadows of the night as their fathers
+tell them of the awful vengeance of the green men; of the power and
+might and hate and cruelty of Tal Hajus. But before the torture you
+shall be mine for one short hour, and word of that too shall go forth
+to Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your grandfather, that he may grovel
+upon the ground in the agony of his sorrow. Tomorrow the torture will
+commence; tonight thou art Tal Hajus’; come!”
+
+He sprang down from the platform and grasped her roughly by the arm,
+but scarcely had he touched her than I leaped between them. My
+short-sword, sharp and gleaming was in my right hand; I could have
+plunged it into his putrid heart before he realized that I was upon
+him; but as I raised my arm to strike I thought of Tars Tarkas, and,
+with all my rage, with all my hatred, I could not rob him of that sweet
+moment for which he had lived and hoped all these long, weary years,
+and so, instead, I swung my good right fist full upon the point of his
+jaw. Without a sound he slipped to the floor as one dead.
+
+In the same deathly silence I grasped Dejah Thoris by the hand, and
+motioning Sola to follow we sped noiselessly from the chamber and to
+the floor above. Unseen we reached a rear window and with the straps
+and leather of my trappings I lowered, first Sola and then Dejah Thoris
+to the ground below. Dropping lightly after them I drew them rapidly
+around the court in the shadows of the buildings, and thus we returned
+over the same course I had so recently followed from the distant
+boundary of the city.
+
+We finally came upon my thoats in the courtyard where I had left them,
+and placing the trappings upon them we hastened through the building to
+the avenue beyond. Mounting, Sola upon one beast, and Dejah Thoris
+behind me upon the other, we rode from the city of Thark through the
+hills to the south.
+
+Instead of circling back around the city to the northwest and toward
+the nearest waterway which lay so short a distance from us, we turned
+to the northeast and struck out upon the mossy waste across which, for
+two hundred dangerous and weary miles, lay another main artery leading
+to Helium.
+
+No word was spoken until we had left the city far behind, but I could
+hear the quiet sobbing of Dejah Thoris as she clung to me with her dear
+head resting against my shoulder.
+
+“If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one;
+greater than she can ever pay you; and should we not make it,” she
+continued, “the debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you
+have saved the last of our line from worse than death.”
+
+I did not answer, but instead reached to my side and pressed the little
+fingers of her I loved where they clung to me for support, and then, in
+unbroken silence, we sped over the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us
+occupied with his own thoughts. For my part I could not be other than
+joyful had I tried, with Dejah Thoris’ warm body pressed close to mine,
+and with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as gaily as
+though we were already entering the gates of Helium.
+
+Our earlier plans had been so sadly upset that we now found ourselves
+without food or drink, and I alone was armed. We therefore urged our
+beasts to a speed that must tell on them sorely before we could hope to
+sight the ending of the first stage of our journey.
+
+We rode all night and all the following day with only a few short
+rests. On the second night both we and our animals were completely
+fagged, and so we lay down upon the moss and slept for some five or six
+hours, taking up the journey once more before daylight. All the
+following day we rode, and when, late in the afternoon we had sighted
+no distant trees, the mark of the great waterways throughout all
+Barsoom, the terrible truth flashed upon us—we were lost.
+
+Evidently we had circled, but which way it was difficult to say, nor
+did it seem possible with the sun to guide us by day and the moons and
+stars by night. At any rate no waterway was in sight, and the entire
+party was almost ready to drop from hunger, thirst and fatigue. Far
+ahead of us and a trifle to the right we could distinguish the outlines
+of low mountains. These we decided to attempt to reach in the hope that
+from some ridge we might discern the missing waterway. Night fell upon
+us before we reached our goal, and, almost fainting from weariness and
+weakness, we lay down and slept.
+
+I was awakened early in the morning by some huge body pressing close to
+mine, and opening my eyes with a start I beheld my blessed old Woola
+snuggling close to me; the faithful brute had followed us across that
+trackless waste to share our fate, whatever it might be. Putting my
+arms about his neck I pressed my cheek close to his, nor am I ashamed
+that I did it, nor of the tears that came to my eyes as I thought of
+his love for me. Shortly after this Dejah Thoris and Sola awakened, and
+it was decided that we push on at once in an effort to gain the hills.
+
+We had gone scarcely a mile when I noticed that my thoat was commencing
+to stumble and stagger in a most pitiful manner, although we had not
+attempted to force them out of a walk since about noon of the preceding
+day. Suddenly he lurched wildly to one side and pitched violently to
+the ground. Dejah Thoris and I were thrown clear of him and fell upon
+the soft moss with scarcely a jar; but the poor beast was in a pitiable
+condition, not even being able to rise, although relieved of our
+weight. Sola told me that the coolness of the night, when it fell,
+together with the rest would doubtless revive him, and so I decided not
+to kill him, as was my first intention, as I had thought it cruel to
+leave him alone there to die of hunger and thirst. Relieving him of his
+trappings, which I flung down beside him, we left the poor fellow to
+his fate, and pushed on with the one thoat as best we could. Sola and I
+walked, making Dejah Thoris ride, much against her will. In this way we
+had progressed to within about a mile of the hills we were endeavoring
+to reach when Dejah Thoris, from her point of vantage upon the thoat,
+cried out that she saw a great party of mounted men filing down from a
+pass in the hills several miles away. Sola and I both looked in the
+direction she indicated, and there, plainly discernible, were several
+hundred mounted warriors. They seemed to be headed in a southwesterly
+direction, which would take them away from us.
+
+They doubtless were Thark warriors who had been sent out to capture us,
+and we breathed a great sigh of relief that they were traveling in the
+opposite direction. Quickly lifting Dejah Thoris from the thoat, I
+commanded the animal to lie down and we three did the same, presenting
+as small an object as possible for fear of attracting the attention of
+the warriors toward us.
+
+We could see them as they filed out of the pass, just for an instant,
+before they were lost to view behind a friendly ridge; to us a most
+providential ridge; since, had they been in view for any great length
+of time, they scarcely could have failed to discover us. As what proved
+to be the last warrior came into view from the pass, he halted and, to
+our consternation, threw his small but powerful fieldglass to his eye
+and scanned the sea bottom in all directions. Evidently he was a
+chieftain, for in certain marching formations among the green men a
+chieftain brings up the extreme rear of the column. As his glass swung
+toward us our hearts stopped in our breasts, and I could feel the cold
+sweat start from every pore in my body.
+
+Presently it swung full upon us and—stopped. The tension on our nerves
+was near the breaking point, and I doubt if any of us breathed for the
+few moments he held us covered by his glass; and then he lowered it and
+we could see him shout a command to the warriors who had passed from
+our sight behind the ridge. He did not wait for them to join him,
+however, instead he wheeled his thoat and came tearing madly in our
+direction.
+
+There was but one slight chance and that we must take quickly. Raising
+my strange Martian rifle to my shoulder I sighted and touched the
+button which controlled the trigger; there was a sharp explosion as the
+missile reached its goal, and the charging chieftain pitched backward
+from his flying mount.
+
+Springing to my feet I urged the thoat to rise, and directed Sola to
+take Dejah Thoris with her upon him and make a mighty effort to reach
+the hills before the green warriors were upon us. I knew that in the
+ravines and gullies they might find a temporary hiding place, and even
+though they died there of hunger and thirst it would be better so than
+that they fell into the hands of the Tharks. Forcing my two revolvers
+upon them as a slight means of protection, and, as a last resort, as an
+escape for themselves from the horrid death which recapture would
+surely mean, I lifted Dejah Thoris in my arms and placed her upon the
+thoat behind Sola, who had already mounted at my command.
+
+“Good-bye, my princess,” I whispered, “we may meet in Helium yet. I
+have escaped from worse plights than this,” and I tried to smile as I
+lied.
+
+“What,” she cried, “are you not coming with us”
+
+“How may I, Dejah Thoris Someone must hold these fellows off for a
+while, and I can better escape them alone than could the three of us
+together.”
+
+She sprang quickly from the thoat and, throwing her dear arms about my
+neck, turned to Sola, saying with quiet dignity “Fly, Sola! Dejah
+Thoris remains to die with the man she loves.”
+
+Those words are engraved upon my heart. Ah, gladly would I give up my
+life a thousand times could I only hear them once again; but I could
+not then give even a second to the rapture of her sweet embrace, and
+pressing my lips to hers for the first time, I picked her up bodily and
+tossed her to her seat behind Sola again, commanding the latter in
+peremptory tones to hold her there by force, and then, slapping the
+thoat upon the flank, I saw them borne away; Dejah Thoris struggling to
+the last to free herself from Sola’s grasp.
+
+Turning, I beheld the green warriors mounting the ridge and looking for
+their chieftain. In a moment they saw him, and then me; but scarcely
+had they discovered me than I commenced firing, lying flat upon my
+belly in the moss. I had an even hundred rounds in the magazine of my
+rifle, and another hundred in the belt at my back, and I kept up a
+continuous stream of fire until I saw all of the warriors who had been
+first to return from behind the ridge either dead or scurrying to
+cover.
+
+My respite was short-lived however, for soon the entire party,
+numbering some thousand men, came charging into view, racing madly
+toward me. I fired until my rifle was empty and they were almost upon
+me, and then a glance showing me that Dejah Thoris and Sola had
+disappeared among the hills, I sprang up, throwing down my useless gun,
+and started away in the direction opposite to that taken by Sola and
+her charge.
+
+If ever Martians had an exhibition of jumping, it was granted those
+astonished warriors on that day long years ago, but while it led them
+away from Dejah Thoris it did not distract their attention from
+endeavoring to capture me.
+
+They raced wildly after me until, finally, my foot struck a projecting
+piece of quartz, and down I went sprawling upon the moss. As I looked
+up they were upon me, and although I drew my long-sword in an attempt
+to sell my life as dearly as possible, it was soon over. I reeled
+beneath their blows which fell upon me in perfect torrents; my head
+swam; all was black, and I went down beneath them to oblivion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+CHAINED IN WARHOON
+
+
+It must have been several hours before I regained consciousness and I
+well remember the feeling of surprise which swept over me as I realized
+that I was not dead.
+
+I was lying among a pile of sleeping silks and furs in the corner of a
+small room in which were several green warriors, and bending over me
+was an ancient and ugly female.
+
+As I opened my eyes she turned to one of the warriors, saying,
+
+“He will live, O Jed.”
+
+“’Tis well,” replied the one so addressed, rising and approaching my
+couch, “he should render rare sport for the great games.”
+
+And now as my eyes fell upon him, I saw that he was no Thark, for his
+ornaments and metal were not of that horde. He was a huge fellow,
+terribly scarred about the face and chest, and with one broken tusk and
+a missing ear. Strapped on either breast were human skulls and
+depending from these a number of dried human hands.
+
+His reference to the great games of which I had heard so much while
+among the Tharks convinced me that I had but jumped from purgatory into
+gehenna.
+
+After a few more words with the female, during which she assured him
+that I was now fully fit to travel, the jed ordered that we mount and
+ride after the main column.
+
+I was strapped securely to as wild and unmanageable a thoat as I had
+ever seen, and, with a mounted warrior on either side to prevent the
+beast from bolting, we rode forth at a furious pace in pursuit of the
+column. My wounds gave me but little pain, so wonderfully and rapidly
+had the applications and injections of the female exercised their
+therapeutic powers, and so deftly had she bound and plastered the
+injuries.
+
+Just before dark we reached the main body of troops shortly after they
+had made camp for the night. I was immediately taken before the leader,
+who proved to be the jeddak of the hordes of Warhoon.
+
+Like the jed who had brought me, he was frightfully scarred, and also
+decorated with the breastplate of human skulls and dried dead hands
+which seemed to mark all the greater warriors among the Warhoons, as
+well as to indicate their awful ferocity, which greatly transcends even
+that of the Tharks.
+
+The jeddak, Bar Comas, who was comparatively young, was the object of
+the fierce and jealous hatred of his old lieutenant, Dak Kova, the jed
+who had captured me, and I could not but note the almost studied
+efforts which the latter made to affront his superior.
+
+He entirely omitted the usual formal salutation as we entered the
+presence of the jeddak, and as he pushed me roughly before the ruler he
+exclaimed in a loud and menacing voice.
+
+“I have brought a strange creature wearing the metal of a Thark whom it
+is my pleasure to have battle with a wild thoat at the great games.”
+
+“He will die as Bar Comas, your jeddak, sees fit, if at all,” replied
+the young ruler, with emphasis and dignity.
+
+“If at all” roared Dak Kova. “By the dead hands at my throat but he
+shall die, Bar Comas. No maudlin weakness on your part shall save him.
+O, would that Warhoon were ruled by a real jeddak rather than by a
+water-hearted weakling from whom even old Dak Kova could tear the metal
+with his bare hands!”
+
+Bar Comas eyed the defiant and insubordinate chieftain for an instant,
+his expression one of haughty, fearless contempt and hate, and then
+without drawing a weapon and without uttering a word he hurled himself
+at the throat of his defamer.
+
+I never before had seen two green Martian warriors battle with nature’s
+weapons and the exhibition of animal ferocity which ensued was as
+fearful a thing as the most disordered imagination could picture. They
+tore at each others’ eyes and ears with their hands and with their
+gleaming tusks repeatedly slashed and gored until both were cut fairly
+to ribbons from head to foot.
+
+Bar Comas had much the better of the battle as he was stronger, quicker
+and more intelligent. It soon seemed that the encounter was done saving
+only the final death thrust when Bar Comas slipped in breaking away
+from a clinch. It was the one little opening that Dak Kova needed, and
+hurling himself at the body of his adversary he buried his single
+mighty tusk in Bar Comas’ groin and with a last powerful effort ripped
+the young jeddak wide open the full length of his body, the great tusk
+finally wedging in the bones of Bar Comas’ jaw. Victor and vanquished
+rolled limp and lifeless upon the moss, a huge mass of torn and bloody
+flesh.
+
+Bar Comas was stone dead, and only the most herculean efforts on the
+part of Dak Kova’s females saved him from the fate he deserved. Three
+days later he walked without assistance to the body of Bar Comas which,
+by custom, had not been moved from where it fell, and placing his foot
+upon the neck of his erstwhile ruler he assumed the title of Jeddak of
+Warhoon.
+
+The dead jeddak’s hands and head were removed to be added to the
+ornaments of his conqueror, and then his women cremated what remained,
+amid wild and terrible laughter.
+
+The injuries to Dak Kova had delayed the march so greatly that it was
+decided to give up the expedition, which was a raid upon a small Thark
+community in retaliation for the destruction of the incubator, until
+after the great games, and the entire body of warriors, ten thousand in
+number, turned back toward Warhoon.
+
+My introduction to these cruel and bloodthirsty people was but an index
+to the scenes I witnessed almost daily while with them. They are a
+smaller horde than the Tharks but much more ferocious. Not a day passed
+but that some members of the various Warhoon communities met in deadly
+combat. I have seen as high as eight mortal duels within a single day.
