"[Frontispiece: With my back against a golden throne, I fought once\nagain for Dejah Thoris]\n\n\n\n\nA PRINCESS OF MARS\n\n\nby\n\nEdgar Rice Burroughs\n\n\n\nTo My Son Jack\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nTo the Reader of this Work:\n\nIn submitting Captain Carter's strange manuscript to you in book form,\nI believe that a few words relative to this remarkable personality will\nbe of interest.\n\nMy first recollection of Captain Carter is of the few months he spent\nat my father's home in Virginia, just prior to the opening of the civil\nwar.  I was then a child of but five years, yet I well remember the\ntall, dark, smooth-faced, athletic man whom I called Uncle Jack.\n\nHe seemed always to be laughing; and he entered into the sports of the\nchildren with the same hearty good fellowship he displayed toward those\npastimes in which the men and women of his own age indulged; or he\nwould sit for an hour at a time entertaining my old grandmother with\nstories of his strange, wild life in all parts of the world.  We all\nloved him, and our slaves fairly worshipped the ground he trod.\n\nHe was a splendid specimen of manhood, standing a good two inches over\nsix feet, broad of shoulder and narrow of hip, with the carriage of the\ntrained fighting man.  His features were regular and clear cut, his\nhair black and closely cropped, while his eyes were of a steel gray,\nreflecting a strong and loyal character, filled with fire and\ninitiative.  His manners were perfect, and his courtliness was that of\na typical southern gentleman of the highest type.\n\nHis horsemanship, especially after hounds, was a marvel and delight\neven in that country of magnificent horsemen.  I have often heard my\nfather caution him against his wild recklessness, but he would only\nlaugh, and say that the tumble that killed him would be from the back\nof a horse yet unfoaled.\n\nWhen the war broke out he left us, nor did I see him again for some\nfifteen or sixteen years.  When he returned it was without warning, and\nI was much surprised to note that he had not aged apparently a moment,\nnor had he changed in any other outward way.  He was, when others were\nwith him, the same genial, happy fellow we had known of old, but when\nhe thought himself alone I have seen him sit for hours gazing off into\nspace, his face set in a look of wistful longing and hopeless misery;\nand at night he would sit thus looking up into the heavens, at what I\ndid not know until I read his manuscript years afterward.\n\nHe told us that he had been prospecting and mining in Arizona part of\nthe time since the war; and that he had been very successful was\nevidenced by the unlimited amount of money with which he was supplied.\nAs to the details of his life during these years he was very reticent,\nin fact he would not talk of them at all.\n\nHe remained with us for about a year and then went to New York, where\nhe purchased a little place on the Hudson, where I visited him once a\nyear on the occasions of my trips to the New York market--my father and\nI owning and operating a string of general stores throughout Virginia\nat that time.  Captain Carter had a small but beautiful cottage,\nsituated on a bluff overlooking the river, and during one of my last\nvisits, in the winter of 1885, I observed he was much occupied in\nwriting, I presume now, upon this manuscript.\n\nHe told me at this time that if anything should happen to him he wished\nme to take charge of his estate, and he gave me a key to a compartment\nin the safe which stood in his study, telling me I would find his will\nthere and some personal instructions which he had me pledge myself to\ncarry out with absolute fidelity.\n\nAfter I had retired for the night I have seen him from my window\nstanding in the moonlight on the brink of the bluff overlooking the\nHudson with his arms stretched out to the heavens as though in appeal.\nI thought at the time that he was praying, although I never understood\nthat he was in the strict sense of the term a religious man.\n\nSeveral months after I had returned home from my last visit, the first\nof March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram from him asking me to\ncome to him at once.  I had always been his favorite among the younger\ngeneration of Carters and so I hastened to comply with his demand.\n\nI arrived at the little station, about a mile from his grounds, on the\nmorning of March 4, 1886, and when I asked the livery man to drive me\nout to Captain Carter's he replied that if I was a friend of the\nCaptain's he had some very bad news for me; the Captain had been found\ndead shortly after daylight that very morning by the watchman attached\nto an adjoining property.\n\nFor some reason this news did not surprise me, but I hurried out to his\nplace as quickly as possible, so that I could take charge of the body\nand of his affairs.\n\nI found the watchman who had discovered him, together with the local\npolice chief and several townspeople, assembled in his little study.\nThe watchman related the few details connected with the finding of the\nbody, which he said had been still warm when he came upon it.  It lay,\nhe said, stretched full length in the snow with the arms outstretched\nabove the head toward the edge of the bluff, and when he showed me the\nspot it flashed upon me that it was the identical one where I had seen\nhim on those other nights, with his arms raised in supplication to the\nskies.\n\nThere were no marks of violence on the body, and with the aid of a\nlocal physician the coroner's jury quickly reached a decision of death\nfrom heart failure.  Left alone in the study, I opened the safe and\nwithdrew the contents of the drawer in which he had told me I would\nfind my instructions.  They were in part peculiar indeed, but I have\nfollowed them to each last detail as faithfully as I was able.\n\nHe directed that I remove his body to Virginia without embalming, and\nthat he be laid in an open coffin within a tomb which he previously had\nhad constructed and which, as I later learned, was well ventilated.\nThe instructions impressed upon me that I must personally see that this\nwas carried out just as he directed, even in secrecy if necessary.\n\nHis property was left in such a way that I was to receive the entire\nincome for twenty-five years, when the principal was to become mine.\nHis further instructions related to this manuscript which I was to\nretain sealed and unread, just as I found it, for eleven years; nor was\nI to divulge its contents until twenty-one years after his death.\n\nA strange feature about the tomb, where his body still lies, is that\nthe massive door is equipped with a single, huge gold-plated spring\nlock which can be opened _only from the inside_.\n\nYours very sincerely,\n\nEdgar Rice Burroughs.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n      I  On the Arizona Hills\n     II  The Escape of the Dead\n    III  My Advent on Mars\n     IV  A Prisoner\n      V  I Elude My Watch Dog\n     VI  A Fight That Won Friends\n    VII  Child-Raising on Mars\n   VIII  A Fair Captive from the Sky\n     IX  I Learn the Language\n      X  Champion and Chief\n     XI  With Dejah Thoris\n    XII  A Prisoner with Power\n   XIII  Love-Making on Mars\n    XIV  A Duel to the Death\n     XV  Sola Tells Me Her Story\n    XVI  We Plan Escape\n   XVII  A Costly Recapture\n  XVIII  Chained in Warhoon\n    XIX  Battling in the Arena\n     XX  In the Atmosphere Factory\n    XXI  An Air Scout for Zodanga\n   XXII  I Find Dejah\n  XXIII  Lost in the Sky\n   XXIV  Tars Tarkas Finds a Friend\n    XXV  The Looting of Zodanga\n   XXVI  Through Carnage to Joy\n  XXVII  From Joy to Death\n XXVIII  At the Arizona Cave\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\nWith my back against a golden throne,\n  I fought once again for Dejah Thoris . . . . . . _Frontispiece_\n\nI sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing chariots.\n\nShe drew upon the marble floor the first map of the\n  Barsoomian territory I had ever seen.\n\nThe old man sat and talked with me for hours.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nON THE ARIZONA HILLS\n\n\nI am a very old man; how old I do not know.  Possibly I am a hundred,\npossibly more; but I cannot tell because I have never aged as other\nmen, nor do I remember any childhood.  So far as I can recollect I have\nalways been a man, a man of about thirty.  I appear today as I did\nforty years and more ago, and yet I feel that I cannot go on living\nforever; that some day I shall die the real death from which there is\nno resurrection.  I do not know why I should fear death, I who have\ndied twice and am still alive; but yet I have the same horror of it as\nyou who have never died, and it is because of this terror of death, I\nbelieve, that I am so convinced of my mortality.\n\nAnd because of this conviction I have determined to write down the\nstory of the interesting periods of my life and of my death.  I cannot\nexplain the phenomena; I can only set down here in the words of an\nordinary soldier of fortune a chronicle of the strange events that\nbefell me during the ten years that my dead body lay undiscovered in an\nArizona cave.\n\nI have never told this story, nor shall mortal man see this manuscript\nuntil after I have passed over for eternity.  I know that the average\nhuman mind will not believe what it cannot grasp, and so I do not\npurpose being pilloried by the public, the pulpit, and the press, and\nheld up as a colossal liar when I am but telling the simple truths\nwhich some day science will substantiate.  Possibly the suggestions\nwhich I gained upon Mars, and the knowledge which I can set down in\nthis chronicle, will aid in an earlier understanding of the mysteries\nof our sister planet; mysteries to you, but no longer mysteries to me.\n\nMy name is John Carter; I am better known as Captain Jack Carter of\nVirginia.  At the close of the Civil War I found myself possessed of\nseveral hundred thousand dollars (Confederate) and a captain's\ncommission in the cavalry arm of an army which no longer existed; the\nservant of a state which had vanished with the hopes of the South.\nMasterless, penniless, and with my only means of livelihood, fighting,\ngone, I determined to work my way to the southwest and attempt to\nretrieve my fallen fortunes in a search for gold.\n\nI spent nearly a year prospecting in company with another Confederate\nofficer, Captain James K. Powell of Richmond.  We were extremely\nfortunate, for late in the winter of 1865, after many hardships and\nprivations, we located the most remarkable gold-bearing quartz vein\nthat our wildest dreams had ever pictured.  Powell, who was a mining\nengineer by education, stated that we had uncovered over a million\ndollars worth of ore in a trifle over three months.\n\nAs our equipment was crude in the extreme we decided that one of us\nmust return to civilization, purchase the necessary machinery and\nreturn with a sufficient force of men properly to work the mine.\n\nAs Powell was familiar with the country, as well as with the mechanical\nrequirements of mining we determined that it would be best for him to\nmake the trip.  It was agreed that I was to hold down our claim against\nthe remote possibility of its being jumped by some wandering prospector.\n\nOn March 3, 1866, Powell and I packed his provisions on two of our\nburros, and bidding me good-bye he mounted his horse, and started down\nthe mountainside toward the valley, across which led the first stage of\nhis journey.\n\nThe morning of Powell's departure was, like nearly all Arizona\nmornings, clear and beautiful; I could see him and his little pack\nanimals picking their way down the mountainside toward the valley, and\nall during the morning I would catch occasional glimpses of them as\nthey topped a hog back or came out upon a level plateau.  My last sight\nof Powell was about three in the afternoon as he entered the shadows of\nthe range on the opposite side of the valley.\n\nSome half hour later I happened to glance casually across the valley\nand was much surprised to note three little dots in about the same\nplace I had last seen my friend and his two pack animals.  I am not\ngiven to needless worrying, but the more I tried to convince myself\nthat all was well with Powell, and that the dots I had seen on his\ntrail were antelope or wild horses, the less I was able to assure\nmyself.\n\nSince we had entered the territory we had not seen a hostile Indian,\nand we had, therefore, become careless in the extreme, and were wont to\nridicule the stories we had heard of the great numbers of these vicious\nmarauders that were supposed to haunt the trails, taking their toll in\nlives and torture of every white party which fell into their merciless\nclutches.\n\nPowell, I knew, was well armed and, further, an experienced Indian\nfighter; but I too had lived and fought for years among the Sioux in\nthe North, and I knew that his chances were small against a party of\ncunning trailing Apaches.  Finally I could endure the suspense no\nlonger, and, arming myself with my two Colt revolvers and a carbine, I\nstrapped two belts of cartridges about me and catching my saddle horse,\nstarted down the trail taken by Powell in the morning.\n\nAs soon as I reached comparatively level ground I urged my mount into a\ncanter and continued this, where the going permitted, until, close upon\ndusk, I discovered the point where other tracks joined those of Powell.\nThey were the tracks of unshod ponies, three of them, and the ponies\nhad been galloping.\n\nI followed rapidly until, darkness shutting down, I was forced to await\nthe rising of the moon, and given an opportunity to speculate on the\nquestion of the wisdom of my chase.  Possibly I had conjured up\nimpossible dangers, like some nervous old housewife, and when I should\ncatch up with Powell would get a good laugh for my pains.  However, I\nam not prone to sensitiveness, and the following of a sense of duty,\nwherever it may lead, has always been a kind of fetich with me\nthroughout my life; which may account for the honors bestowed upon me\nby three republics and the decorations and friendships of an old and\npowerful emperor and several lesser kings, in whose service my sword\nhas been red many a time.\n\nAbout nine o'clock the moon was sufficiently bright for me to proceed\non my way and I had no difficulty in following the trail at a fast\nwalk, and in some places at a brisk trot until, about midnight, I\nreached the water hole where Powell had expected to camp.  I came upon\nthe spot unexpectedly, finding it entirely deserted, with no signs of\nhaving been recently occupied as a camp.\n\nI was interested to note that the tracks of the pursuing horsemen, for\nsuch I was now convinced they must be, continued after Powell with only\na brief stop at the hole for water; and always at the same rate of\nspeed as his.\n\nI was positive now that the trailers were Apaches and that they wished\nto capture Powell alive for the fiendish pleasure of the torture, so I\nurged my horse onward at a most dangerous pace, hoping against hope\nthat I would catch up with the red rascals before they attacked him.\n\nFurther speculation was suddenly cut short by the faint report of two\nshots far ahead of me.  I knew that Powell would need me now if ever,\nand I instantly urged my horse to his topmost speed up the narrow and\ndifficult mountain trail.\n\nI had forged ahead for perhaps a mile or more without hearing further\nsounds, when the trail suddenly debouched onto a small, open plateau\nnear the summit of the pass.  I had passed through a narrow,\noverhanging gorge just before entering suddenly upon this table land,\nand the sight which met my eyes filled me with consternation and dismay.\n\nThe little stretch of level land was white with Indian tepees, and\nthere were probably half a thousand red warriors clustered around some\nobject near the center of the camp.  Their attention was so wholly\nriveted to this point of interest that they did not notice me, and I\neasily could have turned back into the dark recesses of the gorge and\nmade my escape with perfect safety.  The fact, however, that this\nthought did not occur to me until the following day removes any\npossible right to a claim to heroism to which the narration of this\nepisode might possibly otherwise entitle me.\n\nI do not believe that I am made of the stuff which constitutes heroes,\nbecause, in all of the hundreds of instances that my voluntary acts\nhave placed me face to face with death, I cannot recall a single one\nwhere any alternative step to that I took occurred to me until many\nhours later.  My mind is evidently so constituted that I am\nsubconsciously forced into the path of duty without recourse to\ntiresome mental processes.  However that may be, I have never regretted\nthat cowardice is not optional with me.\n\nIn this instance I was, of course, positive that Powell was the center\nof attraction, but whether I thought or acted first I do not know, but\nwithin an instant from the moment the scene broke upon my view I had\nwhipped out my revolvers and was charging down upon the entire army of\nwarriors, shooting rapidly, and whooping at the top of my lungs.\nSinglehanded, I could not have pursued better tactics, for the red men,\nconvinced by sudden surprise that not less than a regiment of regulars\nwas upon them, turned and fled in every direction for their bows,\narrows, and rifles.\n\nThe view which their hurried routing disclosed filled me with\napprehension and with rage.  Under the clear rays of the Arizona moon\nlay Powell, his body fairly bristling with the hostile arrows of the\nbraves.  That he was already dead I could not but be convinced, and yet\nI would have saved his body from mutilation at the hands of the Apaches\nas quickly as I would have saved the man himself from death.\n\nRiding close to him I reached down from the saddle, and grasping his\ncartridge belt drew him up across the withers of my mount.  A backward\nglance convinced me that to return by the way I had come would be more\nhazardous than to continue across the plateau, so, putting spurs to my\npoor beast, I made a dash for the opening to the pass which I could\ndistinguish on the far side of the table land.\n\nThe Indians had by this time discovered that I was alone and I was\npursued with imprecations, arrows, and rifle balls.  The fact that it\nis difficult to aim anything but imprecations accurately by moonlight,\nthat they were upset by the sudden and unexpected manner of my advent,\nand that I was a rather rapidly moving target saved me from the various\ndeadly projectiles of the enemy and permitted me to reach the shadows\nof the surrounding peaks before an orderly pursuit could be organized.\n\nMy horse was traveling practically unguided as I knew that I had\nprobably less knowledge of the exact location of the trail to the pass\nthan he, and thus it happened that he entered a defile which led to the\nsummit of the range and not to the pass which I had hoped would carry\nme to the valley and to safety.  It is probable, however, that to this\nfact I owe my life and the remarkable experiences and adventures which\nbefell me during the following ten years.\n\nMy first knowledge that I was on the wrong trail came when I heard the\nyells of the pursuing savages suddenly grow fainter and fainter far off\nto my left.\n\nI knew then that they had passed to the left of the jagged rock\nformation at the edge of the plateau, to the right of which my horse\nhad borne me and the body of Powell.\n\nI drew rein on a little level promontory overlooking the trail below\nand to my left, and saw the party of pursuing savages disappearing\naround the point of a neighboring peak.\n\nI knew the Indians would soon discover that they were on the wrong\ntrail and that the search for me would be renewed in the right\ndirection as soon as they located my tracks.\n\nI had gone but a short distance further when what seemed to be an\nexcellent trail opened up around the face of a high cliff.  The trail\nwas level and quite broad and led upward and in the general direction I\nwished to go.  The cliff arose for several hundred feet on my right,\nand on my left was an equal and nearly perpendicular drop to the bottom\nof a rocky ravine.\n\nI had followed this trail for perhaps a hundred yards when a sharp turn\nto the right brought me to the mouth of a large cave.  The opening was\nabout four feet in height and three to four feet wide, and at this\nopening the trail ended.\n\nIt was now morning, and, with the customary lack of dawn which is a\nstartling characteristic of Arizona, it had become daylight almost\nwithout warning.\n\nDismounting, I laid Powell upon the ground, but the most painstaking\nexamination failed to reveal the faintest spark of life.  I forced\nwater from my canteen between his dead lips, bathed his face and rubbed\nhis hands, working over him continuously for the better part of an hour\nin the face of the fact that I knew him to be dead.\n\nI was very fond of Powell; he was thoroughly a man in every respect; a\npolished southern gentleman; a staunch and true friend; and it was with\na feeling of the deepest grief that I finally gave up my crude\nendeavors at resuscitation.\n\nLeaving Powell's body where it lay on the ledge I crept into the cave\nto reconnoiter.  I found a large chamber, possibly a hundred feet in\ndiameter and thirty or forty feet in height; a smooth and well-worn\nfloor, and many other evidences that the cave had, at some remote\nperiod, been inhabited.  The back of the cave was so lost in dense\nshadow that I could not distinguish whether there were openings into\nother apartments or not.\n\nAs I was continuing my examination I commenced to feel a pleasant\ndrowsiness creeping over me which I attributed to the fatigue of my\nlong and strenuous ride, and the reaction from the excitement of the\nfight and the pursuit.  I felt comparatively safe in my present\nlocation as I knew that one man could defend the trail to the cave\nagainst an army.\n\nI soon became so drowsy that I could scarcely resist the strong desire\nto throw myself on the floor of the cave for a few moments' rest, but I\nknew that this would never do, as it would mean certain death at the\nhands of my red friends, who might be upon me at any moment.  With an\neffort I started toward the opening of the cave only to reel drunkenly\nagainst a side wall, and from there slip prone upon the floor.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE ESCAPE OF THE DEAD\n\n\nA sense of delicious dreaminess overcame me, my muscles relaxed, and I\nwas on the point of giving way to my desire to sleep when the sound of\napproaching horses reached my ears.  I attempted to spring to my feet\nbut was horrified to discover that my muscles refused to respond to my\nwill.  I was now thoroughly awake, but as unable to move a muscle as\nthough turned to stone.  It was then, for the first time, that I\nnoticed a slight vapor filling the cave.  It was extremely tenuous and\nonly noticeable against the opening which led to daylight.  There also\ncame to my nostrils a faintly pungent odor, and I could only assume\nthat I had been overcome by some poisonous gas, but why I should retain\nmy mental faculties and yet be unable to move I could not fathom.\n\nI lay facing the opening of the cave and where I could see the short\nstretch of trail which lay between the cave and the turn of the cliff\naround which the trail led.  The noise of the approaching horses had\nceased, and I judged the Indians were creeping stealthily upon me along\nthe little ledge which led to my living tomb.  I remember that I hoped\nthey would make short work of me as I did not particularly relish the\nthought of the innumerable things they might do to me if the spirit\nprompted them.\n\nI had not long to wait before a stealthy sound apprised me of their\nnearness, and then a war-bonneted, paint-streaked face was thrust\ncautiously around the shoulder of the cliff, and savage eyes looked\ninto mine.  That he could see me in the dim light of the cave I was\nsure for the early morning sun was falling full upon me through the\nopening.\n\nThe fellow, instead of approaching, merely stood and stared; his eyes\nbulging and his jaw dropped.  And then another savage face appeared,\nand a third and fourth and fifth, craning their necks over the\nshoulders of their fellows whom they could not pass upon the narrow\nledge.  Each face was the picture of awe and fear, but for what reason\nI did not know, nor did I learn until ten years later.  That there were\nstill other braves behind those who regarded me was apparent from the\nfact that the leaders passed back whispered word to those behind them.\n\nSuddenly a low but distinct moaning sound issued from the recesses of\nthe cave behind me, and, as it reached the ears of the Indians, they\nturned and fled in terror, panic-stricken.  So frantic were their\nefforts to escape from the unseen thing behind me that one of the\nbraves was hurled headlong from the cliff to the rocks below.  Their\nwild cries echoed in the canyon for a short time, and then all was\nstill once more.\n\nThe sound which had frightened them was not repeated, but it had been\nsufficient as it was to start me speculating on the possible horror\nwhich lurked in the shadows at my back.  Fear is a relative term and so\nI can only measure my feelings at that time by what I had experienced\nin previous positions of danger and by those that I have passed through\nsince; but I can say without shame that if the sensations I endured\nduring the next few minutes were fear, then may God help the coward,\nfor cowardice is of a surety its own punishment.\n\nTo be held paralyzed, with one's back toward some horrible and unknown\ndanger from the very sound of which the ferocious Apache warriors turn\nin wild stampede, as a flock of sheep would madly flee from a pack of\nwolves, seems to me the last word in fearsome predicaments for a man\nwho had ever been used to fighting for his life with all the energy of\na powerful physique.\n\nSeveral times I thought I heard faint sounds behind me as of somebody\nmoving cautiously, but eventually even these ceased, and I was left to\nthe contemplation of my position without interruption.  I could but\nvaguely conjecture the cause of my paralysis, and my only hope lay in\nthat it might pass off as suddenly as it had fallen upon me.\n\nLate in the afternoon my horse, which had been standing with dragging\nrein before the cave, started slowly down the trail, evidently in\nsearch of food and water, and I was left alone with my mysterious\nunknown companion and the dead body of my friend, which lay just within\nmy range of vision upon the ledge where I had placed it in the early\nmorning.\n\nFrom then until possibly midnight all was silence, the silence of the\ndead; then, suddenly, the awful moan of the morning broke upon my\nstartled ears, and there came again from the black shadows the sound of\na moving thing, and a faint rustling as of dead leaves.  The shock to\nmy already overstrained nervous system was terrible in the extreme, and\nwith a superhuman effort I strove to break my awful bonds.  It was an\neffort of the mind, of the will, of the nerves; not muscular, for I\ncould not move even so much as my little finger, but none the less\nmighty for all that.  And then something gave, there was a momentary\nfeeling of nausea, a sharp click as of the snapping of a steel wire,\nand I stood with my back against the wall of the cave facing my unknown\nfoe.\n\nAnd then the moonlight flooded the cave, and there before me lay my own\nbody as it had been lying all these hours, with the eyes staring toward\nthe open ledge and the hands resting limply upon the ground.  I looked\nfirst at my lifeless clay there upon the floor of the cave and then\ndown at myself in utter bewilderment; for there I lay clothed, and yet\nhere I stood but naked as at the minute of my birth.\n\nThe transition had been so sudden and so unexpected that it left me for\na moment forgetful of aught else than my strange metamorphosis.  My\nfirst thought was, is this then death!  Have I indeed passed over\nforever into that other life!  But I could not well believe this, as I\ncould feel my heart pounding against my ribs from the exertion of my\nefforts to release myself from the anaesthesis which had held me.  My\nbreath was coming in quick, short gasps, cold sweat stood out from\nevery pore of my body, and the ancient experiment of pinching revealed\nthe fact that I was anything other than a wraith.\n\nAgain was I suddenly recalled to my immediate surroundings by a\nrepetition of the weird moan from the depths of the cave.  Naked and\nunarmed as I was, I had no desire to face the unseen thing which\nmenaced me.\n\nMy revolvers were strapped to my lifeless body which, for some\nunfathomable reason, I could not bring myself to touch.  My carbine was\nin its boot, strapped to my saddle, and as my horse had wandered off I\nwas left without means of defense.  My only alternative seemed to lie\nin flight and my decision was crystallized by a recurrence of the\nrustling sound from the thing which now seemed, in the darkness of the\ncave and to my distorted imagination, to be creeping stealthily upon me.\n\nUnable longer to resist the temptation to escape this horrible place I\nleaped quickly through the opening into the starlight of a clear\nArizona night.  The crisp, fresh mountain air outside the cave acted as\nan immediate tonic and I felt new life and new courage coursing through\nme.  Pausing upon the brink of the ledge I upbraided myself for what\nnow seemed to me wholly unwarranted apprehension.  I reasoned with\nmyself that I had lain helpless for many hours within the cave, yet\nnothing had molested me, and my better judgment, when permitted the\ndirection of clear and logical reasoning, convinced me that the noises\nI had heard must have resulted from purely natural and harmless causes;\nprobably the conformation of the cave was such that a slight breeze had\ncaused the sounds I heard.\n\nI decided to investigate, but first I lifted my head to fill my lungs\nwith the pure, invigorating night air of the mountains.  As I did so I\nsaw stretching far below me the beautiful vista of rocky gorge, and\nlevel, cacti-studded flat, wrought by the moonlight into a miracle of\nsoft splendor and wondrous enchantment.\n\nFew western wonders are more inspiring than the beauties of an Arizona\nmoonlit landscape; the silvered mountains in the distance, the strange\nlights and shadows upon hog back and arroyo, and the grotesque details\nof the stiff, yet beautiful cacti form a picture at once enchanting and\ninspiring; as though one were catching for the first time a glimpse of\nsome dead and forgotten world, so different is it from the aspect of\nany other spot upon our earth.\n\nAs I stood thus meditating, I turned my gaze from the landscape to the\nheavens where the myriad stars formed a gorgeous and fitting canopy for\nthe wonders of the earthly scene.  My attention was quickly riveted by\na large red star close to the distant horizon.  As I gazed upon it I\nfelt a spell of overpowering fascination--it was Mars, the god of war,\nand for me, the fighting man, it had always held the power of\nirresistible enchantment.  As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it\nseemed to call across the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, to draw\nme as the lodestone attracts a particle of iron.\n\nMy longing was beyond the power of opposition; I closed my eyes,\nstretched out my arms toward the god of my vocation and felt myself\ndrawn with the suddenness of thought through the trackless immensity of\nspace.  There was an instant of extreme cold and utter darkness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nMY ADVENT ON MARS\n\n\nI opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape.  I knew that I was\non Mars; not once did I question either my sanity or my wakefulness.  I\nwas not asleep, no need for pinching here; my inner consciousness told\nme as plainly that I was upon Mars as your conscious mind tells you\nthat you are upon Earth.  You do not question the fact; neither did I.\n\nI found myself lying prone upon a bed of yellowish, mosslike vegetation\nwhich stretched around me in all directions for interminable miles.  I\nseemed to be lying in a deep, circular basin, along the outer verge of\nwhich I could distinguish the irregularities of low hills.\n\nIt was midday, the sun was shining full upon me and the heat of it was\nrather intense upon my naked body, yet no greater than would have been\ntrue under similar conditions on an Arizona desert.  Here and there\nwere slight outcroppings of quartz-bearing rock which glistened in the\nsunlight; and a little to my left, perhaps a hundred yards, appeared a\nlow, walled enclosure about four feet in height.  No water, and no\nother vegetation than the moss was in evidence, and as I was somewhat\nthirsty I determined to do a little exploring.\n\nSpringing to my feet I received my first Martian surprise, for the\neffort, which on Earth would have brought me standing upright, carried\nme into the Martian air to the height of about three yards.  I alighted\nsoftly upon the ground, however, without appreciable shock or jar.  Now\ncommenced a series of evolutions which even then seemed ludicrous in\nthe extreme.  I found that I must learn to walk all over again, as the\nmuscular exertion which carried me easily and safely upon Earth played\nstrange antics with me upon Mars.\n\nInstead of progressing in a sane and dignified manner, my attempts to\nwalk resulted in a variety of hops which took me clear of the ground a\ncouple of feet at each step and landed me sprawling upon my face or\nback at the end of each second or third hop.  My muscles, perfectly\nattuned and accustomed to the force of gravity on Earth, played the\nmischief with me in attempting for the first time to cope with the\nlesser gravitation and lower air pressure on Mars.\n\nI was determined, however, to explore the low structure which was the\nonly evidence of habitation in sight, and so I hit upon the unique plan\nof reverting to first principles in locomotion, creeping.  I did fairly\nwell at this and in a few moments had reached the low, encircling wall\nof the enclosure.\n\nThere appeared to be no doors or windows upon the side nearest me, but\nas the wall was but about four feet high I cautiously gained my feet\nand peered over the top upon the strangest sight it had ever been given\nme to see.\n\nThe roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four or five inches\nin thickness, and beneath this were several hundred large eggs,\nperfectly round and snowy white.  The eggs were nearly uniform in size\nbeing about two and one-half feet in diameter.\n\nFive or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatures which sat\nblinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity.\nThey seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six\nlegs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an\nintermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms\nor legs.  Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a\ntrifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could\nbe directed either forward or back and also independently of each\nother, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or\nin two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.\n\nThe ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were\nsmall, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these\nyoung specimens.  Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center\nof their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.\n\nThere was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light\nyellowish-green color.  In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon,\nthis color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in\nthe female.  Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of\nproportion to their bodies as in the case of the young.\n\nThe iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while the pupil is\ndark.  The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth.  These\nlatter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and\nterrible countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points\nwhich end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located.\nThe whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest\nand most gleaming of china.  Against the dark background of their olive\nskins their tusks stand out in a most striking manner, making these\nweapons present a singularly formidable appearance.\n\nMost of these details I noted later, for I was given but little time to\nspeculate on the wonders of my new discovery.  I had seen that the eggs\nwere in the process of hatching, and as I stood watching the hideous\nlittle monsters break from their shells I failed to note the approach\nof a score of full-grown Martians from behind me.\n\nComing, as they did, over the soft and soundless moss, which covers\npractically the entire surface of Mars with the exception of the frozen\nareas at the poles and the scattered cultivated districts, they might\nhave captured me easily, but their intentions were far more sinister.\nIt was the rattling of the accouterments of the foremost warrior which\nwarned me.\n\nOn such a little thing my life hung that I often marvel that I escaped\nso easily.  Had not the rifle of the leader of the party swung from its\nfastenings beside his saddle in such a way as to strike against the\nbutt of his great metal-shod spear I should have snuffed out without\never knowing that death was near me.  But the little sound caused me to\nturn, and there upon me, not ten feet from my breast, was the point of\nthat huge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleaming metal,\nand held low at the side of a mounted replica of the little devils I\nhad been watching.\n\nBut how puny and harmless they now looked beside this huge and terrific\nincarnation of hate, of vengeance and of death.  The man himself, for\nsuch I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on Earth,\nwould have weighed some four hundred pounds.  He sat his mount as we\nsit a horse, grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs, while\nthe hands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at the side\nof his mount; his two left arms were outstretched laterally to help\npreserve his balance, the thing he rode having neither bridle or reins\nof any description for guidance.\n\nAnd his mount!  How can earthly words describe it!  It towered ten feet\nat the shoulder; had four legs on either side; a broad flat tail,\nlarger at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out\nbehind while running; a gaping mouth which split its head from its\nsnout to its long, massive neck.\n\nLike its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark\nslate color and exceeding smooth and glossy.  Its belly was white, and\nits legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid\nyellow at the feet.  The feet themselves were heavily padded and\nnailless, which fact had also contributed to the noiselessness of their\napproach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is a\ncharacteristic feature of the fauna of Mars.  The highest type of man\nand one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have\nwell-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in\nexistence there.\n\nBehind this first charging demon trailed nineteen others, similar in\nall respects, but, as I learned later, bearing individual\ncharacteristics peculiar to themselves; precisely as no two of us are\nidentical although we are all cast in a similar mold.  This picture, or\nrather materialized nightmare, which I have described at length, made\nbut one terrible and swift impression on me as I turned to meet it.\n\nUnarmed and naked as I was, the first law of nature manifested itself\nin the only possible solution of my immediate problem, and that was to\nget out of the vicinity of the point of the charging spear.\nConsequently I gave a very earthly and at the same time superhuman leap\nto reach the top of the Martian incubator, for such I had determined it\nmust be.\n\nMy effort was crowned with a success which appalled me no less than it\nseemed to surprise the Martian warriors, for it carried me fully thirty\nfeet into the air and landed me a hundred feet from my pursuers and on\nthe opposite side of the enclosure.\n\nI alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap, and turning\nsaw my enemies lined up along the further wall.  Some were surveying me\nwith expressions which I afterward discovered marked extreme\nastonishment, and the others were evidently satisfying themselves that\nI had not molested their young.\n\nThey were conversing together in low tones, and gesticulating and\npointing toward me.  Their discovery that I had not harmed the little\nMartians, and that I was unarmed, must have caused them to look upon me\nwith less ferocity; but, as I was to learn later, the thing which\nweighed most in my favor was my exhibition of hurdling.\n\nWhile the Martians are immense, their bones are very large and they are\nmuscled only in proportion to the gravitation which they must overcome.\nThe result is that they are infinitely less agile and less powerful, in\nproportion to their weight, than an Earth man, and I doubt that were\none of them suddenly to be transported to Earth he could lift his own\nweight from the ground; in fact, I am convinced that he could not do so.\n\nMy feat then was as marvelous upon Mars as it would have been upon\nEarth, and from desiring to annihilate me they suddenly looked upon me\nas a wonderful discovery to be captured and exhibited among their\nfellows.\n\nThe respite my unexpected agility had given me permitted me to\nformulate plans for the immediate future and to note more closely the\nappearance of the warriors, for I could not disassociate these people\nin my mind from those other warriors who, only the day before, had been\npursuing me.\n\nI noted that each was armed with several other weapons in addition to\nthe huge spear which I have described.  The weapon which caused me to\ndecide against an attempt at escape by flight was what was evidently a\nrifle of some description, and which I felt, for some reason, they were\npeculiarly efficient in handling.\n\nThese rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, which I learned\nlater was a very light and intensely hard growth much prized on Mars,\nand entirely unknown to us denizens of Earth.  The metal of the barrel\nis an alloy composed principally of aluminum and steel which they have\nlearned to temper to a hardness far exceeding that of the steel with\nwhich we are familiar.  The weight of these rifles is comparatively\nlittle, and with the small caliber, explosive, radium projectiles which\nthey use, and the great length of the barrel, they are deadly in the\nextreme and at ranges which would be unthinkable on Earth.  The\ntheoretic effective radius of this rifle is three hundred miles, but\nthe best they can do in actual service when equipped with their\nwireless finders and sighters is but a trifle over two hundred miles.\n\nThis is quite far enough to imbue me with great respect for the Martian\nfirearm, and some telepathic force must have warned me against an\nattempt to escape in broad daylight from under the muzzles of twenty of\nthese death-dealing machines.\n\nThe Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned and rode away\nin the direction from which they had come, leaving one of their number\nalone by the enclosure.  When they had covered perhaps two hundred\nyards they halted, and turning their mounts toward us sat watching the\nwarrior by the enclosure.\n\nHe was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me, and was\nevidently the leader of the band, as I had noted that they seemed to\nhave moved to their present position at his direction.  When his force\nhad come to a halt he dismounted, threw down his spear and small arms,\nand came around the end of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed\nand as naked as I, except for the ornaments strapped upon his head,\nlimbs, and breast.\n\nWhen he was within about fifty feet of me he unclasped an enormous\nmetal armlet, and holding it toward me in the open palm of his hand,\naddressed me in a clear, resonant voice, but in a language, it is\nneedless to say, I could not understand.  He then stopped as though\nwaiting for my reply, pricking up his antennae-like ears and cocking\nhis strange-looking eyes still further toward me.\n\nAs the silence became painful I concluded to hazard a little\nconversation on my own part, as I had guessed that he was making\novertures of peace.  