+
+We reached the city of Warhoon after some three days march and I was
+immediately cast into a dungeon and heavily chained to the floor and
+walls. Food was brought me at intervals but owing to the utter darkness
+of the place I do not know whether I lay there days, or weeks, or
+months. It was the most horrible experience of all my life and that my
+mind did not give way to the terrors of that inky blackness has been a
+wonder to me ever since. The place was filled with creeping, crawling
+things; cold, sinuous bodies passed over me when I lay down, and in the
+darkness I occasionally caught glimpses of gleaming, fiery eyes, fixed
+in horrible intentness upon me. No sound reached me from the world
+above and no word would my jailer vouchsafe when my food was brought to
+me, although I at first bombarded him with questions.
+
+Finally all the hatred and maniacal loathing for these awful creatures
+who had placed me in this horrible place was centered by my tottering
+reason upon this single emissary who represented to me the entire horde
+of Warhoons.
+
+I had noticed that he always advanced with his dim torch to where he
+could place the food within my reach and as he stooped to place it upon
+the floor his head was about on a level with my breast. So, with the
+cunning of a madman, I backed into the far corner of my cell when next
+I heard him approaching and gathering a little slack of the great chain
+which held me in my hand I waited his coming, crouching like some beast
+of prey. As he stooped to place my food upon the ground I swung the
+chain above my head and crashed the links with all my strength upon his
+skull. Without a sound he slipped to the floor, stone dead.
+
+Laughing and chattering like the idiot I was fast becoming I fell upon
+his prostrate form my fingers feeling for his dead throat. Presently
+they came in contact with a small chain at the end of which dangled a
+number of keys. The touch of my fingers on these keys brought back my
+reason with the suddenness of thought. No longer was I a jibbering
+idiot, but a sane, reasoning man with the means of escape within my
+very hands.
+
+As I was groping to remove the chain from about my victim’s neck I
+glanced up into the darkness to see six pairs of gleaming eyes fixed,
+unwinking, upon me. Slowly they approached and slowly I shrank back
+from the awful horror of them. Back into my corner I crouched holding
+my hands palms out, before me, and stealthily on came the awful eyes
+until they reached the dead body at my feet. Then slowly they retreated
+but this time with a strange grating sound and finally they disappeared
+in some black and distant recess of my dungeon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+BATTLING IN THE ARENA
+
+
+Slowly I regained my composure and finally essayed again to attempt to
+remove the keys from the dead body of my former jailer. But as I
+reached out into the darkness to locate it I found to my horror that it
+was gone. Then the truth flashed on me; the owners of those gleaming
+eyes had dragged my prize away from me to be devoured in their
+neighboring lair; as they had been waiting for days, for weeks, for
+months, through all this awful eternity of my imprisonment to drag my
+dead carcass to their feast.
+
+For two days no food was brought me, but then a new messenger appeared
+and my incarceration went on as before, but not again did I allow my
+reason to be submerged by the horror of my position.
+
+Shortly after this episode another prisoner was brought in and chained
+near me. By the dim torch light I saw that he was a red Martian and I
+could scarcely await the departure of his guards to address him. As
+their retreating footsteps died away in the distance, I called out
+softly the Martian word of greeting, kaor.
+
+“Who are you who speaks out of the darkness” he answered
+
+“John Carter, a friend of the red men of Helium.”
+
+“I am of Helium,” he said, “but I do not recall your name.”
+
+And then I told him my story as I have written it here, omitting only
+any reference to my love for Dejah Thoris. He was much excited by the
+news of Helium’s princess and seemed quite positive that she and Sola
+could easily have reached a point of safety from where they left me. He
+said that he knew the place well because the defile through which the
+Warhoon warriors had passed when they discovered us was the only one
+ever used by them when marching to the south.
+
+“Dejah Thoris and Sola entered the hills not five miles from a great
+waterway and are now probably quite safe,” he assured me.
+
+My fellow prisoner was Kantos Kan, a padwar (lieutenant) in the navy of
+Helium. He had been a member of the ill-fated expedition which had
+fallen into the hands of the Tharks at the time of Dejah Thoris’
+capture, and he briefly related the events which followed the defeat of
+the battleships.
+
+Badly injured and only partially manned they had limped slowly toward
+Helium, but while passing near the city of Zodanga, the capital of
+Helium’s hereditary enemies among the red men of Barsoom, they had been
+attacked by a great body of war vessels and all but the craft to which
+Kantos Kan belonged were either destroyed or captured. His vessel was
+chased for days by three of the Zodangan war ships but finally escaped
+during the darkness of a moonless night.
+
+Thirty days after the capture of Dejah Thoris, or about the time of our
+coming to Thark, his vessel had reached Helium with about ten survivors
+of the original crew of seven hundred officers and men. Immediately
+seven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been
+dispatched to search for Dejah Thoris, and from these vessels two
+thousand smaller craft had been kept out continuously in futile search
+for the missing princess.
+
+Two green Martian communities had been wiped off the face of Barsoom by
+the avenging fleets, but no trace of Dejah Thoris had been found. They
+had been searching among the northern hordes, and only within the past
+few days had they extended their quest to the south.
+
+Kantos Kan had been detailed to one of the small one-man fliers and had
+had the misfortune to be discovered by the Warhoons while exploring
+their city. The bravery and daring of the man won my greatest respect
+and admiration. Alone he had landed at the city’s boundary and on foot
+had penetrated to the buildings surrounding the plaza. For two days and
+nights he had explored their quarters and their dungeons in search of
+his beloved princess only to fall into the hands of a party of Warhoons
+as he was about to leave, after assuring himself that Dejah Thoris was
+not a captive there.
+
+During the period of our incarceration Kantos Kan and I became well
+acquainted, and formed a warm personal friendship. A few days only
+elapsed, however, before we were dragged forth from our dungeon for the
+great games. We were conducted early one morning to an enormous
+amphitheater, which instead of having been built upon the surface of
+the ground was excavated below the surface. It had partially filled
+with debris so that how large it had originally been was difficult to
+say. In its present condition it held the entire twenty thousand
+Warhoons of the assembled hordes.
+
+The arena was immense but extremely uneven and unkempt. Around it the
+Warhoons had piled building stone from some of the ruined edifices of
+the ancient city to prevent the animals and the captives from escaping
+into the audience, and at each end had been constructed cages to hold
+them until their turns came to meet some horrible death upon the arena.
+
+Kantos Kan and I were confined together in one of the cages. In the
+others were wild calots, thoats, mad zitidars, green warriors, and
+women of other hordes, and many strange and ferocious wild beasts of
+Barsoom which I had never before seen. The din of their roaring,
+growling and squealing was deafening and the formidable appearance of
+any one of them was enough to make the stoutest heart feel grave
+forebodings.
+
+Kantos Kan explained to me that at the end of the day one of these
+prisoners would gain freedom and the others would lie dead about the
+arena. The winners in the various contests of the day would be pitted
+against each other until only two remained alive; the victor in the
+last encounter being set free, whether animal or man. The following
+morning the cages would be filled with a new consignment of victims,
+and so on throughout the ten days of the games.
+
+Shortly after we had been caged the amphitheater began to fill and
+within an hour every available part of the seating space was occupied.
+Dak Kova, with his jeds and chieftains, sat at the center of one side
+of the arena upon a large raised platform.
+
+At a signal from Dak Kova the doors of two cages were thrown open and a
+dozen green Martian females were driven to the center of the arena.
+Each was given a dagger and then, at the far end, a pack of twelve
+calots, or wild dogs were loosed upon them.
+
+As the brutes, growling and foaming, rushed upon the almost defenseless
+women I turned my head that I might not see the horrid sight. The yells
+and laughter of the green horde bore witness to the excellent quality
+of the sport and when I turned back to the arena, as Kantos Kan told me
+it was over, I saw three victorious calots, snarling and growling over
+the bodies of their prey. The women had given a good account of
+themselves.
+
+Next a mad zitidar was loosed among the remaining dogs, and so it went
+throughout the long, hot, horrible day.
+
+During the day I was pitted against first men and then beasts, but as I
+was armed with a long-sword and always outclassed my adversary in
+agility and generally in strength as well, it proved but child’s play
+to me. Time and time again I won the applause of the bloodthirsty
+multitude, and toward the end there were cries that I be taken from the
+arena and be made a member of the hordes of Warhoon.
+
+Finally there were but three of us left, a great green warrior of some
+far northern horde, Kantos Kan, and myself.
+
+The other two were to battle and then I to fight the conqueror for the
+liberty which was accorded the final winner.
+
+Kantos Kan had fought several times during the day and like myself had
+always proven victorious, but occasionally by the smallest of margins,
+especially when pitted against the green warriors. I had little hope
+that he could best his giant adversary who had mowed down all before
+him during the day. The fellow towered nearly sixteen feet in height,
+while Kantos Kan was some inches under six feet. As they advanced to
+meet one another I saw for the first time a trick of Martian
+swordsmanship which centered Kantos Kan’s every hope of victory and
+life on one cast of the dice, for, as he came to within about twenty
+feet of the huge fellow he threw his sword arm far behind him over his
+shoulder and with a mighty sweep hurled his weapon point foremost at
+the green warrior. It flew true as an arrow and piercing the poor
+devil’s heart laid him dead upon the arena.
+
+Kantos Kan and I were now pitted against each other but as we
+approached to the encounter I whispered to him to prolong the battle
+until nearly dark in the hope that we might find some means of escape.
+The horde evidently guessed that we had no hearts to fight each other
+and so they howled in rage as neither of us placed a fatal thrust. Just
+as I saw the sudden coming of dark I whispered to Kantos Kan to thrust
+his sword between my left arm and my body. As he did so I staggered
+back clasping the sword tightly with my arm and thus fell to the ground
+with his weapon apparently protruding from my chest. Kantos Kan
+perceived my coup and stepping quickly to my side he placed his foot
+upon my neck and withdrawing his sword from my body gave me the final
+death blow through the neck which is supposed to sever the jugular
+vein, but in this instance the cold blade slipped harmlessly into the
+sand of the arena. In the darkness which had now fallen none could tell
+but that he had really finished me. I whispered to him to go and claim
+his freedom and then look for me in the hills east of the city, and so
+he left me.
+
+When the amphitheater had cleared I crept stealthily to the top and as
+the great excavation lay far from the plaza and in an untenanted
+portion of the great dead city I had little trouble in reaching the
+hills beyond.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+IN THE ATMOSPHERE FACTORY
+
+
+For two days I waited there for Kantos Kan, but as he did not come I
+started off on foot in a northwesterly direction toward a point where
+he had told me lay the nearest waterway. My only food consisted of
+vegetable milk from the plants which gave so bounteously of this
+priceless fluid.
+
+Through two long weeks I wandered, stumbling through the nights guided
+only by the stars and hiding during the days behind some protruding
+rock or among the occasional hills I traversed. Several times I was
+attacked by wild beasts; strange, uncouth monstrosities that leaped
+upon me in the dark, so that I had ever to grasp my long-sword in my
+hand that I might be ready for them. Usually my strange, newly acquired
+telepathic power warned me in ample time, but once I was down with
+vicious fangs at my jugular and a hairy face pressed close to mine
+before I knew that I was even threatened.
+
+What manner of thing was upon me I did not know, but that it was large
+and heavy and many-legged I could feel. My hands were at its throat
+before the fangs had a chance to bury themselves in my neck, and slowly
+I forced the hairy face from me and closed my fingers, vise-like, upon
+its windpipe.
+
+Without sound we lay there, the beast exerting every effort to reach me
+with those awful fangs, and I straining to maintain my grip and choke
+the life from it as I kept it from my throat. Slowly my arms gave to
+the unequal struggle, and inch by inch the burning eyes and gleaming
+tusks of my antagonist crept toward me, until, as the hairy face
+touched mine again, I realized that all was over. And then a living
+mass of destruction sprang from the surrounding darkness full upon the
+creature that held me pinioned to the ground. The two rolled growling
+upon the moss, tearing and rending one another in a frightful manner,
+but it was soon over and my preserver stood with lowered head above the
+throat of the dead thing which would have killed me.
+
+The nearer moon, hurtling suddenly above the horizon and lighting up
+the Barsoomian scene, showed me that my preserver was Woola, but from
+whence he had come, or how found me, I was at a loss to know. That I
+was glad of his companionship it is needless to say, but my pleasure at
+seeing him was tempered by anxiety as to the reason of his leaving
+Dejah Thoris. Only her death I felt sure, could account for his absence
+from her, so faithful I knew him to be to my commands.
+
+By the light of the now brilliant moons I saw that he was but a shadow
+of his former self, and as he turned from my caress and commenced
+greedily to devour the dead carcass at my feet I realized that the poor
+fellow was more than half starved. I, myself, was in but little better
+plight but I could not bring myself to eat the uncooked flesh and I had
+no means of making a fire. When Woola had finished his meal I again
+took up my weary and seemingly endless wandering in quest of the
+elusive waterway.
+
+At daybreak of the fifteenth day of my search I was overjoyed to see
+the high trees that denoted the object of my search. About noon I
+dragged myself wearily to the portals of a huge building which covered
+perhaps four square miles and towered two hundred feet in the air. It
+showed no aperture in the mighty walls other than the tiny door at
+which I sank exhausted, nor was there any sign of life about it.
+
+I could find no bell or other method of making my presence known to the
+inmates of the place, unless a small round hole in the wall near the
+door was for that purpose. It was of about the bigness of a lead pencil
+and thinking that it might be in the nature of a speaking tube I put my
+mouth to it and was about to call into it when a voice issued from it
+asking me whom I might be, where from, and the nature of my errand.
+
+I explained that I had escaped from the Warhoons and was dying of
+starvation and exhaustion.
+
+“You wear the metal of a green warrior and are followed by a calot, yet
+you are of the figure of a red man. In color you are neither green nor
+red. In the name of the ninth ray, what manner of creature are you”
+
+“I am a friend of the red men of Barsoom and I am starving. In the name
+of humanity open to us,” I replied.
+
+Presently the door commenced to recede before me until it had sunk into
+the wall fifty feet, then it stopped and slid easily to the left,
+exposing a short, narrow corridor of concrete, at the further end of
+which was another door, similar in every respect to the one I had just
+passed. No one was in sight, yet immediately we passed the first door
+it slid gently into place behind us and receded rapidly to its original
+position in the front wall of the building. As the door had slipped
+aside I had noted its great thickness, fully twenty feet, and as it
+reached its place once more after closing behind us, great cylinders of
+steel had dropped from the ceiling behind it and fitted their lower
+ends into apertures countersunk in the floor.
+
+A second and third door receded before me and slipped to one side as
+the first, before I reached a large inner chamber where I found food
+and drink set out upon a great stone table. A voice directed me to
+satisfy my hunger and to feed my calot, and while I was thus engaged my
+invisible host put me through a severe and searching cross-examination.
+
+“Your statements are most remarkable,” said the voice, on concluding
+its questioning, “but you are evidently speaking the truth, and it is
+equally evident that you are not of Barsoom. I can tell that by the
+conformation of your brain and the strange location of your internal
+organs and the shape and size of your heart.”
+
+“Can you see through me” I exclaimed.
+
+“Yes, I can see all but your thoughts, and were you a Barsoomian I
+could read those.”
+
+Then a door opened at the far side of the chamber and a strange, dried
+up, little mummy of a man came toward me. He wore but a single article
+of clothing or adornment, a small collar of gold from which depended
+upon his chest a great ornament as large as a dinner plate set solid
+with huge diamonds, except for the exact center which was occupied by a
+strange stone, an inch in diameter, that scintillated nine different
+and distinct rays; the seven colors of our earthly prism and two
+beautiful rays which, to me, were new and nameless. I cannot describe
+them any more than you could describe red to a blind man. I only know
+that they were beautiful in the extreme.
+
+The old man sat and talked with me for hours, and the strangest part of
+our intercourse was that I could read his every thought while he could
+not fathom an iota from my mind unless I spoke.
+
+
+[Illustration The old man sat and talked with me for hours.]
+
+
+I did not apprise him of my ability to sense his mental operations, and
+thus I learned a great deal which proved of immense value to me later
+and which I would never have known had he suspected my strange power,
+for the Martians have such perfect control of their mental machinery
+that they are able to direct their thoughts with absolute precision.
+
+The building in which I found myself contained the machinery which
+produces that artificial atmosphere which sustains life on Mars. The
+secret of the entire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray, one of
+the beautiful scintillations which I had noted emanating from the great
+stone in my host’s diadem.
+
+This ray is separated from the other rays of the sun by means of finely
+adjusted instruments placed upon the roof of the huge building,
+three-quarters of which is used for reservoirs in which the ninth ray
+is stored. This product is then treated electrically, or rather certain
+proportions of refined electric vibrations are incorporated with it,
+and the result is then pumped to the five principal air centers of the
+planet where, as it is released, contact with the ether of space
+transforms it into atmosphere.
+
+There is always sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great
+building to maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand
+years, and the only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some
+accident might befall the pumping apparatus.
+
+He led me to an inner chamber where I beheld a battery of twenty radium
+pumps any one of which was equal to the task of furnishing all Mars
+with the atmosphere compound. For eight hundred years, he told me, he
+had watched these pumps which are used alternately a day each at a
+stretch, or a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth hours. He has
+one assistant who divides the watch with him. Half a Martian year,
+about three hundred and forty-four of our days, each of these men spend
+alone in this huge, isolated plant.
+
+Every red Martian is taught during earliest childhood the principles of
+the manufacture of atmosphere, but only two at one time ever hold the
+secret of ingress to the great building, which, built as it is with
+walls a hundred and fifty feet thick, is absolutely unassailable, even
+the roof being guarded from assault by air craft by a glass covering
+five feet thick.
+
+The only fear they entertain of attack is from the green Martians or
+some demented red man, as all Barsoomians realize that the very
+existence of every form of life of Mars is dependent upon the
+uninterrupted working of this plant.
+
+One curious fact I discovered as I watched his thoughts was that the
+outer doors are manipulated by telepathic means. The locks are so
+finely adjusted that the doors are released by the action of a certain
+combination of thought waves. To experiment with my new-found toy I
+thought to surprise him into revealing this combination and so I asked
+him in a casual manner how he had managed to unlock the massive doors
+for me from the inner chambers of the building. As quick as a flash
+there leaped to his mind nine Martian sounds, but as quickly faded as
+he answered that this was a secret he must not divulge.
+
+From then on his manner toward me changed as though he feared that he
+had been surprised into divulging his great secret, and I read
+suspicion and fear in his looks and thoughts, though his words were
+still fair.
+
+Before I retired for the night he promised to give me a letter to a
+nearby agricultural officer who would help me on my way to Zodanga,
+which he said, was the nearest Martian city.
+
+“But be sure that you do not let them know you are bound for Helium as
+they are at war with that country. My assistant and I are of no
+country, we belong to all Barsoom and this talisman which we wear
+protects us in all lands, even among the green men—though we do not
+trust ourselves to their hands if we can avoid it,” he added.
+
+“And so good-night, my friend,” he continued, “may you have a long and
+restful sleep—yes, a long sleep.”
+
+And though he smiled pleasantly I saw in his thoughts the wish that he
+had never admitted me, and then a picture of him standing over me in
+the night, and the swift thrust of a long dagger and the half formed
+words, “I am sorry, but it is for the best good of Barsoom.”
+
+As he closed the door of my chamber behind him his thoughts were cut
+off from me as was the sight of him, which seemed strange to me in my
+little knowledge of thought transference.
+
+What was I to do How could I escape through these mighty walls Easily
+could I kill him now that I was warned, but once he was dead I could no
+more escape, and with the stopping of the machinery of the great plant
+I should die with all the other inhabitants of the planet—all, even
+Dejah Thoris were she not already dead. For the others I did not give
+the snap of my finger, but the thought of Dejah Thoris drove from my
+mind all desire to kill my mistaken host.
+
+Cautiously I opened the door of my apartment and, followed by Woola,
+sought the inner of the great doors. A wild scheme had come to me; I
+would attempt to force the great locks by the nine thought waves I had
+read in my host’s mind.
+
+Creeping stealthily through corridor after corridor and down winding
+runways which turned hither and thither I finally reached the great
+hall in which I had broken my long fast that morning. Nowhere had I
+seen my host, nor did I know where he kept himself by night.
+
+I was on the point of stepping boldly out into the room when a slight
+noise behind me warned me back into the shadows of a recess in the
+corridor. Dragging Woola after me I crouched low in the darkness.
+
+Presently the old man passed close by me, and as he entered the dimly
+lighted chamber which I had been about to pass through I saw that he
+held a long thin dagger in his hand and that he was sharpening it upon
+a stone. In his mind was the decision to inspect the radium pumps,
+which would take about thirty minutes, and then return to my bed
+chamber and finish me.
+
+As he passed through the great hall and disappeared down the runway
+which led to the pump-room, I stole stealthily from my hiding place and
+crossed to the great door, the inner of the three which stood between
+me and liberty.
+
+Concentrating my mind upon the massive lock I hurled the nine thought
+waves against it. In breathless expectancy I waited, when finally the
+great door moved softly toward me and slid quietly to one side. One
+after the other the remaining mighty portals opened at my command and
+Woola and I stepped forth into the darkness, free, but little better
+off than we had been before, other than that we had full stomachs.
+
+Hastening away from the shadows of the formidable pile I made for the
+first crossroad, intending to strike the central turnpike as quickly as
+possible. This I reached about morning and entering the first enclosure
+I came to I searched for some evidences of a habitation.
+
+There were low rambling buildings of concrete barred with heavy
+impassable doors, and no amount of hammering and hallooing brought any
+response. Weary and exhausted from sleeplessness I threw myself upon
+the ground commanding Woola to stand guard.
+
+Some time later I was awakened by his frightful growlings and opened my
+eyes to see three red Martians standing a short distance from us and
+covering me with their rifles.
+
+“I am unarmed and no enemy,” I hastened to explain. “I have been a
+prisoner among the green men and am on my way to Zodanga. All I ask is
+food and rest for myself and my calot and the proper directions for
+reaching my destination.”
+
+They lowered their rifles and advanced pleasantly toward me placing
+their right hands upon my left shoulder, after the manner of their
+custom of salute, and asking me many questions about myself and my
+wanderings. They then took me to the house of one of them which was
+only a short distance away.
+
+The buildings I had been hammering at in the early morning were
+occupied only by stock and farm produce, the house proper standing
+among a grove of enormous trees, and, like all red-Martian homes, had
+been raised at night some forty or fifty feet from the ground on a
+large round metal shaft which slid up or down within a sleeve sunk in
+the ground, and was operated by a tiny radium engine in the entrance
+hall of the building. Instead of bothering with bolts and bars for
+their dwellings, the red Martians simply run them up out of harm’s way
+during the night. They also have private means for lowering or raising
+them from the ground without if they wish to go away and leave them.
+
+These brothers, with their wives and children, occupied three similar
+houses on this farm. They did no work themselves, being government
+officers in charge. The labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of
+war, delinquent debtors and confirmed bachelors who were too poor to
+pay the high celibate tax which all red-Martian governments impose.
+
+They were the personification of cordiality and hospitality and I spent
+several days with them, resting and recuperating from my long and
+arduous experiences.
+
+When they had heard my story—I omitted all reference to Dejah Thoris
+and the old man of the atmosphere plant—they advised me to color my
+body to more nearly resemble their own race and then attempt to find
+employment in Zodanga, either in the army or the navy.
+
+“The chances are small that your tale will be believed until after you
+have proven your trustworthiness and won friends among the higher
+nobles of the court. This you can most easily do through military
+service, as we are a warlike people on Barsoom,” explained one of them,
+“and save our richest favors for the fighting man.”
+
+When I was ready to depart they furnished me with a small domestic bull
+thoat, such as is used for saddle purposes by all red Martians. The
+animal is about the size of a horse and quite gentle, but in color and
+shape an exact replica of his huge and fierce cousin of the wilds.
+
+The brothers had supplied me with a reddish oil with which I anointed
+my entire body and one of them cut my hair, which had grown quite long,
+in the prevailing fashion of the time, square at the back and banged in
+front, so that I could have passed anywhere upon Barsoom as a
+full-fledged red Martian. My metal and ornaments were also renewed in
+the style of a Zodangan gentleman, attached to the house of Ptor, which
+was the family name of my benefactors.
+
+They filled a little sack at my side with Zodangan money. The medium of
+exchange upon Mars is not dissimilar from our own except that the coins
+are oval. Paper money is issued by individuals as they require it and
+redeemed twice yearly. If a man issues more than he can redeem, the
+government pays his creditors in full and the debtor works out the
+amount upon the farms or in mines, which are all owned by the
+government. This suits everybody except the debtor as it has been a
+difficult thing to obtain sufficient voluntary labor to work the great
+isolated farm lands of Mars, stretching as they do like narrow ribbons
+from pole to pole, through wild stretches peopled by wild animals and
+wilder men.
+
+When I mentioned my inability to repay them for their kindness to me
+they assured me that I would have ample opportunity if I lived long
+upon Barsoom, and bidding me farewell they watched me until I was out
+of sight upon the broad white turnpike.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+AN AIR SCOUT FOR ZODANGA
+
+
+As I proceeded on my journey toward Zodanga many strange and
+interesting sights arrested my attention, and at the several farm
+houses where I stopped I learned a number of new and instructive things
+concerning the methods and manners of Barsoom.
+
+The water which supplies the farms of Mars is collected in immense
+underground reservoirs at either pole from the melting ice caps, and
+pumped through long conduits to the various populated centers. Along
+either side of these conduits, and extending their entire length, lie
+the cultivated districts. These are divided into tracts of about the
+same size, each tract being under the supervision of one or more
+government officers.
+
+Instead of flooding the surface of the fields, and thus wasting immense
+quantities of water by evaporation, the precious liquid is carried
+underground through a vast network of small pipes directly to the roots
+of the vegetation. The crops upon Mars are always uniform, for there
+are no droughts, no rains, no high winds, and no insects, or destroying
+birds.
+
+On this trip I tasted the first meat I had eaten since leaving
+Earth—large, juicy steaks and chops from the well-fed domestic animals
+of the farms. Also I enjoyed luscious fruits and vegetables, but not a
+single article of food which was exactly similar to anything on Earth.
+Every plant and flower and vegetable and animal has been so refined by
+ages of careful, scientific cultivation and breeding that the like of
+them on Earth dwindled into pale, gray, characterless nothingness by
+comparison.
+
+At a second stop I met some highly cultivated people of the noble class
+and while in conversation we chanced to speak of Helium. One of the
+older men had been there on a diplomatic mission several years before
+and spoke with regret of the conditions which seemed destined ever to
+keep these two countries at war.
+
+“Helium,” he said, “rightly boasts the most beautiful women of Barsoom,
+and of all her treasures the wondrous daughter of Mors Kajak, Dejah
+Thoris, is the most exquisite flower.
+
+“Why,” he added, “the people really worship the ground she walks upon
+and since her loss on that ill-starred expedition all Helium has been
+draped in mourning.
+
+“That our ruler should have attacked the disabled fleet as it was
+returning to Helium was but another of his awful blunders which I fear
+will sooner or later compel Zodanga to elevate a wiser man to his
+place.”
+
+“Even now, though our victorious armies are surrounding Helium, the
+people of Zodanga are voicing their displeasure, for the war is not a
+popular one, since it is not based on right or justice. Our forces took
+advantage of the absence of the principal fleet of Helium on their
+search for the princess, and so we have been able easily to reduce the
+city to a sorry plight. It is said she will fall within the next few
+passages of the further moon.”
+
+“And what, think you, may have been the fate of the princess, Dejah
+Thoris” I asked as casually as possible.
+
+“She is dead,” he answered. “This much was learned from a green warrior
+recently captured by our forces in the south. She escaped from the
+hordes of Thark with a strange creature of another world, only to fall
+into the hands of the Warhoons. Their thoats were found wandering upon
+the sea bottom and evidences of a bloody conflict were discovered
+nearby.”
+
+While this information was in no way reassuring, neither was it at all
+conclusive proof of the death of Dejah Thoris, and so I determined to
+make every effort possible to reach Helium as quickly as I could and
+carry to Tardos Mors such news of his granddaughter’s possible
+whereabouts as lay in my power.
+
+Ten days after leaving the three Ptor brothers I arrived at Zodanga.
+From the moment that I had come in contact with the red inhabitants of
+Mars I had noticed that Woola drew a great amount of unwelcome
+attention to me, since the huge brute belonged to a species which is
+never domesticated by the red men. Were one to stroll down Broadway
+with a Numidian lion at his heels the effect would be somewhat similar
+to that which I should have produced had I entered Zodanga with Woola.
+
+The very thought of parting with the faithful fellow caused me so great
+regret and genuine sorrow that I put it off until just before we
+arrived at the city’s gates; but then, finally, it became imperative
+that we separate. Had nothing further than my own safety or pleasure
+been at stake no argument could have prevailed upon me to turn away the
+one creature upon Barsoom that had never failed in a demonstration of
+affection and loyalty; but as I would willingly have offered my life in
+the service of her in search of whom I was about to challenge the
+unknown dangers of this, to me, mysterious city, I could not permit
+even Woola’s life to threaten the success of my venture, much less his
+momentary happiness, for I doubted not he soon would forget me. And so
+I bade the poor beast an affectionate farewell, promising him, however,
+that if I came through my adventure in safety that in some way I should
+find the means to search him out.
+
+He seemed to understand me fully, and when I pointed back in the
+direction of Thark he turned sorrowfully away, nor could I bear to
+watch him go; but resolutely set my face toward Zodanga and with a
+touch of heartsickness approached her frowning walls.
+
+The letter I bore from them gained me immediate entrance to the vast,
+walled city. It was still very early in the morning and the streets
+were practically deserted. The residences, raised high upon their metal
+columns, resembled huge rookeries, while the uprights themselves
+presented the appearance of steel tree trunks. The shops as a rule were
+not raised from the ground nor were their doors bolted or barred, since
+thievery is practically unknown upon Barsoom. Assassination is the
+ever-present fear of all Barsoomians, and for this reason alone their
+homes are raised high above the ground at night, or in times of danger.