The throwing down of his weapons and the\nwithdrawing of his troop before his advance toward me would have\nsignified a peaceful mission anywhere on Earth, so why not, then, on\nMars!\n\nPlacing my hand over my heart I bowed low to the Martian and explained\nto him that while I did not understand his language, his actions spoke\nfor the peace and friendship that at the present moment were most dear\nto my heart.  Of course I might have been a babbling brook for all the\nintelligence my speech carried to him, but he understood the action\nwith which I immediately followed my words.\n\nStretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took the armlet from his\nopen palm, clasping it about my arm above the elbow; smiled at him and\nstood waiting.  His wide mouth spread into an answering smile, and\nlocking one of his intermediary arms in mine we turned and walked back\ntoward his mount.  At the same time he motioned his followers to\nadvance.  They started toward us on a wild run, but were checked by a\nsignal from him.  Evidently he feared that were I to be really\nfrightened again I might jump entirely out of the landscape.\n\nHe exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me that I would ride\nbehind one of them, and then mounted his own animal.  The fellow\ndesignated reached down two or three hands and lifted me up behind him\non the glossy back of his mount, where I hung on as best I could by the\nbelts and straps which held the Martian's weapons and ornaments.\n\nThe entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away toward the range of\nhills in the distance.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nA PRISONER\n\n\nWe had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very\nrapidly.  We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one of\nMars' long-dead seas, in the bottom of which my encounter with the\nMartians had taken place.\n\nIn a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after\ntraversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the far extremity\nof which was a low table land upon which I beheld an enormous city.\nToward this we galloped, entering it by what appeared to be a ruined\nroadway leading out from the city, but only to the edge of the table\nland, where it ended abruptly in a flight of broad steps.\n\nUpon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the buildings were\ndeserted, and while not greatly decayed had the appearance of not\nhaving been tenanted for years, possibly for ages.  Toward the center\nof the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the buildings\nimmediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten hundred\ncreatures of the same breed as my captors, for such I now considered\nthem despite the suave manner in which I had been trapped.\n\nWith the exception of their ornaments all were naked.  The women varied\nin appearance but little from the men, except that their tusks were\nmuch larger in proportion to their height, in some instances curving\nnearly to their high-set ears.  Their bodies were smaller and lighter\nin color, and their fingers and toes bore the rudiments of nails, which\nwere entirely lacking among the males.  The adult females ranged in\nheight from ten to twelve feet.\n\nThe children were light in color, even lighter than the women, and all\nlooked precisely alike to me, except that some were taller than others;\nolder, I presumed.\n\nI saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any appreciable\ndifference in their appearance from the age of maturity, about forty,\nuntil, at about the age of one thousand years, they go voluntarily upon\ntheir last strange pilgrimage down the river Iss, which leads no living\nMartian knows whither and from whose bosom no Martian has ever\nreturned, or would be allowed to live did he return after once\nembarking upon its cold, dark waters.\n\nOnly about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease, and\npossibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage.  The other nine\nhundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in hunting, in\naviation and in war; but perhaps by far the greatest death loss comes\nduring the age of childhood, when vast numbers of the little Martians\nfall victims to the great white apes of Mars.\n\nThe average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity is\nabout three hundred years, but would be nearer the one-thousand mark\nwere it not for the various means leading to violent death.  Owing to\nthe waning resources of the planet it evidently became necessary to\ncounteract the increasing longevity which their remarkable skill in\ntherapeutics and surgery produced, and so human life has come to be\nconsidered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced by their dangerous\nsports and the almost continual warfare between the various communities.\n\nThere are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of\npopulation, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the fact\nthat no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a weapon of\ndestruction.\n\nAs we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we were\nimmediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures who seemed anxious\nto pluck me from my seat behind my guard.  A word from the leader of\nthe party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across the\nplaza to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye has\nrested upon.\n\nThe building was low, but covered an enormous area.  It was constructed\nof gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant stones which\nsparkled and scintillated in the sunlight.  The main entrance was some\nhundred feet in width and projected from the building proper to form a\nhuge canopy above the entrance hall.  There was no stairway, but a\ngentle incline to the first floor of the building opened into an\nenormous chamber encircled by galleries.\n\nOn the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carved\nwooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty or fifty male\nMartians around the steps of a rostrum.  On the platform proper\nsquatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments,\ngay-colored feathers and beautifully wrought leather trappings\ningeniously set with precious stones.  From his shoulders depended a\nshort cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.\n\nWhat struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the hall in\nwhich they were congregated was the fact that the creatures were\nentirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other furnishings;\nthese being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas the\ngreat bulks of the Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the\nchairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for their long legs.\nEvidently, then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild and\ngrotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen, but the evidences of\nextreme antiquity which showed all around me indicated that these\nbuildings might have belonged to some long-extinct and forgotten race\nin the dim antiquity of Mars.\n\nOur party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a sign\nfrom the leader I had been lowered to the ground.  Again locking his\narm in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber.  There were\nfew formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain.  My\ncaptor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for him\nas he advanced.  The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of\nmy escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the ruler\nfollowed by his title.\n\nAt the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to\nme, but later I came to know that this was the customary greeting\nbetween green Martians.  Had the men been strangers, and therefore\nunable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged ornaments,\nhad their missions been peaceful--otherwise they would have exchanged\nshots, or have fought out their introduction with some other of their\nvarious weapons.\n\nMy captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the vice-chieftain\nof the community, and a man of great ability as a statesman and\nwarrior.  He evidently explained briefly the incidents connected with\nhis expedition, including my capture, and when he had concluded the\nchieftain addressed me at some length.\n\nI replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that\nneither of us could understand the other; but I noticed that when I\nsmiled slightly on concluding, he did likewise.  This fact, and the\nsimilar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced me\nthat we had at least something in common; the ability to smile,\ntherefore to laugh; denoting a sense of humor.  But I was to learn that\nthe Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian laugh is\na thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.\n\nThe ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variance\nwith our conceptions of incitants to merriment.  The death agonies of a\nfellow being are, to these strange creatures, provocative of the wildest\nhilarity, while their chief form of commonest amusement is to inflict\ndeath on their prisoners of war in various ingenious and horrible ways.\n\nThe assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely, feeling my\nmuscles and the texture of my skin.  The principal chieftain then\nevidently signified a desire to see me perform, and, motioning me to\nfollow, he started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza.\n\nNow, I had made no attempt to walk, since my first signal failure,\nexcept while tightly grasping Tars Tarkas' arm, and so now I went\nskipping and flitting about among the desks and chairs like some\nmonstrous grasshopper.  After bruising myself severely, much to the\namusement of the Martians, I again had recourse to creeping, but this\ndid not suit them and I was roughly jerked to my feet by a towering\nfellow who had laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.\n\nAs he banged me down upon my feet his face was bent close to mine and I\ndid the only thing a gentleman might do under the circumstances of\nbrutality, boorishness, and lack of consideration for a stranger's\nrights; I swung my fist squarely to his jaw and he went down like a\nfelled ox.  As he sunk to the floor I wheeled around with my back\ntoward the nearest desk, expecting to be overwhelmed by the vengeance\nof his fellows, but determined to give them as good a battle as the\nunequal odds would permit before I gave up my life.\n\nMy fears were groundless, however, as the other Martians, at first\nstruck dumb with wonderment, finally broke into wild peals of laughter\nand applause.  I did not recognize the applause as such, but later,\nwhen I had become acquainted with their customs, I learned that I had\nwon what they seldom accord, a manifestation of approbation.\n\nThe fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor did any of\nhis mates approach him.  Tars Tarkas advanced toward me, holding out\none of his arms, and we thus proceeded to the plaza without further\nmishap.  I did not, of course, know the reason for which we had come to\nthe open, but I was not long in being enlightened.  They first repeated\nthe word \"sak\" a number of times, and then Tars Tarkas made several\njumps, repeating the same word before each leap; then, turning to me,\nhe said, \"sak!\"  I saw what they were after, and gathering myself\ntogether I \"sakked\" with such marvelous success that I cleared a good\nhundred and fifty feet; nor did I, this time, lose my equilibrium, but\nlanded squarely upon my feet without falling.  I then returned by easy\njumps of twenty-five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.\n\nMy exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser Martians,\nand they immediately broke into demands for a repetition, which the\nchieftain then ordered me to make; but I was both hungry and thirsty,\nand determined on the spot that my only method of salvation was to\ndemand the consideration from these creatures which they evidently\nwould not voluntarily accord.  I therefore ignored the repeated\ncommands to \"sak,\" and each time they were made I motioned to my mouth\nand rubbed my stomach.\n\nTars Tarkas and the chief exchanged a few words, and the former,\ncalling to a young female among the throng, gave her some instructions\nand motioned me to accompany her.  I grasped her proffered arm and\ntogether we crossed the plaza toward a large building on the far side.\n\nMy fair companion was about eight feet tall, having just arrived at\nmaturity, but not yet to her full height.  She was of a light\nolive-green color, with a smooth, glossy hide.  Her name, as I\nafterward learned, was Sola, and she belonged to the retinue of Tars\nTarkas.  She conducted me to a spacious chamber in one of the buildings\nfronting on the plaza, and which, from the litter of silks and furs\nupon the floor, I took to be the sleeping quarters of several of the\nnatives.\n\nThe room was well lighted by a number of large windows and was\nbeautifully decorated with mural paintings and mosaics, but upon all\nthere seemed to rest that indefinable touch of the finger of antiquity\nwhich convinced me that the architects and builders of these wondrous\ncreations had nothing in common with the crude half-brutes which now\noccupied them.\n\nSola motioned me to be seated upon a pile of silks near the center of\nthe room, and, turning, made a peculiar hissing sound, as though\nsignaling to someone in an adjoining room.  In response to her call I\nobtained my first sight of a new Martian wonder.  It waddled in on its\nten short legs, and squatted down before the girl like an obedient\npuppy.  The thing was about the size of a Shetland pony, but its head\nbore a slight resemblance to that of a frog, except that the jaws were\nequipped with three rows of long, sharp tusks.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nI ELUDE MY WATCH DOG\n\n\nSola stared into the brute's wicked-looking eyes, muttered a word or\ntwo of command, pointed to me, and left the chamber.  I could not but\nwonder what this ferocious-looking monstrosity might do when left alone\nin such close proximity to such a relatively tender morsel of meat; but\nmy fears were groundless, as the beast, after surveying me intently for\na moment, crossed the room to the only exit which led to the street,\nand lay down full length across the threshold.\n\nThis was my first experience with a Martian watch dog, but it was\ndestined not to be my last, for this fellow guarded me carefully during\nthe time I remained a captive among these green men; twice saving my\nlife, and never voluntarily being away from me a moment.\n\nWhile Sola was away I took occasion to examine more minutely the room\nin which I found myself captive.  The mural painting depicted scenes of\nrare and wonderful beauty; mountains, rivers, lake, ocean, meadow,\ntrees and flowers, winding roadways, sun-kissed gardens--scenes which\nmight have portrayed earthly views but for the different colorings of\nthe vegetation.  The work had evidently been wrought by a master hand,\nso subtle the atmosphere, so perfect the technique; yet nowhere was\nthere a representation of a living animal, either human or brute, by\nwhich I could guess at the likeness of these other and perhaps extinct\ndenizens of Mars.\n\nWhile I was allowing my fancy to run riot in wild conjecture on the\npossible explanation of the strange anomalies which I had so far met\nwith on Mars, Sola returned bearing both food and drink.  These she\nplaced on the floor beside me, and seating herself a short ways off\nregarded me intently.  The food consisted of about a pound of some\nsolid substance of the consistency of cheese and almost tasteless,\nwhile the liquid was apparently milk from some animal.  It was not\nunpleasant to the taste, though slightly acid, and I learned in a short\ntime to prize it very highly.  It came, as I later discovered, not from\nan animal, as there is only one mammal on Mars and that one very rare\nindeed, but from a large plant which grows practically without water,\nbut seems to distill its plentiful supply of milk from the products of\nthe soil, the moisture of the air, and the rays of the sun.  A single\nplant of this species will give eight or ten quarts of milk per day.\n\nAfter I had eaten I was greatly invigorated, but feeling the need of\nrest I stretched out upon the silks and was soon asleep.  I must have\nslept several hours, as it was dark when I awoke, and I was very cold.\nI noticed that someone had thrown a fur over me, but it had become\npartially dislodged and in the darkness I could not see to replace it.\nSuddenly a hand reached out and pulled the fur over me, shortly\nafterwards adding another to my covering.\n\nI presumed that my watchful guardian was Sola, nor was I wrong.  This\ngirl alone, among all the green Martians with whom I came in contact,\ndisclosed characteristics of sympathy, kindliness, and affection; her\nministrations to my bodily wants were unfailing, and her solicitous\ncare saved me from much suffering and many hardships.\n\nAs I was to learn, the Martian nights are extremely cold, and as there\nis practically no twilight or dawn, the changes in temperature are\nsudden and most uncomfortable, as are the transitions from brilliant\ndaylight to darkness.  The nights are either brilliantly illumined or\nvery dark, for if neither of the two moons of Mars happen to be in the\nsky almost total darkness results, since the lack of atmosphere, or,\nrather, the very thin atmosphere, fails to diffuse the starlight to any\ngreat extent; on the other hand, if both of the moons are in the\nheavens at night the surface of the ground is brightly illuminated.\n\nBoth of Mars' moons are vastly nearer her than is our moon to Earth;\nthe nearer moon being but about five thousand miles distant, while the\nfurther is but little more than fourteen thousand miles away, against\nthe nearly one-quarter million miles which separate us from our moon.\nThe nearer moon of Mars makes a complete revolution around the planet\nin a little over seven and one-half hours, so that she may be seen\nhurtling through the sky like some huge meteor two or three times each\nnight, revealing all her phases during each transit of the heavens.\n\nThe further moon revolves about Mars in something over thirty and\none-quarter hours, and with her sister satellite makes a nocturnal\nMartian scene one of splendid and weird grandeur.  And it is well that\nnature has so graciously and abundantly lighted the Martian night, for\nthe green men of Mars, being a nomadic race without high intellectual\ndevelopment, have but crude means for artificial lighting; depending\nprincipally upon torches, a kind of candle, and a peculiar oil lamp\nwhich generates a gas and burns without a wick.\n\nThis last device produces an intensely brilliant far-reaching white\nlight, but as the natural oil which it requires can only be obtained by\nmining in one of several widely separated and remote localities it is\nseldom used by these creatures whose only thought is for today, and\nwhose hatred for manual labor has kept them in a semi-barbaric state\nfor countless ages.\n\nAfter Sola had replenished my coverings I again slept, nor did I awaken\nuntil daylight.  The other occupants of the room, five in number, were\nall females, and they were still sleeping, piled high with a motley\narray of silks and furs.  Across the threshold lay stretched the\nsleepless guardian brute, just as I had last seen him on the preceding\nday; apparently he had not moved a muscle; his eyes were fairly glued\nupon me, and I fell to wondering just what might befall me should I\nendeavor to escape.\n\nI have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and\nexperiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone.  It\ntherefore now occurred to me that the surest way of learning the exact\nattitude of this beast toward me would be to attempt to leave the room.\nI felt fairly secure in my belief that I could escape him should he\npursue me once I was outside the building, for I had begun to take\ngreat pride in my ability as a jumper.  Furthermore, I could see from\nthe shortness of his legs that the brute himself was no jumper and\nprobably no runner.\n\nSlowly and carefully, therefore, I gained my feet, only to see that my\nwatcher did the same; cautiously I advanced toward him, finding that by\nmoving with a shuffling gait I could retain my balance as well as make\nreasonably rapid progress.  As I neared the brute he backed cautiously\naway from me, and when I had reached the open he moved to one side to\nlet me pass.  He then fell in behind me and followed about ten paces in\nmy rear as I made my way along the deserted street.\n\nEvidently his mission was to protect me only, I thought, but when we\nreached the edge of the city he suddenly sprang before me, uttering\nstrange sounds and baring his ugly and ferocious tusks.  Thinking to\nhave some amusement at his expense, I rushed toward him, and when\nalmost upon him sprang into the air, alighting far beyond him and away\nfrom the city.  He wheeled instantly and charged me with the most\nappalling speed I had ever beheld.  I had thought his short legs a bar\nto swiftness, but had he been coursing with greyhounds the latter would\nhave appeared as though asleep on a door mat.  As I was to learn, this\nis the fleetest animal on Mars, and owing to its intelligence, loyalty,\nand ferocity is used in hunting, in war, and as the protector of the\nMartian man.\n\nI quickly saw that I would have difficulty in escaping the fangs of the\nbeast on a straightaway course, and so I met his charge by doubling in\nmy tracks and leaping over him as he was almost upon me.  This maneuver\ngave me a considerable advantage, and I was able to reach the city\nquite a bit ahead of him, and as he came tearing after me I jumped for\na window about thirty feet from the ground in the face of one of the\nbuildings overlooking the valley.\n\nGrasping the sill I pulled myself up to a sitting posture without\nlooking into the building, and gazed down at the baffled animal beneath\nme.  My exultation was short-lived, however, for scarcely had I gained\na secure seat upon the sill than a huge hand grasped me by the neck\nfrom behind and dragged me violently into the room.  Here I was thrown\nupon my back, and beheld standing over me a colossal ape-like creature,\nwhite and hairless except for an enormous shock of bristly hair upon\nits head.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nA FIGHT THAT WON FRIENDS\n\n\nThe thing, which more nearly resembled our earthly men than it did the\nMartians I had seen, held me pinioned to the ground with one huge foot,\nwhile it jabbered and gesticulated at some answering creature behind\nme.  This other, which was evidently its mate, soon came toward us,\nbearing a mighty stone cudgel with which it evidently intended to brain\nme.\n\nThe creatures were about ten or fifteen feet tall, standing erect, and\nhad, like the green Martians, an intermediary set of arms or legs,\nmidway between their upper and lower limbs.  Their eyes were close\ntogether and non-protruding; their ears were high set, but more\nlaterally located than those of the Martians, while their snouts and\nteeth were strikingly like those of our African gorilla.  Altogether\nthey were not unlovely when viewed in comparison with the green\nMartians.\n\nThe cudgel was swinging in the arc which ended upon my upturned face\nwhen a bolt of myriad-legged horror hurled itself through the doorway\nfull upon the breast of my executioner.  With a shriek of fear the ape\nwhich held me leaped through the open window, but its mate closed in a\nterrific death struggle with my preserver, which was nothing less than\nmy faithful watch-thing; I cannot bring myself to call so hideous a\ncreature a dog.\n\nAs quickly as possible I gained my feet and backing against the wall I\nwitnessed such a battle as it is vouchsafed few beings to see.  The\nstrength, agility, and blind ferocity of these two creatures is\napproached by nothing known to earthly man.  My beast had an advantage\nin his first hold, having sunk his mighty fangs far into the breast of\nhis adversary; but the great arms and paws of the ape, backed by\nmuscles far transcending those of the Martian men I had seen, had\nlocked the throat of my guardian and slowly were choking out his life,\nand bending back his head and neck upon his body, where I momentarily\nexpected the former to fall limp at the end of a broken neck.\n\nIn accomplishing this the ape was tearing away the entire front of its\nbreast, which was held in the vise-like grip of the powerful jaws.\nBack and forth upon the floor they rolled, neither one emitting a sound\nof fear or pain.  Presently I saw the great eyes of my beast bulging\ncompletely from their sockets and blood flowing from its nostrils.\nThat he was weakening perceptibly was evident, but so also was the ape,\nwhose struggles were growing momentarily less.\n\nSuddenly I came to myself and, with that strange instinct which seems\never to prompt me to my duty, I seized the cudgel, which had fallen to\nthe floor at the commencement of the battle, and swinging it with all\nthe power of my earthly arms I crashed it full upon the head of the\nape, crushing his skull as though it had been an eggshell.\n\nScarcely had the blow descended when I was confronted with a new\ndanger.  The ape's mate, recovered from its first shock of terror, had\nreturned to the scene of the encounter by way of the interior of the\nbuilding.  I glimpsed him just before he reached the doorway and the\nsight of him, now roaring as he perceived his lifeless fellow stretched\nupon the floor, and frothing at the mouth, in the extremity of his\nrage, filled me, I must confess, with dire forebodings.\n\nI am ever willing to stand and fight when the odds are not too\noverwhelmingly against me, but in this instance I perceived neither\nglory nor profit in pitting my relatively puny strength against the\niron muscles and brutal ferocity of this enraged denizen of an unknown\nworld; in fact, the only outcome of such an encounter, so far as I\nmight be concerned, seemed sudden death.\n\nI was standing near the window and I knew that once in the street I\nmight gain the plaza and safety before the creature could overtake me;\nat least there was a chance for safety in flight, against almost\ncertain death should I remain and fight however desperately.\n\nIt is true I held the cudgel, but what could I do with it against his\nfour great arms?  Even should I break one of them with my first blow,\nfor I figured that he would attempt to ward off the cudgel, he could\nreach out and annihilate me with the others before I could recover for\na second attack.\n\nIn the instant that these thoughts passed through my mind I had turned\nto make for the window, but my eyes alighting on the form of my\nerstwhile guardian threw all thoughts of flight to the four winds.  He\nlay gasping upon the floor of the chamber, his great eyes fastened upon\nme in what seemed a pitiful appeal for protection.  I could not\nwithstand that look, nor could I, on second thought, have deserted my\nrescuer without giving as good an account of myself in his behalf as he\nhad in mine.\n\nWithout more ado, therefore, I turned to meet the charge of the\ninfuriated bull ape.  He was now too close upon me for the cudgel to\nprove of any effective assistance, so I merely threw it as heavily as I\ncould at his advancing bulk.  It struck him just below the knees,\neliciting a howl of pain and rage, and so throwing him off his balance\nthat he lunged full upon me with arms wide stretched to ease his fall.\n\nAgain, as on the preceding day, I had recourse to earthly tactics, and\nswinging my right fist full upon the point of his chin I followed it\nwith a smashing left to the pit of his stomach.  The effect was\nmarvelous, for, as I lightly sidestepped, after delivering the second\nblow, he reeled and fell upon the floor doubled up with pain and\ngasping for wind.  Leaping over his prostrate body, I seized the cudgel\nand finished the monster before he could regain his feet.\n\nAs I delivered the blow a low laugh rang out behind me, and, turning, I\nbeheld Tars Tarkas, Sola, and three or four warriors standing in the\ndoorway of the chamber.  As my eyes met theirs I was, for the second\ntime, the recipient of their zealously guarded applause.\n\nMy absence had been noted by Sola on her awakening, and she had quickly\ninformed Tars Tarkas, who had set out immediately with a handful of\nwarriors to search for me.  As they had approached the limits of the\ncity they had witnessed the actions of the bull ape as he bolted into\nthe building, frothing with rage.\n\nThey had followed immediately behind him, thinking it barely possible\nthat his actions might prove a clew to my whereabouts and had witnessed\nmy short but decisive battle with him.  This encounter, together with\nmy set-to with the Martian warrior on the previous day and my feats of\njumping placed me upon a high pinnacle in their regard.  Evidently\ndevoid of all the finer sentiments of friendship, love, or affection,\nthese people fairly worship physical prowess and bravery, and nothing\nis too good for the object of their adoration as long as he maintains\nhis position by repeated examples of his skill, strength, and courage.\n\nSola, who had accompanied the searching party of her own volition, was\nthe only one of the Martians whose face had not been twisted in\nlaughter as I battled for my life.  She, on the contrary, was sober\nwith apparent solicitude and, as soon as I had finished the monster,\nrushed to me and carefully examined my body for possible wounds or\ninjuries.  Satisfying herself that I had come off unscathed she smiled\nquietly, and, taking my hand, started toward the door of the chamber.\n\nTars Tarkas and the other warriors had entered and were standing over\nthe now rapidly reviving brute which had saved my life, and whose life\nI, in turn, had rescued.  They seemed to be deep in argument, and\nfinally one of them addressed me, but remembering my ignorance of his\nlanguage turned back to Tars Tarkas, who, with a word and gesture, gave\nsome command to the fellow and turned to follow us from the room.\n\nThere seemed something menacing in their attitude toward my beast, and\nI hesitated to leave until I had learned the outcome.  It was well I\ndid so, for the warrior drew an evil looking pistol from its holster\nand was on the point of putting an end to the creature when I sprang\nforward and struck up his arm.  The bullet striking the wooden casing\nof the window exploded, blowing a hole completely through the wood and\nmasonry.\n\nI then knelt down beside the fearsome-looking thing, and raising it to\nits feet motioned for it to follow me.  The looks of surprise which my\nactions elicited from the Martians were ludicrous; they could not\nunderstand, except in a feeble and childish way, such attributes as\ngratitude and compassion.  The warrior whose gun I had struck up looked\nenquiringly at Tars Tarkas, but the latter signed that I be left to my\nown devices, and so we returned to the plaza with my great beast\nfollowing close at heel, and Sola grasping me tightly by the arm.\n\nI had at least two friends on Mars; a young woman who watched over me\nwith motherly solicitude, and a dumb brute which, as I later came to\nknow, held in its poor ugly carcass more love, more loyalty, more\ngratitude than could have been found in the entire five million green\nMartians who rove the deserted cities and dead sea bottoms of Mars.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nCHILD-RAISING ON MARS\n\n\nAfter a breakfast, which was an exact replica of the meal of the\npreceding day and an index of practically every meal which followed\nwhile I was with the green men of Mars, Sola escorted me to the plaza,\nwhere I found the entire community engaged in watching or helping at\nthe harnessing of huge mastodonian animals to great three-wheeled\nchariots.  There were about two hundred and fifty of these vehicles,\neach drawn by a single animal, any one of which, from their appearance,\nmight easily have drawn the entire wagon train when fully loaded.\n\nThe chariots themselves were large, commodious, and gorgeously\ndecorated.  In each was seated a female Martian loaded with ornaments\nof metal, with jewels and silks and furs, and upon the back of each of\nthe beasts which drew the chariots was perched a young Martian driver.\nLike the animals upon which the warriors were mounted, the heavier\ndraft animals wore neither bit nor bridle, but were guided entirely by\ntelepathic means.\n\nThis power is wonderfully developed in all Martians, and accounts\nlargely for the simplicity of their language and the relatively few\nspoken words exchanged even in long conversations.  It is the universal\nlanguage of Mars, through the medium of which the higher and lower\nanimals of this world of paradoxes are able to communicate to a greater\nor less extent, depending upon the intellectual sphere of the species\nand the development of the individual.\n\nAs the cavalcade took up the line of march in single file, Sola dragged\nme into an empty chariot and we proceeded with the procession toward\nthe point by which I had entered the city the day before.  At the head\nof the caravan rode some two hundred warriors, five abreast, and a like\nnumber brought up the rear, while twenty-five or thirty outriders\nflanked us on either side.\n\nEvery one but myself--men, women, and children--were heavily armed, and\nat the tail of each chariot trotted a Martian hound, my own beast\nfollowing closely behind ours; in fact, the faithful creature never\nleft me voluntarily during the entire ten years I spent on Mars.  Our\nway led out across the little valley before the city, through the\nhills, and down into the dead sea bottom which I had traversed on my\njourney from the incubator to the plaza.  The incubator, as it proved,\nwas the terminal point of our journey this day, and, as the entire\ncavalcade broke into a mad gallop as soon as we reached the level\nexpanse of sea bottom, we were soon within sight of our goal.\n\nOn reaching it the chariots were parked with military precision on the\nfour sides of the enclosure, and half a score of warriors, headed by\nthe enormous chieftain, and including Tars Tarkas and several other\nlesser chiefs, dismounted and advanced toward it.  I could see Tars\nTarkas explaining something to the principal chieftain, whose name, by\nthe way, was, as nearly as I can translate it into English, Lorquas\nPtomel, Jed; jed being his title.\n\nI was soon appraised of the subject of their conversation, as, calling\nto Sola, Tars Tarkas signed for her to send me to him.  I had by this\ntime mastered the intricacies of walking under Martian conditions, and\nquickly responding to his command I advanced to the side of the\nincubator where the warriors stood.\n\nAs I reached their side a glance showed me that all but a very few eggs\nhad hatched, the incubator being fairly alive with the hideous little\ndevils.  They ranged in height from three to four feet, and were moving\nrestlessly about the enclosure as though searching for food.\n\nAs I came to a halt before him, Tars Tarkas pointed over the incubator\nand said, \"Sak.\"  I saw that he wanted me to repeat my performance of\nyesterday for the edification of Lorquas Ptomel, and, as I must confess\nthat my prowess gave me no little satisfaction, I responded quickly,\nleaping entirely over the parked chariots on the far side of the\nincubator.  As I returned, Lorquas Ptomel grunted something at me, and\nturning to his warriors gave a few words of command relative to the\nincubator.  They paid no further attention to me and I was thus\npermitted to remain close and watch their operations, which consisted\nin breaking an opening in the wall of the incubator large enough to\npermit of the exit of the young Martians.\n\nOn either side of this opening the women and the younger Martians, both\nmale and female, formed two solid walls leading out through the\nchariots and quite away into the plain beyond.  Between these walls the\nlittle Martians scampered, wild as deer; being permitted to run the\nfull length of the aisle, where they were captured one at a time by the\nwomen and older children; the last in the line capturing the first\nlittle one to reach the end of the gauntlet, her opposite in the line\ncapturing the second, and so on until all the little fellows had left\nthe enclosure and been appropriated by some youth or female.  As the\nwomen caught the young they fell out of line and returned to their\nrespective chariots, while those who fell into the hands of the young\nmen were later turned over to some of the women.\n\nI saw that the ceremony, if it could be dignified by such a name, was\nover, and seeking out Sola I found her in our chariot with a hideous\nlittle creature held tightly in her arms.\n\nThe work of rearing young, green Martians consists solely in teaching\nthem to talk, and to use the weapons of warfare with which they are\nloaded down from the very first year of their lives.  Coming from eggs\nin which they have lain for five years, the period of incubation, they\nstep forth into the world perfectly developed except in size.  Entirely\nunknown to their mothers, who, in turn, would have difficulty in\npointing out the fathers with any degree of accuracy, they are the\ncommon children of the community, and their education devolves upon the\nfemales who chance to capture them as they leave the incubator.\n\nTheir foster mothers may not even have had an egg in the incubator, as\nwas the case with Sola, who had not commenced to lay, until less than a\nyear before she became the mother of another woman's offspring.  But\nthis counts for little among the green Martians, as parental and filial\nlove is as unknown to them as it is common among us.  I believe this\nhorrible system which has been carried on for ages is the direct cause\nof the loss of all the finer feelings and higher humanitarian instincts\namong these poor creatures.  From birth they know no father or mother\nlove, they know not the meaning of the word home; they are taught that\nthey are only suffered to live until they can demonstrate by their\nphysique and ferocity that they are fit to live.  Should they prove\ndeformed or defective in any way they are promptly shot; nor do they\nsee a tear shed for a single one of the many cruel hardships they pass\nthrough from earliest infancy.\n\nI do not mean that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or\nintentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless\nstruggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of\nwhich have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional\nlife means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.\n\nBy careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each\nspecies, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the birth\nrate to merely offset the loss by death.\n\nEach adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each year,\nand those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity tests are\nhidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where the temperature\nis too low for incubation.  Every year these eggs are carefully\nexamined by a council of twenty chieftains, and all but about one\nhundred of the most perfect are destroyed out of each yearly supply.\nAt the end of five years about five hundred almost perfect eggs have\nbeen chosen from the thousands brought forth.  These are then placed in\nthe almost air-tight incubators to be hatched by the sun's rays after a\nperiod of another five years.  The hatching which we had witnessed\ntoday was a fairly representative event of its kind, all but about one\nper cent of the eggs hatching in two days.  If the remaining eggs ever\nhatched we knew nothing of the fate of the little Martians.  They were\nnot wanted, as their offspring might inherit and transmit the tendency\nto prolonged incubation, and thus upset the system which has maintained\nfor ages and which permits the adult Martians to figure the proper time\nfor return to the incubators, almost to an hour.\n\nThe incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or\nno likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes.  The result of\nsuch a catastrophe would mean no children in the community for another\nfive years.  I was later to witness the results of the discovery of an\nalien incubator.\n\nThe community of which the green Martians with whom my lot was cast\nformed a part was composed of some thirty thousand souls.  They roamed\nan enormous tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty and eighty\ndegrees south latitude, and bounded on the east and west by two large\nfertile tracts.  Their headquarters lay in the southwest corner of this\ndistrict, near the crossing of two of the so-called Martian canals.\n\nAs the incubator had been placed far north of their own territory in a\nsupposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area, we had before us a\ntremendous journey, concerning which I, of course, knew nothing.\n\nAfter our return to the dead city I passed several days in comparative\nidleness.  On the day following our return all the warriors had ridden\nforth early in the morning and had not returned until just before\ndarkness fell.  As I later learned, they had been to the subterranean\nvaults in which the eggs were kept and had transported them to the\nincubator, which they had then walled up for another five years, and\nwhich, in all probability, would not be visited again during that\nperiod.\n\nThe vaults which hid the eggs until they were ready for the incubator\nwere located many miles south of the incubator, and would be visited\nyearly by the council of twenty chieftains.  Why they did not arrange\nto build their vaults and incubators nearer home has always been a\nmystery to me, and, like many other Martian mysteries, unsolved and\nunsolvable by earthly reasoning and customs.\n\nSola's duties were now doubled, as she was compelled to care for the\nyoung Martian as well as for me, but neither one of us required much\nattention, and as we were both about equally advanced in Martian\neducation, Sola took it upon herself to train us together.\n\nHer prize consisted in a male about four feet tall, very strong and\nphysically perfect; also, he learned quickly, and we had considerable\namusement, at least I did, over the keen rivalry we displayed.  The\nMartian language, as I have said, is extremely simple, and in a week I\ncould make all my wants known and understand nearly everything that was\nsaid to me.  Likewise, under Sola's tutelage, I developed my telepathic\npowers so that I shortly could sense practically everything that went\non around me.\n\nWhat surprised Sola most in me was that while I could catch telepathic\nmessages easily from others, and often when they were not intended for\nme, no one could read a jot from my mind under any circumstances.  At\nfirst this vexed me, but later I was very glad of it, as it gave me an\nundoubted advantage over the Martians.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nA FAIR CAPTIVE FROM THE SKY\n\n\nThe third day after the incubator ceremony we set forth toward home,\nbut scarcely had the head of the procession debouched into the open\nground before the city than orders were given for an immediate and\nhasty return.  As though trained for years in this particular\nevolution, the green Martians melted like mist into the spacious\ndoorways of the nearby buildings, until, in less than three minutes,\nthe entire cavalcade of chariots, mastodons and mounted warriors was\nnowhere to be seen.\n\nSola and I had entered a building upon the front of the city, in fact,\nthe same one in which I had had my encounter with the apes, and,\nwishing to see what had caused the sudden retreat, I mounted to an\nupper floor and peered from the window out over the valley and the\nhills beyond; and there I saw the cause of their sudden scurrying to\ncover.  A huge craft, long, low, and gray-painted, swung slowly over\nthe crest of the nearest hill.  Following it came another, and another,\nand another, until twenty of them, swinging low above the ground,\nsailed slowly and majestically toward us.\n\nEach carried a strange banner swung from stem to stern above the upper\nworks, and upon the prow of each was painted some odd device that\ngleamed in the sunlight and showed plainly even at the distance at\nwhich we were from the vessels.  I could see figures crowding the\nforward decks and upper works of the air craft.  