+
+The Ptor brothers had given me explicit directions for reaching the
+point of the city where I could find living accommodations and be near
+the offices of the government agents to whom they had given me letters.
+My way led to the central square or plaza, which is a characteristic of
+all Martian cities.
+
+The plaza of Zodanga covers a square mile and is bounded by the palaces
+of the jeddak, the jeds, and other members of the royalty and nobility
+of Zodanga, as well as by the principal public buildings, cafes, and
+shops.
+
+As I was crossing the great square lost in wonder and admiration of the
+magnificent architecture and the gorgeous scarlet vegetation which
+carpeted the broad lawns I discovered a red Martian walking briskly
+toward me from one of the avenues. He paid not the slightest attention
+to me, but as he came abreast I recognized him, and turning I placed my
+hand upon his shoulder, calling out
+
+“Kaor, Kantos Kan!”
+
+Like lightning he wheeled and before I could so much as lower my hand
+the point of his long-sword was at my breast.
+
+“Who are you” he growled, and then as a backward leap carried me fifty
+feet from his sword he dropped the point to the ground and exclaimed,
+laughing,
+
+“I do not need a better reply, there is but one man upon all Barsoom
+who can bounce about like a rubber ball. By the mother of the further
+moon, John Carter, how came you here, and have you become a Darseen
+that you can change your color at will”
+
+“You gave me a bad half minute my friend,” he continued, after I had
+briefly outlined my adventures since parting with him in the arena at
+Warhoon. “Were my name and city known to the Zodangans I would shortly
+be sitting on the banks of the lost sea of Korus with my revered and
+departed ancestors. I am here in the interest of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of
+Helium, to discover the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris, our princess. Sab
+Than, prince of Zodanga, has her hidden in the city and has fallen
+madly in love with her. His father, Than Kosis, Jeddak of Zodanga, has
+made her voluntary marriage to his son the price of peace between our
+countries, but Tardos Mors will not accede to the demands and has sent
+word that he and his people would rather look upon the dead face of
+their princess than see her wed to any than her own choice, and that
+personally he would prefer being engulfed in the ashes of a lost and
+burning Helium to joining the metal of his house with that of Than
+Kosis. His reply was the deadliest affront he could have put upon Than
+Kosis and the Zodangans, but his people love him the more for it and
+his strength in Helium is greater today than ever.
+
+“I have been here three days,” continued Kantos Kan, “but I have not
+yet found where Dejah Thoris is imprisoned. Today I join the Zodangan
+navy as an air scout and I hope in this way to win the confidence of
+Sab Than, the prince, who is commander of this division of the navy,
+and thus learn the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris. I am glad that you are
+here, John Carter, for I know your loyalty to my princess and two of us
+working together should be able to accomplish much.”
+
+The plaza was now commencing to fill with people going and coming upon
+the daily activities of their duties. The shops were opening and the
+cafes filling with early morning patrons. Kantos Kan led me to one of
+these gorgeous eating places where we were served entirely by
+mechanical apparatus. No hand touched the food from the time it entered
+the building in its raw state until it emerged hot and delicious upon
+the tables before the guests, in response to the touching of tiny
+buttons to indicate their desires.
+
+After our meal, Kantos Kan took me with him to the headquarters of the
+air-scout squadron and introducing me to his superior asked that I be
+enrolled as a member of the corps. In accordance with custom an
+examination was necessary, but Kantos Kan had told me to have no fear
+on this score as he would attend to that part of the matter. He
+accomplished this by taking my order for examination to the examining
+officer and representing himself as John Carter.
+
+“This ruse will be discovered later,” he cheerfully explained, “when
+they check up my weights, measurements, and other personal
+identification data, but it will be several months before this is done
+and our mission should be accomplished or have failed long before that
+time.”
+
+The next few days were spent by Kantos Kan in teaching me the
+intricacies of flying and of repairing the dainty little contrivances
+which the Martians use for this purpose. The body of the one-man air
+craft is about sixteen feet long, two feet wide and three inches thick,
+tapering to a point at each end. The driver sits on top of this plane
+upon a seat constructed over the small, noiseless radium engine which
+propels it. The medium of buoyancy is contained within the thin metal
+walls of the body and consists of the eighth Barsoomian ray, or ray of
+propulsion, as it may be termed in view of its properties.
+
+This ray, like the ninth ray, is unknown on Earth, but the Martians
+have discovered that it is an inherent property of all light no matter
+from what source it emanates. They have learned that it is the solar
+eighth ray which propels the light of the sun to the various planets,
+and that it is the individual eighth ray of each planet which
+“reflects,” or propels the light thus obtained out into space once
+more. The solar eighth ray would be absorbed by the surface of Barsoom,
+but the Barsoomian eighth ray, which tends to propel light from Mars
+into space, is constantly streaming out from the planet constituting a
+force of repulsion of gravity which when confined is able to lift
+enormous weights from the surface of the ground.
+
+It is this ray which has enabled them to so perfect aviation that
+battle ships far outweighing anything known upon Earth sail as
+gracefully and lightly through the thin air of Barsoom as a toy balloon
+in the heavy atmosphere of Earth.
+
+During the early years of the discovery of this ray many strange
+accidents occurred before the Martians learned to measure and control
+the wonderful power they had found. In one instance, some nine hundred
+years before, the first great battle ship to be built with eighth ray
+reservoirs was stored with too great a quantity of the rays and she had
+sailed up from Helium with five hundred officers and men, never to
+return.
+
+Her power of repulsion for the planet was so great that it had carried
+her far into space, where she can be seen today, by the aid of powerful
+telescopes, hurtling through the heavens ten thousand miles from Mars;
+a tiny satellite that will thus encircle Barsoom to the end of time.
+
+The fourth day after my arrival at Zodanga I made my first flight, and
+as a result of it I won a promotion which included quarters in the
+palace of Than Kosis.
+
+As I rose above the city I circled several times, as I had seen Kantos
+Kan do, and then throwing my engine into top speed I raced at terrific
+velocity toward the south, following one of the great waterways which
+enter Zodanga from that direction.
+
+I had traversed perhaps two hundred miles in a little less than an hour
+when I descried far below me a party of three green warriors racing
+madly toward a small figure on foot which seemed to be trying to reach
+the confines of one of the walled fields.
+
+Dropping my machine rapidly toward them, and circling to the rear of
+the warriors, I soon saw that the object of their pursuit was a red
+Martian wearing the metal of the scout squadron to which I was
+attached. A short distance away lay his tiny flier, surrounded by the
+tools with which he had evidently been occupied in repairing some
+damage when surprised by the green warriors.
+
+They were now almost upon him; their flying mounts charging down on the
+relatively puny figure at terrific speed, while the warriors leaned low
+to the right, with their great metal-shod spears. Each seemed striving
+to be the first to impale the poor Zodangan and in another moment his
+fate would have been sealed had it not been for my timely arrival.
+
+Driving my fleet air craft at high speed directly behind the warriors I
+soon overtook them and without diminishing my speed I rammed the prow
+of my little flier between the shoulders of the nearest. The impact
+sufficient to have torn through inches of solid steel, hurled the
+fellow’s headless body into the air over the head of his thoat, where
+it fell sprawling upon the moss. The mounts of the other two warriors
+turned squealing in terror, and bolted in opposite directions.
+
+Reducing my speed I circled and came to the ground at the feet of the
+astonished Zodangan. He was warm in his thanks for my timely aid and
+promised that my day’s work would bring the reward it merited, for it
+was none other than a cousin of the jeddak of Zodanga whose life I had
+saved.
+
+We wasted no time in talk as we knew that the warriors would surely
+return as soon as they had gained control of their mounts. Hastening to
+his damaged machine we were bending every effort to finish the needed
+repairs and had almost completed them when we saw the two green
+monsters returning at top speed from opposite sides of us. When they
+had approached within a hundred yards their thoats again became
+unmanageable and absolutely refused to advance further toward the air
+craft which had frightened them.
+
+The warriors finally dismounted and hobbling their animals advanced
+toward us on foot with drawn long-swords.
+
+I advanced to meet the larger, telling the Zodangan to do the best he
+could with the other. Finishing my man with almost no effort, as had
+now from much practice become habitual with me, I hastened to return to
+my new acquaintance whom I found indeed in desperate straits.
+
+He was wounded and down with the huge foot of his antagonist upon his
+throat and the great long-sword raised to deal the final thrust. With a
+bound I cleared the fifty feet intervening between us, and with
+outstretched point drove my sword completely through the body of the
+green warrior. His sword fell, harmless, to the ground and he sank
+limply upon the prostrate form of the Zodangan.
+
+A cursory examination of the latter revealed no mortal injuries and
+after a brief rest he asserted that he felt fit to attempt the return
+voyage. He would have to pilot his own craft, however, as these frail
+vessels are not intended to convey but a single person.
+
+Quickly completing the repairs we rose together into the still,
+cloudless Martian sky, and at great speed and without further mishap
+returned to Zodanga.
+
+As we neared the city we discovered a mighty concourse of civilians and
+troops assembled upon the plain before the city. The sky was black with
+naval vessels and private and public pleasure craft, flying long
+streamers of gay-colored silks, and banners and flags of odd and
+picturesque design.
+
+My companion signaled that I slow down, and running his machine close
+beside mine suggested that we approach and watch the ceremony, which,
+he said, was for the purpose of conferring honors on individual
+officers and men for bravery and other distinguished service. He then
+unfurled a little ensign which denoted that his craft bore a member of
+the royal family of Zodanga, and together we made our way through the
+maze of low-lying air vessels until we hung directly over the jeddak of
+Zodanga and his staff. All were mounted upon the small domestic bull
+thoats of the red Martians, and their trappings and ornamentation bore
+such a quantity of gorgeously colored feathers that I could not but be
+struck with the startling resemblance the concourse bore to a band of
+the red Indians of my own Earth.
+
+One of the staff called the attention of Than Kosis to the presence of
+my companion above them and the ruler motioned for him to descend. As
+they waited for the troops to move into position facing the jeddak the
+two talked earnestly together, the jeddak and his staff occasionally
+glancing up at me. I could not hear their conversation and presently it
+ceased and all dismounted, as the last body of troops had wheeled into
+position before their emperor. A member of the staff advanced toward
+the troops, and calling the name of a soldier commanded him to advance.
+The officer then recited the nature of the heroic act which had won the
+approval of the jeddak, and the latter advanced and placed a metal
+ornament upon the left arm of the lucky man.
+
+Ten men had been so decorated when the aide called out,
+
+“John Carter, air scout!”
+
+Never in my life had I been so surprised, but the habit of military
+discipline is strong within me, and I dropped my little machine lightly
+to the ground and advanced on foot as I had seen the others do. As I
+halted before the officer, he addressed me in a voice audible to the
+entire assemblage of troops and spectators.
+
+“In recognition, John Carter,” he said, “of your remarkable courage and
+skill in defending the person of the cousin of the jeddak Than Kosis
+and, singlehanded, vanquishing three green warriors, it is the pleasure
+of our jeddak to confer on you the mark of his esteem.”
+
+Than Kosis then advanced toward me and placing an ornament upon me,
+said
+
+“My cousin has narrated the details of your wonderful achievement,
+which seems little short of miraculous, and if you can so well defend a
+cousin of the jeddak how much better could you defend the person of the
+jeddak himself. You are therefore appointed a padwar of The Guards and
+will be quartered in my palace hereafter.”
+
+I thanked him, and at his direction joined the members of his staff.
+After the ceremony I returned my machine to its quarters on the roof of
+the barracks of the air-scout squadron, and with an orderly from the
+palace to guide me I reported to the officer in charge of the palace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+I FIND DEJAH
+
+
+The major-domo to whom I reported had been given instructions to
+station me near the person of the jeddak, who, in time of war, is
+always in great danger of assassination, as the rule that all is fair
+in war seems to constitute the entire ethics of Martian conflict.
+
+He therefore escorted me immediately to the apartment in which Than
+Kosis then was. The ruler was engaged in conversation with his son, Sab
+Than, and several courtiers of his household, and did not perceive my
+entrance.
+
+The walls of the apartment were completely hung with splendid
+tapestries which hid any windows or doors which may have pierced them.
+The room was lighted by imprisoned rays of sunshine held between the
+ceiling proper and what appeared to be a ground-glass false ceiling a
+few inches below.
+
+My guide drew aside one of the tapestries, disclosing a passage which
+encircled the room, between the hangings and the walls of the chamber.
+Within this passage I was to remain, he said, so long as Than Kosis was
+in the apartment. When he left I was to follow. My only duty was to
+guard the ruler and keep out of sight as much as possible. I would be
+relieved after a period of four hours. The major-domo then left me.
+
+The tapestries were of a strange weaving which gave the appearance of
+heavy solidity from one side, but from my hiding place I could perceive
+all that took place within the room as readily as though there had been
+no curtain intervening.
+
+Scarcely had I gained my post than the tapestry at the opposite end of
+the chamber separated and four soldiers of The Guard entered,
+surrounding a female figure. As they approached Than Kosis the soldiers
+fell to either side and there standing before the jeddak and not ten
+feet from me, her beautiful face radiant with smiles, was Dejah Thoris.
+
+Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga, advanced to meet her, and hand in hand
+they approached close to the jeddak. Than Kosis looked up in surprise,
+and, rising, saluted her.
+
+“To what strange freak do I owe this visit from the Princess of Helium,
+who, two days ago, with rare consideration for my pride, assured me
+that she would prefer Tal Hajus, the green Thark, to my son”
+
+Dejah Thoris only smiled the more and with the roguish dimples playing
+at the corners of her mouth she made answer
+
+“From the beginning of time upon Barsoom it has been the prerogative of
+woman to change her mind as she listed and to dissemble in matters
+concerning her heart. That you will forgive, Than Kosis, as has your
+son. Two days ago I was not sure of his love for me, but now I am, and
+I have come to beg of you to forget my rash words and to accept the
+assurance of the Princess of Helium that when the time comes she will
+wed Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga.”
+
+“I am glad that you have so decided,” replied Than Kosis. “It is far
+from my desire to push war further against the people of Helium, and,
+your promise shall be recorded and a proclamation to my people issued
+forthwith.”
+
+“It were better, Than Kosis,” interrupted Dejah Thoris, “that the
+proclamation wait the ending of this war. It would look strange indeed
+to my people and to yours were the Princess of Helium to give herself
+to her country’s enemy in the midst of hostilities.”
+
+“Cannot the war be ended at once” spoke Sab Than. “It requires but the
+word of Than Kosis to bring peace. Say it, my father, say the word that
+will hasten my happiness, and end this unpopular strife.”
+
+“We shall see,” replied Than Kosis, “how the people of Helium take to
+peace. I shall at least offer it to them.”
+
+Dejah Thoris, after a few words, turned and left the apartment, still
+followed by her guards.
+
+Thus was the edifice of my brief dream of happiness dashed, broken, to
+the ground of reality. The woman for whom I had offered my life, and
+from whose lips I had so recently heard a declaration of love for me,
+had lightly forgotten my very existence and smilingly given herself to
+the son of her people’s most hated enemy.