Whether they had\ndiscovered us or simply were looking at the deserted city I could not\nsay, but in any event they received a rude reception, for suddenly and\nwithout warning the green Martian warriors fired a terrific volley from\nthe windows of the buildings facing the little valley across which the\ngreat ships were so peacefully advancing.\n\nInstantly the scene changed as by magic; the foremost vessel swung\nbroadside toward us, and bringing her guns into play returned our fire,\nat the same time moving parallel to our front for a short distance and\nthen turning back with the evident intention of completing a great\ncircle which would bring her up to position once more opposite our\nfiring line; the other vessels followed in her wake, each one opening\nupon us as she swung into position.  Our own fire never diminished, and\nI doubt if twenty-five per cent of our shots went wild.  It had never\nbeen given me to see such deadly accuracy of aim, and it seemed as\nthough a little figure on one of the craft dropped at the explosion of\neach bullet, while the banners and upper works dissolved in spurts of\nflame as the irresistible projectiles of our warriors mowed through\nthem.\n\nThe fire from the vessels was most ineffectual, owing, as I afterward\nlearned, to the unexpected suddenness of the first volley, which caught\nthe ship's crews entirely unprepared and the sighting apparatus of the\nguns unprotected from the deadly aim of our warriors.\n\nIt seems that each green warrior has certain objective points for his\nfire under relatively identical circumstances of warfare.  For example,\na proportion of them, always the best marksmen, direct their fire\nentirely upon the wireless finding and sighting apparatus of the big\nguns of an attacking naval force; another detail attends to the smaller\nguns in the same way; others pick off the gunners; still others the\nofficers; while certain other quotas concentrate their attention upon\nthe other members of the crew, upon the upper works, and upon the\nsteering gear and propellers.\n\nTwenty minutes after the first volley the great fleet swung trailing\noff in the direction from which it had first appeared.  Several of the\ncraft were limping perceptibly, and seemed but barely under the control\nof their depleted crews.  Their fire had ceased entirely and all their\nenergies seemed focused upon escape.  Our warriors then rushed up to\nthe roofs of the buildings which we occupied and followed the\nretreating armada with a continuous fusillade of deadly fire.\n\nOne by one, however, the ships managed to dip below the crests of the\noutlying hills until only one barely moving craft was in sight.  This\nhad received the brunt of our fire and seemed to be entirely unmanned,\nas not a moving figure was visible upon her decks.  Slowly she swung\nfrom her course, circling back toward us in an erratic and pitiful\nmanner.  Instantly the warriors ceased firing, for it was quite\napparent that the vessel was entirely helpless, and, far from being in\na position to inflict harm upon us, she could not even control herself\nsufficiently to escape.\n\nAs she neared the city the warriors rushed out upon the plain to meet\nher, but it was evident that she still was too high for them to hope to\nreach her decks.  From my vantage point in the window I could see the\nbodies of her crew strewn about, although I could not make out what\nmanner of creatures they might be.  Not a sign of life was manifest\nupon her as she drifted slowly with the light breeze in a southeasterly\ndirection.\n\nShe was drifting some fifty feet above the ground, followed by all but\nsome hundred of the warriors who had been ordered back to the roofs to\ncover the possibility of a return of the fleet, or of reinforcements.\nIt soon became evident that she would strike the face of the buildings\nabout a mile south of our position, and as I watched the progress of\nthe chase I saw a number of warriors gallop ahead, dismount and enter\nthe building she seemed destined to touch.\n\nAs the craft neared the building, and just before she struck, the\nMartian warriors swarmed upon her from the windows, and with their\ngreat spears eased the shock of the collision, and in a few moments\nthey had thrown out grappling hooks and the big boat was being hauled\nto ground by their fellows below.\n\nAfter making her fast, they swarmed the sides and searched the vessel\nfrom stem to stern.  I could see them examining the dead sailors,\nevidently for signs of life, and presently a party of them appeared\nfrom below dragging a little figure among them.  The creature was\nconsiderably less than half as tall as the green Martian warriors, and\nfrom my balcony I could see that it walked erect upon two legs and\nsurmised that it was some new and strange Martian monstrosity with\nwhich I had not as yet become acquainted.\n\nThey removed their prisoner to the ground and then commenced a\nsystematic rifling of the vessel.  This operation required several\nhours, during which time a number of the chariots were requisitioned to\ntransport the loot, which consisted in arms, ammunition, silks, furs,\njewels, strangely carved stone vessels, and a quantity of solid foods\nand liquids, including many casks of water, the first I had seen since\nmy advent upon Mars.\n\nAfter the last load had been removed the warriors made lines fast to\nthe craft and towed her far out into the valley in a southwesterly\ndirection.  A few of them then boarded her and were busily engaged in\nwhat appeared, from my distant position, as the emptying of the\ncontents of various carboys upon the dead bodies of the sailors and\nover the decks and works of the vessel.\n\nThis operation concluded, they hastily clambered over her sides,\nsliding down the guy ropes to the ground.  The last warrior to leave\nthe deck turned and threw something back upon the vessel, waiting an\ninstant to note the outcome of his act.  As a faint spurt of flame rose\nfrom the point where the missile struck he swung over the side and was\nquickly upon the ground.  Scarcely had he alighted than the guy ropes\nwere simultaneously released, and the great warship, lightened by the\nremoval of the loot, soared majestically into the air, her decks and\nupper works a mass of roaring flames.\n\nSlowly she drifted to the southeast, rising higher and higher as the\nflames ate away her wooden parts and diminished the weight upon her.\nAscending to the roof of the building I watched her for hours, until\nfinally she was lost in the dim vistas of the distance.  The sight was\nawe-inspiring in the extreme as one contemplated this mighty floating\nfuneral pyre, drifting unguided and unmanned through the lonely wastes\nof the Martian heavens; a derelict of death and destruction, typifying\nthe life story of these strange and ferocious creatures into whose\nunfriendly hands fate had carried it.\n\nMuch depressed, and, to me, unaccountably so, I slowly descended to the\nstreet.  The scene I had witnessed seemed to mark the defeat and\nannihilation of the forces of a kindred people, rather than the routing\nby our green warriors of a horde of similar, though unfriendly,\ncreatures.  I could not fathom the seeming hallucination, nor could I\nfree myself from it; but somewhere in the innermost recesses of my soul\nI felt a strange yearning toward these unknown foemen, and a mighty\nhope surged through me that the fleet would return and demand a\nreckoning from the green warriors who had so ruthlessly and wantonly\nattacked it.\n\nClose at my heel, in his now accustomed place, followed Woola, the\nhound, and as I emerged upon the street Sola rushed up to me as though\nI had been the object of some search on her part.  The cavalcade was\nreturning to the plaza, the homeward march having been given up for\nthat day; nor, in fact, was it recommenced for more than a week, owing\nto the fear of a return attack by the air craft.\n\nLorquas Ptomel was too astute an old warrior to be caught upon the open\nplains with a caravan of chariots and children, and so we remained at\nthe deserted city until the danger seemed passed.\n\nAs Sola and I entered the plaza a sight met my eyes which filled my\nwhole being with a great surge of mingled hope, fear, exultation, and\ndepression, and yet most dominant was a subtle sense of relief and\nhappiness; for just as we neared the throng of Martians I caught a\nglimpse of the prisoner from the battle craft who was being roughly\ndragged into a nearby building by a couple of green Martian females.\n\nAnd the sight which met my eyes was that of a slender, girlish figure,\nsimilar in every detail to the earthly women of my past life.  She did\nnot see me at first, but just as she was disappearing through the\nportal of the building which was to be her prison she turned, and her\neyes met mine.  Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her\nevery feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and\nlustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair,\ncaught loosely into a strange yet becoming coiffure.  Her skin was of a\nlight reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her\ncheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a\nstrangely enhancing effect.\n\nShe was as destitute of clothes as the green Martians who accompanied\nher; indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely\nnaked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect\nand symmetrical figure.\n\nAs her gaze rested on me her eyes opened wide in astonishment, and she\nmade a little sign with her free hand; a sign which I did not, of\ncourse, understand.  Just a moment we gazed upon each other, and then\nthe look of hope and renewed courage which had glorified her face as\nshe discovered me, faded into one of utter dejection, mingled with\nloathing and contempt.  I realized I had not answered her signal, and\nignorant as I was of Martian customs, I intuitively felt that she had\nmade an appeal for succor and protection which my unfortunate ignorance\nhad prevented me from answering.  And then she was dragged out of my\nsight into the depths of the deserted edifice.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nI LEARN THE LANGUAGE\n\n\nAs I came back to myself I glanced at Sola, who had witnessed this\nencounter and I was surprised to note a strange expression upon her\nusually expressionless countenance.  What her thoughts were I did not\nknow, for as yet I had learned but little of the Martian tongue; enough\nonly to suffice for my daily needs.\n\nAs I reached the doorway of our building a strange surprise awaited me.\nA warrior approached bearing the arms, ornaments, and full\naccouterments of his kind.  These he presented to me with a few\nunintelligible words, and a bearing at once respectful and menacing.\n\nLater, Sola, with the aid of several of the other women, remodeled the\ntrappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they completed the\nwork I went about garbed in all the panoply of war.\n\nFrom then on Sola instructed me in the mysteries of the various\nweapons, and with the Martian young I spent several hours each day\npracticing upon the plaza.  I was not yet proficient with all the\nweapons, but my great familiarity with similar earthly weapons made me\nan unusually apt pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner.\n\nThe training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by\nthe women, who not only attend to the education of the young in the\narts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who\nproduce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians.  They\nmake the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of\nvalue is produced by the females.  In time of actual warfare they form\na part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even\ngreater intelligence and ferocity than the men.\n\nThe men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in\nstrategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops.  They make the\nlaws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency.  They are\nunfettered by precedent in the administration of justice.  Customs have\nbeen handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring\na custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the\nculprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but\nseems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law.  In one\nrespect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.\n\nI did not see the prisoner again for several days subsequent to our\nfirst encounter, and then only to catch a fleeting glimpse of her as\nshe was being conducted to the great audience chamber where I had had\nmy first meeting with Lorquas Ptomel.  I could not but note the\nunnecessary harshness and brutality with which her guards treated her;\nso different from the almost maternal kindliness which Sola manifested\ntoward me, and the respectful attitude of the few green Martians who\ntook the trouble to notice me at all.\n\nI had observed on the two occasions when I had seen her that the\nprisoner exchanged words with her guards, and this convinced me that\nthey spoke, or at least could make themselves understood by a common\nlanguage.  With this added incentive I nearly drove Sola distracted by\nmy importunities to hasten on my education and within a few more days I\nhad mastered the Martian tongue sufficiently well to enable me to carry\non a passable conversation and to fully understand practically all that\nI heard.\n\nAt this time our sleeping quarters were occupied by three or four\nfemales and a couple of the recently hatched young, beside Sola and her\nyouthful ward, myself, and Woola the hound.  After they had retired for\nthe night it was customary for the adults to carry on a desultory\nconversation for a short time before lapsing into sleep, and now that I\ncould understand their language I was always a keen listener, although\nI never proffered any remarks myself.\n\nOn the night following the prisoner's visit to the audience chamber the\nconversation finally fell upon this subject, and I was all ears on the\ninstant.  I had feared to question Sola relative to the beautiful\ncaptive, as I could not but recall the strange expression I had noted\nupon her face after my first encounter with the prisoner.  That it\ndenoted jealousy I could not say, and yet, judging all things by\nmundane standards as I still did, I felt it safer to affect\nindifference in the matter until I learned more surely Sola's attitude\ntoward the object of my solicitude.\n\nSarkoja, one of the older women who shared our domicile, had been\npresent at the audience as one of the captive's guards, and it was\ntoward her the question turned.\n\n\"When,\" asked one of the women, \"will we enjoy the death throes of the\nred one? or does Lorquas Ptomel, Jed, intend holding her for ransom?\"\n\n\"They have decided to carry her with us back to Thark, and exhibit her\nlast agonies at the great games before Tal Hajus,\" replied Sarkoja.\n\n\"What will be the manner of her going out?\" inquired Sola.  \"She is\nvery small and very beautiful; I had hoped that they would hold her for\nransom.\"\n\nSarkoja and the other women grunted angrily at this evidence of\nweakness on the part of Sola.\n\n\"It is sad, Sola, that you were not born a million years ago,\" snapped\nSarkoja, \"when all the hollows of the land were filled with water, and\nthe peoples were as soft as the stuff they sailed upon.  In our day we\nhave progressed to a point where such sentiments mark weakness and\natavism.  It will not be well for you to permit Tars Tarkas to learn\nthat you hold such degenerate sentiments, as I doubt that he would care\nto entrust such as you with the grave responsibilities of maternity.\"\n\n\"I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in this red woman,\"\nretorted Sola.  \"She has never harmed us, nor would she should we have\nfallen into her hands.  It is only the men of her kind who war upon us,\nand I have ever thought that their attitude toward us is but the\nreflection of ours toward them.  They live at peace with all their\nfellows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at\npeace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the\nred men, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst\nthemselves.  Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from\nthe time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of the\nriver of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us to an\nunknown, but at least no more frightful and terrible existence!\nFortunate indeed is he who meets his end in an early death.  Say what\nyou please to Tars Tarkas, he can mete out no worse fate to me than a\ncontinuation of the horrible existence we are forced to lead in this\nlife.\"\n\nThis wild outbreak on the part of Sola so greatly surprised and shocked\nthe other women, that, after a few words of general reprimand, they all\nlapsed into silence and were soon asleep.  One thing the episode had\naccomplished was to assure me of Sola's friendliness toward the poor\ngirl, and also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in\nfalling into her hands rather than those of some of the other females.\nI knew that she was fond of me, and now that I had discovered that she\nhated cruelty and barbarity I was confident that I could depend upon\nher to aid me and the girl captive to escape, provided of course that\nsuch a thing was within the range of possibilities.\n\nI did not even know that there were any better conditions to escape to,\nbut I was more than willing to take my chances among people fashioned\nafter my own mold rather than to remain longer among the hideous and\nbloodthirsty green men of Mars.  But where to go, and how, was as much\nof a puzzle to me as the age-old search for the spring of eternal life\nhas been to earthly men since the beginning of time.\n\nI decided that at the first opportunity I would take Sola into my\nconfidence and openly ask her to aid me, and with this resolution\nstrong upon me I turned among my silks and furs and slept the dreamless\nand refreshing sleep of Mars.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nCHAMPION AND CHIEF\n\n\nEarly the next morning I was astir.  Considerable freedom was allowed\nme, as Sola had informed me that so long as I did not attempt to leave\nthe city I was free to go and come as I pleased.  She had warned me,\nhowever, against venturing forth unarmed, as this city, like all other\ndeserted metropolises of an ancient Martian civilization, was peopled\nby the great white apes of my second day's adventure.\n\nIn advising me that I must not leave the boundaries of the city Sola\nhad explained that Woola would prevent this anyway should I attempt it,\nand she warned me most urgently not to arouse his fierce nature by\nignoring his warnings should I venture too close to the forbidden\nterritory.  His nature was such, she said, that he would bring me back\ninto the city dead or alive should I persist in opposing him;\n\"preferably dead,\" she added.\n\nOn this morning I had chosen a new street to explore when suddenly I\nfound myself at the limits of the city.  Before me were low hills\npierced by narrow and inviting ravines.  I longed to explore the\ncountry before me, and, like the pioneer stock from which I sprang, to\nview what the landscape beyond the encircling hills might disclose from\nthe summits which shut out my view.\n\nIt also occurred to me that this would prove an excellent opportunity\nto test the qualities of Woola.  I was convinced that the brute loved\nme; I had seen more evidences of affection in him than in any other\nMartian animal, man or beast, and I was sure that gratitude for the\nacts that had twice saved his life would more than outweigh his loyalty\nto the duty imposed upon him by cruel and loveless masters.\n\nAs I approached the boundary line Woola ran anxiously before me, and\nthrust his body against my legs.  His expression was pleading rather\nthan ferocious, nor did he bare his great tusks or utter his fearful\nguttural warnings.  Denied the friendship and companionship of my kind,\nI had developed considerable affection for Woola and Sola, for the\nnormal earthly man must have some outlet for his natural affections,\nand so I decided upon an appeal to a like instinct in this great brute,\nsure that I would not be disappointed.\n\nI had never petted nor fondled him, but now I sat upon the ground and\nputting my arms around his heavy neck I stroked and coaxed him, talking\nin my newly acquired Martian tongue as I would have to my hound at\nhome, as I would have talked to any other friend among the lower\nanimals.  His response to my manifestation of affection was remarkable\nto a degree; he stretched his great mouth to its full width, baring the\nentire expanse of his upper rows of tusks and wrinkling his snout until\nhis great eyes were almost hidden by the folds of flesh.  If you have\never seen a collie smile you may have some idea of Woola's facial\ndistortion.\n\nHe threw himself upon his back and fairly wallowed at my feet; jumped\nup and sprang upon me, rolling me upon the ground by his great weight;\nthen wriggling and squirming around me like a playful puppy presenting\nits back for the petting it craves.  I could not resist the\nludicrousness of the spectacle, and holding my sides I rocked back and\nforth in the first laughter which had passed my lips in many days; the\nfirst, in fact, since the morning Powell had left camp when his horse,\nlong unused, had precipitately and unexpectedly bucked him off\nheadforemost into a pot of frijoles.\n\nMy laughter frightened Woola, his antics ceased and he crawled\npitifully toward me, poking his ugly head far into my lap; and then I\nremembered what laughter signified on Mars--torture, suffering, death.\nQuieting myself, I rubbed the poor old fellow's head and back, talked\nto him for a few minutes, and then in an authoritative tone commanded\nhim to follow me, and arising started for the hills.\n\nThere was no further question of authority between us; Woola was my\ndevoted slave from that moment hence, and I his only and undisputed\nmaster.  My walk to the hills occupied but a few minutes, and I found\nnothing of particular interest to reward me.  Numerous brilliantly\ncolored and strangely formed wild flowers dotted the ravines and from\nthe summit of the first hill I saw still other hills stretching off\ntoward the north, and rising, one range above another, until lost in\nmountains of quite respectable dimensions; though I afterward found\nthat only a few peaks on all Mars exceed four thousand feet in height;\nthe suggestion of magnitude was merely relative.\n\nMy morning's walk had been large with importance to me for it had\nresulted in a perfect understanding with Woola, upon whom Tars Tarkas\nrelied for my safe keeping.  I now knew that while theoretically a\nprisoner I was virtually free, and I hastened to regain the city limits\nbefore the defection of Woola could be discovered by his erstwhile\nmasters.  The adventure decided me never again to leave the limits of\nmy prescribed stamping grounds until I was ready to venture forth for\ngood and all, as it would certainly result in a curtailment of my\nliberties, as well as the probable death of Woola, were we to be\ndiscovered.\n\nOn regaining the plaza I had my third glimpse of the captive girl.  She\nwas standing with her guards before the entrance to the audience\nchamber, and as I approached she gave me one haughty glance and turned\nher back full upon me.  The act was so womanly, so earthly womanly,\nthat though it stung my pride it also warmed my heart with a feeling of\ncompanionship; it was good to know that someone else on Mars beside\nmyself had human instincts of a civilized order, even though the\nmanifestation of them was so painful and mortifying.\n\nHad a green Martian woman desired to show dislike or contempt she\nwould, in all likelihood, have done it with a sword thrust or a\nmovement of her trigger finger; but as their sentiments are mostly\natrophied it would have required a serious injury to have aroused such\npassions in them.  Sola, let me add, was an exception; I never saw her\nperform a cruel or uncouth act, or fail in uniform kindliness and good\nnature.  She was indeed, as her fellow Martian had said of her, an\natavism; a dear and precious reversion to a former type of loved and\nloving ancestor.\n\nSeeing that the prisoner seemed the center of attraction I halted to\nview the proceedings.  I had not long to wait for presently Lorquas\nPtomel and his retinue of chieftains approached the building and,\nsigning the guards to follow with the prisoner entered the audience\nchamber.  Realizing that I was a somewhat favored character, and also\nconvinced that the warriors did not know of my proficiency in their\nlanguage, as I had plead with Sola to keep this a secret on the\ngrounds that I did not wish to be forced to talk with the men until I\nhad perfectly mastered the Martian tongue, I chanced an attempt to\nenter the audience chamber and listen to the proceedings.\n\nThe council squatted upon the steps of the rostrum, while below them\nstood the prisoner and her two guards.  I saw that one of the women was\nSarkoja, and thus understood how she had been present at the hearing of\nthe preceding day, the results of which she had reported to the\noccupants of our dormitory last night.  Her attitude toward the captive\nwas most harsh and brutal.  When she held her, she sunk her rudimentary\nnails into the poor girl's flesh, or twisted her arm in a most painful\nmanner.  When it was necessary to move from one spot to another she\neither jerked her roughly, or pushed her headlong before her.  She\nseemed to be venting upon this poor defenseless creature all the\nhatred, cruelty, ferocity, and spite of her nine hundred years, backed\nby unguessable ages of fierce and brutal ancestors.\n\nThe other woman was less cruel because she was entirely indifferent; if\nthe prisoner had been left to her alone, and fortunately she was at\nnight, she would have received no harsh treatment, nor, by the same\ntoken would she have received any attention at all.\n\nAs Lorquas Ptomel raised his eyes to address the prisoner they fell on\nme and he turned to Tars Tarkas with a word, and gesture of impatience.\nTars Tarkas made some reply which I could not catch, but which caused\nLorquas Ptomel to smile; after which they paid no further attention to\nme.\n\n\"What is your name?\" asked Lorquas Ptomel, addressing the prisoner.\n\n\"Dejah Thoris, daughter of Mors Kajak of Helium.\"\n\n\"And the nature of your expedition?\" he continued.\n\n\"It was a purely scientific research party sent out by my father's\nfather, the Jeddak of Helium, to rechart the air currents, and to take\natmospheric density tests,\" replied the fair prisoner, in a low,\nwell-modulated voice.\n\n\"We were unprepared for battle,\" she continued, \"as we were on a\npeaceful mission, as our banners and the colors of our craft denoted.\nThe work we were doing was as much in your interests as in ours, for\nyou know full well that were it not for our labors and the fruits of\nour scientific operations there would not be enough air or water on\nMars to support a single human life.  For ages we have maintained the\nair and water supply at practically the same point without an\nappreciable loss, and we have done this in the face of the brutal and\nignorant interference of you green men.\n\n\"Why, oh, why will you not learn to live in amity with your fellows?\nMust you ever go on down the ages to your final extinction but little\nabove the plane of the dumb brutes that serve you!  A people without\nwritten language, without art, without homes, without love; the victims\nof eons of the horrible community idea.  Owning everything in common,\neven to your women and children, has resulted in your owning nothing in\ncommon.  You hate each other as you hate all else except yourselves.\nCome back to the ways of our common ancestors, come back to the light\nof kindliness and fellowship.  The way is open to you, you will find\nthe hands of the red men stretched out to aid you.  Together we may do\nstill more to regenerate our dying planet.  The granddaughter of the\ngreatest and mightiest of the red jeddaks has asked you.  Will you\ncome?\"\n\nLorquas Ptomel and the warriors sat looking silently and intently at\nthe young woman for several moments after she had ceased speaking.\nWhat was passing in their minds no man may know, but that they were\nmoved I truly believe, and if one man high among them had been strong\nenough to rise above custom, that moment would have marked a new and\nmighty era for Mars.\n\nI saw Tars Tarkas rise to speak, and on his face was such an expression\nas I had never seen upon the countenance of a green Martian warrior.\nIt bespoke an inward and mighty battle with self, with heredity, with\nage-old custom, and as he opened his mouth to speak, a look almost of\nbenignity, of kindliness, momentarily lighted up his fierce and\nterrible countenance.\n\nWhat words of moment were to have fallen from his lips were never\nspoken, as just then a young warrior, evidently sensing the trend of\nthought among the older men, leaped down from the steps of the rostrum,\nand striking the frail captive a powerful blow across the face, which\nfelled her to the floor, placed his foot upon her prostrate form and\nturning toward the assembled council broke into peals of horrid,\nmirthless laughter.\n\nFor an instant I thought Tars Tarkas would strike him dead, nor did the\naspect of Lorquas Ptomel augur any too favorably for the brute, but the\nmood passed, their old selves reasserted their ascendency, and they\nsmiled.  It was portentous however that they did not laugh aloud, for\nthe brute's act constituted a side-splitting witticism according to the\nethics which rule green Martian humor.\n\nThat I have taken moments to write down a part of what occurred as that\nblow fell does not signify that I remained inactive for any such length\nof time.  I think I must have sensed something of what was coming, for\nI realize now that I was crouched as for a spring as I saw the blow\naimed at her beautiful, upturned, pleading face, and ere the hand\ndescended I was halfway across the hall.\n\nScarcely had his hideous laugh rang out but once, when I was upon him.\nThe brute was twelve feet in height and armed to the teeth, but I\nbelieve that I could have accounted for the whole roomful in the\nterrific intensity of my rage.  Springing upward, I struck him full in\nthe face as he turned at my warning cry and then as he drew his\nshort-sword I drew mine and sprang up again upon his breast, hooking\none leg over the butt of his pistol and grasping one of his huge tusks\nwith my left hand while I delivered blow after blow upon his enormous\nchest.\n\nHe could not use his short-sword to advantage because I was too close\nto him, nor could he draw his pistol, which he attempted to do in\ndirect opposition to Martian custom which says that you may not fight a\nfellow warrior in private combat with any other than the weapon with\nwhich you are attacked.  In fact he could do nothing but make a wild\nand futile attempt to dislodge me.  With all his immense bulk he was\nlittle if any stronger than I, and it was but the matter of a moment or\ntwo before he sank, bleeding and lifeless, to the floor.\n\nDejah Thoris had raised herself upon one elbow and was watching the\nbattle with wide, staring eyes.  When I had regained my feet I raised\nher in my arms and bore her to one of the benches at the side of the\nroom.\n\nAgain no Martian interfered with me, and tearing a piece of silk from\nmy cape I endeavored to staunch the flow of blood from her nostrils.  I\nwas soon successful as her injuries amounted to little more than an\nordinary nosebleed, and when she could speak she placed her hand upon\nmy arm and looking up into my eyes, said:\n\n\"Why did you do it?  You who refused me even friendly recognition in\nthe first hour of my peril!  And now you risk your life and kill one of\nyour companions for my sake.  I cannot understand.  What strange manner\nof man are you, that you consort with the green men, though your form\nis that of my race, while your color is little darker than that of the\nwhite ape?  Tell me, are you human, or are you more than human?\"\n\n\"It is a strange tale,\" I replied, \"too long to attempt to tell you\nnow, and one which I so much doubt the credibility of myself that I\nfear to hope that others will believe it.  Suffice it, for the present,\nthat I am your friend, and, so far as our captors will permit, your\nprotector and your servant.\"\n\n\"Then you too are a prisoner?  But why, then, those arms and the\nregalia of a Tharkian chieftain?  What is your name?  Where your\ncountry?\"\n\n\"Yes, Dejah Thoris, I too am a prisoner; my name is John Carter, and I\nclaim Virginia, one of the United States of America, Earth, as my home;\nbut why I am permitted to wear arms I do not know, nor was I aware that\nmy regalia was that of a chieftain.\"\n\nWe were interrupted at this juncture by the approach of one of the\nwarriors, bearing arms, accoutrements and ornaments, and in a flash one\nof her questions was answered and a puzzle cleared up for me.  I saw\nthat the body of my dead antagonist had been stripped, and I read in\nthe menacing yet respectful attitude of the warrior who had brought me\nthese trophies of the kill the same demeanor as that evinced by the\nother who had brought me my original equipment, and now for the first\ntime I realized that my blow, on the occasion of my first battle in the\naudience chamber had resulted in the death of my adversary.\n\nThe reason for the whole attitude displayed toward me was now apparent;\nI had won my spurs, so to speak, and in the crude justice, which always\nmarks Martian dealings, and which, among other things, has caused me to\ncall her the planet of paradoxes, I was accorded the honors due a\nconqueror; the trappings and the position of the man I killed.  In\ntruth, I was a Martian chieftain, and this I learned later was the\ncause of my great freedom and my toleration in the audience chamber.\n\nAs I had turned to receive the dead warrior's chattels I had noticed\nthat Tars Tarkas and several others had pushed forward toward us, and\nthe eyes of the former rested upon me in a most quizzical manner.\nFinally he addressed me:\n\n\"You speak the tongue of Barsoom quite readily for one who was deaf and\ndumb to us a few short days ago.  Where did you learn it, John Carter?\"\n\n\"You, yourself, are responsible, Tars Tarkas,\" I replied, \"in that you\nfurnished me with an instructress of remarkable ability; I have to\nthank Sola for my learning.\"\n\n\"She has done well,\" he answered, \"but your education in other respects\nneeds considerable polish.  Do you know what your unprecedented\ntemerity would have cost you had you failed to kill either of the two\nchieftains whose metal you now wear?\"\n\n\"I presume that that one whom I had failed to kill, would have killed\nme,\" I answered, smiling.\n\n\"No, you are wrong.  Only in the last extremity of self-defense would a\nMartian warrior kill a prisoner; we like to save them for other\npurposes,\" and his face bespoke possibilities that were not pleasant to\ndwell upon.\n\n\"But one thing can save you now,\" he continued.  \"Should you, in\nrecognition of your remarkable valor, ferocity, and prowess, be\nconsidered by Tal Hajus as worthy of his service you may be taken into\nthe community and become a full-fledged Tharkian.  Until we reach the\nheadquarters of Tal Hajus it is the will of Lorquas Ptomel that you be\naccorded the respect your acts have earned you.  You will be treated by\nus as a Tharkian chieftain, but you must not forget that every chief\nwho ranks you is responsible for your safe delivery to our mighty and\nmost ferocious ruler.  I am done.\"\n\n\"I hear you, Tars Tarkas,\" I answered.  \"As you know I am not of\nBarsoom; your ways are not my ways, and I can only act in the future as\nI have in the past, in accordance with the dictates of my conscience\nand guided by the standards of mine own people.  If you will leave me\nalone I will go in peace, but if not, let the individual Barsoomians\nwith whom I must deal either respect my rights as a stranger among you,\nor take whatever consequences may befall.  Of one thing let us be sure,\nwhatever may be your ultimate intentions toward this unfortunate young\nwoman, whoever would offer her injury or insult in the future must\nfigure on making a full accounting to me.  I understand that you\nbelittle all sentiments of generosity and kindliness, but I do not, and\nI can convince your most doughty warrior that these characteristics are\nnot incompatible with an ability to fight.\"\n\nOrdinarily I am not given to long speeches, nor ever before had I\ndescended to bombast, but I had guessed at the keynote which would\nstrike an answering chord in the breasts of the green Martians, nor was\nI wrong, for my harangue evidently deeply impressed them, and their\nattitude toward me thereafter was still further respectful.\n\nTars Tarkas himself seemed pleased with my reply, but his only comment\nwas more or less enigmatical--\"And I think I know Tal Hajus, Jeddak of\nThark.\"\n\nI now turned my attention to Dejah Thoris, and assisting her to her\nfeet I turned with her toward the exit, ignoring her hovering guardian\nharpies as well as the inquiring glances of the chieftains.  Was I not\nnow a chieftain also!  Well, then, I would assume the responsibilities\nof one.  They did not molest us, and so Dejah Thoris, Princess of\nHelium, and John Carter, gentleman of Virginia, followed by the\nfaithful Woola, passed through utter silence from the audience chamber\nof Lorquas Ptomel, Jed among the Tharks of Barsoom.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nWITH DEJAH THORIS\n\n\nAs we reached the open the two female guards who had been detailed to\nwatch over Dejah Thoris hurried up and made as though to assume custody\nof her once more.  The poor child shrank against me and I felt her two\nlittle hands fold tightly over my arm.  Waving the women away, I\ninformed them that Sola would attend the captive hereafter, and I\nfurther warned Sarkoja that any more of her cruel attentions bestowed\nupon Dejah Thoris would result in Sarkoja's sudden and painful demise.\n\nMy threat was unfortunate and resulted in more harm than good to Dejah\nThoris, for, as I learned later, men do not kill women upon Mars, nor\nwomen, men.  So Sarkoja merely gave us an ugly look and departed to\nhatch up deviltries against us.\n\nI soon found Sola and explained to her that I wished her to guard Dejah\nThoris as she had guarded me; that I wished her to find other quarters\nwhere they would not be molested by Sarkoja, and I finally informed her\nthat I myself would take up my quarters among the men.\n\nSola glanced at the accouterments which were carried in my hand and\nslung across my shoulder.\n\n\"You are a great chieftain now, John Carter,\" she said, \"and I must do\nyour bidding, though indeed I am glad to do it under any circumstances.\nThe man whose metal you carry was young, but he was a great warrior,\nand had by his promotions and kills won his way close to the rank of\nTars Tarkas, who, as you know, is second to Lorquas Ptomel only.  You\nare eleventh, there are but ten chieftains in this community who rank\nyou in prowess.\"\n\n\"And if I should kill Lorquas Ptomel?\" I asked.\n\n\"You would be first, John Carter; but you may only win that honor by\nthe will of the entire council that Lorquas Ptomel meet you in combat,\nor should he attack you, you may kill him in self-defense, and thus win\nfirst place.\"\n\nI laughed, and changed the subject.  I had no particular desire to kill\nLorquas Ptomel, and less to be a jed among the Tharks.\n\nI accompanied Sola and Dejah Thoris in a search for new quarters, which\nwe found in a building nearer the audience chamber and of far more\npretentious architecture than our former habitation.  We also found in\nthis building real sleeping apartments with ancient beds of highly\nwrought metal swinging from enormous gold chains depending from the\nmarble ceilings.  The decoration of the walls was most elaborate, and,\nunlike the frescoes in the other buildings I had examined, portrayed\nmany human figures in the compositions.  These were of people like\nmyself, and of a much lighter color than Dejah Thoris.  They were clad\nin graceful, flowing robes, highly ornamented with metal and jewels,\nand their luxuriant hair was of a beautiful golden and reddish bronze.\nThe men were beardless and only a few wore arms.  The scenes depicted\nfor the most part, a fair-skinned, fair-haired people at play.\n\nDejah Thoris clasped her hands with an exclamation of rapture as she\ngazed upon these magnificent works of art, wrought by a people long\nextinct; while Sola, on the other hand, apparently did not see them.\n\nWe decided to use this room, on the second floor and overlooking the\nplaza, for Dejah Thoris and Sola, and another room adjoining and in the\nrear for the cooking and supplies.  I then dispatched Sola to bring the\nbedding and such food and utensils as she might need, telling her that\nI would guard Dejah Thoris until her return.\n\nAs Sola departed Dejah Thoris turned to me with a faint smile.\n\n\"And whereto, then, would your prisoner escape should you leave her,\nunless it was to follow you and crave your protection, and ask your\npardon for the cruel thoughts she has harbored against you these past\nfew days?\"\n\n\"You are right,\" I answered, \"there is no escape for either of us\nunless we go together.\"\n\n\"I heard your challenge to the creature you call Tars Tarkas, and I\nthink I understand your position among these people, but what I cannot\nfathom is your statement that you are not of Barsoom.\"\n\n\"In the name of my first ancestor, then,\" she continued, \"where may you\nbe from?  You are like unto my people, and yet so unlike.  You speak my\nlanguage, and yet I heard you tell Tars Tarkas that you had but learned\nit recently.  All Barsoomians speak the same tongue from the ice-clad\nsouth to the ice-clad north, though their written languages differ.\nOnly in the valley Dor, where the river Iss empties into the lost sea\nof Korus, is there supposed to be a different language spoken, and,\nexcept in the legends of our ancestors, there is no record of a\nBarsoomian returning up the river Iss, from the shores of Korus in the\nvalley of Dor.  Do not tell me that you have thus returned!  They would\nkill you horribly anywhere upon the surface of Barsoom if that were\ntrue; tell me it is not!\"\n\nHer eyes were filled with a strange, weird light; her voice was\npleading, and her little hands, reached up upon my breast, were pressed\nagainst me as though to wring a denial from my very heart.\n\n\"I do not know your customs, Dejah Thoris, but in my own Virginia a\ngentleman does not lie to save himself; I am not of Dor; I have never\nseen the mysterious Iss; the lost sea of Korus is still lost, so far as\nI am concerned.  Do you believe me?\"\n\nAnd then it struck me suddenly that I was very anxious that she should\nbelieve me.  It was not that I feared the results which would follow a\ngeneral belief that I had returned from the Barsoomian heaven or hell,\nor whatever it was.  Why was it, then!  Why should I care what she\nthought?  I looked down at her; her beautiful face upturned, and her\nwonderful eyes opening up the very depth of her soul; and as my eyes\nmet hers I knew why, and--I shuddered.\n\nA similar wave of feeling seemed to stir her; she drew away from me\nwith a sigh, and with her earnest, beautiful face turned up to mine,\nshe whispered: \"I believe you, John Carter; I do not know what a\n'gentleman' is, nor have I ever heard before of Virginia; but on\nBarsoom no man lies; if he does not wish to speak the truth he is\nsilent.  Where is this Virginia, your country, John Carter?\" she asked,\nand it seemed that this fair name of my fair land had never sounded\nmore beautiful than as it fell from those perfect lips on that far-gone\nday.\n\n\"I am of another world,\" I answered, \"the great planet Earth, which\nrevolves about our common sun and next within the orbit of your\nBarsoom, which we know as Mars.  How I came here I cannot tell you, for\nI do not know; but here I am, and since my presence has permitted me to\nserve Dejah Thoris I am glad that I am here.\"\n\nShe gazed at me with troubled eyes, long and questioningly.  That it\nwas difficult to believe my statement I well knew, nor could I hope\nthat she would do so however much I craved her confidence and respect.\nI would much rather not have told her anything of my antecedents, but\nno man could look into the depth of those eyes and refuse her slightest\nbehest.