+
+Although I had heard it with my own ears I could not believe it. I must
+search out her apartments and force her to repeat the cruel truth to me
+alone before I would be convinced, and so I deserted my post and
+hastened through the passage behind the tapestries toward the door by
+which she had left the chamber. Slipping quietly through this opening I
+discovered a maze of winding corridors, branching and turning in every
+direction.
+
+Running rapidly down first one and then another of them I soon became
+hopelessly lost and was standing panting against a side wall when I
+heard voices near me. Apparently they were coming from the opposite
+side of the partition against which I leaned and presently I made out
+the tones of Dejah Thoris. I could not hear the words but I knew that I
+could not possibly be mistaken in the voice.
+
+Moving on a few steps I discovered another passageway at the end of
+which lay a door. Walking boldly forward I pushed into the room only to
+find myself in a small antechamber in which were the four guards who
+had accompanied her. One of them instantly arose and accosted me,
+asking the nature of my business.
+
+“I am from Than Kosis,” I replied, “and wish to speak privately with
+Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.”
+
+“And your order” asked the fellow.
+
+I did not know what he meant, but replied that I was a member of The
+Guard, and without waiting for a reply from him I strode toward the
+opposite door of the antechamber, behind which I could hear Dejah
+Thoris conversing.
+
+But my entrance was not to be so easily accomplished. The guardsman
+stepped before me, saying,
+
+“No one comes from Than Kosis without carrying an order or the
+password. You must give me one or the other before you may pass.”
+
+“The only order I require, my friend, to enter where I will, hangs at
+my side,” I answered, tapping my long-sword; “will you let me pass in
+peace or no”
+
+For reply he whipped out his own sword, calling to the others to join
+him, and thus the four stood, with drawn weapons, barring my further
+progress.
+
+“You are not here by the order of Than Kosis,” cried the one who had
+first addressed me, “and not only shall you not enter the apartments of
+the Princess of Helium but you shall go back to Than Kosis under guard
+to explain this unwarranted temerity. Throw down your sword; you cannot
+hope to overcome four of us,” he added with a grim smile.
+
+My reply was a quick thrust which left me but three antagonists and I
+can assure you that they were worthy of my metal. They had me backed
+against the wall in no time, fighting for my life. Slowly I worked my
+way to a corner of the room where I could force them to come at me only
+one at a time, and thus we fought upward of twenty minutes; the
+clanging of steel on steel producing a veritable bedlam in the little
+room.
+
+The noise had brought Dejah Thoris to the door of her apartment, and
+there she stood throughout the conflict with Sola at her back peering
+over her shoulder. Her face was set and emotionless and I knew that she
+did not recognize me, nor did Sola.
+
+Finally a lucky cut brought down a second guardsman and then, with only
+two opposing me, I changed my tactics and rushed them down after the
+fashion of my fighting that had won me many a victory. The third fell
+within ten seconds after the second, and the last lay dead upon the
+bloody floor a few moments later. They were brave men and noble
+fighters, and it grieved me that I had been forced to kill them, but I
+would have willingly depopulated all Barsoom could I have reached the
+side of my Dejah Thoris in no other way.
+
+Sheathing my bloody blade I advanced toward my Martian Princess, who
+still stood mutely gazing at me without sign of recognition.
+
+“Who are you, Zodangan” she whispered. “Another enemy to harass me in
+my misery”
+
+“I am a friend,” I answered, “a once cherished friend.”
+
+“No friend of Helium’s princess wears that metal,” she replied, “and
+yet the voice! I have heard it before; it is not—it cannot be—no, for
+he is dead.”
+
+“It is, though, my Princess, none other than John Carter,” I said. “Do
+you not recognize, even through paint and strange metal, the heart of
+your chieftain”
+
+As I came close to her she swayed toward me with outstretched hands,
+but as I reached to take her in my arms she drew back with a shudder
+and a little moan of misery.
+
+“Too late, too late,” she grieved. “O my chieftain that was, and whom I
+thought dead, had you but returned one little hour before—but now it is
+too late, too late.”
+
+“What do you mean, Dejah Thoris” I cried. “That you would not have
+promised yourself to the Zodangan prince had you known that I lived”
+
+“Think you, John Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday
+and today to another I thought that it lay buried with your ashes in
+the pits of Warhoon, and so today I have promised my body to another to
+save my people from the curse of a victorious Zodangan army.”
+
+“But I am not dead, my princess. I have come to claim you, and all
+Zodanga cannot prevent it.”
+
+“It is too late, John Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom that
+is final. The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless
+formalities. They make the fact of marriage no more certain than does
+the funeral cortege of a jeddak again place the seal of death upon him.
+I am as good as married, John Carter. No longer may you call me your
+princess. No longer are you my chieftain.”
+
+“I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejah Thoris, but
+I do know that I love you, and if you meant the last words you spoke to
+me that day as the hordes of Warhoon were charging down upon us, no
+other man shall ever claim you as his bride. You meant them then, my
+princess, and you mean them still! Say that it is true.”
+
+“I meant them, John Carter,” she whispered. “I cannot repeat them now
+for I have given myself to another. Ah, if you had only known our ways,
+my friend,” she continued, half to herself, “the promise would have
+been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed me before all
+others. It might have meant the fall of Helium, but I would have given
+my empire for my Tharkian chief.”
+
+Then aloud she said “Do you remember the night when you offended me
+You called me your princess without having asked my hand of me, and
+then you boasted that you had fought for me. You did not know, and I
+should not have been offended; I see that now. But there was no one to
+tell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two kinds of
+women in the cities of the red men. The one they fight for that they
+may ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight for also, but never
+ask their hands. When a man has won a woman he may address her as his
+princess, or in any of the several terms which signify possession. You
+had fought for me, but had never asked me in marriage, and so when you
+called me your princess, you see,” she faltered, “I was hurt, but even
+then, John Carter, I did not repulse you, as I should have done, until
+you made it doubly worse by taunting me with having won me through
+combat.”
+
+“I do not need ask your forgiveness now, Dejah Thoris,” I cried. “You
+must know that my fault was of ignorance of your Barsoomian customs.
+What I failed to do, through implicit belief that my petition would be
+presumptuous and unwelcome, I do now, Dejah Thoris; I ask you to be my
+wife, and by all the Virginian fighting blood that flows in my veins
+you shall be.”
+
+“No, John Carter, it is useless,” she cried, hopelessly, “I may never
+be yours while Sab Than lives.”
+
+“You have sealed his death warrant, my princess—Sab Than dies.”
+
+“Nor that either,” she hastened to explain. “I may not wed the man who
+slays my husband, even in self-defense. It is custom. We are ruled by
+custom upon Barsoom. It is useless, my friend. You must bear the sorrow
+with me. That at least we may share in common. That, and the memory of
+the brief days among the Tharks. You must go now, nor ever see me
+again. Good-bye, my chieftain that was.”
+
+Disheartened and dejected, I withdrew from the room, but I was not
+entirely discouraged, nor would I admit that Dejah Thoris was lost to
+me until the ceremony had actually been performed.
+
+As I wandered along the corridors, I was as absolutely lost in the
+mazes of winding passageways as I had been before I discovered Dejah
+Thoris’ apartments.
+
+I knew that my only hope lay in escape from the city of Zodanga, for
+the matter of the four dead guardsmen would have to be explained, and
+as I could never reach my original post without a guide, suspicion
+would surely rest on me so soon as I was discovered wandering aimlessly
+through the palace.
+
+Presently I came upon a spiral runway leading to a lower floor, and
+this I followed downward for several stories until I reached the
+doorway of a large apartment in which were a number of guardsmen. The
+walls of this room were hung with transparent tapestries behind which I
+secreted myself without being apprehended.
+
+The conversation of the guardsmen was general, and awakened no interest
+in me until an officer entered the room and ordered four of the men to
+relieve the detail who were guarding the Princess of Helium. Now, I
+knew, my troubles would commence in earnest and indeed they were upon
+me all too soon, for it seemed that the squad had scarcely left the
+guardroom before one of their number burst in again breathlessly,
+crying that they had found their four comrades butchered in the
+antechamber.
+
+In a moment the entire palace was alive with people. Guardsmen,
+officers, courtiers, servants, and slaves ran helter-skelter through
+the corridors and apartments carrying messages and orders, and
+searching for signs of the assassin.
+
+This was my opportunity and slim as it appeared I grasped it, for as a
+number of soldiers came hurrying past my hiding place I fell in behind
+them and followed through the mazes of the palace until, in passing
+through a great hall, I saw the blessed light of day coming in through
+a series of larger windows.
+
+Here I left my guides, and, slipping to the nearest window, sought for
+an avenue of escape. The windows opened upon a great balcony which
+overlooked one of the broad avenues of Zodanga. The ground was about
+thirty feet below, and at a like distance from the building was a wall
+fully twenty feet high, constructed of polished glass about a foot in
+thickness. To a red Martian escape by this path would have appeared
+impossible, but to me, with my earthly strength and agility, it seemed
+already accomplished. My only fear was in being detected before
+darkness fell, for I could not make the leap in broad daylight while
+the court below and the avenue beyond were crowded with Zodangans.
+
+Accordingly I searched for a hiding place and finally found one by
+accident, inside a huge hanging ornament which swung from the ceiling
+of the hall, and about ten feet from the floor. Into the capacious
+bowl-like vase I sprang with ease, and scarcely had I settled down
+within it than I heard a number of people enter the apartment. The
+group stopped beneath my hiding place and I could plainly overhear
+their every word.
+
+“It is the work of Heliumites,” said one of the men.
+
+“Yes, O Jeddak, but how had they access to the palace I could believe
+that even with the diligent care of your guardsmen a single enemy might
+reach the inner chambers, but how a force of six or eight fighting men
+could have done so unobserved is beyond me. We shall soon know,
+however, for here comes the royal psychologist.”
+
+Another man now joined the group, and, after making his formal
+greetings to his ruler, said
+
+“O mighty Jeddak, it is a strange tale I read in the dead minds of your
+faithful guardsmen. They were felled not by a number of fighting men,
+but by a single opponent.”
+
+He paused to let the full weight of this announcement impress his
+hearers, and that his statement was scarcely credited was evidenced by
+the impatient exclamation of incredulity which escaped the lips of Than
+Kosis.
+
+“What manner of weird tale are you bringing me, Notan” he cried.
+
+“It is the truth, my Jeddak,” replied the psychologist. “In fact the
+impressions were strongly marked on the brain of each of the four
+guardsmen. Their antagonist was a very tall man, wearing the metal of
+one of your own guardsmen, and his fighting ability was little short of
+marvelous for he fought fair against the entire four and vanquished
+them by his surpassing skill and superhuman strength and endurance.
+Though he wore the metal of Zodanga, my Jeddak, such a man was never
+seen before in this or any other country upon Barsoom.
+
+“The mind of the Princess of Helium whom I have examined and questioned
+was a blank to me, she has perfect control, and I could not read one
+iota of it. She said that she witnessed a portion of the encounter, and
+that when she looked there was but one man engaged with the guardsmen;
+a man whom she did not recognize as ever having seen.”
+
+“Where is my erstwhile savior” spoke another of the party, and I
+recognized the voice of the cousin of Than Kosis, whom I had rescued
+from the green warriors. “By the metal of my first ancestor,” he went
+on, “but the description fits him to perfection, especially as to his
+fighting ability.”
+
+“Where is this man” cried Than Kosis. “Have him brought to me at once.
+What know you of him, cousin It seemed strange to me now that I think
+upon it that there should have been such a fighting man in Zodanga, of
+whose name, even, we were ignorant before today. And his name too, John
+Carter, who ever heard of such a name upon Barsoom!”
+
+Word was soon brought that I was nowhere to be found, either in the
+palace or at my former quarters in the barracks of the air-scout
+squadron. Kantos Kan, they had found and questioned, but he knew
+nothing of my whereabouts, and as to my past, he had told them he knew
+as little, since he had but recently met me during our captivity among
+the Warhoons.
+
+“Keep your eyes on this other one,” commanded Than Kosis. “He also is a
+stranger and likely as not they both hail from Helium, and where one is
+we shall sooner or later find the other. Quadruple the air patrol, and
+let every man who leaves the city by air or ground be subjected to the
+closest scrutiny.”
+
+Another messenger now entered with word that I was still within the
+palace walls.
+
+“The likeness of every person who has entered or left the palace
+grounds today has been carefully examined,” concluded the fellow, “and
+not one approaches the likeness of this new padwar of the guards, other
+than that which was recorded of him at the time he entered.”
+
+“Then we will have him shortly,” commented Than Kosis contentedly, “and
+in the meanwhile we will repair to the apartments of the Princess of
+Helium and question her in regard to the affair. She may know more than
+she cared to divulge to you, Notan. Come.”
+
+They left the hall, and, as darkness had fallen without, I slipped
+lightly from my hiding place and hastened to the balcony. Few were in
+sight, and choosing a moment when none seemed near I sprang quickly to
+the top of the glass wall and from there to the avenue beyond the
+palace grounds.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+LOST IN THE SKY
+
+
+Without effort at concealment I hastened to the vicinity of our
+quarters, where I felt sure I should find Kantos Kan. As I neared the
+building I became more careful, as I judged, and rightly, that the
+place would be guarded. Several men in civilian metal loitered near the
+front entrance and in the rear were others. My only means of reaching,
+unseen, the upper story where our apartments were situated was through
+an adjoining building, and after considerable maneuvering I managed to
+attain the roof of a shop several doors away.
+
+Leaping from roof to roof, I soon reached an open window in the
+building where I hoped to find the Heliumite, and in another moment I
+stood in the room before him. He was alone and showed no surprise at my
+coming, saying he had expected me much earlier, as my tour of duty must
+have ended some time since.
+
+I saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day at the palace, and
+when I had enlightened him he was all excitement. The news that Dejah
+Thoris had promised her hand to Sab Than filled him with dismay.
+
+“It cannot be,” he exclaimed. “It is impossible! Why no man in all
+Helium but would prefer death to the selling of our loved princess to
+the ruling house of Zodanga. She must have lost her mind to have
+assented to such an atrocious bargain. You, who do not know how we of
+Helium love the members of our ruling house, cannot appreciate the
+horror with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance.”
+
+“What can be done, John Carter” he continued. “You are a resourceful
+man. Can you not think of some way to save Helium from this disgrace”
+
+“If I can come within sword’s reach of Sab Than,” I answered, “I can
+solve the difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned, but for personal
+reasons I would prefer that another struck the blow that frees Dejah
+Thoris.”
+
+Kantos Kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke.
+
+“You love her!” he said. “Does she know it”
+
+“She knows it, Kantos Kan, and repulses me only because she is promised
+to Sab Than.”
+
+The splendid fellow sprang to his feet, and grasping me by the shoulder
+raised his sword on high, exclaiming
+
+“And had the choice been left to me I could not have chosen a more
+fitting mate for the first princess of Barsoom. Here is my hand upon
+your shoulder, John Carter, and my word that Sab Than shall go out at
+the point of my sword for the sake of my love for Helium, for Dejah
+Thoris, and for you. This very night I shall try to reach his quarters
+in the palace.”
+
+“How” I asked. “You are strongly guarded and a quadruple force patrols
+the sky.”
+
+He bent his head in thought a moment, then raised it with an air of
+confidence.
+
+“I only need to pass these guards and I can do it,” he said at last. “I
+know a secret entrance to the palace through the pinnacle of the
+highest tower. I fell upon it by chance one day as I was passing above
+the palace on patrol duty. In this work it is required that we
+investigate any unusual occurrence we may witness, and a face peering
+from the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace was, to me, most
+unusual. I therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor of the
+peering face was none other than Sab Than. He was slightly put out at
+being detected and commanded me to keep the matter to myself,
+explaining that the passage from the tower led directly to his
+apartments, and was known only to him. If I can reach the roof of the
+barracks and get my machine I can be in Sab Than’s quarters in five
+minutes; but how am I to escape from this building, guarded as you say
+it is”
+
+“How well are the machine sheds at the barracks guarded” I asked.
+
+“There is usually but one man on duty there at night upon the roof.”
+
+“Go to the roof of this building, Kantos Kan, and wait me there.”
+
+Without stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way to the street
+and hastened to the barracks. I did not dare to enter the building,
+filled as it was with members of the air-scout squadron, who, in common
+with all Zodanga, were on the lookout for me.
+
+The building was an enormous one, rearing its lofty head fully a
+thousand feet into the air. But few buildings in Zodanga were higher
+than these barracks, though several topped it by a few hundred feet;
+the docks of the great battleships of the line standing some fifteen
+hundred feet from the ground, while the freight and passenger stations
+of the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high.
+
+It was a long climb up the face of the building, and one fraught with
+much danger, but there was no other way, and so I essayed the task. The
+fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the feat
+much simpler than I had anticipated, since I found ornamental ledges
+and projections which fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the way
+to the eaves of the building. Here I met my first real obstacle. The
+eaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which I clung, and
+though I encircled the great building I could find no opening through
+them.
+
+The top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the
+pastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof through
+the building.
+
+There was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must
+take—it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not risk a
+thousand deaths for such as she.
+
+Clinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of the
+long leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great
+hook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of their
+craft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which landing
+parties are lowered to the ground from the battleships.
+
+I swung this hook cautiously to the roof several times before it
+finally found lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold,
+but whether it would bear the weight of my body I did not know. It
+might be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so that
+as my body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and
+launch me to the pavement a thousand feet below.
+
+An instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon the
+supporting ornament, I swung out into space at the end of the strap.
+Far below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements,
+and death. There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves,
+and a nasty slipping, grating sound which turned me cold with
+apprehension; then the hook caught and I was safe.
+
+Clambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drew
+myself to the surface of the roof above. As I gained my feet I was
+confronted by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose revolver I
+found myself looking.
+
+“Who are you and whence came you” he cried.
+
+“I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by the
+merest chance I escaped falling to the avenue below,” I replied.
+
+“But how came you upon the roof, man No one has landed or come up from
+the building for the past hour. Quick, explain yourself, or I call the
+guard.”
+
+“Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close a
+shave I had to not coming at all,” I answered, turning toward the edge
+of the roof, where, twenty feet below, at the end of my strap, hung all
+my weapons.
+
+The fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and to
+his undoing, for as he leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped him by
+his throat and his pistol arm and threw him heavily to the roof. The
+weapon dropped from his grasp, and my fingers choked off his attempted
+cry for assistance. I gagged and bound him and then hung him over the
+edge of the roof as I myself had hung a few moments before. I knew it
+would be morning before he would be discovered, and I needed all the
+time that I could gain.
+
+Donning my trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon had
+out both my machine and Kantos Kan’s. Making his fast behind mine I
+started my engine, and skimming over the edge of the roof I dove down
+into the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied by
+the air patrol. In less than a minute I was settling safely upon the
+roof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantos Kan.
+
+I lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediately into a
+discussion of our plans for the immediate future. It was decided that I
+was to try to make Helium while Kantos Kan was to enter the palace and
+dispatch Sab Than. If successful he was then to follow me. He set my
+compass for me, a clever little device which will remain steadfastly
+fixed upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each
+other farewell we rose together and sped in the direction of the palace
+which lay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.
+
+As we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing its
+piercing searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out a
+command to halt, following with a shot as I paid no attention to his
+hail. Kantos Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rose
+steadily and at terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followed
+by a dozen of the air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, and
+later by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery of
+rapid-fire guns. By twisting and turning my little machine, now rising
+and now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most of the
+time, but I was also losing ground by these tactics, and so I decided
+to hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave the result to
+fate and the speed of my machine.
+
+Kantos Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to the
+navy of Helium, that greatly increased the speed of our machines, so
+that I felt sure I could distance my pursuers if I could dodge their
+projectiles for a few moments.
+
+As I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around me
+convinced me that only by a miracle could I escape, but the die was
+cast, and throwing on full speed I raced a straight course toward
+Helium. Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and I
+was just congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directed
+shot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft. The
+concussion nearly capsized her, and with a sickening plunge she hurtled
+downward through the dark night.
+
+How far I fell before I regained control of the plane I do not know,
+but I must have been very close to the ground when I started to rise
+again, as I plainly heard the squealing of animals below me. Rising
+again I scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making out
+their lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently in
+search of me.
+
+Not until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture to
+flash my little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my
+consternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed
+my only guide, as well as my speedometer. It was true I could follow
+the stars in the general direction of Helium, but without knowing the
+exact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my
+chances for finding it were slim.
+
+Helium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass
+intact I should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four
+and five hours. As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding
+over a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of
+continuous flight at high speed. Presently a great city showed below
+me, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolises
+consists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five miles
+apart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude at
+which I was flying.
+
+Believing that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned back
+in a southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other
+large cities, but none resembling the description which Kantos Kan had
+given me of Helium. In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium,
+another distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vivid
+scarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the
+cities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks
+her sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+TARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND
+
+
+About noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as
+I skimmed out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand
+green warriors engaged in a terrific battle. Scarcely had I seen them
+than a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the almost
+unfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined
+wreck, sinking erratically to the ground.
+
+I fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat, among
+warriors who had not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in
+life and death struggles. The men were fighting on foot with
+long-swords, while an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the
+outskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an
+instant separate himself from the entangled mass.
+
+As my machine sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with
+good chances of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with
+drawn long-sword ready to defend myself as I could.
+
+I fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists,
+and as I glanced at his fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I
+recognized Tars Tarkas the Thark. He did not see me, as I was a trifle
+behind him, and just then the three warriors opposing him, and whom I
+recognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously. The mighty fellow made
+quick work of one of them, but in stepping back for another thrust he
+fell over a dead body behind him and was down and at the mercy of his
+foes in an instant. Quick as lightning they were upon him, and Tars
+Tarkas would have been gathered to his fathers in short order had I not
+sprung before his prostrate form and engaged his adversaries. I had
+accounted for one of them when the mighty Thark regained his feet and
+quickly settled the other.
+
+He gave me one look, and a slight smile touched his grim lip as,
+touching my shoulder, he said,
+
+“I would scarcely recognize you, John Carter, but there is no other
+mortal upon Barsoom who would have done what you have for me. I think I
+have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend.”
+
+He said no more, nor was there opportunity, for the Warhoons were
+closing in about us, and together we fought, shoulder to shoulder,
+during all that long, hot afternoon, until the tide of battle turned
+and the remnant of the fierce Warhoon horde fell back upon their
+thoats, and fled into the gathering darkness.
+
+Ten thousand men had been engaged in that titanic struggle, and upon
+the field of battle lay three thousand dead. Neither side asked or gave
+quarter, nor did they attempt to take prisoners.
+
+On our return to the city after the battle we had gone directly to Tars
+Tarkas’ quarters, where I was left alone while the chieftain attended
+the customary council which immediately follows an engagement.
+
+As I sat awaiting the return of the green warrior I heard something
+move in an adjoining apartment, and as I glanced up there rushed
+suddenly upon me a huge and hideous creature which bore me backward
+upon the pile of silks and furs upon which I had been reclining. It was
+Woola—faithful, loving Woola. He had found his way back to Thark and,
+as Tars Tarkas later told me, had gone immediately to my former
+quarters where he had taken up his pathetic and seemingly hopeless
+watch for my return.
+
+“Tal Hajus knows that you are here, John Carter,” said Tars Tarkas, on
+his return from the jeddak’s quarters; “Sarkoja saw and recognized you
+as we were returning. Tal Hajus has ordered me to bring you before him
+tonight. I have ten thoats, John Carter; you may take your choice from
+among them, and I will accompany you to the nearest waterway that leads
+to Helium. Tars Tarkas may be a cruel green warrior, but he can be a
+friend as well. Come, we must start.”
+
+“And when you return, Tars Tarkas” I asked.
+
+“The wild calots, possibly, or worse,” he replied. “Unless I should
+chance to have the opportunity I have so long waited of battling with
+Tal Hajus.”
+
+“We will stay, Tars Tarkas, and see Tal Hajus tonight. You shall not
+sacrifice yourself, and it may be that tonight you can have the chance
+you wait.”
+
+He objected strenuously, saying that Tal Hajus often flew into wild
+fits of passion at the mere thought of the blow I had dealt him, and
+that if ever he laid his hands upon me I would be subjected to the most
+horrible tortures.
+
+While we were eating I repeated to Tars Tarkas the story which Sola had
+told me that night upon the sea bottom during the march to Thark.
+
+He said but little, but the great muscles of his face worked in passion
+and in agony at recollection of the horrors which had been heaped upon
+the only thing he had ever loved in all his cold, cruel, terrible
+existence.
+
+He no longer demurred when I suggested that we go before Tal Hajus,
+only saying that he would like to speak to Sarkoja first. At his
+request I accompanied him to her quarters, and the look of venomous
+hatred she cast upon me was almost adequate recompense for any future
+misfortunes this accidental return to Thark might bring me.
+
+“Sarkoja,” said Tars Tarkas, “forty years ago you were instrumental in
+bringing about the torture and death of a woman named Gozava. I have
+just discovered that the warrior who loved that woman has learned of
+your part in the transaction. He may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not
+our custom, but there is nothing to prevent him tying one end of a
+strap about your neck and the other end to a wild thoat, merely to test
+your fitness to survive and help perpetuate our race. Having heard that
+he would do this on the morrow, I thought it only right to warn you,
+for I am a just man. The river Iss is but a short pilgrimage, Sarkoja.
+Come, John Carter.”
+
+The next morning Sarkoja was gone, nor was she ever seen after.
+
+In silence we hastened to the jeddak’s palace, where we were
+immediately admitted to his presence; in fact, he could scarcely wait
+to see me and was standing erect upon his platform glowering at the
+entrance as I came in.
+
+“Strap him to that pillar,” he shrieked. “We shall see who it is dares
+strike the mighty Tal Hajus. Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall
+burn the eyes from his head that he may not pollute my person with his
+vile gaze.”
+
+“Chieftains of Thark,” I cried, turning to the assembled council and
+ignoring Tal Hajus, “I have been a chief among you, and today I have
+fought for Thark shoulder to shoulder with her greatest warrior. You
+owe me, at least, a hearing. I have won that much today. You claim to
+be a just people—”
+
+“Silence,” roared Tal Hajus. “Gag the creature and bind him as I
+command.”
+
+“Justice, Tal Hajus,” exclaimed Lorquas Ptomel. “Who are you to set
+aside the customs of ages among the Tharks.”
+
+“Yes, justice!” echoed a dozen voices, and so, while Tal Hajus fumed
+and frothed, I continued.
+
+“You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty
+jeddak during the fighting today I did not see him in the thick of
+battle; he was not there. He rends defenseless women and little
+children in his lair, but how recently has one of you seen him fight
+with men Why, even I, a midget beside him, felled him with a single
+blow of my fist. Is it of such that the Tharks fashion their jeddaks
+There stands beside me now a great Thark, a mighty warrior and a noble
+man. Chieftains, how sounds, Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark”
+
+A roar of deep-toned applause greeted this suggestion.
+
+“It but remains for this council to command, and Tal Hajus must prove
+his fitness to rule. Were he a brave man he would invite Tars Tarkas to
+combat, for he does not love him, but Tal Hajus is afraid; Tal Hajus,
+your jeddak, is a coward. With my bare hands I could kill him, and he
+knows it.”
+
+After I ceased there was tense silence, as all eyes were riveted upon
+Tal Hajus. He did not speak or move, but the blotchy green of his
+countenance turned livid, and the froth froze upon his lips.
+
+“Tal Hajus,” said Lorquas Ptomel in a cold, hard voice, “never in my
+long life have I seen a jeddak of the Tharks so humiliated. There could
+be but one answer to this arraignment. We wait it.” And still Tal Hajus
+stood as though petrified.
+
+“Chieftains,” continued Lorquas Ptomel, “shall the jeddak, Tal Hajus,
+prove his fitness to rule over Tars Tarkas”
+
+There were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords
+flashed high in assent.
+
+There was no alternative. That decree was final, and so Tal Hajus drew
+his long-sword and advanced to meet Tars Tarkas.
+
+The combat was soon over, and, with his foot upon the neck of the dead
+monster, Tars Tarkas became jeddak among the Tharks.
+
+His first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I
+had won by my combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them.
+
+Seeing the favorable disposition of the warriors toward Tars Tarkas, as
+well as toward me, I grasped the opportunity to enlist them in my cause
+against Zodanga. I told Tars Tarkas the story of my adventures, and in
+a few words had explained to him the thought I had in mind.
+
+“John Carter has made a proposal,” he said, addressing the council,
+“which meets with my sanction. I shall put it to you briefly. Dejah
+Thoris, the Princess of Helium, who was our prisoner, is now held by
+the jeddak of Zodanga, whose son she must wed to save her country from
+devastation at the hands of the Zodangan forces.
+
+“John Carter suggests that we rescue her and return her to Helium. The
+loot of Zodanga would be magnificent, and I have often thought that had
+we an alliance with the people of Helium we could obtain sufficient
+assurance of sustenance to permit us to increase the size and frequency
+of our hatchings, and thus become unquestionably supreme among the
+green men of all Barsoom. What say you”
+
+It was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the
+bait as a speckled trout to a fly.
+
+For Tharks they were wildly enthusiastic, and before another half hour
+had passed twenty mounted messengers were speeding across dead sea
+bottoms to call the hordes together for the expedition.
+
+In three days we were on the march toward Zodanga, one hundred thousand
+strong, as Tars Tarkas had been able to enlist the services of three
+smaller hordes on the promise of the great loot of Zodanga.
+
+At the head of the column I rode beside the great Thark while at the
+heels of my mount trotted my beloved Woola.
+
+We traveled entirely by night, timing our marches so that we camped
+during the day at deserted cities where, even to the beasts, we were
+all kept indoors during the daylight hours. On the march Tars Tarkas,
+through his remarkable ability and statesmanship, enlisted fifty
+thousand more warriors from various hordes, so that, ten days after we
+set out we halted at midnight outside the great walled city of Zodanga,
+one hundred and fifty thousand strong.