\n\nFinally she smiled, and, rising, said: \"I shall have to believe even\nthough I cannot understand.  I can readily perceive that you are not of\nthe Barsoom of today; you are like us, yet different--but why should I\ntrouble my poor head with such a problem, when my heart tells me that I\nbelieve because I wish to believe!\"\n\nIt was good logic, good, earthly, feminine logic, and if it satisfied\nher I certainly could pick no flaws in it.  As a matter of fact it was\nabout the only kind of logic that could be brought to bear upon my\nproblem.  We fell into a general conversation then, asking and\nanswering many questions on each side.  She was curious to learn of the\ncustoms of my people and displayed a remarkable knowledge of events on\nEarth.  When I questioned her closely on this seeming familiarity with\nearthly things she laughed, and cried out:\n\n\"Why, every school boy on Barsoom knows the geography, and much\nconcerning the fauna and flora, as well as the history of your planet\nfully as well as of his own.  Can we not see everything which takes\nplace upon Earth, as you call it; is it not hanging there in the\nheavens in plain sight?\"\n\nThis baffled me, I must confess, fully as much as my statements had\nconfounded her; and I told her so.  She then explained in general the\ninstruments her people had used and been perfecting for ages, which\npermit them to throw upon a screen a perfect image of what is\ntranspiring upon any planet and upon many of the stars.  These pictures\nare so perfect in detail that, when photographed and enlarged, objects\nno greater than a blade of grass may be distinctly recognized.  I\nafterward, in Helium, saw many of these pictures, as well as the\ninstruments which produced them.\n\n\"If, then, you are so familiar with earthly things,\" I asked, \"why is\nit that you do not recognize me as identical with the inhabitants of\nthat planet?\"\n\nShe smiled again as one might in bored indulgence of a questioning\nchild.\n\n\"Because, John Carter,\" she replied, \"nearly every planet and star\nhaving atmospheric conditions at all approaching those of Barsoom,\nshows forms of animal life almost identical with you and me; and,\nfurther, Earth men, almost without exception, cover their bodies with\nstrange, unsightly pieces of cloth, and their heads with hideous\ncontraptions the purpose of which we have been unable to conceive;\nwhile you, when found by the Tharkian warriors, were entirely\nundisfigured and unadorned.\n\n\"The fact that you wore no ornaments is a strong proof of your\nun-Barsoomian origin, while the absence of grotesque coverings might\ncause a doubt as to your earthliness.\"\n\nI then narrated the details of my departure from the Earth, explaining\nthat my body there lay fully clothed in all the, to her, strange\ngarments of mundane dwellers.  At this point Sola returned with our\nmeager belongings and her young Martian protege, who, of course, would\nhave to share the quarters with them.\n\nSola asked us if we had had a visitor during her absence, and seemed\nmuch surprised when we answered in the negative.  It seemed that as she\nhad mounted the approach to the upper floors where our quarters were\nlocated, she had met Sarkoja descending.  We decided that she must have\nbeen eavesdropping, but as we could recall nothing of importance that\nhad passed between us we dismissed the matter as of little consequence,\nmerely promising ourselves to be warned to the utmost caution in the\nfuture.\n\nDejah Thoris and I then fell to examining the architecture and\ndecorations of the beautiful chambers of the building we were\noccupying.  She told me that these people had presumably flourished\nover a hundred thousand years before.  They were the early progenitors\nof her race, but had mixed with the other great race of early Martians,\nwho were very dark, almost black, and also with the reddish yellow race\nwhich had flourished at the same time.\n\nThese three great divisions of the higher Martians had been forced into\na mighty alliance as the drying up of the Martian seas had compelled\nthem to seek the comparatively few and always diminishing fertile\nareas, and to defend themselves, under new conditions of life, against\nthe wild hordes of green men.\n\nAges of close relationship and intermarrying had resulted in the race\nof red men, of which Dejah Thoris was a fair and beautiful daughter.\nDuring the ages of hardships and incessant warring between their own\nvarious races, as well as with the green men, and before they had\nfitted themselves to the changed conditions, much of the high\ncivilization and many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians had\nbecome lost; but the red race of today has reached a point where it\nfeels that it has made up in new discoveries and in a more practical\ncivilization for all that lies irretrievably buried with the ancient\nBarsoomians, beneath the countless intervening ages.\n\nThese ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race,\nbut during the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of readjustment\nto new conditions, not only did their advancement and production cease\nentirely, but practically all their archives, records, and literature\nwere lost.\n\nDejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legends concerning this\nlost race of noble and kindly people.  She said that the city in which\nwe were camping was supposed to have been a center of commerce and\nculture known as Korad.  It had been built upon a beautiful, natural\nharbor, landlocked by magnificent hills.  The little valley on the west\nfront of the city, she explained, was all that remained of the harbor,\nwhile the pass through the hills to the old sea bottom had been the\nchannel through which the shipping passed up to the city's gates.\n\nThe shores of the ancient seas were dotted with just such cities, and\nlesser ones, in diminishing numbers, were to be found converging toward\nthe center of the oceans, as the people had found it necessary to\nfollow the receding waters until necessity had forced upon them their\nultimate salvation, the so-called Martian canals.\n\nWe had been so engrossed in exploration of the building and in our\nconversation that it was late in the afternoon before we realized it.\nWe were brought back to a realization of our present conditions by a\nmessenger bearing a summons from Lorquas Ptomel directing me to appear\nbefore him forthwith.  Bidding Dejah Thoris and Sola farewell, and\ncommanding Woola to remain on guard, I hastened to the audience\nchamber, where I found Lorquas Ptomel and Tars Tarkas seated upon the\nrostrum.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nA PRISONER WITH POWER\n\n\nAs I entered and saluted, Lorquas Ptomel signaled me to advance, and,\nfixing his great, hideous eyes upon me, addressed me thus:\n\n\"You have been with us a few days, yet during that time you have by\nyour prowess won a high position among us.  Be that as it may, you are\nnot one of us; you owe us no allegiance.\n\n\"Your position is a peculiar one,\" he continued; \"you are a prisoner\nand yet you give commands which must be obeyed; you are an alien and\nyet you are a Tharkian chieftain; you are a midget and yet you can kill\na mighty warrior with one blow of your fist.  And now you are reported\nto have been plotting to escape with another prisoner of another race;\na prisoner who, from her own admission, half believes you are returned\nfrom the valley of Dor.  Either one of these accusations, if proved,\nwould be sufficient grounds for your execution, but we are a just\npeople and you shall have a trial on our return to Thark, if Tal Hajus\nso commands.\n\n\"But,\" he continued, in his fierce guttural tones, \"if you run off with\nthe red girl it is I who shall have to account to Tal Hajus; it is I\nwho shall have to face Tars Tarkas, and either demonstrate my right to\ncommand, or the metal from my dead carcass will go to a better man, for\nsuch is the custom of the Tharks.\n\n\"I have no quarrel with Tars Tarkas; together we rule supreme the\ngreatest of the lesser communities among the green men; we do not wish\nto fight between ourselves; and so if you were dead, John Carter, I\nshould be glad.  Under two conditions only, however, may you be killed\nby us without orders from Tal Hajus; in personal combat in\nself-defense, should you attack one of us, or were you apprehended in\nan attempt to escape.\n\n\"As a matter of justice I must warn you that we only await one of these\ntwo excuses for ridding ourselves of so great a responsibility.  The\nsafe delivery of the red girl to Tal Hajus is of the greatest\nimportance.  Not in a thousand years have the Tharks made such a\ncapture; she is the granddaughter of the greatest of the red jeddaks,\nwho is also our bitterest enemy.  I have spoken.  The red girl told us\nthat we were without the softer sentiments of humanity, but we are a\njust and truthful race.  You may go.\"\n\nTurning, I left the audience chamber.  So this was the beginning of\nSarkoja's persecution!  I knew that none other could be responsible for\nthis report which had reached the ears of Lorquas Ptomel so quickly,\nand now I recalled those portions of our conversation which had touched\nupon escape and upon my origin.\n\nSarkoja was at this time Tars Tarkas' oldest and most trusted female.\nAs such she was a mighty power behind the throne, for no warrior had\nthe confidence of Lorquas Ptomel to such an extent as did his ablest\nlieutenant, Tars Tarkas.\n\nHowever, instead of putting thoughts of possible escape from my mind,\nmy audience with Lorquas Ptomel only served to center my every faculty\non this subject.  Now, more than before, the absolute necessity for\nescape, in so far as Dejah Thoris was concerned, was impressed upon me,\nfor I was convinced that some horrible fate awaited her at the\nheadquarters of Tal Hajus.\n\nAs described by Sola, this monster was the exaggerated personification\nof all the ages of cruelty, ferocity, and brutality from which he had\ndescended.  Cold, cunning, calculating; he was, also, in marked\ncontrast to most of his fellows, a slave to that brute passion which\nthe waning demands for procreation upon their dying planet has almost\nstilled in the Martian breast.\n\nThe thought that the divine Dejah Thoris might fall into the clutches\nof such an abysmal atavism started the cold sweat upon me.  Far better\nthat we save friendly bullets for ourselves at the last moment, as did\nthose brave frontier women of my lost land, who took their own lives\nrather than fall into the hands of the Indian braves.\n\nAs I wandered about the plaza lost in my gloomy forebodings Tars Tarkas\napproached me on his way from the audience chamber.  His demeanor\ntoward me was unchanged, and he greeted me as though we had not just\nparted a few moments before.\n\n\"Where are your quarters, John Carter?\" he asked.\n\n\"I have selected none,\" I replied.  \"It seemed best that I quartered\neither by myself or among the other warriors, and I was awaiting an\nopportunity to ask your advice.  As you know,\" and I smiled, \"I am not\nyet familiar with all the customs of the Tharks.\"\n\n\"Come with me,\" he directed, and together we moved off across the plaza\nto a building which I was glad to see adjoined that occupied by Sola\nand her charges.\n\n\"My quarters are on the first floor of this building,\" he said, \"and\nthe second floor also is fully occupied by warriors, but the third\nfloor and the floors above are vacant; you may take your choice of\nthese.\n\n\"I understand,\" he continued, \"that you have given up your woman to the\nred prisoner.  Well, as you have said, your ways are not our ways, but\nyou can fight well enough to do about as you please, and so, if you\nwish to give your woman to a captive, it is your own affair; but as a\nchieftain you should have those to serve you, and in accordance with\nour customs you may select any or all the females from the retinues of\nthe chieftains whose metal you now wear.\"\n\nI thanked him, but assured him that I could get along very nicely\nwithout assistance except in the matter of preparing food, and so he\npromised to send women to me for this purpose and also for the care of\nmy arms and the manufacture of my ammunition, which he said would be\nnecessary.  I suggested that they might also bring some of the sleeping\nsilks and furs which belonged to me as spoils of combat, for the nights\nwere cold and I had none of my own.\n\nHe promised to do so, and departed.  Left alone, I ascended the winding\ncorridor to the upper floors in search of suitable quarters.  The\nbeauties of the other buildings were repeated in this, and, as usual, I\nwas soon lost in a tour of investigation and discovery.\n\nI finally chose a front room on the third floor, because this brought\nme nearer to Dejah Thoris, whose apartment was on the second floor of\nthe adjoining building, and it flashed upon me that I could rig up some\nmeans of communication whereby she might signal me in case she needed\neither my services or my protection.\n\nAdjoining my sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other\nsleeping and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor.\nThe windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which\nformed the center of the square made by the buildings which faced the\nfour contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the quartering\nof the various animals belonging to the warriors occupying the\nadjoining buildings.\n\nWhile the court was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like\nvegetation which blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet\nnumerous fountains, statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptions\nbore witness to the beauty which the court must have presented in\nbygone times, when graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whom\nstern and unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes,\nbut from all except the vague legends of their descendants.\n\nOne could easily picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian\nvegetation which once filled this scene with life and color; the\ngraceful figures of the beautiful women, the straight and handsome men;\nthe happy frolicking children--all sunlight, happiness and peace.  It\nwas difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages of\ndarkness, cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts of\nculture and humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the final\ncomposite race which now is dominant upon Mars.\n\nMy thoughts were cut short by the advent of several young females\nbearing loads of weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and\ncasks of food and drink, including considerable loot from the air\ncraft.  All this, it seemed, had been the property of the two\nchieftains I had slain, and now, by the customs of the Tharks, it had\nbecome mine.  At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the back\nrooms, and then departed, only to return with a second load, which they\nadvised me constituted the balance of my goods.  On the second trip\nthey were accompanied by ten or fifteen other women and youths, who, it\nseemed, formed the retinues of the two chieftains.\n\nThey were not their families, nor their wives, nor their servants; the\nrelationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that it\nis most difficult to describe.  All property among the green Martians\nis owned in common by the community, except the personal weapons,\nornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals.  These alone\ncan one claim undisputed right to, nor may he accumulate more of these\nthan are required for his actual needs.  The surplus he holds merely as\ncustodian, and it is passed on to the younger members of the community\nas necessity demands.\n\nThe women and children of a man's retinue may be likened to a military\nunit for which he is responsible in various ways, as in matters of\ninstruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their\ncontinual roamings and their unending strife with other communities and\nwith the red Martians.  His women are in no sense wives.  The green\nMartians use no word corresponding in meaning with this earthly word.\nTheir mating is a matter of community interest solely, and is directed\nwithout reference to natural selection.  The council of chieftains of\neach community control the matter as surely as the owner of a Kentucky\nracing stud directs the scientific breeding of his stock for the\nimprovement of the whole.\n\nIn theory it may sound well, as is often the case with theories, but\nthe results of ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the\ncommunity interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of the\nmother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy,\nloveless, mirthless existence.\n\nIt is true that the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both men\nand women, with the exception of such degenerates as Tal Hajus; but\nbetter far a finer balance of human characteristics even at the expense\nof a slight and occasional loss of chastity.\n\nFinding that I must assume responsibility for these creatures, whether\nI would or not, I made the best of it and directed them to find\nquarters on the upper floors, leaving the third floor to me.  One of\nthe girls I charged with the duties of my simple cuisine, and directed\nthe others to take up the various activities which had formerly\nconstituted their vocations.  Thereafter I saw little of them, nor did\nI care to.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nLOVE-MAKING ON MARS\n\n\nFollowing the battle with the air ships, the community remained within\nthe city for several days, abandoning the homeward march until they\ncould feel reasonably assured that the ships would not return; for to\nbe caught on the open plains with a cavalcade of chariots and children\nwas far from the desire of even so warlike a people as the green\nMartians.\n\nDuring our period of inactivity, Tars Tarkas had instructed me in many\nof the customs and arts of war familiar to the Tharks, including\nlessons in riding and guiding the great beasts which bore the warriors.\nThese creatures, which are known as thoats, are as dangerous and\nvicious as their masters, but when once subdued are sufficiently\ntractable for the purposes of the green Martians.\n\nTwo of these animals had fallen to me from the warriors whose metal I\nwore, and in a short time I could handle them quite as well as the\nnative warriors.  The method was not at all complicated.  If the thoats\ndid not respond with sufficient celerity to the telepathic instructions\nof their riders they were dealt a terrific blow between the ears with\nthe butt of a pistol, and if they showed fight this treatment was\ncontinued until the brutes either were subdued, or had unseated their\nriders.\n\nIn the latter case it became a life and death struggle between the man\nand the beast.  If the former were quick enough with his pistol he\nmight live to ride again, though upon some other beast; if not, his\ntorn and mangled body was gathered up by his women and burned in\naccordance with Tharkian custom.\n\nMy experience with Woola determined me to attempt the experiment of\nkindness in my treatment of my thoats.  First I taught them that they\ncould not unseat me, and even rapped them sharply between the ears to\nimpress upon them my authority and mastery.  Then, by degrees, I won\ntheir confidence in much the same manner as I had adopted countless\ntimes with my many mundane mounts.  I was ever a good hand with\nanimals, and by inclination, as well as because it brought more lasting\nand satisfactory results, I was always kind and humane in my dealings\nwith the lower orders.  I could take a human life, if necessary, with\nfar less compunction than that of a poor, unreasoning, irresponsible\nbrute.\n\nIn the course of a few days my thoats were the wonder of the entire\ncommunity.  They would follow me like dogs, rubbing their great snouts\nagainst my body in awkward evidence of affection, and respond to my\nevery command with an alacrity and docility which caused the Martian\nwarriors to ascribe to me the possession of some earthly power unknown\non Mars.\n\n\"How have you bewitched them?\" asked Tars Tarkas one afternoon, when he\nhad seen me run my arm far between the great jaws of one of my thoats\nwhich had wedged a piece of stone between two of his teeth while\nfeeding upon the moss-like vegetation within our court yard.\n\n\"By kindness,\" I replied.  \"You see, Tars Tarkas, the softer sentiments\nhave their value, even to a warrior.  In the height of battle as well\nas upon the march I know that my thoats will obey my every command, and\ntherefore my fighting efficiency is enhanced, and I am a better warrior\nfor the reason that I am a kind master.  Your other warriors would find\nit to the advantage of themselves as well as of the community to adopt\nmy methods in this respect.  Only a few days since you, yourself, told\nme that these great brutes, by the uncertainty of their tempers, often\nwere the means of turning victory into defeat, since, at a crucial\nmoment, they might elect to unseat and rend their riders.\"\n\n\"Show me how you accomplish these results,\" was Tars Tarkas' only\nrejoinder.\n\nAnd so I explained as carefully as I could the entire method of\ntraining I had adopted with my beasts, and later he had me repeat it\nbefore Lorquas Ptomel and the assembled warriors.  That moment marked\nthe beginning of a new existence for the poor thoats, and before I left\nthe community of Lorquas Ptomel I had the satisfaction of observing a\nregiment of as tractable and docile mounts as one might care to see.\nThe effect on the precision and celerity of the military movements was\nso remarkable that Lorquas Ptomel presented me with a massive anklet of\ngold from his own leg, as a sign of his appreciation of my service to\nthe horde.\n\nOn the seventh day following the battle with the air craft we again\ntook up the march toward Thark, all probability of another attack being\ndeemed remote by Lorquas Ptomel.\n\nDuring the days just preceding our departure I had seen but little of\nDejah Thoris, as I had been kept very busy by Tars Tarkas with my\nlessons in the art of Martian warfare, as well as in the training of my\nthoats.  The few times I had visited her quarters she had been absent,\nwalking upon the streets with Sola, or investigating the buildings in\nthe near vicinity of the plaza.  I had warned them against venturing\nfar from the plaza for fear of the great white apes, whose ferocity I\nwas only too well acquainted with.  However, since Woola accompanied\nthem on all their excursions, and as Sola was well armed, there was\ncomparatively little cause for fear.\n\nOn the evening before our departure I saw them approaching along one of\nthe great avenues which lead into the plaza from the east.  I advanced\nto meet them, and telling Sola that I would take the responsibility for\nDejah Thoris' safekeeping, I directed her to return to her quarters on\nsome trivial errand.  I liked and trusted Sola, but for some reason I\ndesired to be alone with Dejah Thoris, who represented to me all that I\nhad left behind upon Earth in agreeable and congenial companionship.\nThere seemed bonds of mutual interest between us as powerful as though\nwe had been born under the same roof rather than upon different\nplanets, hurtling through space some forty-eight million miles apart.\n\nThat she shared my sentiments in this respect I was positive, for on my\napproach the look of pitiful hopelessness left her sweet countenance to\nbe replaced by a smile of joyful welcome, as she placed her little\nright hand upon my left shoulder in true red Martian salute.\n\n\"Sarkoja told Sola that you had become a true Thark,\" she said, \"and\nthat I would now see no more of you than of any of the other warriors.\"\n\n\"Sarkoja is a liar of the first magnitude,\" I replied, \"notwithstanding\nthe proud claim of the Tharks to absolute verity.\"\n\nDejah Thoris laughed.\n\n\"I knew that even though you became a member of the community you would\nnot cease to be my friend; 'A warrior may change his metal, but not his\nheart,' as the saying is upon Barsoom.\"\n\n\"I think they have been trying to keep us apart,\" she continued, \"for\nwhenever you have been off duty one of the older women of Tars Tarkas'\nretinue has always arranged to trump up some excuse to get Sola and me\nout of sight.  They have had me down in the pits below the buildings\nhelping them mix their awful radium powder, and make their terrible\nprojectiles.  You know that these have to be manufactured by artificial\nlight, as exposure to sunlight always results in an explosion.  You\nhave noticed that their bullets explode when they strike an object?\nWell, the opaque, outer coating is broken by the impact, exposing a\nglass cylinder, almost solid, in the forward end of which is a minute\nparticle of radium powder.  The moment the sunlight, even though\ndiffused, strikes this powder it explodes with a violence which nothing\ncan withstand.  If you ever witness a night battle you will note the\nabsence of these explosions, while the morning following the battle\nwill be filled at sunrise with the sharp detonations of exploding\nmissiles fired the preceding night.  As a rule, however, non-exploding\nprojectiles are used at night.\"  [I have used the word radium in\ndescribing this powder because in the light of recent discoveries on\nEarth I believe it to be a mixture of which radium is the base.  In\nCaptain Carter's manuscript it is mentioned always by the name used in\nthe written language of Helium and is spelled in hieroglyphics which it\nwould be difficult and useless to reproduce.]\n\nWhile I was much interested in Dejah Thoris' explanation of this\nwonderful adjunct to Martian warfare, I was more concerned by the\nimmediate problem of their treatment of her.  That they were keeping\nher away from me was not a matter for surprise, but that they should\nsubject her to dangerous and arduous labor filled me with rage.\n\n\"Have they ever subjected you to cruelty and ignominy, Dejah Thoris?\" I\nasked, feeling the hot blood of my fighting ancestors leap in my veins\nas I awaited her reply.\n\n\"Only in little ways, John Carter,\" she answered.  \"Nothing that can\nharm me outside my pride.  They know that I am the daughter of ten\nthousand jeddaks, that I trace my ancestry straight back without a\nbreak to the builder of the first great waterway, and they, who do not\neven know their own mothers, are jealous of me.  At heart they hate\ntheir horrid fates, and so wreak their poor spite on me who stand for\neverything they have not, and for all they most crave and never can\nattain.  Let us pity them, my chieftain, for even though we die at\ntheir hands we can afford them pity, since we are greater than they and\nthey know it.\"\n\nHad I known the significance of those words \"my chieftain,\" as applied\nby a red Martian woman to a man, I should have had the surprise of my\nlife, but I did not know at that time, nor for many months thereafter.\nYes, I still had much to learn upon Barsoom.\n\n\"I presume it is the better part of wisdom that we bow to our fate with\nas good grace as possible, Dejah Thoris; but I hope, nevertheless, that\nI may be present the next time that any Martian, green, red, pink, or\nviolet, has the temerity to even so much as frown on you, my princess.\"\n\nDejah Thoris caught her breath at my last words, and gazed upon me with\ndilated eyes and quickening breath, and then, with an odd little laugh,\nwhich brought roguish dimples to the corners of her mouth, she shook\nher head and cried:\n\n\"What a child!  A great warrior and yet a stumbling little child.\"\n\n\"What have I done now?\" I asked, in sore perplexity.\n\n\"Some day you shall know, John Carter, if we live; but I may not tell\nyou.  And I, the daughter of Mors Kajak, son of Tardos Mors, have\nlistened without anger,\" she soliloquized in conclusion.\n\nThen she broke out again into one of her gay, happy, laughing moods;\njoking with me on my prowess as a Thark warrior as contrasted with my\nsoft heart and natural kindliness.\n\n\"I presume that should you accidentally wound an enemy you would take\nhim home and nurse him back to health,\" she laughed.\n\n\"That is precisely what we do on Earth,\" I answered.  \"At least among\ncivilized men.\"\n\nThis made her laugh again.  She could not understand it, for, with all\nher tenderness and womanly sweetness, she was still a Martian, and to a\nMartian the only good enemy is a dead enemy; for every dead foeman\nmeans so much more to divide between those who live.\n\nI was very curious to know what I had said or done to cause her so much\nperturbation a moment before and so I continued to importune her to\nenlighten me.\n\n\"No,\" she exclaimed, \"it is enough that you have said it and that I\nhave listened.  And when you learn, John Carter, and if I be dead, as\nlikely I shall be ere the further moon has circled Barsoom another\ntwelve times, remember that I listened and that I--smiled.\"\n\nIt was all Greek to me, but the more I begged her to explain the more\npositive became her denials of my request, and, so, in very\nhopelessness, I desisted.\n\nDay had now given away to night and as we wandered along the great\navenue lighted by the two moons of Barsoom, and with Earth looking down\nupon us out of her luminous green eye, it seemed that we were alone in\nthe universe, and I, at least, was content that it should be so.\n\nThe chill of the Martian night was upon us, and removing my silks I\nthrew them across the shoulders of Dejah Thoris.  As my arm rested for\nan instant upon her I felt a thrill pass through every fiber of my\nbeing such as contact with no other mortal had even produced; and it\nseemed to me that she had leaned slightly toward me, but of that I was\nnot sure.  Only I knew that as my arm rested there across her shoulders\nlonger than the act of adjusting the silk required she did not draw\naway, nor did she speak.  And so, in silence, we walked the surface of\na dying world, but in the breast of one of us at least had been born\nthat which is ever oldest, yet ever new.\n\nI loved Dejah Thoris.  The touch of my arm upon her naked shoulder had\nspoken to me in words I would not mistake, and I knew that I had loved\nher since the first moment that my eyes had met hers that first time in\nthe plaza of the dead city of Korad.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV\n\nA DUEL TO THE DEATH\n\n\nMy first impulse was to tell her of my love, and then I thought of the\nhelplessness of her position wherein I alone could lighten the burdens\nof her captivity, and protect her in my poor way against the thousands\nof hereditary enemies she must face upon our arrival at Thark.  I could\nnot chance causing her additional pain or sorrow by declaring a love\nwhich, in all probability she did not return.  Should I be so\nindiscreet, her position would be even more unbearable than now, and\nthe thought that she might feel that I was taking advantage of her\nhelplessness, to influence her decision was the final argument which\nsealed my lips.\n\n\"Why are you so quiet, Dejah Thoris?\" I asked.  \"Possibly you would\nrather return to Sola and your quarters.\"\n\n\"No,\" she murmured, \"I am happy here.  I do not know why it is that I\nshould always be happy and contented when you, John Carter, a stranger,\nare with me; yet at such times it seems that I am safe and that, with\nyou, I shall soon return to my father's court and feel his strong arms\nabout me and my mother's tears and kisses on my cheek.\"\n\n\"Do people kiss, then, upon Barsoom?\" I asked, when she had explained\nthe word she used, in answer to my inquiry as to its meaning.\n\n\"Parents, brothers, and sisters, yes; and,\" she added in a low,\nthoughtful tone, \"lovers.\"\n\n\"And you, Dejah Thoris, have parents and brothers and sisters?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"And a--lover?\"\n\nShe was silent, nor could I venture to repeat the question.\n\n\"The man of Barsoom,\" she finally ventured, \"does not ask personal\nquestions of women, except his mother, and the woman he has fought for\nand won.\"\n\n\"But I have fought--\" I started, and then I wished my tongue had been\ncut from my mouth; for she turned even as I caught myself and ceased,\nand drawing my silks from her shoulder she held them out to me, and\nwithout a word, and with head held high, she moved with the carriage of\nthe queen she was toward the plaza and the doorway of her quarters.\n\nI did not attempt to follow her, other than to see that she reached the\nbuilding in safety, but, directing Woola to accompany her, I turned\ndisconsolately and entered my own house.  I sat for hours cross-legged,\nand cross-tempered, upon my silks meditating upon the queer freaks\nchance plays upon us poor devils of mortals.\n\nSo this was love!  I had escaped it for all the years I had roamed the\nfive continents and their encircling seas; in spite of beautiful women\nand urging opportunity; in spite of a half-desire for love and a\nconstant search for my ideal, it had remained for me to fall furiously\nand hopelessly in love with a creature from another world, of a species\nsimilar possibly, yet not identical with mine.  A woman who was hatched\nfrom an egg, and whose span of life might cover a thousand years; whose\npeople had strange customs and ideas; a woman whose hopes, whose\npleasures, whose standards of virtue and of right and wrong might vary\nas greatly from mine as did those of the green Martians.\n\nYes, I was a fool, but I was in love, and though I was suffering the\ngreatest misery I had ever known I would not have had it otherwise for\nall the riches of Barsoom.  Such is love, and such are lovers wherever\nlove is known.\n\nTo me, Dejah Thoris was all that was perfect; all that was virtuous and\nbeautiful and noble and good.  I believed that from the bottom of my\nheart, from the depth of my soul on that night in Korad as I sat\ncross-legged upon my silks while the nearer moon of Barsoom raced\nthrough the western sky toward the horizon, and lighted up the gold and\nmarble, and jeweled mosaics of my world-old chamber, and I believe it\ntoday as I sit at my desk in the little study overlooking the Hudson.\nTwenty years have intervened; for ten of them I lived and fought for\nDejah Thoris and her people, and for ten I have lived upon her memory.\n\nThe morning of our departure for Thark dawned clear and hot, as do all\nMartian mornings except for the six weeks when the snow melts at the\npoles.\n\nI sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing chariots, but she\nturned her shoulder to me, and I could see the red blood mount to her\ncheek.  With the foolish inconsistency of love I held my peace when I\nmight have pled ignorance of the nature of my offense, or at least the\ngravity of it, and so have effected, at worst, a half conciliation.\n\n[Illustration: I sought out Dejah Thoris in the throng of departing\nchariots.]\n\nMy duty dictated that I must see that she was comfortable, and so I\nglanced into her chariot and rearranged her silks and furs.  In doing\nso I noted with horror that she was heavily chained by one ankle to the\nside of the vehicle.\n\n\"What does this mean?\" I cried, turning to Sola.\n\n\"Sarkoja thought it best,\" she answered, her face betokening her\ndisapproval of the procedure.\n\nExamining the manacles I saw that they fastened with a massive spring\nlock.\n\n\"Where is the key, Sola?  Let me have it.\"\n\n\"Sarkoja wears it, John Carter,\" she answered.\n\nI turned without further word and sought out Tars Tarkas, to whom I\nvehemently objected to the unnecessary humiliations and cruelties, as\nthey seemed to my lover's eyes, that were being heaped upon Dejah\nThoris.\n\n\"John Carter,\" he answered, \"if ever you and Dejah Thoris escape the\nTharks it will be upon this journey.  We know that you will not go\nwithout her.  You have shown yourself a mighty fighter, and we do not\nwish to manacle you, so we hold you both in the easiest way that will\nyet ensure security.  I have spoken.\"\n\nI saw the strength of his reasoning at a flash, and knew that it was\nfutile to appeal from his decision, but I asked that the key be taken\nfrom Sarkoja and that she be directed to leave the prisoner alone in\nfuture.\n\n\"This much, Tars Tarkas, you may do for me in return for the friendship\nthat, I must confess, I feel for you.\"\n\n\"Friendship?\" he replied.  \"There is no such thing, John Carter; but\nhave your will.  I shall direct that Sarkoja cease to annoy the girl,\nand I myself will take the custody of the key.\"\n\n\"Unless you wish me to assume the responsibility,\" I said, smiling.\n\nHe looked at me long and earnestly before he spoke.\n\n\"Were you to give me your word that neither you nor Dejah Thoris would\nattempt to escape until after we have safely reached the court of Tal\nHajus you might have the key and throw the chains into the river Iss.\"\n\n\"It was better that you held the key, Tars Tarkas,\" I replied\n\nHe smiled, and said no more, but that night as we were making camp I\nsaw him unfasten Dejah Thoris' fetters himself.\n\nWith all his cruel ferocity and coldness there was an undercurrent of\nsomething in Tars Tarkas which he seemed ever battling to subdue.\nCould it be a vestige of some human instinct come back from an ancient\nforbear to haunt him with the horror of his people's ways!\n\nAs I was approaching Dejah Thoris' chariot I passed Sarkoja, and the\nblack, venomous look she accorded me was the sweetest balm I had felt\nfor many hours.  Lord, how she hated me!  It bristled from her so\npalpably that one might almost have cut it with a sword.\n\nA few moments later I saw her deep in conversation with a warrior named\nZad; a big, hulking, powerful brute, but one who had never made a kill\namong his own chieftains, and so was still an _o mad_, or man with\none name; he could win a second name only with the metal of some\nchieftain.  It was this custom which entitled me to the names of either\nof the chieftains I had killed; in fact, some of the warriors addressed\nme as Dotar Sojat, a combination of the surnames of the two warrior\nchieftains whose metal I had taken, or, in other words, whom I had\nslain in fair fight.\n\nAs Sarkoja talked with Zad he cast occasional glances in my direction,\nwhile she seemed to be urging him very strongly to some action.  I paid\nlittle attention to it at the time, but the next day I had good reason\nto recall the circumstances, and at the same time gain a slight insight\ninto the depths of Sarkoja's hatred and the lengths to which she was\ncapable of going to wreak her horrid vengeance on me.\n\nDejah Thoris would have none of me again on this evening, and though I\nspoke her name she neither replied, nor conceded by so much as the\nflutter of an eyelid that she realized my existence.  In my extremity I\ndid what most other lovers would have done; I sought word from her\nthrough an intimate.  In this instance it was Sola whom I intercepted\nin another part of camp.\n\n\"What is the matter with Dejah Thoris?\" I blurted out at her.  \"Why\nwill she not speak to me?\"\n\nSola seemed puzzled herself, as though such strange actions on the part\nof two humans were quite beyond her, as indeed they were, poor child.\n\n\"She says you have angered her, and that is all she will say, except\nthat she is the daughter of a jed and the granddaughter of a jeddak and\nshe has been humiliated by a creature who could not polish the teeth of\nher grandmother's sorak.\"\n\nI pondered over this report for some time, finally asking, \"What might\na sorak be, Sola?\"\n\n\"A little animal about as big as my hand, which the red Martian women\nkeep to play with,\" explained Sola.\n\nNot fit to polish the teeth of her grandmother's cat!  I must rank\npretty low in the consideration of Dejah Thoris, I thought; but I could\nnot help laughing at the strange figure of speech, so homely and in\nthis respect so earthly.  It made me homesick, for it sounded very much\nlike \"not fit to polish her shoes.\"  And then commenced a train of\nthought quite new to me.  I began to wonder what my people at home were\ndoing.  I had not seen them for years.  There was a family of Carters\nin Virginia who claimed close relationship with me; I was supposed to\nbe a great uncle, or something of the kind equally foolish.  I could\npass anywhere for twenty-five to thirty years of age, and to be a great\nuncle always seemed the height of incongruity, for my thoughts and\nfeelings were those of a boy.  There were two little kiddies in the\nCarter family whom I had loved and who had thought there was no one on\nEarth like Uncle Jack; I could see them just as plainly, as I stood\nthere under the moonlit skies of Barsoom, and I longed for them as I\nhad never longed for any mortals before.  By nature a wanderer, I had\nnever known the true meaning of the word home, but the great hall of\nthe Carters had always stood for all that the word did mean to me, and\nnow my heart turned toward it from the cold and unfriendly peoples I\nhad been thrown amongst.  For did not even Dejah Thoris despise me!  I\nwas a low creature, so low in fact that I was not even fit to polish\nthe teeth of her grandmother's cat; and then my saving sense of humor\ncame to my rescue, and laughing I turned into my silks and furs and\nslept upon the moon-haunted ground the sleep of a tired and healthy\nfighting man.\n\nWe broke camp the next day at an early hour and marched with only a\nsingle halt until just before dark.  Two incidents broke the\ntediousness of the march.  About noon we espied far to our right what\nwas evidently an incubator, and Lorquas Ptomel directed Tars Tarkas to\ninvestigate it.  The latter took a dozen warriors, including myself,\nand we raced across the velvety carpeting of moss to the little\nenclosure.\n\nIt was indeed an incubator, but the eggs were very small in comparison\nwith those I had seen hatching in ours at the time of my arrival on\nMars.\n\nTars Tarkas dismounted and examined the enclosure minutely, finally\nannouncing that it belonged to the green men of Warhoon and that the\ncement was scarcely dry where it had been walled up.\n\n\"They cannot be a day's march ahead of us,\" he exclaimed, the light of\nbattle leaping to his fierce face.\n\nThe work at the incubator was short indeed.  The warriors tore open the\nentrance and a couple of them, crawling in, soon demolished all the\neggs with their short-swords.  Then remounting we dashed back to join\nthe cavalcade.  During the ride I took occasion to ask Tars Tarkas if\nthese Warhoons whose eggs we had destroyed were a smaller people than\nhis Tharks.\n\n\"I noticed that their eggs were so much smaller than those I saw\nhatching in your incubator,\" I added.\n\nHe explained that the eggs had just been placed there; but, like all\ngreen Martian eggs, they would grow during the five-year period of\nincubation until they obtained the size of those I had seen hatching on\nthe day of my arrival on Barsoom.  This was indeed an interesting piece\nof information, for it had always seemed remarkable to me that the\ngreen Martian women, large as they were, could bring forth such\nenormous eggs as I had seen the four-foot infants emerging from.  As a\nmatter of fact, the new-laid egg is but little larger than an ordinary\ngoose egg, and as it does not commence to grow until subjected to the\nlight of the sun the chieftains have little difficulty in transporting\nseveral hundreds of them at one time from the storage vaults to the\nincubators.\n\nShortly after the incident of the Warhoon eggs we halted to rest the\nanimals, and it was during this halt that the second of the day's\ninteresting episodes occurred.  I was engaged in changing my riding\ncloths from one of my thoats to the other, for I divided the day's work\nbetween them, when Zad approached me, and without a word struck my\nanimal a terrific blow with his long-sword.\n\nI did not need a manual of green Martian etiquette to know what reply\nto make, for, in fact, I was so wild with anger that I could scarcely\nrefrain from drawing my pistol and shooting him down for the brute he\nwas; but he stood waiting with drawn long-sword, and my only choice was\nto draw my own and meet him in fair fight with his choice of weapons or\na lesser one.\n\nThis latter alternative is always permissible, therefore I could have\nused my short-sword, my dagger, my hatchet, or my fists had I wished,\nand been entirely within my rights, but I could not use firearms or a\nspear while he held only his long-sword.\n\nI chose the same weapon he had drawn because I knew he prided himself\nupon his ability with it, and I wished, if I worsted him at all, to do\nit with his own weapon.  