+
+The fighting strength and efficiency of this horde of ferocious green
+monsters was equivalent to ten times their number of red men. Never in
+the history of Barsoom, Tars Tarkas told me, had such a force of green
+warriors marched to battle together. It was a monstrous task to keep
+even a semblance of harmony among them, and it was a marvel to me that
+he got them to the city without a mighty battle among themselves.
+
+But as we neared Zodanga their personal quarrels were submerged by
+their greater hatred for the red men, and especially for the Zodangans,
+who had for years waged a ruthless campaign of extermination against
+the green men, directing special attention toward despoiling their
+incubators.
+
+Now that we were before Zodanga the task of obtaining entry to the city
+devolved upon me, and directing Tars Tarkas to hold his forces in two
+divisions out of earshot of the city, with each division opposite a
+large gateway, I took twenty dismounted warriors and approached one of
+the small gates that pierced the walls at short intervals. These gates
+have no regular guard, but are covered by sentries, who patrol the
+avenue that encircles the city just within the walls as our
+metropolitan police patrol their beats.
+
+The walls of Zodanga are seventy-five feet in height and fifty feet
+thick. They are built of enormous blocks of carborundum, and the task
+of entering the city seemed, to my escort of green warriors, an
+impossibility. The fellows who had been detailed to accompany me were
+of one of the smaller hordes, and therefore did not know me.
+
+Placing three of them with their faces to the wall and arms locked, I
+commanded two more to mount to their shoulders, and a sixth I ordered
+to climb upon the shoulders of the upper two. The head of the topmost
+warrior towered over forty feet from the ground.
+
+In this way, with ten warriors, I built a series of three steps from
+the ground to the shoulders of the topmost man. Then starting from a
+short distance behind them I ran swiftly up from one tier to the next,
+and with a final bound from the broad shoulders of the highest I
+clutched the top of the great wall and quietly drew myself to its broad
+expanse. After me I dragged six lengths of leather from an equal number
+of my warriors. These lengths we had previously fastened together, and
+passing one end to the topmost warrior I lowered the other end
+cautiously over the opposite side of the wall toward the avenue below.
+No one was in sight, so, lowering myself to the end of my leather
+strap, I dropped the remaining thirty feet to the pavement below.
+
+I had learned from Kantos Kan the secret of opening these gates, and in
+another moment my twenty great fighting men stood within the doomed
+city of Zodanga.
+
+I found to my delight that I had entered at the lower boundary of the
+enormous palace grounds. The building itself showed in the distance a
+blaze of glorious light, and on the instant I determined to lead a
+detachment of warriors directly within the palace itself, while the
+balance of the great horde was attacking the barracks of the soldiery.
+
+Dispatching one of my men to Tars Tarkas for a detail of fifty Tharks,
+with word of my intentions, I ordered ten warriors to capture and open
+one of the great gates while with the nine remaining I took the other.
+We were to do our work quietly, no shots were to be fired and no
+general advance made until I had reached the palace with my fifty
+Tharks. Our plans worked to perfection. The two sentries we met were
+dispatched to their fathers upon the banks of the lost sea of Korus,
+and the guards at both gates followed them in silence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+THE LOOTING OF ZODANGA
+
+
+As the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed by
+Tars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats. I led them to
+the palace walls, which I negotiated easily without assistance. Once
+inside, however, the gate gave me considerable trouble, but I finally
+was rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon my
+fierce escort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.
+
+As we approached the palace I could see through the great windows of
+the first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber of
+Than Kosis. The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women,
+as though some important function was in progress. There was not a
+guard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact that the
+city and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so I came close
+and peered within.
+
+At one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted with
+diamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by officers and
+dignitaries of state. Before them stretched a broad aisle lined on
+either side with soldiery, and as I looked there entered this aisle at
+the far end of the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to the
+foot of the throne.
+
+First there marched four officers of the jeddak’s Guard bearing a huge
+salver on which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a great golden
+chain with a collar and padlock at each end. Directly behind these
+officers came four others carrying a similar salver which supported the
+magnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the reigning house of
+Zodanga.
+
+At the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted,
+facing each other at opposite sides of the aisle. Then came more
+dignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, and
+finally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not a
+feature of either was discernible. These two stopped at the foot of the
+throne, facing Than Kosis. When the balance of the procession had
+entered and assumed their stations Than Kosis addressed the couple
+standing before him. I could not hear his words, but presently two
+officers advanced and removed the scarlet robe from one of the figures,
+and I saw that Kantos Kan had failed in his mission, for it was Sab
+Than, Prince of Zodanga, who stood revealed before me.
+
+Than Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers and
+placed one of the collars of gold about his son’s neck, springing the
+padlock fast. After a few more words addressed to Sab Than he turned to
+the other figure, from which the officers now removed the enshrouding
+silks, disclosing to my now comprehending view Dejah Thoris, Princess
+of Helium.
+
+The object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment Dejah
+Thoris would be joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga. It was an
+impressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed the
+most fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments were
+adjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung open in
+the hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my head, and, with
+the heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great window and sprang
+into the midst of the astonished assemblage. With a bound I was on the
+steps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as he stood riveted with
+surprise I brought my long-sword down upon the golden chain that would
+have bound Dejah Thoris to another.
+
+In an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced me
+from every quarter, and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger
+he had drawn from his nuptial ornaments. I could have killed him as
+easily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom stayed my
+hand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart I held
+him as though in a vise and with my long-sword pointed to the far end
+of the hall.
+
+“Zodanga has fallen,” I cried. “Look!”
+
+All eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forging
+through the portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his fifty
+warriors on their great thoats.
+
+A cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word of
+fear, and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were hurling
+themselves upon the advancing Tharks.
+
+Thrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris to
+my side. Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than Kosis
+now stood facing me, with drawn long-sword. In an instant we were
+engaged, and I found no mean antagonist.
+
+As we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the
+steps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah
+Thoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made Sab
+Than jeddak of Zodanga. As his father rolled dead upon the floor the
+new jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris’ grasp, and again we
+faced each other. He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and,
+with my back against a golden throne, I fought once again for Dejah
+Thoris. I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down Sab
+Than and, with him, my last chance to win the woman I loved. My blade
+was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parry the
+thrusts and cuts of my opponents. Two I had disarmed, and one was down,
+when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler, and to avenge
+the death of the old.
+
+
+[Illustration With my back against a golden throne, I fought once
+again for Dejah Thoris.]
+
+
+As they advanced there were cries of “The woman! The woman! Strike her
+down; it is her plot. Kill her! Kill her!”
+
+Calling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the
+little doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my
+intentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my
+chances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris
+against an army of swordsmen.
+
+The Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, and
+I began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save Dejah
+Thoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd of
+pygmies that swarmed about him. With one swing of his mighty longsword
+he laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathway before
+him until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside me,
+dealing death and destruction right and left.
+
+The bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted to
+escape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks
+remained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.
+
+Sab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower of
+Zodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody
+shambles.
+
+My first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, and
+leaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriors
+and hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace. The jailers had all
+left to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched the
+labyrinthine prison without opposition.
+
+I called Kantos Kan’s name aloud in each new corridor and compartment,
+and finally I was rewarded by hearing a faint response. Guided by the
+sound, we soon found him helpless in a dark recess.
+
+He was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight,
+faint echoes of which had reached his prison cell. He told me that the
+air patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of the
+palace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.
+
+We discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the bars
+and chains which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I returned to
+search the bodies on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks of
+his cell and of his chains.
+
+Fortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon we
+had Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.
+
+The sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to us
+from the city’s streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct the
+fighting without. Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide, the green
+warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for other Zodangans
+and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were left alone.
+
+She had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her she
+greeted me with a wan smile.
+
+“Was there ever such a man!” she exclaimed. “I know that Barsoom has
+never before seen your like. Can it be that all Earth men are as you
+Alone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in a
+few short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever
+done joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought
+them to fight as allies of a red Martian people.”
+
+“The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris,” I replied smiling. “It was not I
+who did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would work
+greater miracles than this you have seen.”
+
+A pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,
+
+“You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free.”
+
+“And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late,” I returned.
+“I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser men
+would not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed of
+winning a Dejah Thoris for myself—for never had I dreamed that in all
+the universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium. That you are
+a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough to make me
+doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine.”
+
+“He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea
+before the plea were made,” she replied, rising and placing her dear
+hands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and kissed her.
+
+And thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the
+alarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terrible
+harvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughter
+of Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter,
+Gentleman of Virginia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+THROUGH CARNAGE TO JOY
+
+
+Sometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to report that
+Zodanga had been completely reduced. Her forces were entirely destroyed
+or captured, and no further resistance was to be expected from within.
+Several battleships had escaped, but there were thousands of war and
+merchant vessels under guard of Thark warriors.
+
+The lesser hordes had commenced looting and quarreling among
+themselves, so it was decided that we collect what warriors we could,
+man as many vessels as possible with Zodangan prisoners and make for
+Helium without further loss of time.
+
+Five hours later we sailed from the roofs of the dock buildings with a
+fleet of two hundred and fifty battleships, carrying nearly one hundred
+thousand green warriors, followed by a fleet of transports with our
+thoats.
+
+Behind us we left the stricken city in the fierce and brutal clutches
+of some forty thousand green warriors of the lesser hordes. They were
+looting, murdering, and fighting amongst themselves. In a hundred
+places they had applied the torch, and columns of dense smoke were
+rising above the city as though to blot out from the eye of heaven the
+horrid sights beneath.
+
+In the middle of the afternoon we sighted the scarlet and yellow towers
+of Helium, and a short time later a great fleet of Zodangan battleships
+rose from the camps of the besiegers without the city, and advanced to
+meet us.
+
+The banners of Helium had been strung from stem to stern of each of our
+mighty craft, but the Zodangans did not need this sign to realize that
+we were enemies, for our green Martian warriors had opened fire upon
+them almost as they left the ground. With their uncanny marksmanship
+they raked the on-coming fleet with volley after volley.
+
+The twin cities of Helium, perceiving that we were friends, sent out
+hundreds of vessels to aid us, and then began the first real air battle
+I had ever witnessed.
+
+The vessels carrying our green warriors were kept circling above the
+contending fleets of Helium and Zodanga, since their batteries were
+useless in the hands of the Tharks who, having no navy, have no skill
+in naval gunnery. Their small-arm fire, however, was most effective,
+and the final outcome of the engagement was strongly influenced, if not
+wholly determined, by their presence.
+
+At first the two forces circled at the same altitude, pouring broadside
+after broadside into each other. Presently a great hole was torn in the
+hull of one of the immense battle craft from the Zodangan camp; with a
+lurch she turned completely over, the little figures of her crew
+plunging, turning and twisting toward the ground a thousand feet below;
+then with sickening velocity she tore after them, almost completely
+burying herself in the soft loam of the ancient sea bottom.
+
+A wild cry of exultation arose from the Heliumite squadron, and with
+redoubled ferocity they fell upon the Zodangan fleet. By a pretty
+maneuver two of the vessels of Helium gained a position above their
+adversaries, from which they poured upon them from their keel bomb
+batteries a perfect torrent of exploding bombs.
+
+Then, one by one, the battleships of Helium succeeded in rising above
+the Zodangans, and in a short time a number of the beleaguering
+battleships were drifting hopeless wrecks toward the high scarlet tower
+of greater Helium. Several others attempted to escape, but they were
+soon surrounded by thousands of tiny individual fliers, and above each
+hung a monster battleship of Helium ready to drop boarding parties upon
+their decks.
+
+Within but little more than an hour from the moment the victorious
+Zodangan squadron had risen to meet us from the camp of the besiegers
+the battle was over, and the remaining vessels of the conquered
+Zodangans were headed toward the cities of Helium under prize crews.
+
+There was an extremely pathetic side to the surrender of these mighty
+fliers, the result of an age-old custom which demanded that surrender
+should be signalized by the voluntary plunging to earth of the
+commander of the vanquished vessel. One after another the brave
+fellows, holding their colors high above their heads, leaped from the
+towering bows of their mighty craft to an awful death.
+
+Not until the commander of the entire fleet took the fearful plunge,
+thus indicating the surrender of the remaining vessels, did the
+fighting cease, and the useless sacrifice of brave men come to an end.
+
+We now signaled the flagship of Helium’s navy to approach, and when she
+was within hailing distance I called out that we had the Princess Dejah
+Thoris on board, and that we wished to transfer her to the flagship
+that she might be taken immediately to the city.
+
+As the full import of my announcement bore in upon them a great cry
+arose from the decks of the flagship, and a moment later the colors of
+the Princess of Helium broke from a hundred points upon her upper
+works. When the other vessels of the squadron caught the meaning of the
+signals flashed them they took up the wild acclaim and unfurled her
+colors in the gleaming sunlight.
+
+The flagship bore down upon us, and as she swung gracefully to and
+touched our side a dozen officers sprang upon our decks. As their
+astonished gaze fell upon the hundreds of green warriors, who now came
+forth from the fighting shelters, they stopped aghast, but at sight of
+Kantos Kan, who advanced to meet them, they came forward, crowding
+about him.
+
+Dejah Thoris and I then advanced, and they had no eyes for other than
+her. She received them gracefully, calling each by name, for they were
+men high in the esteem and service of her grandfather, and she knew
+them well.
+
+“Lay your hands upon the shoulder of John Carter,” she said to them,
+turning toward me, “the man to whom Helium owes her princess as well as
+her victory today.”
+
+They were very courteous to me and said many kind and complimentary
+things, but what seemed to impress them most was that I had won the aid
+of the fierce Tharks in my campaign for the liberation of Dejah Thoris,
+and the relief of Helium.
+
+“You owe your thanks more to another man than to me,” I said, “and here
+he is; meet one of Barsoom’s greatest soldiers and statesmen, Tars
+Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark.”
+
+With the same polished courtesy that had marked their manner toward me
+they extended their greetings to the great Thark, nor, to my surprise,
+was he much behind them in ease of bearing or in courtly speech. Though
+not a garrulous race, the Tharks are extremely formal, and their ways
+lend themselves amazingly to dignified and courtly manners.
+
+Dejah Thoris went aboard the flagship, and was much put out that I
+would not follow, but, as I explained to her, the battle was but partly
+won; we still had the land forces of the besieging Zodangans to account
+for, and I would not leave Tars Tarkas until that had been
+accomplished.
+
+The commander of the naval forces of Helium promised to arrange to have
+the armies of Helium attack from the city in conjunction with our land
+attack, and so the vessels separated and Dejah Thoris was borne in
+triumph back to the court of her grandfather, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of
+Helium.
+
+In the distance lay our fleet of transports, with the thoats of the
+green warriors, where they had remained during the battle. Without
+landing stages it was to be a difficult matter to unload these beasts
+upon the open plain, but there was nothing else for it, and so we put
+out for a point about ten miles from the city and began the task.