The fight that followed was a long one and\ndelayed the resumption of the march for an hour.  The entire community\nsurrounded us, leaving a clear space about one hundred feet in diameter\nfor our battle.\n\nZad first attempted to rush me down as a bull might a wolf, but I was\nmuch too quick for him, and each time I side-stepped his rushes he\nwould go lunging past me, only to receive a nick from my sword upon his\narm or back.  He was soon streaming blood from a half dozen minor\nwounds, but I could not obtain an opening to deliver an effective\nthrust.  Then he changed his tactics, and fighting warily and with\nextreme dexterity, he tried to do by science what he was unable to do\nby brute strength.  I must admit that he was a magnificent swordsman,\nand had it not been for my greater endurance and the remarkable agility\nthe lesser gravitation of Mars lent me I might not have been able to\nput up the creditable fight I did against him.\n\nWe circled for some time without doing much damage on either side; the\nlong, straight, needle-like swords flashing in the sunlight, and\nringing out upon the stillness as they crashed together with each\neffective parry.  Finally Zad, realizing that he was tiring more than\nI, evidently decided to close in and end the battle in a final blaze of\nglory for himself; just as he rushed me a blinding flash of light\nstruck full in my eyes, so that I could not see his approach and could\nonly leap blindly to one side in an effort to escape the mighty blade\nthat it seemed I could already feel in my vitals.  I was only partially\nsuccessful, as a sharp pain in my left shoulder attested, but in the\nsweep of my glance as I sought to again locate my adversary, a sight\nmet my astonished gaze which paid me well for the wound the temporary\nblindness had caused me.  There, upon Dejah Thoris' chariot stood three\nfigures, for the purpose evidently of witnessing the encounter above\nthe heads of the intervening Tharks.  There were Dejah Thoris, Sola,\nand Sarkoja, and as my fleeting glance swept over them a little tableau\nwas presented which will stand graven in my memory to the day of my\ndeath.\n\nAs I looked, Dejah Thoris turned upon Sarkoja with the fury of a young\ntigress and struck something from her upraised hand; something which\nflashed in the sunlight as it spun to the ground.  Then I knew what had\nblinded me at that crucial moment of the fight, and how Sarkoja had\nfound a way to kill me without herself delivering the final thrust.\nAnother thing I saw, too, which almost lost my life for me then and\nthere, for it took my mind for the fraction of an instant entirely from\nmy antagonist; for, as Dejah Thoris struck the tiny mirror from her\nhand, Sarkoja, her face livid with hatred and baffled rage, whipped out\nher dagger and aimed a terrific blow at Dejah Thoris; and then Sola,\nour dear and faithful Sola, sprang between them; the last I saw was the\ngreat knife descending upon her shielding breast.\n\nMy enemy had recovered from his thrust and was making it extremely\ninteresting for me, so I reluctantly gave my attention to the work in\nhand, but my mind was not upon the battle.\n\nWe rushed each other furiously time after time, 'til suddenly, feeling\nthe sharp point of his sword at my breast in a thrust I could neither\nparry nor escape, I threw myself upon him with outstretched sword and\nwith all the weight of my body, determined that I would not die alone\nif I could prevent it.  I felt the steel tear into my chest, all went\nblack before me, my head whirled in dizziness, and I felt my knees\ngiving beneath me.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV\n\nSOLA TELLS ME HER STORY\n\n\nWhen consciousness returned, and, as I soon learned, I was down but a\nmoment, I sprang quickly to my feet searching for my sword, and there I\nfound it, buried to the hilt in the green breast of Zad, who lay stone\ndead upon the ochre moss of the ancient sea bottom.  As I regained my\nfull senses I found his weapon piercing my left breast, but only\nthrough the flesh and muscles which cover my ribs, entering near the\ncenter of my chest and coming out below the shoulder.  As I had lunged\nI had turned so that his sword merely passed beneath the muscles,\ninflicting a painful but not dangerous wound.\n\nRemoving the blade from my body I also regained my own, and turning my\nback upon his ugly carcass, I moved, sick, sore, and disgusted, toward\nthe chariots which bore my retinue and my belongings.  A murmur of\nMartian applause greeted me, but I cared not for it.\n\nBleeding and weak I reached my women, who, accustomed to such\nhappenings, dressed my wounds, applying the wonderful healing and\nremedial agents which make only the most instantaneous of death blows\nfatal.  Give a Martian woman a chance and death must take a back seat.\nThey soon had me patched up so that, except for weakness from loss of\nblood and a little soreness around the wound, I suffered no great\ndistress from this thrust which, under earthly treatment, undoubtedly\nwould have put me flat on my back for days.\n\nAs soon as they were through with me I hastened to the chariot of Dejah\nThoris, where I found my poor Sola with her chest swathed in bandages,\nbut apparently little the worse for her encounter with Sarkoja, whose\ndagger it seemed had struck the edge of one of Sola's metal breast\nornaments and, thus deflected, had inflicted but a slight flesh wound.\n\nAs I approached I found Dejah Thoris lying prone upon her silks and\nfurs, her lithe form wracked with sobs.  She did not notice my\npresence, nor did she hear me speaking with Sola, who was standing a\nshort distance from the vehicle.\n\n\"Is she injured?\" I asked of Sola, indicating Dejah Thoris by an\ninclination of my head.\n\n\"No,\" she answered, \"she thinks that you are dead.\"\n\n\"And that her grandmother's cat may now have no one to polish its\nteeth?\" I queried, smiling.\n\n\"I think you wrong her, John Carter,\" said Sola.  \"I do not understand\neither her ways or yours, but I am sure the granddaughter of ten\nthousand jeddaks would never grieve like this over any who held but the\nhighest claim upon her affections.  They are a proud race, but they are\njust, as are all Barsoomians, and you must have hurt or wronged her\ngrievously that she will not admit your existence living, though she\nmourns you dead.\n\n\"Tears are a strange sight upon Barsoom,\" she continued, \"and so it is\ndifficult for me to interpret them.  I have seen but two people weep in\nall my life, other than Dejah Thoris; one wept from sorrow, the other\nfrom baffled rage.  The first was my mother, years ago before they\nkilled her; the other was Sarkoja, when they dragged her from me today.\"\n\n\"Your mother!\" I exclaimed, \"but, Sola, you could not have known your\nmother, child.\"\n\n\"But I did.  And my father also,\" she added.  \"If you would like to\nhear the strange and un-Barsoomian story come to the chariot tonight,\nJohn Carter, and I will tell you that of which I have never spoken in\nall my life before.  And now the signal has been given to resume the\nmarch, you must go.\"\n\n\"I will come tonight, Sola,\" I promised.  \"Be sure to tell Dejah Thoris\nI am alive and well.  I shall not force myself upon her, and be sure\nthat you do not let her know I saw her tears.  If she would speak with\nme I but await her command.\"\n\nSola mounted the chariot, which was swinging into its place in line,\nand I hastened to my waiting thoat and galloped to my station beside\nTars Tarkas at the rear of the column.\n\nWe made a most imposing and awe-inspiring spectacle as we strung out\nacross the yellow landscape; the two hundred and fifty ornate and\nbrightly colored chariots, preceded by an advance guard of some two\nhundred mounted warriors and chieftains riding five abreast and one\nhundred yards apart, and followed by a like number in the same\nformation, with a score or more of flankers on either side; the fifty\nextra mastodons, or heavy draught animals, known as zitidars, and the\nfive or six hundred extra thoats of the warriors running loose within\nthe hollow square formed by the surrounding warriors.  The gleaming\nmetal and jewels of the gorgeous ornaments of the men and women,\nduplicated in the trappings of the zitidars and thoats, and\ninterspersed with the flashing colors of magnificent silks and furs and\nfeathers, lent a barbaric splendor to the caravan which would have\nturned an East Indian potentate green with envy.\n\nThe enormous broad tires of the chariots and the padded feet of the\nanimals brought forth no sound from the moss-covered sea bottom; and so\nwe moved in utter silence, like some huge phantasmagoria, except when\nthe stillness was broken by the guttural growling of a goaded zitidar,\nor the squealing of fighting thoats.  The green Martians converse but\nlittle, and then usually in monosyllables, low and like the faint\nrumbling of distant thunder.\n\nWe traversed a trackless waste of moss which, bending to the pressure\nof broad tire or padded foot, rose up again behind us, leaving no sign\nthat we had passed.  We might indeed have been the wraiths of the\ndeparted dead upon the dead sea of that dying planet for all the sound\nor sign we made in passing.  It was the first march of a large body of\nmen and animals I had ever witnessed which raised no dust and left no\nspoor; for there is no dust upon Mars except in the cultivated\ndistricts during the winter months, and even then the absence of high\nwinds renders it almost unnoticeable.\n\nWe camped that night at the foot of the hills we had been approaching\nfor two days and which marked the southern boundary of this particular\nsea.  Our animals had been two days without drink, nor had they had\nwater for nearly two months, not since shortly after leaving Thark;\nbut, as Tars Tarkas explained to me, they require but little and can\nlive almost indefinitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, and which,\nhe told me, holds in its tiny stems sufficient moisture to meet the\nlimited demands of the animals.\n\nAfter partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like food and vegetable\nmilk I sought out Sola, whom I found working by the light of a torch\nupon some of Tars Tarkas' trappings.  She looked up at my approach, her\nface lighting with pleasure and with welcome.\n\n\"I am glad you came,\" she said; \"Dejah Thoris sleeps and I am lonely.\nMine own people do not care for me, John Carter; I am too unlike them.\nIt is a sad fate, since I must live my life amongst them, and I often\nwish that I were a true green Martian woman, without love and without\nhope; but I have known love and so I am lost.\n\n\"I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of my parents.\nFrom what I have learned of you and the ways of your people I am sure\nthat the tale will not seem strange to you, but among green Martians it\nhas no parallel within the memory of the oldest living Thark, nor do\nour legends hold many similar tales.\n\n\"My mother was rather small, in fact too small to be allowed the\nresponsibilities of maternity, as our chieftains breed principally for\nsize.  She was also less cold and cruel than most green Martian women,\nand caring little for their society, she often roamed the deserted\navenues of Thark alone, or went and sat among the wild flowers that\ndeck the nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wishes which I\nbelieve I alone among Tharkian women today may understand, for am I not\nthe child of my mother?\n\n\"And there among the hills she met a young warrior, whose duty it was\nto guard the feeding zitidars and thoats and see that they roamed not\nbeyond the hills.  They spoke at first only of such things as interest\na community of Tharks, but gradually, as they came to meet more often,\nand, as was now quite evident to both, no longer by chance, they talked\nabout themselves, their likes, their ambitions and their hopes.  She\ntrusted him and told him of the awful repugnance she felt for the\ncruelties of their kind, for the hideous, loveless lives they must ever\nlead, and then she waited for the storm of denunciation to break from\nhis cold, hard lips; but instead he took her in his arms and kissed her.\n\n\"They kept their love a secret for six long years.  She, my mother, was\nof the retinue of the great Tal Hajus, while her lover was a simple\nwarrior, wearing only his own metal.  Had their defection from the\ntraditions of the Tharks been discovered both would have paid the\npenalty in the great arena before Tal Hajus and the assembled hordes.\n\n\"The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a great glass vessel upon\nthe highest and most inaccessible of the partially ruined towers of\nancient Thark.  Once each year my mother visited it for the five long\nyears it lay there in the process of incubation.  She dared not come\noftener, for in the mighty guilt of her conscience she feared that her\nevery move was watched.  During this period my father gained great\ndistinction as a warrior and had taken the metal from several\nchieftains.  His love for my mother had never diminished, and his own\nambition in life was to reach a point where he might wrest the metal\nfrom Tal Hajus himself, and thus, as ruler of the Tharks, be free to\nclaim her as his own, as well as, by the might of his power, protect\nthe child which otherwise would be quickly dispatched should the truth\nbecome known.\n\n\"It was a wild dream, that of wresting the metal from Tal Hajus in five\nshort years, but his advance was rapid, and he soon stood high in the\ncouncils of Thark.  But one day the chance was lost forever, in so far\nas it could come in time to save his loved ones, for he was ordered\naway upon a long expedition to the ice-clad south, to make war upon the\nnatives there and despoil them of their furs, for such is the manner of\nthe green Barsoomian; he does not labor for what he can wrest in battle\nfrom others.\n\n\"He was gone for four years, and when he returned all had been over for\nthree; for about a year after his departure, and shortly before the\ntime for the return of an expedition which had gone forth to fetch the\nfruits of a community incubator, the egg had hatched.  Thereafter my\nmother continued to keep me in the old tower, visiting me nightly and\nlavishing upon me the love the community life would have robbed us both\nof.  She hoped, upon the return of the expedition from the incubator,\nto mix me with the other young assigned to the quarters of Tal Hajus,\nand thus escape the fate which would surely follow discovery of her sin\nagainst the ancient traditions of the green men.\n\n\"She taught me rapidly the language and customs of my kind, and one\nnight she told me the story I have told to you up to this point,\nimpressing upon me the necessity for absolute secrecy and the great\ncaution I must exercise after she had placed me with the other young\nTharks to permit no one to guess that I was further advanced in\neducation than they, nor by any sign to divulge in the presence of\nothers my affection for her, or my knowledge of my parentage; and then\ndrawing me close to her she whispered in my ear the name of my father.\n\n\"And then a light flashed out upon the darkness of the tower chamber,\nand there stood Sarkoja, her gleaming, baleful eyes fixed in a frenzy\nof loathing and contempt upon my mother.  The torrent of hatred and\nabuse she poured out upon her turned my young heart cold in terror.\nThat she had heard the entire story was apparent, and that she had\nsuspected something wrong from my mother's long nightly absences from\nher quarters accounted for her presence there on that fateful night.\n\n\"One thing she had not heard, nor did she know, the whispered name of\nmy father.  This was apparent from her repeated demands upon my mother\nto disclose the name of her partner in sin, but no amount of abuse or\nthreats could wring this from her, and to save me from needless torture\nshe lied, for she told Sarkoja that she alone knew nor would she ever\ntell her child.\n\n\"With final imprecations, Sarkoja hastened away to Tal Hajus to report\nher discovery, and while she was gone my mother, wrapping me in the\nsilks and furs of her night coverings, so that I was scarcely\nnoticeable, descended to the streets and ran wildly away toward the\noutskirts of the city, in the direction which led to the far south, out\ntoward the man whose protection she might not claim, but on whose face\nshe wished to look once more before she died.\n\n\"As we neared the city's southern extremity a sound came to us from\nacross the mossy flat, from the direction of the only pass through the\nhills which led to the gates, the pass by which caravans from either\nnorth or south or east or west would enter the city.  The sounds we\nheard were the squealing of thoats and the grumbling of zitidars, with\nthe occasional clank of arms which announced the approach of a body of\nwarriors.  The thought uppermost in her mind was that it was my father\nreturned from his expedition, but the cunning of the Thark held her\nfrom headlong and precipitate flight to greet him.\n\n\"Retreating into the shadows of a doorway she awaited the coming of the\ncavalcade which shortly entered the avenue, breaking its formation and\nthronging the thoroughfare from wall to wall.  As the head of the\nprocession passed us the lesser moon swung clear of the overhanging\nroofs and lit up the scene with all the brilliancy of her wondrous\nlight.  My mother shrank further back into the friendly shadows, and\nfrom her hiding place saw that the expedition was not that of my\nfather, but the returning caravan bearing the young Tharks.  Instantly\nher plan was formed, and as a great chariot swung close to our hiding\nplace she slipped stealthily in upon the trailing tailboard, crouching\nlow in the shadow of the high side, straining me to her bosom in a\nfrenzy of love.\n\n\"She knew, what I did not, that never again after that night would she\nhold me to her breast, nor was it likely we would ever look upon each\nother's face again.  In the confusion of the plaza she mixed me with\nthe other children, whose guardians during the journey were now free to\nrelinquish their responsibility.  We were herded together into a great\nroom, fed by women who had not accompanied the expedition, and the next\nday we were parceled out among the retinues of the chieftains.\n\n\"I never saw my mother after that night.  She was imprisoned by Tal\nHajus, and every effort, including the most horrible and shameful\ntorture, was brought to bear upon her to wring from her lips the name\nof my father; but she remained steadfast and loyal, dying at last\namidst the laughter of Tal Hajus and his chieftains during some awful\ntorture she was undergoing.\n\n\"I learned afterwards that she told them that she had killed me to save\nme from a like fate at their hands, and that she had thrown my body to\nthe white apes.  Sarkoja alone disbelieved her, and I feel to this day\nthat she suspects my true origin, but does not dare expose me, at the\npresent, at all events, because she also guesses, I am sure, the\nidentity of my father.\n\n\"When he returned from his expedition and learned the story of my\nmother's fate I was present as Tal Hajus told him; but never by the\nquiver of a muscle did he betray the slightest emotion; only he did not\nlaugh as Tal Hajus gleefully described her death struggles.  From that\nmoment on he was the cruelest of the cruel, and I am awaiting the day\nwhen he shall win the goal of his ambition, and feel the carcass of Tal\nHajus beneath his foot, for I am as sure that he but waits the\nopportunity to wreak a terrible vengeance, and that his great love is\nas strong in his breast as when it first transfigured him nearly forty\nyears ago, as I am that we sit here upon the edge of a world-old ocean\nwhile sensible people sleep, John Carter.\"\n\n\"And your father, Sola, is he with us now?\" I asked.\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied, \"but he does not know me for what I am, nor does he\nknow who betrayed my mother to Tal Hajus.  I alone know my father's\nname, and only I and Tal Hajus and Sarkoja know that it was she who\ncarried the tale that brought death and torture upon her he loved.\"\n\nWe sat silent for a few moments, she wrapped in the gloomy thoughts of\nher terrible past, and I in pity for the poor creatures whom the\nheartless, senseless customs of their race had doomed to loveless lives\nof cruelty and of hate.  Presently she spoke.\n\n\"John Carter, if ever a real man walked the cold, dead bosom of Barsoom\nyou are one.  I know that I can trust you, and because the knowledge\nmay someday help you or him or Dejah Thoris or myself, I am going to\ntell you the name of my father, nor place any restrictions or\nconditions upon your tongue.  When the time comes, speak the truth if\nit seems best to you.  I trust you because I know that you are not\ncursed with the terrible trait of absolute and unswerving truthfulness,\nthat you could lie like one of your own Virginia gentlemen if a lie\nwould save others from sorrow or suffering.  My father's name is Tars\nTarkas.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI\n\nWE PLAN ESCAPE\n\n\nThe remainder of our journey to Thark was uneventful.  We were twenty\ndays upon the road, crossing two sea bottoms and passing through or\naround a number of ruined cities, mostly smaller than Korad.  Twice we\ncrossed the famous Martian waterways, or canals, so-called by our\nearthly astronomers.  When we approached these points a warrior would\nbe sent far ahead with a powerful field glass, and if no great body of\nred Martian troops was in sight we would advance as close as possible\nwithout chance of being seen and then camp until dark, when we would\nslowly approach the cultivated tract, and, locating one of the\nnumerous, broad highways which cross these areas at regular intervals,\ncreep silently and stealthily across to the arid lands upon the other\nside.  It required five hours to make one of these crossings without a\nsingle halt, and the other consumed the entire night, so that we were\njust leaving the confines of the high-walled fields when the sun broke\nout upon us.\n\nCrossing in the darkness, as we did, I was unable to see but little,\nexcept as the nearer moon, in her wild and ceaseless hurtling through\nthe Barsoomian heavens, lit up little patches of the landscape from\ntime to time, disclosing walled fields and low, rambling buildings,\npresenting much the appearance of earthly farms.  There were many\ntrees, methodically arranged, and some of them were of enormous height;\nthere were animals in some of the enclosures, and they announced their\npresence by terrified squealings and snortings as they scented our\nqueer, wild beasts and wilder human beings.\n\nOnly once did I perceive a human being, and that was at the\nintersection of our crossroad with the wide, white turnpike which cuts\neach cultivated district longitudinally at its exact center.  The\nfellow must have been sleeping beside the road, for, as I came abreast\nof him, he raised upon one elbow and after a single glance at the\napproaching caravan leaped shrieking to his feet and fled madly down\nthe road, scaling a nearby wall with the agility of a scared cat.  The\nTharks paid him not the slightest attention; they were not out upon the\nwarpath, and the only sign that I had that they had seen him was a\nquickening of the pace of the caravan as we hastened toward the\nbordering desert which marked our entrance into the realm of Tal Hajus.\n\nNot once did I have speech with Dejah Thoris, as she sent no word to me\nthat I would be welcome at her chariot, and my foolish pride kept me\nfrom making any advances.  I verily believe that a man's way with women\nis in inverse ratio to his prowess among men.  The weakling and the\nsaphead have often great ability to charm the fair sex, while the\nfighting man who can face a thousand real dangers unafraid, sits hiding\nin the shadows like some frightened child.\n\nJust thirty days after my advent upon Barsoom we entered the ancient\ncity of Thark, from whose long-forgotten people this horde of green men\nhave stolen even their name.  The hordes of Thark number some thirty\nthousand souls, and are divided into twenty-five communities.  Each\ncommunity has its own jed and lesser chieftains, but all are under the\nrule of Tal Hajus, Jeddak of Thark.  Five communities make their\nheadquarters at the city of Thark, and the balance are scattered among\nother deserted cities of ancient Mars throughout the district claimed\nby Tal Hajus.\n\nWe made our entry into the great central plaza early in the afternoon.\nThere were no enthusiastic friendly greetings for the returned\nexpedition.  Those who chanced to be in sight spoke the names of\nwarriors or women with whom they came in direct contact, in the formal\ngreeting of their kind, but when it was discovered that they brought\ntwo captives a greater interest was aroused, and Dejah Thoris and I\nwere the centers of inquiring groups.\n\nWe were soon assigned to new quarters, and the balance of the day was\ndevoted to settling ourselves to the changed conditions.  My home now\nwas upon an avenue leading into the plaza from the south, the main\nartery down which we had marched from the gates of the city.  I was at\nthe far end of the square and had an entire building to myself.  The\nsame grandeur of architecture which was so noticeable a characteristic\nof Korad was in evidence here, only, if that were possible, on a larger\nand richer scale.  My quarters would have been suitable for housing the\ngreatest of earthly emperors, but to these queer creatures nothing\nabout a building appealed to them but its size and the enormity of its\nchambers; the larger the building, the more desirable; and so Tal Hajus\noccupied what must have been an enormous public building, the largest\nin the city, but entirely unfitted for residence purposes; the next\nlargest was reserved for Lorquas Ptomel, the next for the jed of a\nlesser rank, and so on to the bottom of the list of five jeds.  The\nwarriors occupied the buildings with the chieftains to whose retinues\nthey belonged; or, if they preferred, sought shelter among any of the\nthousands of untenanted buildings in their own quarter of town; each\ncommunity being assigned a certain section of the city.  The selection\nof building had to be made in accordance with these divisions, except\nin so far as the jeds were concerned, they all occupying edifices which\nfronted upon the plaza.\n\nWhen I had finally put my house in order, or rather seen that it had\nbeen done, it was nearing sunset, and I hastened out with the intention\nof locating Sola and her charges, as I had determined upon having\nspeech with Dejah Thoris and trying to impress on her the necessity of\nour at least patching up a truce until I could find some way of aiding\nher to escape.  I searched in vain until the upper rim of the great red\nsun was just disappearing behind the horizon and then I spied the ugly\nhead of Woola peering from a second-story window on the opposite side\nof the very street where I was quartered, but nearer the plaza.\n\nWithout waiting for a further invitation I bolted up the winding runway\nwhich led to the second floor, and entering a great chamber at the\nfront of the building was greeted by the frenzied Woola, who threw his\ngreat carcass upon me, nearly hurling me to the floor; the poor old\nfellow was so glad to see me that I thought he would devour me, his\nhead split from ear to ear, showing his three rows of tusks in his\nhobgoblin smile.\n\nQuieting him with a word of command and a caress, I looked hurriedly\nthrough the approaching gloom for a sign of Dejah Thoris, and then, not\nseeing her, I called her name.  There was an answering murmur from the\nfar corner of the apartment, and with a couple of quick strides I was\nstanding beside her where she crouched among the furs and silks upon an\nancient carved wooden seat.  As I waited she rose to her full height\nand looking me straight in the eye said:\n\n\"What would Dotar Sojat, Thark, of Dejah Thoris his captive?\"\n\n\"Dejah Thoris, I do not know how I have angered you.  It was furtherest\nfrom my desire to hurt or offend you, whom I had hoped to protect and\ncomfort.  Have none of me if it is your will, but that you must aid me\nin effecting your escape, if such a thing be possible, is not my\nrequest, but my command.  When you are safe once more at your father's\ncourt you may do with me as you please, but from now on until that day\nI am your master, and you must obey and aid me.\"\n\nShe looked at me long and earnestly and I thought that she was\nsoftening toward me.\n\n\"I understand your words, Dotar Sojat,\" she replied, \"but you I do not\nunderstand.  You are a queer mixture of child and man, of brute and\nnoble.  I only wish that I might read your heart.\"\n\n\"Look down at your feet, Dejah Thoris; it lies there now where it has\nlain since that other night at Korad, and where it will ever lie\nbeating alone for you until death stills it forever.\"\n\nShe took a little step toward me, her beautiful hands outstretched in a\nstrange, groping gesture.\n\n\"What do you mean, John Carter?\" she whispered.  \"What are you saying\nto me?\"\n\n\"I am saying what I had promised myself that I would not say to you, at\nleast until you were no longer a captive among the green men; what from\nyour attitude toward me for the past twenty days I had thought never to\nsay to you; I am saying, Dejah Thoris, that I am yours, body and soul,\nto serve you, to fight for you, and to die for you.  Only one thing I\nask of you in return, and that is that you make no sign, either of\ncondemnation or of approbation of my words until you are safe among\nyour own people, and that whatever sentiments you harbor toward me they\nbe not influenced or colored by gratitude; whatever I may do to serve\nyou will be prompted solely from selfish motives, since it gives me\nmore pleasure to serve you than not.\"\n\n\"I will respect your wishes, John Carter, because I understand the\nmotives which prompt them, and I accept your service no more willingly\nthan I bow to your authority; your word shall be my law.  I have twice\nwronged you in my thoughts and again I ask your forgiveness.\"\n\nFurther conversation of a personal nature was prevented by the entrance\nof Sola, who was much agitated and wholly unlike her usual calm and\npossessed self.\n\n\"That horrible Sarkoja has been before Tal Hajus,\" she cried, \"and from\nwhat I heard upon the plaza there is little hope for either of you.\"\n\n\"What do they say?\" inquired Dejah Thoris.\n\n\"That you will be thrown to the wild calots [dogs] in the great arena\nas soon as the hordes have assembled for the yearly games.\"\n\n\"Sola,\" I said, \"you are a Thark, but you hate and loathe the customs\nof your people as much as we do.  Will you not accompany us in one\nsupreme effort to escape?  I am sure that Dejah Thoris can offer you a\nhome and protection among her people, and your fate can be no worse\namong them than it must ever be here.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" cried Dejah Thoris, \"come with us, Sola, you will be better off\namong the red men of Helium than you are here, and I can promise you\nnot only a home with us, but the love and affection your nature craves\nand which must always be denied you by the customs of your own race.\nCome with us, Sola; we might go without you, but your fate would be\nterrible if they thought you had connived to aid us.  I know that even\nthat fear would not tempt you to interfere in our escape, but we want\nyou with us, we want you to come to a land of sunshine and happiness,\namongst a people who know the meaning of love, of sympathy, and of\ngratitude.  Say that you will, Sola; tell me that you will.\"\n\n\"The great waterway which leads to Helium is but fifty miles to the\nsouth,\" murmured Sola, half to herself; \"a swift thoat might make it in\nthree hours; and then to Helium it is five hundred miles, most of the\nway through thinly settled districts.  They would know and they would\nfollow us.  We might hide among the great trees for a time, but the\nchances are small indeed for escape.  They would follow us to the very\ngates of Helium, and they would take toll of life at every step; you do\nnot know them.\"\n\n\"Is there no other way we might reach Helium?\" I asked.  \"Can you not\ndraw me a rough map of the country we must traverse, Dejah Thoris?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" she replied, and taking a great diamond from her hair she drew\nupon the marble floor the first map of Barsoomian territory I had ever\nseen.  It was crisscrossed in every direction with long straight lines,\nsometimes running parallel and sometimes converging toward some great\ncircle.  The lines, she said, were waterways; the circles, cities; and\none far to the northwest of us she pointed out as Helium.  There were\nother cities closer, but she said she feared to enter many of them, as\nthey were not all friendly toward Helium.\n\n[Illustration: She drew upon the marble floor the first map of the\nBarsoomian territory I had ever seen.]\n\nFinally, after studying the map carefully in the moonlight which now\nflooded the room, I pointed out a waterway far to the north of us which\nalso seemed to lead to Helium.\n\n\"Does not this pierce your grandfather's territory?\" I asked.\n\n\"Yes,\" she answered, \"but it is two hundred miles north of us; it is\none of the waterways we crossed on the trip to Thark.\"\n\n\"They would never suspect that we would try for that distant waterway,\"\nI answered, \"and that is why I think that it is the best route for our\nescape.\"\n\nSola agreed with me, and it was decided that we should leave Thark this\nsame night; just as quickly, in fact, as I could find and saddle my\nthoats.  Sola was to ride one and Dejah Thoris and I the other; each of\nus carrying sufficient food and drink to last us for two days, since\nthe animals could not be urged too rapidly for so long a distance.\n\nI directed Sola to proceed with Dejah Thoris along one of the less\nfrequented avenues to the southern boundary of the city, where I would\novertake them with the thoats as quickly as possible; then, leaving\nthem to gather what food, silks, and furs we were to need, I slipped\nquietly to the rear of the first floor, and entered the courtyard,\nwhere our animals were moving restlessly about, as was their habit,\nbefore settling down for the night.\n\nIn the shadows of the buildings and out beneath the radiance of the\nMartian moons moved the great herd of thoats and zitidars, the latter\ngrunting their low gutturals and the former occasionally emitting the\nsharp squeal which denotes the almost habitual state of rage in which\nthese creatures passed their existence.  They were quieter now, owing\nto the absence of man, but as they scented me they became more restless\nand their hideous noise increased.  It was risky business, this\nentering a paddock of thoats alone and at night; first, because their\nincreasing noisiness might warn the nearby warriors that something was\namiss, and also because for the slightest cause, or for no cause at all\nsome great bull thoat might take it upon himself to lead a charge upon\nme.\n\nHaving no desire to awaken their nasty tempers upon such a night as\nthis, where so much depended upon secrecy and dispatch, I hugged the\nshadows of the buildings, ready at an instant's warning to leap into\nthe safety of a nearby door or window.  Thus I moved silently to the\ngreat gates which opened upon the street at the back of the court, and\nas I neared the exit I called softly to my two animals.  How I thanked\nthe kind providence which had given me the foresight to win the love\nand confidence of these wild dumb brutes, for presently from the far\nside of the court I saw two huge bulks forcing their way toward me\nthrough the surging mountains of flesh.\n\nThey came quite close to me, rubbing their muzzles against my body and\nnosing for the bits of food it was always my practice to reward them\nwith.  Opening the gates I ordered the two great beasts to pass out,\nand then slipping quietly after them I closed the portals behind me.\n\nI did not saddle or mount the animals there, but instead walked quietly\nin the shadows of the buildings toward an unfrequented avenue which led\ntoward the point I had arranged to meet Dejah Thoris and Sola.  With\nthe noiselessness of disembodied spirits we moved stealthily along the\ndeserted streets, but not until we were within sight of the plain\nbeyond the city did I commence to breathe freely.  I was sure that Sola\nand Dejah Thoris would find no difficulty in reaching our rendezvous\nundetected, but with my great thoats I was not so sure for myself, as\nit was quite unusual for warriors to leave the city after dark; in fact\nthere was no place for them to go within any but a long ride.\n\nI reached the appointed meeting place safely, but as Dejah Thoris and\nSola were not there I led my animals into the entrance hall of one of\nthe large buildings.  Presuming that one of the other women of the same\nhousehold may have come in to speak to Sola, and so delayed their\ndeparture, I did not feel any undue apprehension until nearly an hour\nhad passed without a sign of them, and by the time another half hour\nhad crawled away I was becoming filled with grave anxiety.  Then there\nbroke upon the stillness of the night the sound of an approaching\nparty, which, from the noise, I knew could be no fugitives creeping\nstealthily toward liberty.  Soon the party was near me, and from the\nblack shadows of my entranceway I perceived a score of mounted\nwarriors, who, in passing, dropped a dozen words that fetched my heart\nclean into the top of my head.\n\n\"He would likely have arranged to meet them just without the city, and\nso--\"  I heard no more, they had passed on; but it was enough.  Our\nplan had been discovered, and the chances for escape from now on to the\nfearful end would be small indeed.  My one hope now was to return\nundetected to the quarters of Dejah Thoris and learn what fate had\novertaken her, but how to do it with these great monstrous thoats upon\nmy hands, now that the city probably was aroused by the knowledge of my\nescape was a problem of no mean proportions.\n\nSuddenly an idea occurred to me, and acting on my knowledge of the\nconstruction of the buildings of these ancient Martian cities with a\nhollow court within the center of each square, I groped my way blindly\nthrough the dark chambers, calling the great thoats after me.  They had\ndifficulty in negotiating some of the doorways, but as the buildings\nfronting the city's principal exposures were all designed upon a\nmagnificent scale, they were able to wriggle through without sticking\nfast; and thus we finally made the inner court where I found, as I had\nexpected, the usual carpet of moss-like vegetation which would prove\ntheir food and drink until I could return them to their own enclosure.\nThat they would be as quiet and contented here as elsewhere I was\nconfident, nor was there but the remotest possibility that they would\nbe discovered, as the green men had no great desire to enter these\noutlying buildings, which were frequented by the only thing, I believe,\nwhich caused them the sensation of fear--the great white apes of\nBarsoom.\n\nRemoving the saddle trappings, I hid them just within the rear doorway\nof the building through which we had entered the court, and, turning\nthe beasts loose, quickly made my way across the court to the rear of\nthe buildings upon the further side, and thence to the avenue beyond.\nWaiting in the doorway of the building until I was assured that no one\nwas approaching, I hurried across to the opposite side and through the\nfirst doorway to the court beyond; thus, crossing through court after\ncourt with only the slight chance of detection which the necessary\ncrossing of the avenues entailed, I made my way in safety to the\ncourtyard in the rear of Dejah Thoris' quarters.\n\nHere, of course, I found the beasts of the warriors who quartered in\nthe adjacent buildings, and the warriors themselves I might expect to\nmeet within if I entered; but, fortunately for me, I had another and\nsafer method of reaching the upper story where Dejah Thoris should be\nfound, and, after first determining as nearly as possible which of the\nbuildings she occupied, for I had never observed them before from the\ncourt side, I took advantage of my relatively great strength and\nagility and sprang upward until I grasped the sill of a second-story\nwindow which I thought to be in the rear of her apartment.  Drawing\nmyself inside the room I moved stealthily toward the front of the\nbuilding, and not until I had quite reached the doorway of her room was\nI made aware by voices that it was occupied.\n\nI did not rush headlong in, but listened without to assure myself that\nit was Dejah Thoris and that it was safe to venture within.  It was\nwell indeed that I took this precaution, for the conversation I heard\nwas in the low gutturals of men, and the words which finally came to me\nproved a most timely warning.  The speaker was a chieftain and he was\ngiving orders to four of his warriors.\n\n\"And when he returns to this chamber,\" he was saying, \"as he surely\nwill when he finds she does not meet him at the city's edge, you four\nare to spring upon him and disarm him.  It will require the combined\nstrength of all of you to do it if the reports they bring back from\nKorad are correct.  When you have him fast bound bear him to the vaults\nbeneath the jeddak's quarters and chain him securely where he may be\nfound when Tal Hajus wishes him.  Allow him to speak with none, nor\npermit any other to enter this apartment before he comes.  There will\nbe no danger of the girl returning, for by this time she is safe in the\narms of Tal Hajus, and may all her ancestors have pity upon her, for\nTal Hajus will have none; the great Sarkoja has done a noble night's\nwork.  I go, and if you fail to capture him when he comes, I commend\nyour carcasses to the cold bosom of Iss.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII\n\nA COSTLY RECAPTURE\n\n\nAs the speaker ceased he turned to leave the apartment by the door\nwhere I was standing, but I needed to wait no longer; I had heard\nenough to fill my soul with dread, and stealing quietly away I returned\nto the courtyard by the way I had come.  My plan of action was formed\nupon the instant, and crossing the square and the bordering avenue upon\nthe opposite side I soon stood within the courtyard of Tal Hajus.\n\nThe brilliantly lighted apartments of the first floor told me where\nfirst to seek, and advancing to the windows I peered within.  I soon\ndiscovered that my approach was not to be the easy thing I had hoped,\nfor the rear rooms bordering the court were filled with warriors and\nwomen.  I then glanced up at the stories above, discovering that the\nthird was apparently unlighted, and so decided to make my entrance to\nthe building from that point.  It was the work of but a moment for me\nto reach the windows above, and soon I had drawn myself within the\nsheltering shadows of the unlighted third floor.\n\nFortunately the room I had selected was untenanted, and creeping\nnoiselessly to the corridor beyond I discovered a light in the\napartments ahead of me.  Reaching what appeared to be a doorway I\ndiscovered that it was but an opening upon an immense inner chamber\nwhich towered from the first floor, two stories below me, to the\ndome-like roof of the building, high above my head.  The floor of this\ngreat circular hall was thronged with chieftains, warriors and women,\nand at one end was a great raised platform upon which squatted the most\nhideous beast I had ever put my eyes upon.  He had all the cold, hard,\ncruel, terrible features of the green warriors, but accentuated and\ndebased by the animal passions to which he had given himself over for\nmany years.  There was not a mark of dignity or pride upon his bestial\ncountenance, while his enormous bulk spread itself out upon the\nplatform where he squatted like some huge devil fish, his six limbs\naccentuating the similarity in a horrible and startling manner.\n\nBut the sight that froze me with apprehension was that of Dejah Thoris\nand Sola standing there before him, and the fiendish leer of him as he\nlet his great protruding eyes gloat upon the lines of her beautiful\nfigure.  She was speaking, but I could not hear what she said, nor\ncould I make out the low grumbling of his reply.  She stood there erect\nbefore him, her head high held, and even at the distance I was from\nthem I could read the scorn and disgust upon her face as she let her\nhaughty glance rest without sign of fear upon him.  She was indeed the\nproud daughter of a thousand jeddaks, every inch of her dear, precious\nlittle body; so small, so frail beside the towering warriors around\nher, but in her majesty dwarfing them into insignificance; she was the\nmightiest figure among them and I verily believe that they felt it.\n\nPresently Tal Hajus made a sign that the chamber be cleared, and that\nthe prisoners be left alone before him.  Slowly the chieftains, the\nwarriors and the women melted away into the shadows of the surrounding\nchambers, and Dejah Thoris and Sola stood alone before the jeddak of\nthe Tharks.\n\nOne chieftain alone had hesitated before departing; I saw him standing\nin the shadows of a mighty column, his fingers nervously toying with\nthe hilt of his great-sword and his cruel eyes bent in implacable\nhatred upon Tal Hajus.  It was Tars Tarkas, and I could read his\nthoughts as they were an open book for the undisguised loathing upon\nhis face.  He was thinking of that other woman who, forty years ago,\nhad stood before this beast, and could I have spoken a word into his\near at that moment the reign of Tal Hajus would have been over; but\nfinally he also strode from the room, not knowing that he left his own\ndaughter at the mercy of the creature he most loathed.\n\nTal Hajus arose, and I, half fearing, half anticipating his intentions,\nhurried to the winding runway which led to the floors below.  No one\nwas near to intercept me, and I reached the main floor of the chamber\nunobserved, taking my station in the shadow of the same column that\nTars Tarkas had but just deserted.  As I reached the floor Tal Hajus\nwas speaking.\n\n\"Princess of Helium, I might wring a mighty ransom from your people\nwould I but return you to them unharmed, but a thousand times rather\nwould I watch that beautiful face writhe in the agony of torture; it\nshall be long drawn out, that I promise you; ten days of pleasure were\nall too short to show the love I harbor for your race.  The terrors of\nyour death shall haunt the slumbers of the red men through all the ages\nto come; they will shudder in the shadows of the night as their fathers\ntell them of the awful vengeance of the green men; of the power and\nmight and hate and cruelty of Tal Hajus.  But before the torture you\nshall be mine for one short hour, and word of that too shall go forth\nto Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium, your grandfather, that he may grovel\nupon the ground in the agony of his sorrow.  Tomorrow the torture will\ncommence; tonight thou art Tal Hajus'; come!\"\n\nHe sprang down from the platform and grasped her roughly by the arm,\nbut scarcely had he touched her than I leaped between them.  My\nshort-sword, sharp and gleaming was in my right hand; I could have\nplunged it into his putrid heart before he realized that I was upon\nhim; but as I raised my arm to strike I thought of Tars Tarkas, and,\nwith all my rage, with all my hatred, I could not rob him of that sweet\nmoment for which he had lived and hoped all these long, weary years,\nand so, instead, I swung my good right fist full upon the point of his\njaw.  Without a sound he slipped to the floor as one dead.\n\nIn the same deathly silence I grasped Dejah Thoris by the hand, and\nmotioning Sola to follow we sped noiselessly from the chamber and to\nthe floor above.  Unseen we reached a rear window and with the straps\nand leather of my trappings I lowered, first Sola and then Dejah Thoris\nto the ground below.  Dropping lightly after them I drew them rapidly\naround the court in the shadows of the buildings, and thus we returned\nover the same course I had so recently followed from the distant\nboundary of the city.\n\nWe finally came upon my thoats in the courtyard where I had left them,\nand placing the trappings upon them we hastened through the building to\nthe avenue beyond.  Mounting, Sola upon one beast, and Dejah Thoris\nbehind me upon the other, we rode from the city of Thark through the\nhills to the south.\n\nInstead of circling back around the city to the northwest and toward\nthe nearest waterway which lay so short a distance from us, we turned\nto the northeast and struck out upon the mossy waste across which, for\ntwo hundred dangerous and weary miles, lay another main artery leading\nto Helium.\n\nNo word was spoken until we had left the city far behind, but I could\nhear the quiet sobbing of Dejah Thoris as she clung to me with her dear\nhead resting against my shoulder.\n\n\"If we make it, my chieftain, the debt of Helium will be a mighty one;\ngreater than she can ever pay you; and should we not make it,\" she\ncontinued, \"the debt is no less, though Helium will never know, for you\nhave saved the last of our line from worse than death.\"\n\nI did not answer, but instead reached to my side and pressed the little\nfingers of her I loved where they clung to me for support, and then, in\nunbroken silence, we sped over the yellow, moonlit moss; each of us\noccupied with his own thoughts.  For my part I could not be other than\njoyful had I tried, with Dejah Thoris' warm body pressed close to mine,\nand with all our unpassed danger my heart was singing as gaily as\nthough we were already entering the gates of Helium.\n\nOur earlier plans had been so sadly upset that we now found ourselves\nwithout food or drink, and I alone was armed.  We therefore urged our\nbeasts to a speed that must tell on them sorely before we could hope to\nsight the ending of the first stage of our journey.\n\nWe rode all night and all the following day with only a few short\nrests.  On the second night both we and our animals were completely\nfagged, and so we lay down upon the moss and slept for some five or six\nhours, taking up the journey once more before daylight.  All the\nfollowing day we rode, and when, late in the afternoon we had sighted\nno distant trees, the mark of the great waterways throughout all\nBarsoom, the terrible truth flashed upon us--we were lost.\n\nEvidently we had circled, but which way it was difficult to say, nor\ndid it seem possible with the sun to guide us by day and the moons and\nstars by night.  At any rate no waterway was in sight, and the entire\nparty was almost ready to drop from hunger, thirst and fatigue.  Far\nahead of us and a trifle to the right we could distinguish the outlines\nof low mountains.  These we decided to attempt to reach in the hope\nthat from some ridge we might discern the missing waterway.  Night fell\nupon us before we reached our goal, and, almost fainting from weariness\nand weakness, we lay down and slept.\n\nI was awakened early in the morning by some huge body pressing close to\nmine, and opening my eyes with a start I beheld my blessed old Woola\nsnuggling close to me; the faithful brute had followed us across that\ntrackless waste to share our fate, whatever it might be.  Putting my\narms about his neck I pressed my cheek close to his, nor am I ashamed\nthat I did it, nor of the tears that came to my eyes as I thought of\nhis love for me.  Shortly after this Dejah Thoris and Sola awakened,\nand it was decided that we push on at once in an effort to gain the\nhills.\n\nWe had gone scarcely a mile when I noticed that my thoat was commencing\nto stumble and stagger in a most pitiful manner, although we had not\nattempted to force them out of a walk since about noon of the preceding\nday.  Suddenly he lurched wildly to one side and pitched violently to\nthe ground.  Dejah Thoris and I were thrown clear of him and fell upon\nthe soft moss with scarcely a jar; but the poor beast was in a pitiable\ncondition, not even being able to rise, although relieved of our\nweight.  Sola told me that the coolness of the night, when it fell,\ntogether with the rest would doubtless revive him, and so I decided not\nto kill him, as was my first intention, as I had thought it cruel to\nleave him alone there to die of hunger and thirst.  Relieving him of\nhis trappings, which I flung down beside him, we left the poor fellow\nto his fate, and pushed on with the one thoat as best we could.  Sola\nand I walked, making Dejah Thoris ride, much against her will.  In this\nway we had progressed to within about a mile of the hills we were\nendeavoring to reach when Dejah Thoris, from her point of vantage upon\nthe thoat, cried out that she saw a great party of mounted men filing\ndown from a pass in the hills several miles away.  Sola and I both\nlooked in the direction she indicated, and there, plainly discernible,\nwere several hundred mounted warriors.  They seemed to be headed in a\nsouthwesterly direction, which would take them away from us.\n\nThey doubtless were Thark warriors who had been sent out to capture us,\nand we breathed a great sigh of relief that they were traveling in the\nopposite direction.  Quickly lifting Dejah Thoris from the thoat, I\ncommanded the animal to lie down and we three did the same, presenting\nas small an object as possible for fear of attracting the attention of\nthe warriors toward us.\n\nWe could see them as they filed out of the pass, just for an instant,\nbefore they were lost to view behind a friendly ridge; to us a most\nprovidential ridge; since, had they been in view for any great length\nof time, they scarcely could have failed to discover us.  As what\nproved to be the last warrior came into view from the pass, he halted\nand, to our consternation, threw his small but powerful fieldglass to\nhis eye and scanned the sea bottom in all directions.  Evidently he was\na chieftain, for in certain marching formations among the green men a\nchieftain brings up the extreme rear of the column.  As his glass swung\ntoward us our hearts stopped in our breasts, and I could feel the cold\nsweat start from every pore in my body.\n\nPresently it swung full upon us and--stopped.  The tension on our\nnerves was near the breaking point, and I doubt if any of us breathed\nfor the few moments he held us covered by his glass; and then he\nlowered it and we could see him shout a command to the warriors who had\npassed from our sight behind the ridge.  He did not wait for them to\njoin him, however, instead he wheeled his thoat and came tearing madly\nin our direction.\n\nThere was but one slight chance and that we must take quickly.  Raising\nmy strange Martian rifle to my shoulder I sighted and touched the\nbutton which controlled the trigger; there was a sharp explosion as the\nmissile reached its goal, and the charging chieftain pitched backward\nfrom his flying mount.\n\nSpringing to my feet I urged the thoat to rise, and directed Sola to\ntake Dejah Thoris with her upon him and make a mighty effort to reach\nthe hills before the green warriors were upon us.  I knew that in the\nravines and gullies they might find a temporary hiding place, and even\nthough they died there of hunger and thirst it would be better so than\nthat they fell into the hands of the Tharks.  Forcing my two revolvers\nupon them as a slight means of protection, and, as a last resort, as an\nescape for themselves from the horrid death which recapture would\nsurely mean, I lifted Dejah Thoris in my arms and placed her upon the\nthoat behind Sola, who had already mounted at my command.\n\n\"Good-bye, my princess,\" I whispered, \"we may meet in Helium yet.  I\nhave escaped from worse plights than this,\" and I tried to smile as I\nlied.\n\n\"What,\" she cried, \"are you not coming with us?\"\n\n\"How may I, Dejah Thoris?  Someone must hold these fellows off for a\nwhile, and I can better escape them alone than could the three of us\ntogether.\"\n\nShe sprang quickly from the thoat and, throwing her dear arms about my\nneck, turned to Sola, saying with quiet dignity: \"Fly, Sola!  Dejah\nThoris remains to die with the man she loves.\"\n\nThose words are engraved upon my heart.  Ah, gladly would I give up my\nlife a thousand times could I only hear them once again; but I could\nnot then give even a second to the rapture of her sweet embrace, and\npressing my lips to hers for the first time, I picked her up bodily and\ntossed her to her seat behind Sola again, commanding the latter in\nperemptory tones to hold her there by force, and then, slapping the\nthoat upon the flank, I saw them borne away; Dejah Thoris struggling to\nthe last to free herself from Sola's grasp.\n\nTurning, I beheld the green warriors mounting the ridge and looking for\ntheir chieftain.  In a moment they saw him, and then me; but scarcely\nhad they discovered me than I commenced firing, lying flat upon my\nbelly in the moss.  I had an even hundred rounds in the magazine of my\nrifle, and another hundred in the belt at my back, and I kept up a\ncontinuous stream of fire until I saw all of the warriors who had been\nfirst to return from behind the ridge either dead or scurrying to cover.\n\nMy respite was short-lived however, for soon the entire party,\nnumbering some thousand men, came charging into view, racing madly\ntoward me.  I fired until my rifle was empty and they were almost upon\nme, and then a glance showing me that Dejah Thoris and Sola had\ndisappeared among the hills, I sprang up, throwing down my useless gun,\nand started away in the direction opposite to that taken by Sola and\nher charge.\n\nIf ever Martians had an exhibition of jumping, it was granted those\nastonished warriors on that day long years ago, but while it led them\naway from Dejah Thoris it did not distract their attention from\nendeavoring to capture me.\n\nThey raced wildly after me until, finally, my foot struck a projecting\npiece of quartz, and down I went sprawling upon the moss.  As I looked\nup they were upon me, and although I drew my long-sword in an attempt\nto sell my life as dearly as possible, it was soon over.  I reeled\nbeneath their blows which fell upon me in perfect torrents; my head\nswam; all was black, and I went down beneath them to oblivion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII\n\nCHAINED IN WARHOON\n\n\nIt must have been several hours before I regained consciousness and I\nwell remember the feeling of surprise which swept over me as I realized\nthat I was not dead.\n\nI was lying among a pile of sleeping silks and furs in the corner of a\nsmall room in which were several green warriors, and bending over me\nwas an ancient and ugly female.\n\nAs I opened my eyes she turned to one of the warriors, saying,\n\n\"He will live, O Jed.\"\n\n\"'Tis well,\" replied the one so addressed, rising and approaching my\ncouch, \"he should render rare sport for the great games.\"\n\nAnd now as my eyes fell upon him, I saw that he was no Thark, for his\nornaments and metal were not of that horde.  He was a huge fellow,\nterribly scarred about the face and chest, and with one broken tusk and\na missing ear.  Strapped on either breast were human skulls and\ndepending from these a number of dried human hands.\n\nHis reference to the great games of which I had heard so much while\namong the Tharks convinced me that I had but jumped from purgatory into\ngehenna.\n\nAfter a few more words with the female, during which she assured him\nthat I was now fully fit to travel, the jed ordered that we mount and\nride after the main column.\n\nI was strapped securely to as wild and unmanageable a thoat as I had\never seen, and, with a mounted warrior on either side to prevent the\nbeast from bolting, we rode forth at a furious pace in pursuit of the\ncolumn.  My wounds gave me but little pain, so wonderfully and rapidly\nhad the applications and injections of the female exercised their\ntherapeutic powers, and so deftly had she bound and plastered the\ninjuries.\n\nJust before dark we reached the main body of troops shortly after they\nhad made camp for the night.  I was immediately taken before the\nleader, who proved to be the jeddak of the hordes of Warhoon.\n\nLike the jed who had brought me, he was frightfully scarred, and also\ndecorated with the breastplate of human skulls and dried dead hands\nwhich seemed to mark all the greater warriors among the Warhoons, as\nwell as to indicate their awful ferocity, which greatly transcends even\nthat of the Tharks.\n\nThe jeddak, Bar Comas, who was comparatively young, was the object of\nthe fierce and jealous hatred of his old lieutenant, Dak Kova, the jed\nwho had captured me, and I could not but note the almost studied\nefforts which the latter made to affront his superior.\n\nHe entirely omitted the usual formal salutation as we entered the\npresence of the jeddak, and as he pushed me roughly before the ruler he\nexclaimed in a loud and menacing voice.\n\n\"I have brought a strange creature wearing the metal of a Thark whom it\nis my pleasure to have battle with a wild thoat at the great games.\"\n\n\"He will die as Bar Comas, your jeddak, sees fit, if at all,\" replied\nthe young ruler, with emphasis and dignity.\n\n\"If at all?\" roared Dak Kova.  \"By the dead hands at my throat but he\nshall die, Bar Comas.  No maudlin weakness on your part shall save him.\nO, would that Warhoon were ruled by a real jeddak rather than by a\nwater-hearted weakling from whom even old Dak Kova could tear the metal\nwith his bare hands!\"\n\nBar Comas eyed the defiant and insubordinate chieftain for an instant,\nhis expression one of haughty, fearless contempt and hate, and then\nwithout drawing a weapon and without uttering a word he hurled himself\nat the throat of his defamer.\n\nI never before had seen two green Martian warriors battle with nature's\nweapons and the exhibition of animal ferocity which ensued was as\nfearful a thing as the most disordered imagination could picture.  They\ntore at each others' eyes and ears with their hands and with their\ngleaming tusks repeatedly slashed and gored until both were cut fairly\nto ribbons from head to foot.\n\nBar Comas had much the better of the battle as he was stronger, quicker\nand more intelligent.  It soon seemed that the encounter was done\nsaving only the final death thrust when Bar Comas slipped in breaking\naway from a clinch.  It was the one little opening that Dak Kova\nneeded, and hurling himself at the body of his adversary he buried his\nsingle mighty tusk in Bar Comas' groin and with a last powerful effort\nripped the young jeddak wide open the full length of his body, the\ngreat tusk finally wedging in the bones of Bar Comas' jaw.  Victor and\nvanquished rolled limp and lifeless upon the moss, a huge mass of torn\nand bloody flesh.\n\nBar Comas was stone dead, and only the most herculean efforts on the\npart of Dak Kova's females saved him from the fate he deserved.  Three\ndays later he walked without assistance to the body of Bar Comas which,\nby custom, had not been moved from where it fell, and placing his foot\nupon the neck of his erstwhile ruler he assumed the title of Jeddak of\nWarhoon.\n\nThe dead jeddak's hands and head were removed to be added to the\nornaments of his conqueror, and then his women cremated what remained,\namid wild and terrible laughter.\n\nThe injuries to Dak Kova had delayed the march so greatly that it was\ndecided to give up the expedition, which was a raid upon a small Thark\ncommunity in retaliation for the destruction of the incubator, until\nafter the great games, and the entire body of warriors, ten thousand in\nnumber, turned back toward Warhoon.\n\nMy introduction to these cruel and bloodthirsty people was but an index\nto the scenes I witnessed almost daily while with them.  They are a\nsmaller horde than the Tharks but much more ferocious.  Not a day\npassed but that some members of the various Warhoon communities met in\ndeadly combat.  I have seen as high as eight mortal duels within a\nsingle day.\n\nWe reached the city of Warhoon after some three days march and I was\nimmediately cast into a dungeon and heavily chained to the floor and\nwalls.  Food was brought me at intervals but owing to the utter\ndarkness of the place I do not know whether I lay there days, or weeks,\nor months.  It was the most horrible experience of all my life and that\nmy mind did not give way to the terrors of that inky blackness has been\na wonder to me ever since.  The place was filled with creeping,\ncrawling things; cold, sinuous bodies passed over me when I lay down,\nand in the darkness I occasionally caught glimpses of gleaming, fiery\neyes, fixed in horrible intentness upon me.  No sound reached me from\nthe world above and no word would my jailer vouchsafe when my food was\nbrought to me, although I at first bombarded him with questions.\n\nFinally all the hatred and maniacal loathing for these awful creatures\nwho had placed me in this horrible place was centered by my tottering\nreason upon this single emissary who represented to me the entire horde\nof Warhoons.\n\nI had noticed that he always advanced with his dim torch to where he\ncould place the food within my reach and as he stooped to place it upon\nthe floor his head was about on a level with my breast.  So, with the\ncunning of a madman, I backed into the far corner of my cell when next\nI heard him approaching and gathering a little slack of the great chain\nwhich held me in my hand I waited his coming, crouching like some beast\nof prey.  As he stooped to place my food upon the ground I swung the\nchain above my head and crashed the links with all my strength upon his\nskull.  Without a sound he slipped to the floor, stone dead.\n\nLaughing and chattering like the idiot I was fast becoming I fell upon\nhis prostrate form my fingers feeling for his dead throat.  Presently\nthey came in contact with a small chain at the end of which dangled a\nnumber of keys.  The touch of my fingers on these keys brought back my\nreason with the suddenness of thought.  No longer was I a jibbering\nidiot, but a sane, reasoning man with the means of escape within my\nvery hands.\n\nAs I was groping to remove the chain from about my victim's neck I\nglanced up into the darkness to see six pairs of gleaming eyes fixed,\nunwinking, upon me.  Slowly they approached and slowly I shrank back\nfrom the awful horror of them.  Back into my corner I crouched holding\nmy hands palms out, before me, and stealthily on came the awful eyes\nuntil they reached the dead body at my feet.  Then slowly they\nretreated but this time with a strange grating sound and finally they\ndisappeared in some black and distant recess of my dungeon.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX\n\nBATTLING IN THE ARENA\n\n\nSlowly I regained my composure and finally essayed again to attempt to\nremove the keys from the dead body of my former jailer.  But as I\nreached out into the darkness to locate it I found to my horror that it\nwas gone.  Then the truth flashed on me; the owners of those gleaming\neyes had dragged my prize away from me to be devoured in their\nneighboring lair; as they had been waiting for days, for weeks, for\nmonths, through all this awful eternity of my imprisonment to drag my\ndead carcass to their feast.\n\nFor two days no food was brought me, but then a new messenger appeared\nand my incarceration went on as before, but not again did I allow my\nreason to be submerged by the horror of my position.\n\nShortly after this episode another prisoner was brought in and chained\nnear me.  By the dim torch light I saw that he was a red Martian and I\ncould scarcely await the departure of his guards to address him.  As\ntheir retreating footsteps died away in the distance, I called out\nsoftly the Martian word of greeting, kaor.\n\n\"Who are you who speaks out of the darkness?\" he answered\n\n\"John Carter, a friend of the red men of Helium.\"\n\n\"I am of Helium,\" he said, \"but I do not recall your name.\"\n\nAnd then I told him my story as I have written it here, omitting only\nany reference to my love for Dejah Thoris.  He was much excited by the\nnews of Helium's princess and seemed quite positive that she and Sola\ncould easily have reached a point of safety from where they left me.\nHe said that he knew the place well because the defile through which\nthe Warhoon warriors had passed when they discovered us was the only\none ever used by them when marching to the south.\n\n\"Dejah Thoris and Sola entered the hills not five miles from a great\nwaterway and are now probably quite safe,\" he assured me.\n\nMy fellow prisoner was Kantos Kan, a padwar (lieutenant) in the navy of\nHelium.  He had been a member of the ill-fated expedition which had\nfallen into the hands of the Tharks at the time of Dejah Thoris'\ncapture, and he briefly related the events which followed the defeat of\nthe battleships.\n\nBadly injured and only partially manned they had limped slowly toward\nHelium, but while passing near the city of Zodanga, the capital of\nHelium's hereditary enemies among the red men of Barsoom, they had been\nattacked by a great body of war vessels and all but the craft to which\nKantos Kan belonged were either destroyed or captured.  His vessel was\nchased for days by three of the Zodangan war ships but finally escaped\nduring the darkness of a moonless night.\n\nThirty days after the capture of Dejah Thoris, or about the time of our\ncoming to Thark, his vessel had reached Helium with about ten survivors\nof the original crew of seven hundred officers and men.  Immediately\nseven great fleets, each of one hundred mighty war ships, had been\ndispatched to search for Dejah Thoris, and from these vessels two\nthousand smaller craft had been kept out continuously in futile search\nfor the missing princess.\n\nTwo green Martian communities had been wiped off the face of Barsoom by\nthe avenging fleets, but no trace of Dejah Thoris had been found.  They\nhad been searching among the northern hordes, and only within the past\nfew days had they extended their quest to the south.\n\nKantos Kan had been detailed to one of the small one-man fliers and had\nhad the misfortune to be discovered by the Warhoons while exploring\ntheir city.  The bravery and daring of the man won my greatest respect\nand admiration.  Alone he had landed at the city's boundary and on foot\nhad penetrated to the buildings surrounding the plaza.  For two days\nand nights he had explored their quarters and their dungeons in search\nof his beloved princess only to fall into the hands of a party of\nWarhoons as he was about to leave, after assuring himself that Dejah\nThoris was not a captive there.\n\nDuring the period of our incarceration Kantos Kan and I became well\nacquainted, and formed a warm personal friendship.  A few days only\nelapsed, however, before we were dragged forth from our dungeon for the\ngreat games.  We were conducted early one morning to an enormous\namphitheater, which instead of having been built upon the surface of\nthe ground was excavated below the surface.  It had partially filled\nwith debris so that how large it had originally been was difficult to\nsay.  In its present condition it held the entire twenty thousand\nWarhoons of the assembled hordes.\n\nThe arena was immense but extremely uneven and unkempt.  Around it the\nWarhoons had piled building stone from some of the ruined edifices of\nthe ancient city to prevent the animals and the captives from escaping\ninto the audience, and at each end had been constructed cages to hold\nthem until their turns came to meet some horrible death upon the arena.\n\nKantos Kan and I were confined together in one of the cages.  In the\nothers were wild calots, thoats, mad zitidars, green warriors, and\nwomen of other hordes, and many strange and ferocious wild beasts of\nBarsoom which I had never before seen.  The din of their roaring,\ngrowling and squealing was deafening and the formidable appearance of\nany one of them was enough to make the stoutest heart feel grave\nforebodings.\n\nKantos Kan explained to me that at the end of the day one of these\nprisoners would gain freedom and the others would lie dead about the\narena.  The winners in the various contests of the day would be pitted\nagainst each other until only two remained alive; the victor in the\nlast encounter being set free, whether animal or man.  The following\nmorning the cages would be filled with a new consignment of victims,\nand so on throughout the ten days of the games.\n\nShortly after we had been caged the amphitheater began to fill and\nwithin an hour every available part of the seating space was occupied.\nDak Kova, with his jeds and chieftains, sat at the center of one side\nof the arena upon a large raised platform.\n\nAt a signal from Dak Kova the doors of two cages were thrown open and a\ndozen green Martian females were driven to the center of the arena.\nEach was given a dagger and then, at the far end, a pack of twelve\ncalots, or wild dogs were loosed upon them.\n\nAs the brutes, growling and foaming, rushed upon the almost defenseless\nwomen I turned my head that I might not see the horrid sight.  The\nyells and laughter of the green horde bore witness to the excellent\nquality of the sport and when I turned back to the arena, as Kantos Kan\ntold me it was over, I saw three victorious calots, snarling and\ngrowling over the bodies of their prey.  The women had given a good\naccount of themselves.\n\nNext a mad zitidar was loosed among the remaining dogs, and so it went\nthroughout the long, hot, horrible day.\n\nDuring the day I was pitted against first men and then beasts, but as I\nwas armed with a long-sword and always outclassed my adversary in\nagility and generally in strength as well, it proved but child's play\nto me.  Time and time again I won the applause of the bloodthirsty\nmultitude, and toward the end there were cries that I be taken from the\narena and be made a member of the hordes of Warhoon.\n\nFinally there were but three of us left, a great green warrior of some\nfar northern horde, Kantos Kan, and myself.\n\nThe other two were to battle and then I to fight the conqueror for the\nliberty which was accorded the final winner.\n\nKantos Kan had fought several times during the day and like myself had\nalways proven victorious, but occasionally by the smallest of margins,\nespecially when pitted against the green warriors.  I had little hope\nthat he could best his giant adversary who had mowed down all before\nhim during the day.  The fellow towered nearly sixteen feet in height,\nwhile Kantos Kan was some inches under six feet.  As they advanced to\nmeet one another I saw for the first time a trick of Martian\nswordsmanship which centered Kantos Kan's every hope of victory and\nlife on one cast of the dice, for, as he came to within about twenty\nfeet of the huge fellow he threw his sword arm far behind him over his\nshoulder and with a mighty sweep hurled his weapon point foremost at\nthe green warrior.  It flew true as an arrow and piercing the poor\ndevil's heart laid him dead upon the arena.\n\nKantos Kan and I were now pitted against each other but as we\napproached to the encounter I whispered to him to prolong the battle\nuntil nearly dark in the hope that we might find some means of escape.\nThe horde evidently guessed that we had no hearts to fight each other\nand so they howled in rage as neither of us placed a fatal thrust.\nJust as I saw the sudden coming of dark I whispered to Kantos Kan to\nthrust his sword between my left arm and my body.  As he did so I\nstaggered back clasping the sword tightly with my arm and thus fell to\nthe ground with his weapon apparently protruding from my chest.  Kantos\nKan perceived my coup and stepping quickly to my side he placed his\nfoot upon my neck and withdrawing his sword from my body gave me the\nfinal death blow through the neck which is supposed to sever the\njugular vein, but in this instance the cold blade slipped harmlessly\ninto the sand of the arena.  In the darkness which had now fallen none\ncould tell but that he had really finished me.  I whispered to him to\ngo and claim his freedom and then look for me in the hills east of the\ncity, and so he left me.\n\nWhen the amphitheater had cleared I crept stealthily to the top and as\nthe great excavation lay far from the plaza and in an untenanted\nportion of the great dead city I had little trouble in reaching the\nhills beyond.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX\n\nIN THE ATMOSPHERE FACTORY\n\n\nFor two days I waited there for Kantos Kan, but as he did not come I\nstarted off on foot in a northwesterly direction toward a point where\nhe had told me lay the nearest waterway.  My only food consisted of\nvegetable milk from the plants which gave so bounteously of this\npriceless fluid.\n\nThrough two long weeks I wandered, stumbling through the nights guided\nonly by the stars and hiding during the days behind some protruding\nrock or among the occasional hills I traversed.  Several times I was\nattacked by wild beasts; strange, uncouth monstrosities that leaped\nupon me in the dark, so that I had ever to grasp my long-sword in my\nhand that I might be ready for them.  Usually my strange, newly\nacquired telepathic power warned me in ample time, but once I was down\nwith vicious fangs at my jugular and a hairy face pressed close to mine\nbefore I knew that I was even threatened.\n\nWhat manner of thing was upon me I did not know, but that it was large\nand heavy and many-legged I could feel.  My hands were at its throat\nbefore the fangs had a chance to bury themselves in my neck, and slowly\nI forced the hairy face from me and closed my fingers, vise-like, upon\nits windpipe.\n\nWithout sound we lay there, the beast exerting every effort to reach me\nwith those awful fangs, and I straining to maintain my grip and choke\nthe life from it as I kept it from my throat.  Slowly my arms gave to\nthe unequal struggle, and inch by inch the burning eyes and gleaming\ntusks of my antagonist crept toward me, until, as the hairy face\ntouched mine again, I realized that all was over.  And then a living\nmass of destruction sprang from the surrounding darkness full upon the\ncreature that held me pinioned to the ground.  The two rolled growling\nupon the moss, tearing and rending one another in a frightful manner,\nbut it was soon over and my preserver stood with lowered head above the\nthroat of the dead thing which would have killed me.\n\nThe nearer moon, hurtling suddenly above the horizon and lighting up\nthe Barsoomian scene, showed me that my preserver was Woola, but from\nwhence he had come, or how found me, I was at a loss to know.  That I\nwas glad of his companionship it is needless to say, but my pleasure at\nseeing him was tempered by anxiety as to the reason of his leaving\nDejah Thoris.  Only her death I felt sure, could account for his\nabsence from her, so faithful I knew him to be to my commands.\n\nBy the light of the now brilliant moons I saw that he was but a shadow\nof his former self, and as he turned from my caress and commenced\ngreedily to devour the dead carcass at my feet I realized that the poor\nfellow was more than half starved.  I, myself, was in but little better\nplight but I could not bring myself to eat the uncooked flesh and I had\nno means of making a fire.  When Woola had finished his meal I again\ntook up my weary and seemingly endless wandering in quest of the\nelusive waterway.\n\nAt daybreak of the fifteenth day of my search I was overjoyed to see\nthe high trees that denoted the object of my search.  About noon I\ndragged myself wearily to the portals of a huge building which covered\nperhaps four square miles and towered two hundred feet in the air.  It\nshowed no aperture in the mighty walls other than the tiny door at\nwhich I sank exhausted, nor was there any sign of life about it.\n\nI could find no bell or other method of making my presence known to the\ninmates of the place, unless a small round hole in the wall near the\ndoor was for that purpose.  It was of about the bigness of a lead\npencil and thinking that it might be in the nature of a speaking tube I\nput my mouth to it and was about to call into it when a voice issued\nfrom it asking me whom I might be, where from, and the nature of my\nerrand.\n\nI explained that I had escaped from the Warhoons and was dying of\nstarvation and exhaustion.\n\n\"You wear the metal of a green warrior and are followed by a calot, yet\nyou are of the figure of a red man.  In color you are neither green nor\nred.  In the name of the ninth ray, what manner of creature are you?\"\n\n\"I am a friend of the red men of Barsoom and I am starving.  In the\nname of humanity open to us,\" I replied.\n\nPresently the door commenced to recede before me until it had sunk into\nthe wall fifty feet, then it stopped and slid easily to the left,\nexposing a short, narrow corridor of concrete, at the further end of\nwhich was another door, similar in every respect to the one I had just\npassed.  No one was in sight, yet immediately we passed the first door\nit slid gently into place behind us and receded rapidly to its original\nposition in the front wall of the building.  As the door had slipped\naside I had noted its great thickness, fully twenty feet, and as it\nreached its place once more after closing behind us, great cylinders of\nsteel had dropped from the ceiling behind it and fitted their lower\nends into apertures countersunk in the floor.\n\nA second and third door receded before me and slipped to one side as\nthe first, before I reached a large inner chamber where I found food\nand drink set out upon a great stone table.  A voice directed me to\nsatisfy my hunger and to feed my calot, and while I was thus engaged my\ninvisible host put me through a severe and searching cross-examination.\n\n\"Your statements are most remarkable,\" said the voice, on concluding\nits questioning, \"but you are evidently speaking the truth, and it is\nequally evident that you are not of Barsoom.  I can tell that by the\nconformation of your brain and the strange location of your internal\norgans and the shape and size of your heart.\"\n\n\"Can you see through me?\" I exclaimed.\n\n\"Yes, I can see all but your thoughts, and were you a Barsoomian I\ncould read those.\"\n\nThen a door opened at the far side of the chamber and a strange, dried\nup, little mummy of a man came toward me.  He wore but a single article\nof clothing or adornment, a small collar of gold from which depended\nupon his chest a great ornament as large as a dinner plate set solid\nwith huge diamonds, except for the exact center which was occupied by a\nstrange stone, an inch in diameter, that scintillated nine different\nand distinct rays; the seven colors of our earthly prism and two\nbeautiful rays which, to me, were new and nameless.  I cannot describe\nthem any more than you could describe red to a blind man.  I only know\nthat they were beautiful in the extreme.\n\nThe old man sat and talked with me for hours, and the strangest part of\nour intercourse was that I could read his every thought while he could\nnot fathom an iota from my mind unless I spoke.\n\n[Illustration: The old man sat and talked with me for hours.]\n\nI did not apprise him of my ability to sense his mental operations, and\nthus I learned a great deal which proved of immense value to me later\nand which I would never have known had he suspected my strange power,\nfor the Martians have such perfect control of their mental machinery\nthat they are able to direct their thoughts with absolute precision.\n\nThe building in which I found myself contained the machinery which\nproduces that artificial atmosphere which sustains life on Mars.  The\nsecret of the entire process hinges on the use of the ninth ray, one of\nthe beautiful scintillations which I had noted emanating from the great\nstone in my host's diadem.\n\nThis ray is separated from the other rays of the sun by means of finely\nadjusted instruments placed upon the roof of the huge building,\nthree-quarters of which is used for reservoirs in which the ninth ray\nis stored.  This product is then treated electrically, or rather\ncertain proportions of refined electric vibrations are incorporated\nwith it, and the result is then pumped to the five principal air\ncenters of the planet where, as it is released, contact with the ether\nof space transforms it into atmosphere.\n\nThere is always sufficient reserve of the ninth ray stored in the great\nbuilding to maintain the present Martian atmosphere for a thousand\nyears, and the only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some\naccident might befall the pumping apparatus.\n\nHe led me to an inner chamber where I beheld a battery of twenty radium\npumps any one of which was equal to the task of furnishing all Mars\nwith the atmosphere compound.  For eight hundred years, he told me, he\nhad watched these pumps which are used alternately a day each at a\nstretch, or a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth hours.  He has\none assistant who divides the watch with him.  Half a Martian year,\nabout three hundred and forty-four of our days, each of these men spend\nalone in this huge, isolated plant.\n\nEvery red Martian is taught during earliest childhood the principles of\nthe manufacture of atmosphere, but only two at one time ever hold the\nsecret of ingress to the great building, which, built as it is with\nwalls a hundred and fifty feet thick, is absolutely unassailable, even\nthe roof being guarded from assault by air craft by a glass covering\nfive feet thick.\n\nThe only fear they entertain of attack is from the green Martians or\nsome demented red man, as all Barsoomians realize that the very\nexistence of every form of life of Mars is dependent upon the\nuninterrupted working of this plant.\n\nOne curious fact I discovered as I watched his thoughts was that the\nouter doors are manipulated by telepathic means.  The locks are so\nfinely adjusted that the doors are released by the action of a certain\ncombination of thought waves.  To experiment with my new-found toy I\nthought to surprise him into revealing this combination and so I asked\nhim in a casual manner how he had managed to unlock the massive doors\nfor me from the inner chambers of the building.  As quick as a flash\nthere leaped to his mind nine Martian sounds, but as quickly faded as\nhe answered that this was a secret he must not divulge.\n\nFrom then on his manner toward me changed as though he feared that he\nhad been surprised into divulging his great secret, and I read\nsuspicion and fear in his looks and thoughts, though his words were\nstill fair.\n\nBefore I retired for the night he promised to give me a letter to a\nnearby agricultural officer who would help me on my way to Zodanga,\nwhich he said, was the nearest Martian city.\n\n\"But be sure that you do not let them know you are bound for Helium as\nthey are at war with that country.  My assistant and I are of no\ncountry, we belong to all Barsoom and this talisman which we wear\nprotects us in all lands, even among the green men--though we do not\ntrust ourselves to their hands if we can avoid it,\" he added.\n\n\"And so good-night, my friend,\" he continued, \"may you have a long and\nrestful sleep--yes, a long sleep.\"\n\nAnd though he smiled pleasantly I saw in his thoughts the wish that he\nhad never admitted me, and then a picture of him standing over me in\nthe night, and the swift thrust of a long dagger and the half formed\nwords, \"I am sorry, but it is for the best good of Barsoom.\"\n\nAs he closed the door of my chamber behind him his thoughts were cut\noff from me as was the sight of him, which seemed strange to me in my\nlittle knowledge of thought transference.\n\nWhat was I to do?  How could I escape through these mighty walls?\nEasily could I kill him now that I was warned, but once he was dead I\ncould no more escape, and with the stopping of the machinery of the\ngreat plant I should die with all the other inhabitants of the\nplanet--all, even Dejah Thoris were she not already dead.  For the\nothers I did not give the snap of my finger, but the thought of Dejah\nThoris drove from my mind all desire to kill my mistaken host.\n\nCautiously I opened the door of my apartment and, followed by Woola,\nsought the inner of the great doors.  A wild scheme had come to me; I\nwould attempt to force the great locks by the nine thought waves I had\nread in my host's mind.\n\nCreeping stealthily through corridor after corridor and down winding\nrunways which turned hither and thither I finally reached the great\nhall in which I had broken my long fast that morning.  Nowhere had I\nseen my host, nor did I know where he kept himself by night.\n\nI was on the point of stepping boldly out into the room when a slight\nnoise behind me warned me back into the shadows of a recess in the\ncorridor.  Dragging Woola after me I crouched low in the darkness.\n\nPresently the old man passed close by me, and as he entered the dimly\nlighted chamber which I had been about to pass through I saw that he\nheld a long thin dagger in his hand and that he was sharpening it upon\na stone.  In his mind was the decision to inspect the radium pumps,\nwhich would take about thirty minutes, and then return to my bed\nchamber and finish me.