+
+It was necessary to lower the animals to the ground in slings and this
+work occupied the remainder of the day and half the night. Twice we
+were attacked by parties of Zodangan cavalry, but with little loss,
+however, and after darkness shut down they withdrew.
+
+As soon as the last thoat was unloaded Tars Tarkas gave the command to
+advance, and in three parties we crept upon the Zodangan camp from the
+north, the south and the east.
+
+About a mile from the main camp we encountered their outposts and, as
+had been prearranged, accepted this as the signal to charge. With wild,
+ferocious cries and amidst the nasty squealing of battle-enraged thoats
+we bore down upon the Zodangans.
+
+We did not catch them napping, but found a well-entrenched battle line
+confronting us. Time after time we were repulsed until, toward noon, I
+began to fear for the result of the battle.
+
+The Zodangans numbered nearly a million fighting men, gathered from
+pole to pole, wherever stretched their ribbon-like waterways, while
+pitted against them were less than a hundred thousand green warriors.
+The forces from Helium had not arrived, nor could we receive any word
+from them.
+
+Just at noon we heard heavy firing all along the line between the
+Zodangans and the cities, and we knew then that our much-needed
+reinforcements had come.
+
+Again Tars Tarkas ordered the charge, and once more the mighty thoats
+bore their terrible riders against the ramparts of the enemy. At the
+same moment the battle line of Helium surged over the opposite
+breastworks of the Zodangans and in another moment they were being
+crushed as between two millstones. Nobly they fought, but in vain.
+
+The plain before the city became a veritable shambles ere the last
+Zodangan surrendered, but finally the carnage ceased, the prisoners
+were marched back to Helium, and we entered the greater city’s gates, a
+huge triumphal procession of conquering heroes.
+
+The broad avenues were lined with women and children, among which were
+the few men whose duties necessitated that they remain within the city
+during the battle. We were greeted with an endless round of applause
+and showered with ornaments of gold, platinum, silver, and precious
+jewels. The city had gone mad with joy.
+
+My fierce Tharks caused the wildest excitement and enthusiasm. Never
+before had an armed body of green warriors entered the gates of Helium,
+and that they came now as friends and allies filled the red men with
+rejoicing.
+
+That my poor services to Dejah Thoris had become known to the
+Heliumites was evidenced by the loud crying of my name, and by the
+loads of ornaments that were fastened upon me and my huge thoat as we
+passed up the avenues to the palace, for even in the face of the
+ferocious appearance of Woola the populace pressed close about me.
+
+As we approached this magnificent pile we were met by a party of
+officers who greeted us warmly and requested that Tars Tarkas and his
+jeds with the jeddaks and jeds of his wild allies, together with
+myself, dismount and accompany them to receive from Tardos Mors an
+expression of his gratitude for our services.
+
+At the top of the great steps leading up to the main portals of the
+palace stood the royal party, and as we reached the lower steps one of
+their number descended to meet us.
+
+He was an almost perfect specimen of manhood; tall, straight as an
+arrow, superbly muscled and with the carriage and bearing of a ruler of
+men. I did not need to be told that he was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of
+Helium.
+
+The first member of our party he met was Tars Tarkas and his first
+words sealed forever the new friendship between the races.
+
+“That Tardos Mors,” he said, earnestly, “may meet the greatest living
+warrior of Barsoom is a priceless honor, but that he may lay his hand
+on the shoulder of a friend and ally is a far greater boon.”
+
+“Jeddak of Helium,” returned Tars Tarkas, “it has remained for a man of
+another world to teach the green warriors of Barsoom the meaning of
+friendship; to him we owe the fact that the hordes of Thark can
+understand you; that they can appreciate and reciprocate the sentiments
+so graciously expressed.”
+
+Tardos Mors then greeted each of the green jeddaks and jeds, and to
+each spoke words of friendship and appreciation.
+
+As he approached me he laid both hands upon my shoulders.
+
+“Welcome, my son,” he said; “that you are granted, gladly, and without
+one word of opposition, the most precious jewel in all Helium, yes, on
+all Barsoom, is sufficient earnest of my esteem.”
+
+We were then presented to Mors Kajak, Jed of lesser Helium, and father
+of Dejah Thoris. He had followed close behind Tardos Mors and seemed
+even more affected by the meeting than had his father.
+
+He tried a dozen times to express his gratitude to me, but his voice
+choked with emotion and he could not speak, and yet he had, as I was to
+later learn, a reputation for ferocity and fearlessness as a fighter
+that was remarkable even upon warlike Barsoom. In common with all
+Helium he worshiped his daughter, nor could he think of what she had
+escaped without deep emotion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+FROM JOY TO DEATH
+
+
+For ten days the hordes of Thark and their wild allies were feasted and
+entertained, and, then, loaded with costly presents and escorted by ten
+thousand soldiers of Helium commanded by Mors Kajak, they started on
+the return journey to their own lands. The jed of lesser Helium with a
+small party of nobles accompanied them all the way to Thark to cement
+more closely the new bonds of peace and friendship.
+
+Sola also accompanied Tars Tarkas, her father, who before all his
+chieftains had acknowledged her as his daughter.
+
+Three weeks later, Mors Kajak and his officers, accompanied by Tars
+Tarkas and Sola, returned upon a battleship that had been dispatched to
+Thark to fetch them in time for the ceremony which made Dejah Thoris
+and John Carter one.
+
+For nine years I served in the councils and fought in the armies of
+Helium as a prince of the house of Tardos Mors. The people seemed never
+to tire of heaping honors upon me, and no day passed that did not bring
+some new proof of their love for my princess, the incomparable Dejah
+Thoris.
+
+In a golden incubator upon the roof of our palace lay a snow-white egg.
+For nearly five years ten soldiers of the jeddak’s Guard had constantly
+stood over it, and not a day passed when I was in the city that Dejah
+Thoris and I did not stand hand in hand before our little shrine
+planning for the future, when the delicate shell should break.
+
+Vivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as we sat there
+talking in low tones of the strange romance which had woven our lives
+together and of this wonder which was coming to augment our happiness
+and fulfill our hopes.
+
+In the distance we saw the bright-white light of an approaching
+airship, but we attached no special significance to so common a sight.
+Like a bolt of lightning it raced toward Helium until its very speed
+bespoke the unusual.
+
+Flashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearer for the
+jeddak, it circled impatiently awaiting the tardy patrol boat which
+must convoy it to the palace docks.
+
+Ten minutes after it touched at the palace a message called me to the
+council chamber, which I found filling with the members of that body.
+
+On the raised platform of the throne was Tardos Mors, pacing back and
+forth with tense-drawn face. When all were in their seats he turned
+toward us.
+
+“This morning,” he said, “word reached the several governments of
+Barsoom that the keeper of the atmosphere plant had made no wireless
+report for two days, nor had almost ceaseless calls upon him from a
+score of capitals elicited a sign of response.
+
+“The ambassadors of the other nations asked us to take the matter in
+hand and hasten the assistant keeper to the plant. All day a thousand
+cruisers have been searching for him until just now one of them returns
+bearing his dead body, which was found in the pits beneath his house
+horribly mutilated by some assassin.
+
+“I do not need to tell you what this means to Barsoom. It would take
+months to penetrate those mighty walls, in fact the work has already
+commenced, and there would be little to fear were the engine of the
+pumping plant to run as it should and as they all have for hundreds of
+years; but the worst, we fear, has happened. The instruments show a
+rapidly decreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom—the engine has
+stopped.”
+
+“My gentlemen,” he concluded, “we have at best three days to live.”
+
+There was absolute silence for several minutes, and then a young noble
+arose, and with his drawn sword held high above his head addressed
+Tardos Mors.
+
+“The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have ever shown
+Barsoom how a nation of red men should live, now is our opportunity to
+show them how they should die. Let us go about our duties as though a
+thousand useful years still lay before us.”
+
+The chamber rang with applause and as there was nothing better to do
+than to allay the fears of the people by our example we went our ways
+with smiles upon our faces and sorrow gnawing at our hearts.
+
+When I returned to my palace I found that the rumor already had reached
+Dejah Thoris, so I told her all that I had heard.
+
+“We have been very happy, John Carter,” she said, “and I thank whatever
+fate overtakes us that it permits us to die together.”
+
+The next two days brought no noticeable change in the supply of air,
+but on the morning of the third day breathing became difficult at the
+higher altitudes of the rooftops. The avenues and plazas of Helium were
+filled with people. All business had ceased. For the most part the
+people looked bravely into the face of their unalterable doom. Here and
+there, however, men and women gave way to quiet grief.
+
+Toward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumb
+and within an hour the people of Barsoom were sinking by thousands into
+the unconsciousness which precedes death by asphyxiation.
+
+Dejah Thoris and I with the other members of the royal family had
+collected in a sunken garden within an inner courtyard of the palace.
+We conversed in low tones, when we conversed at all, as the awe of the
+grim shadow of death crept over us. Even Woola seemed to feel the
+weight of the impending calamity, for he pressed close to Dejah Thoris
+and to me, whining pitifully.
+
+The little incubator had been brought from the roof of our palace at
+request of Dejah Thoris and she sat gazing longingly upon the unknown
+little life that now she would never know.
+
+As it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe Tardos Mors arose,
+saying,
+
+“Let us bid each other farewell. The days of the greatness of Barsoom
+are over. Tomorrow’s sun will look down upon a dead world which through
+all eternity must go swinging through the heavens peopled not even by
+memories. It is the end.”
+
+He stooped and kissed the women of his family, and laid his strong hand
+upon the shoulders of the men.
+
+As I turned sadly from him my eyes fell upon Dejah Thoris. Her head was
+drooping upon her breast, to all appearances she was lifeless. With a
+cry I sprang to her and raised her in my arms.
+
+Her eyes opened and looked into mine.
+
+“Kiss me, John Carter,” she murmured. “I love you! I love you! It is
+cruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon a life of
+love and happiness.”
+
+As I pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling of unconquerable
+power and authority rose in me. The fighting blood of Virginia sprang
+to life in my veins.
+
+“It shall not be, my princess,” I cried. “There is, there must be some
+way, and John Carter, who has fought his way through a strange world
+for love of you, will find it.”
+
+And with my words there crept above the threshold of my conscious mind
+a series of nine long forgotten sounds. Like a flash of lightning in
+the darkness their full purport dawned upon me—the key to the three
+great doors of the atmosphere plant!
+
+Turning suddenly toward Tardos Mors as I still clasped my dying love to
+my breast I cried.
+
+“A flier, Jeddak! Quick! Order your swiftest flier to the palace top. I
+can save Barsoom yet.”
+
+He did not wait to question, but in an instant a guard was racing to
+the nearest dock and though the air was thin and almost gone at the
+rooftop they managed to launch the fastest one-man, air-scout machine
+that the skill of Barsoom had ever produced.
+
+Kissing Dejah Thoris a dozen times and commanding Woola, who would have
+followed me, to remain and guard her, I bounded with my old agility and
+strength to the high ramparts of the palace, and in another moment I
+was headed toward the goal of the hopes of all Barsoom.
+
+I had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe, but I took a
+straight course across an old sea bottom and so had to rise only a few
+feet above the ground.
+
+I traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against time
+with death. The face of Dejah Thoris hung always before me. As I turned
+for a last look as I left the palace garden I had seen her stagger and
+sink upon the ground beside the little incubator. That she had dropped
+into the last coma which would end in death, if the air supply remained
+unreplenished, I well knew, and so, throwing caution to the winds, I
+flung overboard everything but the engine and compass, even to my
+ornaments, and lying on my belly along the deck with one hand on the
+steering wheel and the other pushing the speed lever to its last notch
+I split the thin air of dying Mars with the speed of a meteor.
+
+An hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphere plant loomed
+suddenly before me, and with a sickening thud I plunged to the ground
+before the small door which was withholding the spark of life from the
+inhabitants of an entire planet.
+
+Beside the door a great crew of men had been laboring to pierce the
+wall, but they had scarcely scratched the flint-like surface, and now
+most of them lay in the last sleep from which not even air would awaken
+them.
+
+Conditions seemed much worse here than at Helium, and it was with
+difficulty that I breathed at all. There were a few men still
+conscious, and to one of these I spoke.
+
+“If I can open these doors is there a man who can start the engines” I
+asked.
+
+“I can,” he replied, “if you open quickly. I can last but a few moments
+more. But it is useless, they are both dead and no one else upon
+Barsoom knew the secret of these awful locks. For three days men crazed
+with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts to solve its
+mystery.”
+
+I had no time to talk, I was becoming very weak and it was with
+difficulty that I controlled my mind at all.
+
+But, with a final effort, as I sank weakly to my knees I hurled the
+nine thought waves at that awful thing before me. The Martian had
+crawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panel
+before us we waited in the silence of death.
+
+Slowly the mighty door receded before us. I attempted to rise and
+follow it but I was too weak.
+
+“After it,” I cried to my companion, “and if you reach the pump room
+turn loose all the pumps. It is the only chance Barsoom has to exist
+tomorrow!”
+
+From where I lay I opened the second door, and then the third, and as I
+saw the hope of Barsoom crawling weakly on hands and knees through the
+last doorway I sank unconscious upon the ground.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+AT THE ARIZONA CAVE
+
+
+It was dark when I opened my eyes again. Strange, stiff garments were
+upon my body; garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I rose
+to a sitting posture.
+
+I felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was
+clothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I had
+been naked. Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed
+through a ragged aperture.
+
+As my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and
+in one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper. One
+of these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appeared
+to be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange,
+still figure huddled over a tiny bench. As I approached it I saw that
+it was the dead and mummified remains of a little old woman with long
+black hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner
+upon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity of
+greenish powder.
+
+Behind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs, and stretching
+entirely across the cave, was a row of human skeletons. From the thong
+which held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old
+woman; as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a
+noise as of the rustling of dry leaves.
+
+It was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into the
+fresh air; glad to escape from so gruesome a place.
+
+The sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge which
+ran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation.
+
+A new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze. The silvered mountains in
+the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, the
+cacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars. I could scarce believe
+my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me—I was looking upon
+Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I had gazed
+with longing upon Mars.
+
+Burying my head in my arms I turned, broken, and sorrowful, down the
+trail from the cave.
+
+Above me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret,
+forty-eight million miles away.
+
+Did the Martian reach the pump room Did the vitalizing air reach the
+people of that distant planet in time to save them Was my Dejah Thoris
+alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the tiny
+golden incubator in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard of the
+palace of Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium
+
+For ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions.
+For ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of
+my lost love. I would rather lie dead beside her there than live on
+Earth all those millions of terrible miles from her.
+
+The old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously wealthy;
+but what care I for wealth!
+
+As I sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the Hudson, just
+twenty years have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.
+
+I can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk,
+and tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called before
+since that long dead night, and I think I can see, across that awful
+abyss of space, a beautiful black-haired woman standing in the garden
+of a palace, and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around
+her as she points into the sky toward the planet Earth, while at their
+feet is a huge and hideous creature with a heart of gold.
+
+I believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells me
+that I shall soon know.
\ No newline at end of file