\n\nAs he passed through the great hall and disappeared down the runway\nwhich led to the pump-room, I stole stealthily from my hiding place and\ncrossed to the great door, the inner of the three which stood between\nme and liberty.\n\nConcentrating my mind upon the massive lock I hurled the nine thought\nwaves against it.  In breathless expectancy I waited, when finally the\ngreat door moved softly toward me and slid quietly to one side.  One\nafter the other the remaining mighty portals opened at my command and\nWoola and I stepped forth into the darkness, free, but little better\noff than we had been before, other than that we had full stomachs.\n\nHastening away from the shadows of the formidable pile I made for the\nfirst crossroad, intending to strike the central turnpike as quickly as\npossible.  This I reached about morning and entering the first\nenclosure I came to I searched for some evidences of a habitation.\n\nThere were low rambling buildings of concrete barred with heavy\nimpassable doors, and no amount of hammering and hallooing brought any\nresponse.  Weary and exhausted from sleeplessness I threw myself upon\nthe ground commanding Woola to stand guard.\n\nSome time later I was awakened by his frightful growlings and opened my\neyes to see three red Martians standing a short distance from us and\ncovering me with their rifles.\n\n\"I am unarmed and no enemy,\" I hastened to explain.  \"I have been a\nprisoner among the green men and am on my way to Zodanga.  All I ask is\nfood and rest for myself and my calot and the proper directions for\nreaching my destination.\"\n\nThey lowered their rifles and advanced pleasantly toward me placing\ntheir right hands upon my left shoulder, after the manner of their\ncustom of salute, and asking me many questions about myself and my\nwanderings.  They then took me to the house of one of them which was\nonly a short distance away.\n\nThe buildings I had been hammering at in the early morning were\noccupied only by stock and farm produce, the house proper standing\namong a grove of enormous trees, and, like all red-Martian homes, had\nbeen raised at night some forty or fifty feet from the ground on a\nlarge round metal shaft which slid up or down within a sleeve sunk in\nthe ground, and was operated by a tiny radium engine in the entrance\nhall of the building.  Instead of bothering with bolts and bars for\ntheir dwellings, the red Martians simply run them up out of harm's way\nduring the night.  They also have private means for lowering or raising\nthem from the ground without if they wish to go away and leave them.\n\nThese brothers, with their wives and children, occupied three similar\nhouses on this farm.  They did no work themselves, being government\nofficers in charge.  The labor was performed by convicts, prisoners of\nwar, delinquent debtors and confirmed bachelors who were too poor to\npay the high celibate tax which all red-Martian governments impose.\n\nThey were the personification of cordiality and hospitality and I spent\nseveral days with them, resting and recuperating from my long and\narduous experiences.\n\nWhen they had heard my story--I omitted all reference to Dejah Thoris\nand the old man of the atmosphere plant--they advised me to color my\nbody to more nearly resemble their own race and then attempt to find\nemployment in Zodanga, either in the army or the navy.\n\n\"The chances are small that your tale will be believed until after you\nhave proven your trustworthiness and won friends among the higher\nnobles of the court.  This you can most easily do through military\nservice, as we are a warlike people on Barsoom,\" explained one of them,\n\"and save our richest favors for the fighting man.\"\n\nWhen I was ready to depart they furnished me with a small domestic bull\nthoat, such as is used for saddle purposes by all red Martians.  The\nanimal is about the size of a horse and quite gentle, but in color and\nshape an exact replica of his huge and fierce cousin of the wilds.\n\nThe brothers had supplied me with a reddish oil with which I anointed\nmy entire body and one of them cut my hair, which had grown quite long,\nin the prevailing fashion of the time, square at the back and banged in\nfront, so that I could have passed anywhere upon Barsoom as a\nfull-fledged red Martian.  My metal and ornaments were also renewed in\nthe style of a Zodangan gentleman, attached to the house of Ptor, which\nwas the family name of my benefactors.\n\nThey filled a little sack at my side with Zodangan money.  The medium\nof exchange upon Mars is not dissimilar from our own except that the\ncoins are oval.  Paper money is issued by individuals as they require\nit and redeemed twice yearly.  If a man issues more than he can redeem,\nthe government pays his creditors in full and the debtor works out the\namount upon the farms or in mines, which are all owned by the\ngovernment.  This suits everybody except the debtor as it has been a\ndifficult thing to obtain sufficient voluntary labor to work the great\nisolated farm lands of Mars, stretching as they do like narrow ribbons\nfrom pole to pole, through wild stretches peopled by wild animals and\nwilder men.\n\nWhen I mentioned my inability to repay them for their kindness to me\nthey assured me that I would have ample opportunity if I lived long\nupon Barsoom, and bidding me farewell they watched me until I was out\nof sight upon the broad white turnpike.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI\n\nAN AIR SCOUT FOR ZODANGA\n\n\nAs I proceeded on my journey toward Zodanga many strange and\ninteresting sights arrested my attention, and at the several farm\nhouses where I stopped I learned a number of new and instructive things\nconcerning the methods and manners of Barsoom.\n\nThe water which supplies the farms of Mars is collected in immense\nunderground reservoirs at either pole from the melting ice caps, and\npumped through long conduits to the various populated centers.  Along\neither side of these conduits, and extending their entire length, lie\nthe cultivated districts.  These are divided into tracts of about the\nsame size, each tract being under the supervision of one or more\ngovernment officers.\n\nInstead of flooding the surface of the fields, and thus wasting immense\nquantities of water by evaporation, the precious liquid is carried\nunderground through a vast network of small pipes directly to the roots\nof the vegetation.  The crops upon Mars are always uniform, for there\nare no droughts, no rains, no high winds, and no insects, or destroying\nbirds.\n\nOn this trip I tasted the first meat I had eaten since leaving\nEarth--large, juicy steaks and chops from the well-fed domestic animals\nof the farms.  Also I enjoyed luscious fruits and vegetables, but not a\nsingle article of food which was exactly similar to anything on Earth.\nEvery plant and flower and vegetable and animal has been so refined by\nages of careful, scientific cultivation and breeding that the like of\nthem on Earth dwindled into pale, gray, characterless nothingness by\ncomparison.\n\nAt a second stop I met some highly cultivated people of the noble class\nand while in conversation we chanced to speak of Helium.  One of the\nolder men had been there on a diplomatic mission several years before\nand spoke with regret of the conditions which seemed destined ever to\nkeep these two countries at war.\n\n\"Helium,\" he said, \"rightly boasts the most beautiful women of Barsoom,\nand of all her treasures the wondrous daughter of Mors Kajak, Dejah\nThoris, is the most exquisite flower.\n\n\"Why,\" he added, \"the people really worship the ground she walks upon\nand since her loss on that ill-starred expedition all Helium has been\ndraped in mourning.\n\n\"That our ruler should have attacked the disabled fleet as it was\nreturning to Helium was but another of his awful blunders which I fear\nwill sooner or later compel Zodanga to elevate a wiser man to his\nplace.\"\n\n\"Even now, though our victorious armies are surrounding Helium, the\npeople of Zodanga are voicing their displeasure, for the war is not a\npopular one, since it is not based on right or justice.  Our forces\ntook advantage of the absence of the principal fleet of Helium on their\nsearch for the princess, and so we have been able easily to reduce the\ncity to a sorry plight.  It is said she will fall within the next few\npassages of the further moon.\"\n\n\"And what, think you, may have been the fate of the princess, Dejah\nThoris?\" I asked as casually as possible.\n\n\"She is dead,\" he answered.  \"This much was learned from a green\nwarrior recently captured by our forces in the south.  She escaped from\nthe hordes of Thark with a strange creature of another world, only to\nfall into the hands of the Warhoons.  Their thoats were found wandering\nupon the sea bottom and evidences of a bloody conflict were discovered\nnearby.\"\n\nWhile this information was in no way reassuring, neither was it at all\nconclusive proof of the death of Dejah Thoris, and so I determined to\nmake every effort possible to reach Helium as quickly as I could and\ncarry to Tardos Mors such news of his granddaughter's possible\nwhereabouts as lay in my power.\n\nTen days after leaving the three Ptor brothers I arrived at Zodanga.\nFrom the moment that I had come in contact with the red inhabitants of\nMars I had noticed that Woola drew a great amount of unwelcome\nattention to me, since the huge brute belonged to a species which is\nnever domesticated by the red men.  Were one to stroll down Broadway\nwith a Numidian lion at his heels the effect would be somewhat similar\nto that which I should have produced had I entered Zodanga with Woola.\n\nThe very thought of parting with the faithful fellow caused me so great\nregret and genuine sorrow that I put it off until just before we\narrived at the city's gates; but then, finally, it became imperative\nthat we separate.  Had nothing further than my own safety or pleasure\nbeen at stake no argument could have prevailed upon me to turn away the\none creature upon Barsoom that had never failed in a demonstration of\naffection and loyalty; but as I would willingly have offered my life in\nthe service of her in search of whom I was about to challenge the\nunknown dangers of this, to me, mysterious city, I could not permit\neven Woola's life to threaten the success of my venture, much less his\nmomentary happiness, for I doubted not he soon would forget me.  And so\nI bade the poor beast an affectionate farewell, promising him, however,\nthat if I came through my adventure in safety that in some way I should\nfind the means to search him out.\n\nHe seemed to understand me fully, and when I pointed back in the\ndirection of Thark he turned sorrowfully away, nor could I bear to\nwatch him go; but resolutely set my face toward Zodanga and with a\ntouch of heartsickness approached her frowning walls.\n\nThe letter I bore from them gained me immediate entrance to the vast,\nwalled city.  It was still very early in the morning and the streets\nwere practically deserted.  The residences, raised high upon their\nmetal columns, resembled huge rookeries, while the uprights themselves\npresented the appearance of steel tree trunks.  The shops as a rule\nwere not raised from the ground nor were their doors bolted or barred,\nsince thievery is practically unknown upon Barsoom.  Assassination is\nthe ever-present fear of all Barsoomians, and for this reason alone\ntheir homes are raised high above the ground at night, or in times of\ndanger.\n\nThe Ptor brothers had given me explicit directions for reaching the\npoint of the city where I could find living accommodations and be near\nthe offices of the government agents to whom they had given me letters.\nMy way led to the central square or plaza, which is a characteristic of\nall Martian cities.\n\nThe plaza of Zodanga covers a square mile and is bounded by the palaces\nof the jeddak, the jeds, and other members of the royalty and nobility\nof Zodanga, as well as by the principal public buildings, cafes, and\nshops.\n\nAs I was crossing the great square lost in wonder and admiration of the\nmagnificent architecture and the gorgeous scarlet vegetation which\ncarpeted the broad lawns I discovered a red Martian walking briskly\ntoward me from one of the avenues.  He paid not the slightest attention\nto me, but as he came abreast I recognized him, and turning I placed my\nhand upon his shoulder, calling out:\n\n\"Kaor, Kantos Kan!\"\n\nLike lightning he wheeled and before I could so much as lower my hand\nthe point of his long-sword was at my breast.\n\n\"Who are you?\" he growled, and then as a backward leap carried me fifty\nfeet from his sword he dropped the point to the ground and exclaimed,\nlaughing,\n\n\"I do not need a better reply, there is but one man upon all Barsoom\nwho can bounce about like a rubber ball.  By the mother of the further\nmoon, John Carter, how came you here, and have you become a Darseen\nthat you can change your color at will?\"\n\n\"You gave me a bad half minute my friend,\" he continued, after I had\nbriefly outlined my adventures since parting with him in the arena at\nWarhoon.  \"Were my name and city known to the Zodangans I would shortly\nbe sitting on the banks of the lost sea of Korus with my revered and\ndeparted ancestors.  I am here in the interest of Tardos Mors, Jeddak\nof Helium, to discover the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris, our princess.\nSab Than, prince of Zodanga, has her hidden in the city and has fallen\nmadly in love with her.  His father, Than Kosis, Jeddak of Zodanga, has\nmade her voluntary marriage to his son the price of peace between our\ncountries, but Tardos Mors will not accede to the demands and has sent\nword that he and his people would rather look upon the dead face of\ntheir princess than see her wed to any than her own choice, and that\npersonally he would prefer being engulfed in the ashes of a lost and\nburning Helium to joining the metal of his house with that of Than\nKosis.  His reply was the deadliest affront he could have put upon Than\nKosis and the Zodangans, but his people love him the more for it and\nhis strength in Helium is greater today than ever.\n\n\"I have been here three days,\" continued Kantos Kan, \"but I have not\nyet found where Dejah Thoris is imprisoned.  Today I join the Zodangan\nnavy as an air scout and I hope in this way to win the confidence of\nSab Than, the prince, who is commander of this division of the navy,\nand thus learn the whereabouts of Dejah Thoris.  I am glad that you are\nhere, John Carter, for I know your loyalty to my princess and two of us\nworking together should be able to accomplish much.\"\n\nThe plaza was now commencing to fill with people going and coming upon\nthe daily activities of their duties.  The shops were opening and the\ncafes filling with early morning patrons.  Kantos Kan led me to one of\nthese gorgeous eating places where we were served entirely by\nmechanical apparatus.  No hand touched the food from the time it\nentered the building in its raw state until it emerged hot and\ndelicious upon the tables before the guests, in response to the\ntouching of tiny buttons to indicate their desires.\n\nAfter our meal, Kantos Kan took me with him to the headquarters of the\nair-scout squadron and introducing me to his superior asked that I be\nenrolled as a member of the corps.  In accordance with custom an\nexamination was necessary, but Kantos Kan had told me to have no fear\non this score as he would attend to that part of the matter.  He\naccomplished this by taking my order for examination to the examining\nofficer and representing himself as John Carter.\n\n\"This ruse will be discovered later,\" he cheerfully explained, \"when\nthey check up my weights, measurements, and other personal\nidentification data, but it will be several months before this is done\nand our mission should be accomplished or have failed long before that\ntime.\"\n\nThe next few days were spent by Kantos Kan in teaching me the\nintricacies of flying and of repairing the dainty little contrivances\nwhich the Martians use for this purpose.  The body of the one-man air\ncraft is about sixteen feet long, two feet wide and three inches thick,\ntapering to a point at each end.  The driver sits on top of this plane\nupon a seat constructed over the small, noiseless radium engine which\npropels it.  The medium of buoyancy is contained within the thin metal\nwalls of the body and consists of the eighth Barsoomian ray, or ray of\npropulsion, as it may be termed in view of its properties.\n\nThis ray, like the ninth ray, is unknown on Earth, but the Martians\nhave discovered that it is an inherent property of all light no matter\nfrom what source it emanates.  They have learned that it is the solar\neighth ray which propels the light of the sun to the various planets,\nand that it is the individual eighth ray of each planet which\n\"reflects,\" or propels the light thus obtained out into space once\nmore.  The solar eighth ray would be absorbed by the surface of\nBarsoom, but the Barsoomian eighth ray, which tends to propel light\nfrom Mars into space, is constantly streaming out from the planet\nconstituting a force of repulsion of gravity which when confined is\nable to lift enormous weights from the surface of the ground.\n\nIt is this ray which has enabled them to so perfect aviation that\nbattle ships far outweighing anything known upon Earth sail as\ngracefully and lightly through the thin air of Barsoom as a toy balloon\nin the heavy atmosphere of Earth.\n\nDuring the early years of the discovery of this ray many strange\naccidents occurred before the Martians learned to measure and control\nthe wonderful power they had found.  In one instance, some nine hundred\nyears before, the first great battle ship to be built with eighth ray\nreservoirs was stored with too great a quantity of the rays and she had\nsailed up from Helium with five hundred officers and men, never to\nreturn.\n\nHer power of repulsion for the planet was so great that it had carried\nher far into space, where she can be seen today, by the aid of powerful\ntelescopes, hurtling through the heavens ten thousand miles from Mars;\na tiny satellite that will thus encircle Barsoom to the end of time.\n\nThe fourth day after my arrival at Zodanga I made my first flight, and\nas a result of it I won a promotion which included quarters in the\npalace of Than Kosis.\n\nAs I rose above the city I circled several times, as I had seen Kantos\nKan do, and then throwing my engine into top speed I raced at terrific\nvelocity toward the south, following one of the great waterways which\nenter Zodanga from that direction.\n\nI had traversed perhaps two hundred miles in a little less than an hour\nwhen I descried far below me a party of three green warriors racing\nmadly toward a small figure on foot which seemed to be trying to reach\nthe confines of one of the walled fields.\n\nDropping my machine rapidly toward them, and circling to the rear of\nthe warriors, I soon saw that the object of their pursuit was a red\nMartian wearing the metal of the scout squadron to which I was\nattached.  A short distance away lay his tiny flier, surrounded by the\ntools with which he had evidently been occupied in repairing some\ndamage when surprised by the green warriors.\n\nThey were now almost upon him; their flying mounts charging down on the\nrelatively puny figure at terrific speed, while the warriors leaned low\nto the right, with their great metal-shod spears.  Each seemed striving\nto be the first to impale the poor Zodangan and in another moment his\nfate would have been sealed had it not been for my timely arrival.\n\nDriving my fleet air craft at high speed directly behind the warriors I\nsoon overtook them and without diminishing my speed I rammed the prow\nof my little flier between the shoulders of the nearest.  The impact\nsufficient to have torn through inches of solid steel, hurled the\nfellow's headless body into the air over the head of his thoat, where\nit fell sprawling upon the moss.  The mounts of the other two warriors\nturned squealing in terror, and bolted in opposite directions.\n\nReducing my speed I circled and came to the ground at the feet of the\nastonished Zodangan.  He was warm in his thanks for my timely aid and\npromised that my day's work would bring the reward it merited, for it\nwas none other than a cousin of the jeddak of Zodanga whose life I had\nsaved.\n\nWe wasted no time in talk as we knew that the warriors would surely\nreturn as soon as they had gained control of their mounts.  Hastening\nto his damaged machine we were bending every effort to finish the\nneeded repairs and had almost completed them when we saw the two green\nmonsters returning at top speed from opposite sides of us.  When they\nhad approached within a hundred yards their thoats again became\nunmanageable and absolutely refused to advance further toward the air\ncraft which had frightened them.\n\nThe warriors finally dismounted and hobbling their animals advanced\ntoward us on foot with drawn long-swords.\n\nI advanced to meet the larger, telling the Zodangan to do the best he\ncould with the other.  Finishing my man with almost no effort, as had\nnow from much practice become habitual with me, I hastened to return to\nmy new acquaintance whom I found indeed in desperate straits.\n\nHe was wounded and down with the huge foot of his antagonist upon his\nthroat and the great long-sword raised to deal the final thrust.  With\na bound I cleared the fifty feet intervening between us, and with\noutstretched point drove my sword completely through the body of the\ngreen warrior.  His sword fell, harmless, to the ground and he sank\nlimply upon the prostrate form of the Zodangan.\n\nA cursory examination of the latter revealed no mortal injuries and\nafter a brief rest he asserted that he felt fit to attempt the return\nvoyage.  He would have to pilot his own craft, however, as these frail\nvessels are not intended to convey but a single person.\n\nQuickly completing the repairs we rose together into the still,\ncloudless Martian sky, and at great speed and without further mishap\nreturned to Zodanga.\n\nAs we neared the city we discovered a mighty concourse of civilians and\ntroops assembled upon the plain before the city.  The sky was black\nwith naval vessels and private and public pleasure craft, flying long\nstreamers of gay-colored silks, and banners and flags of odd and\npicturesque design.\n\nMy companion signaled that I slow down, and running his machine close\nbeside mine suggested that we approach and watch the ceremony, which,\nhe said, was for the purpose of conferring honors on individual\nofficers and men for bravery and other distinguished service.  He then\nunfurled a little ensign which denoted that his craft bore a member of\nthe royal family of Zodanga, and together we made our way through the\nmaze of low-lying air vessels until we hung directly over the jeddak of\nZodanga and his staff.  All were mounted upon the small domestic bull\nthoats of the red Martians, and their trappings and ornamentation bore\nsuch a quantity of gorgeously colored feathers that I could not but be\nstruck with the startling resemblance the concourse bore to a band of\nthe red Indians of my own Earth.\n\nOne of the staff called the attention of Than Kosis to the presence of\nmy companion above them and the ruler motioned for him to descend.  As\nthey waited for the troops to move into position facing the jeddak the\ntwo talked earnestly together, the jeddak and his staff occasionally\nglancing up at me.  I could not hear their conversation and presently\nit ceased and all dismounted, as the last body of troops had wheeled\ninto position before their emperor.  A member of the staff advanced\ntoward the troops, and calling the name of a soldier commanded him to\nadvance.  The officer then recited the nature of the heroic act which\nhad won the approval of the jeddak, and the latter advanced and placed\na metal ornament upon the left arm of the lucky man.\n\nTen men had been so decorated when the aide called out,\n\n\"John Carter, air scout!\"\n\nNever in my life had I been so surprised, but the habit of military\ndiscipline is strong within me, and I dropped my little machine lightly\nto the ground and advanced on foot as I had seen the others do.  As I\nhalted before the officer, he addressed me in a voice audible to the\nentire assemblage of troops and spectators.\n\n\"In recognition, John Carter,\" he said, \"of your remarkable courage and\nskill in defending the person of the cousin of the jeddak Than Kosis\nand, singlehanded, vanquishing three green warriors, it is the pleasure\nof our jeddak to confer on you the mark of his esteem.\"\n\nThan Kosis then advanced toward me and placing an ornament upon me,\nsaid:\n\n\"My cousin has narrated the details of your wonderful achievement,\nwhich seems little short of miraculous, and if you can so well defend a\ncousin of the jeddak how much better could you defend the person of the\njeddak himself.  You are therefore appointed a padwar of The Guards and\nwill be quartered in my palace hereafter.\"\n\nI thanked him, and at his direction joined the members of his staff.\nAfter the ceremony I returned my machine to its quarters on the roof of\nthe barracks of the air-scout squadron, and with an orderly from the\npalace to guide me I reported to the officer in charge of the palace.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII\n\nI FIND DEJAH\n\n\nThe major-domo to whom I reported had been given instructions to\nstation me near the person of the jeddak, who, in time of war, is\nalways in great danger of assassination, as the rule that all is fair\nin war seems to constitute the entire ethics of Martian conflict.\n\nHe therefore escorted me immediately to the apartment in which Than\nKosis then was.  The ruler was engaged in conversation with his son,\nSab Than, and several courtiers of his household, and did not perceive\nmy entrance.\n\nThe walls of the apartment were completely hung with splendid\ntapestries which hid any windows or doors which may have pierced them.\nThe room was lighted by imprisoned rays of sunshine held between the\nceiling proper and what appeared to be a ground-glass false ceiling a\nfew inches below.\n\nMy guide drew aside one of the tapestries, disclosing a passage which\nencircled the room, between the hangings and the walls of the chamber.\nWithin this passage I was to remain, he said, so long as Than Kosis was\nin the apartment.  When he left I was to follow.  My only duty was to\nguard the ruler and keep out of sight as much as possible.  I would be\nrelieved after a period of four hours.  The major-domo then left me.\n\nThe tapestries were of a strange weaving which gave the appearance of\nheavy solidity from one side, but from my hiding place I could perceive\nall that took place within the room as readily as though there had been\nno curtain intervening.\n\nScarcely had I gained my post than the tapestry at the opposite end of\nthe chamber separated and four soldiers of The Guard entered,\nsurrounding a female figure.  As they approached Than Kosis the\nsoldiers fell to either side and there standing before the jeddak and\nnot ten feet from me, her beautiful face radiant with smiles, was Dejah\nThoris.\n\nSab Than, Prince of Zodanga, advanced to meet her, and hand in hand\nthey approached close to the jeddak.  Than Kosis looked up in surprise,\nand, rising, saluted her.\n\n\"To what strange freak do I owe this visit from the Princess of Helium,\nwho, two days ago, with rare consideration for my pride, assured me\nthat she would prefer Tal Hajus, the green Thark, to my son?\"\n\nDejah Thoris only smiled the more and with the roguish dimples playing\nat the corners of her mouth she made answer:\n\n\"From the beginning of time upon Barsoom it has been the prerogative of\nwoman to change her mind as she listed and to dissemble in matters\nconcerning her heart.  That you will forgive, Than Kosis, as has your\nson.  Two days ago I was not sure of his love for me, but now I am, and\nI have come to beg of you to forget my rash words and to accept the\nassurance of the Princess of Helium that when the time comes she will\nwed Sab Than, Prince of Zodanga.\"\n\n\"I am glad that you have so decided,\" replied Than Kosis.  \"It is far\nfrom my desire to push war further against the people of Helium, and,\nyour promise shall be recorded and a proclamation to my people issued\nforthwith.\"\n\n\"It were better, Than Kosis,\" interrupted Dejah Thoris, \"that the\nproclamation wait the ending of this war.  It would look strange indeed\nto my people and to yours were the Princess of Helium to give herself\nto her country's enemy in the midst of hostilities.\"\n\n\"Cannot the war be ended at once?\" spoke Sab Than.  \"It requires but\nthe word of Than Kosis to bring peace.  Say it, my father, say the word\nthat will hasten my happiness, and end this unpopular strife.\"\n\n\"We shall see,\" replied Than Kosis, \"how the people of Helium take to\npeace.  I shall at least offer it to them.\"\n\nDejah Thoris, after a few words, turned and left the apartment, still\nfollowed by her guards.\n\nThus was the edifice of my brief dream of happiness dashed, broken, to\nthe ground of reality.  The woman for whom I had offered my life, and\nfrom whose lips I had so recently heard a declaration of love for me,\nhad lightly forgotten my very existence and smilingly given herself to\nthe son of her people's most hated enemy.\n\nAlthough I had heard it with my own ears I could not believe it.  I\nmust search out her apartments and force her to repeat the cruel truth\nto me alone before I would be convinced, and so I deserted my post and\nhastened through the passage behind the tapestries toward the door by\nwhich she had left the chamber.  Slipping quietly through this opening\nI discovered a maze of winding corridors, branching and turning in\nevery direction.\n\nRunning rapidly down first one and then another of them I soon became\nhopelessly lost and was standing panting against a side wall when I\nheard voices near me.  Apparently they were coming from the opposite\nside of the partition against which I leaned and presently I made out\nthe tones of Dejah Thoris.  I could not hear the words but I knew that\nI could not possibly be mistaken in the voice.\n\nMoving on a few steps I discovered another passageway at the end of\nwhich lay a door.  Walking boldly forward I pushed into the room only\nto find myself in a small antechamber in which were the four guards who\nhad accompanied her.  One of them instantly arose and accosted me,\nasking the nature of my business.\n\n\"I am from Than Kosis,\" I replied, \"and wish to speak privately with\nDejah Thoris, Princess of Helium.\"\n\n\"And your order?\" asked the fellow.\n\nI did not know what he meant, but replied that I was a member of The\nGuard, and without waiting for a reply from him I strode toward the\nopposite door of the antechamber, behind which I could hear Dejah\nThoris conversing.\n\nBut my entrance was not to be so easily accomplished.  The guardsman\nstepped before me, saying,\n\n\"No one comes from Than Kosis without carrying an order or the\npassword.  You must give me one or the other before you may pass.\"\n\n\"The only order I require, my friend, to enter where I will, hangs at\nmy side,\" I answered, tapping my long-sword; \"will you let me pass in\npeace or no?\"\n\nFor reply he whipped out his own sword, calling to the others to join\nhim, and thus the four stood, with drawn weapons, barring my further\nprogress.\n\n\"You are not here by the order of Than Kosis,\" cried the one who had\nfirst addressed me, \"and not only shall you not enter the apartments of\nthe Princess of Helium but you shall go back to Than Kosis under guard\nto explain this unwarranted temerity.  Throw down your sword; you\ncannot hope to overcome four of us,\" he added with a grim smile.\n\nMy reply was a quick thrust which left me but three antagonists and I\ncan assure you that they were worthy of my metal.  They had me backed\nagainst the wall in no time, fighting for my life.  Slowly I worked my\nway to a corner of the room where I could force them to come at me only\none at a time, and thus we fought upward of twenty minutes; the\nclanging of steel on steel producing a veritable bedlam in the little\nroom.\n\nThe noise had brought Dejah Thoris to the door of her apartment, and\nthere she stood throughout the conflict with Sola at her back peering\nover her shoulder.  Her face was set and emotionless and I knew that\nshe did not recognize me, nor did Sola.\n\nFinally a lucky cut brought down a second guardsman and then, with only\ntwo opposing me, I changed my tactics and rushed them down after the\nfashion of my fighting that had won me many a victory.  The third fell\nwithin ten seconds after the second, and the last lay dead upon the\nbloody floor a few moments later.  They were brave men and noble\nfighters, and it grieved me that I had been forced to kill them, but I\nwould have willingly depopulated all Barsoom could I have reached the\nside of my Dejah Thoris in no other way.\n\nSheathing my bloody blade I advanced toward my Martian Princess, who\nstill stood mutely gazing at me without sign of recognition.\n\n\"Who are you, Zodangan?\" she whispered.  \"Another enemy to harass me in\nmy misery?\"\n\n\"I am a friend,\" I answered, \"a once cherished friend.\"\n\n\"No friend of Helium's princess wears that metal,\" she replied, \"and\nyet the voice!  I have heard it before; it is not--it cannot be--no,\nfor he is dead.\"\n\n\"It is, though, my Princess, none other than John Carter,\" I said.  \"Do\nyou not recognize, even through paint and strange metal, the heart of\nyour chieftain?\"\n\nAs I came close to her she swayed toward me with outstretched hands,\nbut as I reached to take her in my arms she drew back with a shudder\nand a little moan of misery.\n\n\"Too late, too late,\" she grieved.  \"O my chieftain that was, and whom\nI thought dead, had you but returned one little hour before--but now it\nis too late, too late.\"\n\n\"What do you mean, Dejah Thoris?\" I cried.  \"That you would not have\npromised yourself to the Zodangan prince had you known that I lived?\"\n\n\"Think you, John Carter, that I would give my heart to you yesterday\nand today to another?  I thought that it lay buried with your ashes in\nthe pits of Warhoon, and so today I have promised my body to another to\nsave my people from the curse of a victorious Zodangan army.\"\n\n\"But I am not dead, my princess.  I have come to claim you, and all\nZodanga cannot prevent it.\"\n\n\"It is too late, John Carter, my promise is given, and on Barsoom that\nis final.  The ceremonies which follow later are but meaningless\nformalities.  They make the fact of marriage no more certain than does\nthe funeral cortege of a jeddak again place the seal of death upon him.\nI am as good as married, John Carter.  No longer may you call me your\nprincess.  No longer are you my chieftain.\"\n\n\"I know but little of your customs here upon Barsoom, Dejah Thoris, but\nI do know that I love you, and if you meant the last words you spoke to\nme that day as the hordes of Warhoon were charging down upon us, no\nother man shall ever claim you as his bride.  You meant them then, my\nprincess, and you mean them still!  Say that it is true.\"\n\n\"I meant them, John Carter,\" she whispered.  \"I cannot repeat them now\nfor I have given myself to another.  Ah, if you had only known our\nways, my friend,\" she continued, half to herself, \"the promise would\nhave been yours long months ago, and you could have claimed me before\nall others.  It might have meant the fall of Helium, but I would have\ngiven my empire for my Tharkian chief.\"\n\nThen aloud she said: \"Do you remember the night when you offended me?\nYou called me your princess without having asked my hand of me, and\nthen you boasted that you had fought for me.  You did not know, and I\nshould not have been offended; I see that now.  But there was no one to\ntell you what I could not, that upon Barsoom there are two kinds of\nwomen in the cities of the red men.  The one they fight for that they\nmay ask them in marriage; the other kind they fight for also, but never\nask their hands.  When a man has won a woman he may address her as his\nprincess, or in any of the several terms which signify possession.  You\nhad fought for me, but had never asked me in marriage, and so when you\ncalled me your princess, you see,\" she faltered, \"I was hurt, but even\nthen, John Carter, I did not repulse you, as I should have done, until\nyou made it doubly worse by taunting me with having won me through\ncombat.\"\n\n\"I do not need ask your forgiveness now, Dejah Thoris,\" I cried.  \"You\nmust know that my fault was of ignorance of your Barsoomian customs.\nWhat I failed to do, through implicit belief that my petition would be\npresumptuous and unwelcome, I do now, Dejah Thoris; I ask you to be my\nwife, and by all the Virginian fighting blood that flows in my veins\nyou shall be.\"\n\n\"No, John Carter, it is useless,\" she cried, hopelessly, \"I may never\nbe yours while Sab Than lives.\"\n\n\"You have sealed his death warrant, my princess--Sab Than dies.\"\n\n\"Nor that either,\" she hastened to explain.  \"I may not wed the man who\nslays my husband, even in self-defense.  It is custom.  We are ruled by\ncustom upon Barsoom.  It is useless, my friend.  You must bear the\nsorrow with me.  That at least we may share in common.  That, and the\nmemory of the brief days among the Tharks.  You must go now, nor ever\nsee me again.  Good-bye, my chieftain that was.\"\n\nDisheartened and dejected, I withdrew from the room, but I was not\nentirely discouraged, nor would I admit that Dejah Thoris was lost to\nme until the ceremony had actually been performed.\n\nAs I wandered along the corridors, I was as absolutely lost in the\nmazes of winding passageways as I had been before I discovered Dejah\nThoris' apartments.\n\nI knew that my only hope lay in escape from the city of Zodanga, for\nthe matter of the four dead guardsmen would have to be explained, and\nas I could never reach my original post without a guide, suspicion\nwould surely rest on me so soon as I was discovered wandering aimlessly\nthrough the palace.\n\nPresently I came upon a spiral runway leading to a lower floor, and\nthis I followed downward for several stories until I reached the\ndoorway of a large apartment in which were a number of guardsmen.  The\nwalls of this room were hung with transparent tapestries behind which I\nsecreted myself without being apprehended.\n\nThe conversation of the guardsmen was general, and awakened no interest\nin me until an officer entered the room and ordered four of the men to\nrelieve the detail who were guarding the Princess of Helium.  Now, I\nknew, my troubles would commence in earnest and indeed they were upon\nme all too soon, for it seemed that the squad had scarcely left the\nguardroom before one of their number burst in again breathlessly,\ncrying that they had found their four comrades butchered in the\nantechamber.\n\nIn a moment the entire palace was alive with people.  Guardsmen,\nofficers, courtiers, servants, and slaves ran helter-skelter through\nthe corridors and apartments carrying messages and orders, and\nsearching for signs of the assassin.\n\nThis was my opportunity and slim as it appeared I grasped it, for as a\nnumber of soldiers came hurrying past my hiding place I fell in behind\nthem and followed through the mazes of the palace until, in passing\nthrough a great hall, I saw the blessed light of day coming in through\na series of larger windows.\n\nHere I left my guides, and, slipping to the nearest window, sought for\nan avenue of escape.  The windows opened upon a great balcony which\noverlooked one of the broad avenues of Zodanga.  The ground was about\nthirty feet below, and at a like distance from the building was a wall\nfully twenty feet high, constructed of polished glass about a foot in\nthickness.  To a red Martian escape by this path would have appeared\nimpossible, but to me, with my earthly strength and agility, it seemed\nalready accomplished.  My only fear was in being detected before\ndarkness fell, for I could not make the leap in broad daylight while\nthe court below and the avenue beyond were crowded with Zodangans.\n\nAccordingly I searched for a hiding place and finally found one by\naccident, inside a huge hanging ornament which swung from the ceiling\nof the hall, and about ten feet from the floor.  Into the capacious\nbowl-like vase I sprang with ease, and scarcely had I settled down\nwithin it than I heard a number of people enter the apartment.  The\ngroup stopped beneath my hiding place and I could plainly overhear\ntheir every word.\n\n\"It is the work of Heliumites,\" said one of the men.\n\n\"Yes, O Jeddak, but how had they access to the palace?  I could believe\nthat even with the diligent care of your guardsmen a single enemy might\nreach the inner chambers, but how a force of six or eight fighting men\ncould have done so unobserved is beyond me.  We shall soon know,\nhowever, for here comes the royal psychologist.\"\n\nAnother man now joined the group, and, after making his formal\ngreetings to his ruler, said:\n\n\"O mighty Jeddak, it is a strange tale I read in the dead minds of your\nfaithful guardsmen.  They were felled not by a number of fighting men,\nbut by a single opponent.\"\n\nHe paused to let the full weight of this announcement impress his\nhearers, and that his statement was scarcely credited was evidenced by\nthe impatient exclamation of incredulity which escaped the lips of Than\nKosis.\n\n\"What manner of weird tale are you bringing me, Notan?\" he cried.\n\n\"It is the truth, my Jeddak,\" replied the psychologist.  \"In fact the\nimpressions were strongly marked on the brain of each of the four\nguardsmen.  Their antagonist was a very tall man, wearing the metal of\none of your own guardsmen, and his fighting ability was little short of\nmarvelous for he fought fair against the entire four and vanquished\nthem by his surpassing skill and superhuman strength and endurance.\nThough he wore the metal of Zodanga, my Jeddak, such a man was never\nseen before in this or any other country upon Barsoom.\n\n\"The mind of the Princess of Helium whom I have examined and questioned\nwas a blank to me, she has perfect control, and I could not read one\niota of it.  She said that she witnessed a portion of the encounter,\nand that when she looked there was but one man engaged with the\nguardsmen; a man whom she did not recognize as ever having seen.\"\n\n\"Where is my erstwhile savior?\" spoke another of the party, and I\nrecognized the voice of the cousin of Than Kosis, whom I had rescued\nfrom the green warriors.  \"By the metal of my first ancestor,\" he went\non, \"but the description fits him to perfection, especially as to his\nfighting ability.\"\n\n\"Where is this man?\" cried Than Kosis.  \"Have him brought to me at\nonce.  What know you of him, cousin?  It seemed strange to me now that\nI think upon it that there should have been such a fighting man in\nZodanga, of whose name, even, we were ignorant before today.  And his\nname too, John Carter, who ever heard of such a name upon Barsoom!\"\n\nWord was soon brought that I was nowhere to be found, either in the\npalace or at my former quarters in the barracks of the air-scout\nsquadron.  Kantos Kan, they had found and questioned, but he knew\nnothing of my whereabouts, and as to my past, he had told them he knew\nas little, since he had but recently met me during our captivity among\nthe Warhoons.\n\n\"Keep your eyes on this other one,\" commanded Than Kosis.  \"He also is\na stranger and likely as not they both hail from Helium, and where one\nis we shall sooner or later find the other.  Quadruple the air patrol,\nand let every man who leaves the city by air or ground be subjected to\nthe closest scrutiny.\"\n\nAnother messenger now entered with word that I was still within the\npalace walls.\n\n\"The likeness of every person who has entered or left the palace\ngrounds today has been carefully examined,\" concluded the fellow, \"and\nnot one approaches the likeness of this new padwar of the guards, other\nthan that which was recorded of him at the time he entered.\"\n\n\"Then we will have him shortly,\" commented Than Kosis contentedly, \"and\nin the meanwhile we will repair to the apartments of the Princess of\nHelium and question her in regard to the affair.  She may know more\nthan she cared to divulge to you, Notan.  Come.\"\n\nThey left the hall, and, as darkness had fallen without, I slipped\nlightly from my hiding place and hastened to the balcony.  Few were in\nsight, and choosing a moment when none seemed near I sprang quickly to\nthe top of the glass wall and from there to the avenue beyond the\npalace grounds.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII\n\nLOST IN THE SKY\n\n\nWithout effort at concealment I hastened to the vicinity of our\nquarters, where I felt sure I should find Kantos Kan.  As I neared the\nbuilding I became more careful, as I judged, and rightly, that the\nplace would be guarded.  Several men in civilian metal loitered near\nthe front entrance and in the rear were others.  My only means of\nreaching, unseen, the upper story where our apartments were situated\nwas through an adjoining building, and after considerable maneuvering I\nmanaged to attain the roof of a shop several doors away.\n\nLeaping from roof to roof, I soon reached an open window in the\nbuilding where I hoped to find the Heliumite, and in another moment I\nstood in the room before him.  He was alone and showed no surprise at\nmy coming, saying he had expected me much earlier, as my tour of duty\nmust have ended some time since.\n\nI saw that he knew nothing of the events of the day at the palace, and\nwhen I had enlightened him he was all excitement.  The news that Dejah\nThoris had promised her hand to Sab Than filled him with dismay.\n\n\"It cannot be,\" he exclaimed.  \"It is impossible!  Why no man in all\nHelium but would prefer death to the selling of our loved princess to\nthe ruling house of Zodanga.  She must have lost her mind to have\nassented to such an atrocious bargain.  You, who do not know how we of\nHelium love the members of our ruling house, cannot appreciate the\nhorror with which I contemplate such an unholy alliance.\"\n\n\"What can be done, John Carter?\" he continued.  \"You are a resourceful\nman.  Can you not think of some way to save Helium from this disgrace?\"\n\n\"If I can come within sword's reach of Sab Than,\" I answered, \"I can\nsolve the difficulty in so far as Helium is concerned, but for personal\nreasons I would prefer that another struck the blow that frees Dejah\nThoris.\"\n\nKantos Kan eyed me narrowly before he spoke.\n\n\"You love her!\" he said.  \"Does she know it?\"\n\n\"She knows it, Kantos Kan, and repulses me only because she is promised\nto Sab Than.\"\n\nThe splendid fellow sprang to his feet, and grasping me by the shoulder\nraised his sword on high, exclaiming:\n\n\"And had the choice been left to me I could not have chosen a more\nfitting mate for the first princess of Barsoom.  Here is my hand upon\nyour shoulder, John Carter, and my word that Sab Than shall go out at\nthe point of my sword for the sake of my love for Helium, for Dejah\nThoris, and for you.  This very night I shall try to reach his quarters\nin the palace.\"\n\n\"How?\" I asked.  \"You are strongly guarded and a quadruple force\npatrols the sky.\"\n\nHe bent his head in thought a moment, then raised it with an air of\nconfidence.\n\n\"I only need to pass these guards and I can do it,\" he said at last.\n\"I know a secret entrance to the palace through the pinnacle of the\nhighest tower.  I fell upon it by chance one day as I was passing above\nthe palace on patrol duty.  In this work it is required that we\ninvestigate any unusual occurrence we may witness, and a face peering\nfrom the pinnacle of the high tower of the palace was, to me, most\nunusual.  I therefore drew near and discovered that the possessor of\nthe peering face was none other than Sab Than.  He was slightly put out\nat being detected and commanded me to keep the matter to myself,\nexplaining that the passage from the tower led directly to his\napartments, and was known only to him.  If I can reach the roof of the\nbarracks and get my machine I can be in Sab Than's quarters in five\nminutes; but how am I to escape from this building, guarded as you say\nit is?\"\n\n\"How well are the machine sheds at the barracks guarded?\" I asked.\n\n\"There is usually but one man on duty there at night upon the roof.\"\n\n\"Go to the roof of this building, Kantos Kan, and wait me there.\"\n\nWithout stopping to explain my plans I retraced my way to the street\nand hastened to the barracks.  I did not dare to enter the building,\nfilled as it was with members of the air-scout squadron, who, in common\nwith all Zodanga, were on the lookout for me.\n\nThe building was an enormous one, rearing its lofty head fully a\nthousand feet into the air.  But few buildings in Zodanga were higher\nthan these barracks, though several topped it by a few hundred feet;\nthe docks of the great battleships of the line standing some fifteen\nhundred feet from the ground, while the freight and passenger stations\nof the merchant squadrons rose nearly as high.\n\nIt was a long climb up the face of the building, and one fraught with\nmuch danger, but there was no other way, and so I essayed the task.\nThe fact that Barsoomian architecture is extremely ornate made the feat\nmuch simpler than I had anticipated, since I found ornamental ledges\nand projections which fairly formed a perfect ladder for me all the way\nto the eaves of the building.  Here I met my first real obstacle.  The\neaves projected nearly twenty feet from the wall to which I clung, and\nthough I encircled the great building I could find no opening through\nthem.\n\nThe top floor was alight, and filled with soldiers engaged in the\npastimes of their kind; I could not, therefore, reach the roof through\nthe building.\n\nThere was one slight, desperate chance, and that I decided I must\ntake--it was for Dejah Thoris, and no man has lived who would not risk\na thousand deaths for such as she.\n\nClinging to the wall with my feet and one hand, I unloosened one of the\nlong leather straps of my trappings at the end of which dangled a great\nhook by which air sailors are hung to the sides and bottoms of their\ncraft for various purposes of repair, and by means of which landing\nparties are lowered to the ground from the battleships.\n\nI swung this hook cautiously to the roof several times before it\nfinally found lodgment; gently I pulled on it to strengthen its hold,\nbut whether it would bear the weight of my body I did not know.  It\nmight be barely caught upon the very outer verge of the roof, so that\nas my body swung out at the end of the strap it would slip off and\nlaunch me to the pavement a thousand feet below.\n\nAn instant I hesitated, and then, releasing my grasp upon the\nsupporting ornament, I swung out into space at the end of the strap.\nFar below me lay the brilliantly lighted streets, the hard pavements,\nand death.  There was a little jerk at the top of the supporting eaves,\nand a nasty slipping, grating sound which turned me cold with\napprehension; then the hook caught and I was safe.\n\nClambering quickly aloft I grasped the edge of the eaves and drew\nmyself to the surface of the roof above.  As I gained my feet I was\nconfronted by the sentry on duty, into the muzzle of whose revolver I\nfound myself looking.\n\n\"Who are you and whence came you?\" he cried.\n\n\"I am an air scout, friend, and very near a dead one, for just by the\nmerest chance I escaped falling to the avenue below,\" I replied.\n\n\"But how came you upon the roof, man?  No one has landed or come up\nfrom the building for the past hour.  Quick, explain yourself, or I\ncall the guard.\"\n\n\"Look you here, sentry, and you shall see how I came and how close a\nshave I had to not coming at all,\" I answered, turning toward the edge\nof the roof, where, twenty feet below, at the end of my strap, hung all\nmy weapons.\n\nThe fellow, acting on impulse of curiosity, stepped to my side and to\nhis undoing, for as he leaned to peer over the eaves I grasped him by\nhis throat and his pistol arm and threw him heavily to the roof.  The\nweapon dropped from his grasp, and my fingers choked off his attempted\ncry for assistance.  I gagged and bound him and then hung him over the\nedge of the roof as I myself had hung a few moments before.  I knew it\nwould be morning before he would be discovered, and I needed all the\ntime that I could gain.\n\nDonning my trappings and weapons I hastened to the sheds, and soon had\nout both my machine and Kantos Kan's.  Making his fast behind mine I\nstarted my engine, and skimming over the edge of the roof I dove down\ninto the streets of the city far below the plane usually occupied by\nthe air patrol.  In less than a minute I was settling safely upon the\nroof of our apartment beside the astonished Kantos Kan.\n\nI lost no time in explanation, but plunged immediately into a\ndiscussion of our plans for the immediate future.  It was decided that\nI was to try to make Helium while Kantos Kan was to enter the palace\nand dispatch Sab Than.  If successful he was then to follow me.  He set\nmy compass for me, a clever little device which will remain steadfastly\nfixed upon any given point on the surface of Barsoom, and bidding each\nother farewell we rose together and sped in the direction of the palace\nwhich lay in the route which I must take to reach Helium.\n\nAs we neared the high tower a patrol shot down from above, throwing its\npiercing searchlight full upon my craft, and a voice roared out a\ncommand to halt, following with a shot as I paid no attention to his\nhail.  Kantos Kan dropped quickly into the darkness, while I rose\nsteadily and at terrific speed raced through the Martian sky followed\nby a dozen of the air-scout craft which had joined the pursuit, and\nlater by a swift cruiser carrying a hundred men and a battery of\nrapid-fire guns.  By twisting and turning my little machine, now rising\nand now falling, I managed to elude their search-lights most of the\ntime, but I was also losing ground by these tactics, and so I decided\nto hazard everything on a straight-away course and leave the result to\nfate and the speed of my machine.\n\nKantos Kan had shown me a trick of gearing, which is known only to the\nnavy of Helium, that greatly increased the speed of our machines, so\nthat I felt sure I could distance my pursuers if I could dodge their\nprojectiles for a few moments.\n\nAs I sped through the air the screeching of the bullets around me\nconvinced me that only by a miracle could I escape, but the die was\ncast, and throwing on full speed I raced a straight course toward\nHelium.  Gradually I left my pursuers further and further behind, and I\nwas just congratulating myself on my lucky escape, when a well-directed\nshot from the cruiser exploded at the prow of my little craft.  The\nconcussion nearly capsized her, and with a sickening plunge she hurtled\ndownward through the dark night.\n\nHow far I fell before I regained control of the plane I do not know,\nbut I must have been very close to the ground when I started to rise\nagain, as I plainly heard the squealing of animals below me.  Rising\nagain I scanned the heavens for my pursuers, and finally making out\ntheir lights far behind me, saw that they were landing, evidently in\nsearch of me.\n\nNot until their lights were no longer discernible did I venture to\nflash my little lamp upon my compass, and then I found to my\nconsternation that a fragment of the projectile had utterly destroyed\nmy only guide, as well as my speedometer.  It was true I could follow\nthe stars in the general direction of Helium, but without knowing the\nexact location of the city or the speed at which I was traveling my\nchances for finding it were slim.\n\nHelium lies a thousand miles southwest of Zodanga, and with my compass\nintact I should have made the trip, barring accidents, in between four\nand five hours.  As it turned out, however, morning found me speeding\nover a vast expanse of dead sea bottom after nearly six hours of\ncontinuous flight at high speed.  Presently a great city showed below\nme, but it was not Helium, as that alone of all Barsoomian metropolises\nconsists in two immense circular walled cities about seventy-five miles\napart and would have been easily distinguishable from the altitude at\nwhich I was flying.\n\nBelieving that I had come too far to the north and west, I turned back\nin a southeasterly direction, passing during the forenoon several other\nlarge cities, but none resembling the description which Kantos Kan had\ngiven me of Helium.  In addition to the twin-city formation of Helium,\nanother distinguishing feature is the two immense towers, one of vivid\nscarlet rising nearly a mile into the air from the center of one of the\ncities, while the other, of bright yellow and of the same height, marks\nher sister.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV\n\nTARS TARKAS FINDS A FRIEND\n\n\nAbout noon I passed low over a great dead city of ancient Mars, and as\nI skimmed out across the plain beyond I came full upon several thousand\ngreen warriors engaged in a terrific battle.  Scarcely had I seen them\nthan a volley of shots was directed at me, and with the almost\nunfailing accuracy of their aim my little craft was instantly a ruined\nwreck, sinking erratically to the ground.\n\nI fell almost directly in the center of the fierce combat, among\nwarriors who had not seen my approach so busily were they engaged in\nlife and death struggles.  The men were fighting on foot with\nlong-swords, while an occasional shot from a sharpshooter on the\noutskirts of the conflict would bring down a warrior who might for an\ninstant separate himself from the entangled mass.\n\nAs my machine sank among them I realized that it was fight or die, with\ngood chances of dying in any event, and so I struck the ground with\ndrawn long-sword ready to defend myself as I could.\n\nI fell beside a huge monster who was engaged with three antagonists,\nand as I glanced at his fierce face, filled with the light of battle, I\nrecognized Tars Tarkas the Thark.  He did not see me, as I was a trifle\nbehind him, and just then the three warriors opposing him, and whom I\nrecognized as Warhoons, charged simultaneously.  The mighty fellow made\nquick work of one of them, but in stepping back for another thrust he\nfell over a dead body behind him and was down and at the mercy of his\nfoes in an instant.  Quick as lightning they were upon him, and Tars\nTarkas would have been gathered to his fathers in short order had I not\nsprung before his prostrate form and engaged his adversaries.  I had\naccounted for one of them when the mighty Thark regained his feet and\nquickly settled the other.\n\nHe gave me one look, and a slight smile touched his grim lip as,\ntouching my shoulder, he said,\n\n\"I would scarcely recognize you, John Carter, but there is no other\nmortal upon Barsoom who would have done what you have for me.  I think\nI have learned that there is such a thing as friendship, my friend.\"\n\nHe said no more, nor was there opportunity, for the Warhoons were\nclosing in about us, and together we fought, shoulder to shoulder,\nduring all that long, hot afternoon, until the tide of battle turned\nand the remnant of the fierce Warhoon horde fell back upon their\nthoats, and fled into the gathering darkness.\n\nTen thousand men had been engaged in that titanic struggle, and upon\nthe field of battle lay three thousand dead.  Neither side asked or\ngave quarter, nor did they attempt to take prisoners.\n\nOn our return to the city after the battle we had gone directly to Tars\nTarkas' quarters, where I was left alone while the chieftain attended\nthe customary council which immediately follows an engagement.\n\nAs I sat awaiting the return of the green warrior I heard something\nmove in an adjoining apartment, and as I glanced up there rushed\nsuddenly upon me a huge and hideous creature which bore me backward\nupon the pile of silks and furs upon which I had been reclining.  It\nwas Woola--faithful, loving Woola.  He had found his way back to Thark\nand, as Tars Tarkas later told me, had gone immediately to my former\nquarters where he had taken up his pathetic and seemingly hopeless\nwatch for my return.\n\n\"Tal Hajus knows that you are here, John Carter,\" said Tars Tarkas, on\nhis return from the jeddak's quarters; \"Sarkoja saw and recognized you\nas we were returning.  Tal Hajus has ordered me to bring you before him\ntonight.  I have ten thoats, John Carter; you may take your choice from\namong them, and I will accompany you to the nearest waterway that leads\nto Helium.  Tars Tarkas may be a cruel green warrior, but he can be a\nfriend as well.  Come, we must start.\"\n\n\"And when you return, Tars Tarkas?\" I asked.\n\n\"The wild calots, possibly, or worse,\" he replied.  \"Unless I should\nchance to have the opportunity I have so long waited of battling with\nTal Hajus.\"\n\n\"We will stay, Tars Tarkas, and see Tal Hajus tonight.  You shall not\nsacrifice yourself, and it may be that tonight you can have the chance\nyou wait.\"\n\nHe objected strenuously, saying that Tal Hajus often flew into wild\nfits of passion at the mere thought of the blow I had dealt him, and\nthat if ever he laid his hands upon me I would be subjected to the most\nhorrible tortures.\n\nWhile we were eating I repeated to Tars Tarkas the story which Sola had\ntold me that night upon the sea bottom during the march to Thark.\n\nHe said but little, but the great muscles of his face worked in passion\nand in agony at recollection of the horrors which had been heaped upon\nthe only thing he had ever loved in all his cold, cruel, terrible\nexistence.\n\nHe no longer demurred when I suggested that we go before Tal Hajus,\nonly saying that he would like to speak to Sarkoja first.  At his\nrequest I accompanied him to her quarters, and the look of venomous\nhatred she cast upon me was almost adequate recompense for any future\nmisfortunes this accidental return to Thark might bring me.\n\n\"Sarkoja,\" said Tars Tarkas, \"forty years ago you were instrumental in\nbringing about the torture and death of a woman named Gozava.  I have\njust discovered that the warrior who loved that woman has learned of\nyour part in the transaction.  He may not kill you, Sarkoja, it is not\nour custom, but there is nothing to prevent him tying one end of a\nstrap about your neck and the other end to a wild thoat, merely to test\nyour fitness to survive and help perpetuate our race.  Having heard\nthat he would do this on the morrow, I thought it only right to warn\nyou, for I am a just man.  The river Iss is but a short pilgrimage,\nSarkoja.  Come, John Carter.\"\n\nThe next morning Sarkoja was gone, nor was she ever seen after.\n\nIn silence we hastened to the jeddak's palace, where we were\nimmediately admitted to his presence; in fact, he could scarcely wait\nto see me and was standing erect upon his platform glowering at the\nentrance as I came in.\n\n\"Strap him to that pillar,\" he shrieked.  \"We shall see who it is dares\nstrike the mighty Tal Hajus.  Heat the irons; with my own hands I shall\nburn the eyes from his head that he may not pollute my person with his\nvile gaze.\"\n\n\"Chieftains of Thark,\" I cried, turning to the assembled council and\nignoring Tal Hajus, \"I have been a chief among you, and today I have\nfought for Thark shoulder to shoulder with her greatest warrior.  You\nowe me, at least, a hearing.  I have won that much today.  You claim to\nbe a just people--\"\n\n\"Silence,\" roared Tal Hajus.  \"Gag the creature and bind him as I\ncommand.\"\n\n\"Justice, Tal Hajus,\" exclaimed Lorquas Ptomel.  \"Who are you to set\naside the customs of ages among the Tharks.\"\n\n\"Yes, justice!\" echoed a dozen voices, and so, while Tal Hajus fumed\nand frothed, I continued.\n\n\"You are a brave people and you love bravery, but where was your mighty\njeddak during the fighting today?  I did not see him in the thick of\nbattle; he was not there.  He rends defenseless women and little\nchildren in his lair, but how recently has one of you seen him fight\nwith men?  Why, even I, a midget beside him, felled him with a single\nblow of my fist.  Is it of such that the Tharks fashion their jeddaks?\nThere stands beside me now a great Thark, a mighty warrior and a noble\nman.  Chieftains, how sounds, Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark?\"\n\nA roar of deep-toned applause greeted this suggestion.\n\n\"It but remains for this council to command, and Tal Hajus must prove\nhis fitness to rule.  Were he a brave man he would invite Tars Tarkas\nto combat, for he does not love him, but Tal Hajus is afraid; Tal\nHajus, your jeddak, is a coward.  With my bare hands I could kill him,\nand he knows it.\"\n\nAfter I ceased there was tense silence, as all eyes were riveted upon\nTal Hajus.  He did not speak or move, but the blotchy green of his\ncountenance turned livid, and the froth froze upon his lips.\n\n\"Tal Hajus,\" said Lorquas Ptomel in a cold, hard voice, \"never in my\nlong life have I seen a jeddak of the Tharks so humiliated.  There\ncould be but one answer to this arraignment.  We wait it.\"  And still\nTal Hajus stood as though petrified.\n\n\"Chieftains,\" continued Lorquas Ptomel, \"shall the jeddak, Tal Hajus,\nprove his fitness to rule over Tars Tarkas?\"\n\nThere were twenty chieftains about the rostrum, and twenty swords\nflashed high in assent.\n\nThere was no alternative.  That decree was final, and so Tal Hajus drew\nhis long-sword and advanced to meet Tars Tarkas.\n\nThe combat was soon over, and, with his foot upon the neck of the dead\nmonster, Tars Tarkas became jeddak among the Tharks.\n\nHis first act was to make me a full-fledged chieftain with the rank I\nhad won by my combats the first few weeks of my captivity among them.\n\nSeeing the favorable disposition of the warriors toward Tars Tarkas, as\nwell as toward me, I grasped the opportunity to enlist them in my cause\nagainst Zodanga.  I told Tars Tarkas the story of my adventures, and in\na few words had explained to him the thought I had in mind.\n\n\"John Carter has made a proposal,\" he said, addressing the council,\n\"which meets with my sanction.  I shall put it to you briefly.  Dejah\nThoris, the Princess of Helium, who was our prisoner, is now held by\nthe jeddak of Zodanga, whose son she must wed to save her country from\ndevastation at the hands of the Zodangan forces.\n\n\"John Carter suggests that we rescue her and return her to Helium.  The\nloot of Zodanga would be magnificent, and I have often thought that had\nwe an alliance with the people of Helium we could obtain sufficient\nassurance of sustenance to permit us to increase the size and frequency\nof our hatchings, and thus become unquestionably supreme among the\ngreen men of all Barsoom.  What say you?\"\n\nIt was a chance to fight, an opportunity to loot, and they rose to the\nbait as a speckled trout to a fly.\n\nFor Tharks they were wildly enthusiastic, and before another half hour\nhad passed twenty mounted messengers were speeding across dead sea\nbottoms to call the hordes together for the expedition.\n\nIn three days we were on the march toward Zodanga, one hundred thousand\nstrong, as Tars Tarkas had been able to enlist the services of three\nsmaller hordes on the promise of the great loot of Zodanga.\n\nAt the head of the column I rode beside the great Thark while at the\nheels of my mount trotted my beloved Woola.\n\nWe traveled entirely by night, timing our marches so that we camped\nduring the day at deserted cities where, even to the beasts, we were\nall kept indoors during the daylight hours.  On the march Tars Tarkas,\nthrough his remarkable ability and statesmanship, enlisted fifty\nthousand more warriors from various hordes, so that, ten days after we\nset out we halted at midnight outside the great walled city of Zodanga,\none hundred and fifty thousand strong.\n\nThe fighting strength and efficiency of this horde of ferocious green\nmonsters was equivalent to ten times their number of red men.  Never in\nthe history of Barsoom, Tars Tarkas told me, had such a force of green\nwarriors marched to battle together.  It was a monstrous task to keep\neven a semblance of harmony among them, and it was a marvel to me that\nhe got them to the city without a mighty battle among themselves.\n\nBut as we neared Zodanga their personal quarrels were submerged by\ntheir greater hatred for the red men, and especially for the Zodangans,\nwho had for years waged a ruthless campaign of extermination against\nthe green men, directing special attention toward despoiling their\nincubators.\n\nNow that we were before Zodanga the task of obtaining entry to the city\ndevolved upon me, and directing Tars Tarkas to hold his forces in two\ndivisions out of earshot of the city, with each division opposite a\nlarge gateway, I took twenty dismounted warriors and approached one of\nthe small gates that pierced the walls at short intervals.  These gates\nhave no regular guard, but are covered by sentries, who patrol the\navenue that encircles the city just within the walls as our\nmetropolitan police patrol their beats.\n\nThe walls of Zodanga are seventy-five feet in height and fifty feet\nthick.  They are built of enormous blocks of carborundum, and the task\nof entering the city seemed, to my escort of green warriors, an\nimpossibility.  The fellows who had been detailed to accompany me were\nof one of the smaller hordes, and therefore did not know me.\n\nPlacing three of them with their faces to the wall and arms locked, I\ncommanded two more to mount to their shoulders, and a sixth I ordered\nto climb upon the shoulders of the upper two.  The head of the topmost\nwarrior towered over forty feet from the ground.\n\nIn this way, with ten warriors, I built a series of three steps from\nthe ground to the shoulders of the topmost man.  Then starting from a\nshort distance behind them I ran swiftly up from one tier to the next,\nand with a final bound from the broad shoulders of the highest I\nclutched the top of the great wall and quietly drew myself to its broad\nexpanse.  After me I dragged six lengths of leather from an equal\nnumber of my warriors.  These lengths we had previously fastened\ntogether, and passing one end to the topmost warrior I lowered the\nother end cautiously over the opposite side of the wall toward the\navenue below.  No one was in sight, so, lowering myself to the end of\nmy leather strap, I dropped the remaining thirty feet to the pavement\nbelow.\n\nI had learned from Kantos Kan the secret of opening these gates, and in\nanother moment my twenty great fighting men stood within the doomed\ncity of Zodanga.\n\nI found to my delight that I had entered at the lower boundary of the\nenormous palace grounds.  The building itself showed in the distance a\nblaze of glorious light, and on the instant I determined to lead a\ndetachment of warriors directly within the palace itself, while the\nbalance of the great horde was attacking the barracks of the soldiery.\n\nDispatching one of my men to Tars Tarkas for a detail of fifty Tharks,\nwith word of my intentions, I ordered ten warriors to capture and open\none of the great gates while with the nine remaining I took the other.\nWe were to do our work quietly, no shots were to be fired and no\ngeneral advance made until I had reached the palace with my fifty\nTharks.  Our plans worked to perfection.  The two sentries we met were\ndispatched to their fathers upon the banks of the lost sea of Korus,\nand the guards at both gates followed them in silence.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV\n\nTHE LOOTING OF ZODANGA\n\n\nAs the great gate where I stood swung open my fifty Tharks, headed by\nTars Tarkas himself, rode in upon their mighty thoats.  I led them to\nthe palace walls, which I negotiated easily without assistance.  Once\ninside, however, the gate gave me considerable trouble, but I finally\nwas rewarded by seeing it swing upon its huge hinges, and soon my\nfierce escort was riding across the gardens of the jeddak of Zodanga.\n\nAs we approached the palace I could see through the great windows of\nthe first floor into the brilliantly illuminated audience chamber of\nThan Kosis.  The immense hall was crowded with nobles and their women,\nas though some important function was in progress.  There was not a\nguard in sight without the palace, due, I presume, to the fact that the\ncity and palace walls were considered impregnable, and so I came close\nand peered within.\n\nAt one end of the chamber, upon massive golden thrones encrusted with\ndiamonds, sat Than Kosis and his consort, surrounded by officers and\ndignitaries of state.  Before them stretched a broad aisle lined on\neither side with soldiery, and as I looked there entered this aisle at\nthe far end of the hall, the head of a procession which advanced to the\nfoot of the throne.\n\nFirst there marched four officers of the jeddak's Guard bearing a huge\nsalver on which reposed, upon a cushion of scarlet silk, a great golden\nchain with a collar and padlock at each end.  Directly behind these\nofficers came four others carrying a similar salver which supported the\nmagnificent ornaments of a prince and princess of the reigning house of\nZodanga.\n\nAt the foot of the throne these two parties separated and halted,\nfacing each other at opposite sides of the aisle.  Then came more\ndignitaries, and the officers of the palace and of the army, and\nfinally two figures entirely muffled in scarlet silk, so that not a\nfeature of either was discernible.  These two stopped at the foot of\nthe throne, facing Than Kosis.  When the balance of the procession had\nentered and assumed their stations Than Kosis addressed the couple\nstanding before him.  I could not hear his words, but presently two\nofficers advanced and removed the scarlet robe from one of the figures,\nand I saw that Kantos Kan had failed in his mission, for it was Sab\nThan, Prince of Zodanga, who stood revealed before me.\n\nThan Kosis now took a set of the ornaments from one of the salvers and\nplaced one of the collars of gold about his son's neck, springing the\npadlock fast.  After a few more words addressed to Sab Than he turned\nto the other figure, from which the officers now removed the\nenshrouding silks, disclosing to my now comprehending view Dejah\nThoris, Princess of Helium.\n\nThe object of the ceremony was clear to me; in another moment Dejah\nThoris would be joined forever to the Prince of Zodanga.  It was an\nimpressive and beautiful ceremony, I presume, but to me it seemed the\nmost fiendish sight I had ever witnessed, and as the ornaments were\nadjusted upon her beautiful figure and her collar of gold swung open in\nthe hands of Than Kosis I raised my long-sword above my head, and, with\nthe heavy hilt, I shattered the glass of the great window and sprang\ninto the midst of the astonished assemblage.  With a bound I was on the\nsteps of the platform beside Than Kosis, and as he stood riveted with\nsurprise I brought my long-sword down upon the golden chain that would\nhave bound Dejah Thoris to another.\n\nIn an instant all was confusion; a thousand drawn swords menaced me\nfrom every quarter, and Sab Than sprang upon me with a jeweled dagger\nhe had drawn from his nuptial ornaments.  I could have killed him as\neasily as I might a fly, but the age-old custom of Barsoom stayed my\nhand, and grasping his wrist as the dagger flew toward my heart I held\nhim as though in a vise and with my long-sword pointed to the far end\nof the hall.\n\n\"Zodanga has fallen,\" I cried.  \"Look!\"\n\nAll eyes turned in the direction I had indicated, and there, forging\nthrough the portals of the entranceway rode Tars Tarkas and his fifty\nwarriors on their great thoats.\n\nA cry of alarm and amazement broke from the assemblage, but no word of\nfear, and in a moment the soldiers and nobles of Zodanga were hurling\nthemselves upon the advancing Tharks.\n\nThrusting Sab Than headlong from the platform, I drew Dejah Thoris to\nmy side.  Behind the throne was a narrow doorway and in this Than Kosis\nnow stood facing me, with drawn long-sword.  In an instant we were\nengaged, and I found no mean antagonist.\n\nAs we circled upon the broad platform I saw Sab Than rushing up the\nsteps to aid his father, but, as he raised his hand to strike, Dejah\nThoris sprang before him and then my sword found the spot that made Sab\nThan jeddak of Zodanga.  As his father rolled dead upon the floor the\nnew jeddak tore himself free from Dejah Thoris' grasp, and again we\nfaced each other.  He was soon joined by a quartet of officers, and,\nwith my back against a golden throne, I fought once again for Dejah\nThoris.  I was hard pressed to defend myself and yet not strike down\nSab Than and, with him, my last chance to win the woman I loved.  My\nblade was swinging with the rapidity of lightning as I sought to parry\nthe thrusts and cuts of my opponents.  Two I had disarmed, and one was\ndown, when several more rushed to the aid of their new ruler, and to\navenge the death of the old.\n\nAs they advanced there were cries of \"The woman!  The woman!  Strike\nher down; it is her plot.  Kill her!  Kill her!\"\n\nCalling to Dejah Thoris to get behind me I worked my way toward the\nlittle doorway back of the throne, but the officers realized my\nintentions, and three of them sprang in behind me and blocked my\nchances for gaining a position where I could have defended Dejah Thoris\nagainst an army of swordsmen.\n\nThe Tharks were having their hands full in the center of the room, and\nI began to realize that nothing short of a miracle could save Dejah\nThoris and myself, when I saw Tars Tarkas surging through the crowd of\npygmies that swarmed about him.  With one swing of his mighty longsword\nhe laid a dozen corpses at his feet, and so he hewed a pathway before\nhim until in another moment he stood upon the platform beside me,\ndealing death and destruction right and left.\n\nThe bravery of the Zodangans was awe-inspiring, not one attempted to\nescape, and when the fighting ceased it was because only Tharks\nremained alive in the great hall, other than Dejah Thoris and myself.\n\nSab Than lay dead beside his father, and the corpses of the flower of\nZodangan nobility and chivalry covered the floor of the bloody shambles.\n\nMy first thought when the battle was over was for Kantos Kan, and\nleaving Dejah Thoris in charge of Tars Tarkas I took a dozen warriors\nand hastened to the dungeons beneath the palace.  The jailers had all\nleft to join the fighters in the throne room, so we searched the\nlabyrinthine prison without opposition.\n\nI called Kantos Kan's name aloud in each new corridor and compartment,\nand finally I was rewarded by hearing a faint response.  Guided by the\nsound, we soon found him helpless in a dark recess.\n\nHe was overjoyed at seeing me, and to know the meaning of the fight,\nfaint echoes of which had reached his prison cell.  He told me that the\nair patrol had captured him before he reached the high tower of the\npalace, so that he had not even seen Sab Than.\n\nWe discovered that it would be futile to attempt to cut away the bars\nand chains which held him prisoner, so, at his suggestion I returned to\nsearch the bodies on the floor above for keys to open the padlocks of\nhis cell and of his chains.\n\nFortunately among the first I examined I found his jailer, and soon we\nhad Kantos Kan with us in the throne room.\n\nThe sounds of heavy firing, mingled with shouts and cries, came to us\nfrom the city's streets, and Tars Tarkas hastened away to direct the\nfighting without.  Kantos Kan accompanied him to act as guide, the\ngreen warriors commencing a thorough search of the palace for other\nZodangans and for loot, and Dejah Thoris and I were left alone.\n\nShe had sunk into one of the golden thrones, and as I turned to her she\ngreeted me with a wan smile.\n\n\"Was there ever such a man!\" she exclaimed.  \"I know that Barsoom has\nnever before seen your like.  Can it be that all Earth men are as you?\nAlone, a stranger, hunted, threatened, persecuted, you have done in a\nfew short months what in all the past ages of Barsoom no man has ever\ndone: joined together the wild hordes of the sea bottoms and brought\nthem to fight as allies of a red Martian people.\"\n\n\"The answer is easy, Dejah Thoris,\" I replied smiling.  \"It was not I\nwho did it, it was love, love for Dejah Thoris, a power that would work\ngreater miracles than this you have seen.\"\n\nA pretty flush overspread her face and she answered,\n\n\"You may say that now, John Carter, and I may listen, for I am free.\"\n\n\"And more still I have to say, ere it is again too late,\" I returned.\n\"I have done many strange things in my life, many things that wiser men\nwould not have dared, but never in my wildest fancies have I dreamed of\nwinning a Dejah Thoris for myself--for never had I dreamed that in all\nthe universe dwelt such a woman as the Princess of Helium.  That you\nare a princess does not abash me, but that you are you is enough to\nmake me doubt my sanity as I ask you, my princess, to be mine.\"\n\n\"He does not need to be abashed who so well knew the answer to his plea\nbefore the plea were made,\" she replied, rising and placing her dear\nhands upon my shoulders, and so I took her in my arms and kissed her.\n\nAnd thus in the midst of a city of wild conflict, filled with the\nalarms of war; with death and destruction reaping their terrible\nharvest around her, did Dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, true daughter\nof Mars, the God of War, promise herself in marriage to John Carter,\nGentleman of Virginia.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI\n\nTHROUGH CARNAGE TO JOY\n\n\nSometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to report that\nZodanga had been completely reduced.  Her forces were entirely\ndestroyed or captured, and no further resistance was to be expected\nfrom within.  Several battleships had escaped, but there were thousands\nof war and merchant vessels under guard of Thark warriors.\n\nThe lesser hordes had commenced looting and quarreling among\nthemselves, so it was decided that we collect what warriors we could,\nman as many vessels as possible with Zodangan prisoners and make for\nHelium without further loss of time.\n\nFive hours later we sailed from the roofs of the dock buildings with a\nfleet of two hundred and fifty battleships, carrying nearly one hundred\nthousand green warriors, followed by a fleet of transports with our\nthoats.\n\nBehind us we left the stricken city in the fierce and brutal clutches\nof some forty thousand green warriors of the lesser hordes.  They were\nlooting, murdering, and fighting amongst themselves.  In a hundred\nplaces they had applied the torch, and columns of dense smoke were\nrising above the city as though to blot out from the eye of heaven the\nhorrid sights beneath.\n\nIn the middle of the afternoon we sighted the scarlet and yellow towers\nof Helium, and a short time later a great fleet of Zodangan battleships\nrose from the camps of the besiegers without the city, and advanced to\nmeet us.\n\nThe banners of Helium had been strung from stem to stern of each of our\nmighty craft, but the Zodangans did not need this sign to realize that\nwe were enemies, for our green Martian warriors had opened fire upon\nthem almost as they left the ground.  With their uncanny marksmanship\nthey raked the on-coming fleet with volley after volley.\n\nThe twin cities of Helium, perceiving that we were friends, sent out\nhundreds of vessels to aid us, and then began the first real air battle\nI had ever witnessed.\n\nThe vessels carrying our green warriors were kept circling above the\ncontending fleets of Helium and Zodanga, since their batteries were\nuseless in the hands of the Tharks who, having no navy, have no skill\nin naval gunnery.  Their small-arm fire, however, was most effective,\nand the final outcome of the engagement was strongly influenced, if not\nwholly determined, by their presence.\n\nAt first the two forces circled at the same altitude, pouring broadside\nafter broadside into each other.  Presently a great hole was torn in\nthe hull of one of the immense battle craft from the Zodangan camp;\nwith a lurch she turned completely over, the little figures of her crew\nplunging, turning and twisting toward the ground a thousand feet below;\nthen with sickening velocity she tore after them, almost completely\nburying herself in the soft loam of the ancient sea bottom.\n\nA wild cry of exultation arose from the Heliumite squadron, and with\nredoubled ferocity they fell upon the Zodangan fleet.  By a pretty\nmaneuver two of the vessels of Helium gained a position above their\nadversaries, from which they poured upon them from their keel bomb\nbatteries a perfect torrent of exploding bombs.\n\nThen, one by one, the battleships of Helium succeeded in rising above\nthe Zodangans, and in a short time a number of the beleaguering\nbattleships were drifting hopeless wrecks toward the high scarlet tower\nof greater Helium.  Several others attempted to escape, but they were\nsoon surrounded by thousands of tiny individual fliers, and above each\nhung a monster battleship of Helium ready to drop boarding parties upon\ntheir decks.\n\nWithin but little more than an hour from the moment the victorious\nZodangan squadron had risen to meet us from the camp of the besiegers\nthe battle was over, and the remaining vessels of the conquered\nZodangans were headed toward the cities of Helium under prize crews.\n\nThere was an extremely pathetic side to the surrender of these mighty\nfliers, the result of an age-old custom which demanded that surrender\nshould be signalized by the voluntary plunging to earth of the\ncommander of the vanquished vessel.  One after another the brave\nfellows, holding their colors high above their heads, leaped from the\ntowering bows of their mighty craft to an awful death.\n\nNot until the commander of the entire fleet took the fearful plunge,\nthus indicating the surrender of the remaining vessels, did the\nfighting cease, and the useless sacrifice of brave men come to an end.\n\nWe now signaled the flagship of Helium's navy to approach, and when she\nwas within hailing distance I called out that we had the Princess Dejah\nThoris on board, and that we wished to transfer her to the flagship\nthat she might be taken immediately to the city.\n\nAs the full import of my announcement bore in upon them a great cry\narose from the decks of the flagship, and a moment later the colors of\nthe Princess of Helium broke from a hundred points upon her upper\nworks.  When the other vessels of the squadron caught the meaning of\nthe signals flashed them they took up the wild acclaim and unfurled her\ncolors in the gleaming sunlight.\n\nThe flagship bore down upon us, and as she swung gracefully to and\ntouched our side a dozen officers sprang upon our decks.  As their\nastonished gaze fell upon the hundreds of green warriors, who now came\nforth from the fighting shelters, they stopped aghast, but at sight of\nKantos Kan, who advanced to meet them, they came forward, crowding\nabout him.\n\nDejah Thoris and I then advanced, and they had no eyes for other than\nher.  She received them gracefully, calling each by name, for they were\nmen high in the esteem and service of her grandfather, and she knew\nthem well.\n\n\"Lay your hands upon the shoulder of John Carter,\" she said to them,\nturning toward me, \"the man to whom Helium owes her princess as well as\nher victory today.\"\n\nThey were very courteous to me and said many kind and complimentary\nthings, but what seemed to impress them most was that I had won the aid\nof the fierce Tharks in my campaign for the liberation of Dejah Thoris,\nand the relief of Helium.\n\n\"You owe your thanks more to another man than to me,\" I said, \"and here\nhe is; meet one of Barsoom's greatest soldiers and statesmen, Tars\nTarkas, Jeddak of Thark.\"\n\nWith the same polished courtesy that had marked their manner toward me\nthey extended their greetings to the great Thark, nor, to my surprise,\nwas he much behind them in ease of bearing or in courtly speech.\nThough not a garrulous race, the Tharks are extremely formal, and their\nways lend themselves amazingly to dignified and courtly manners.\n\nDejah Thoris went aboard the flagship, and was much put out that I\nwould not follow, but, as I explained to her, the battle was but partly\nwon; we still had the land forces of the besieging Zodangans to account\nfor, and I would not leave Tars Tarkas until that had been accomplished.\n\nThe commander of the naval forces of Helium promised to arrange to have\nthe armies of Helium attack from the city in conjunction with our land\nattack, and so the vessels separated and Dejah Thoris was borne in\ntriumph back to the court of her grandfather, Tardos Mors, Jeddak of\nHelium.\n\nIn the distance lay our fleet of transports, with the thoats of the\ngreen warriors, where they had remained during the battle.  Without\nlanding stages it was to be a difficult matter to unload these beasts\nupon the open plain, but there was nothing else for it, and so we put\nout for a point about ten miles from the city and began the task.\n\nIt was necessary to lower the animals to the ground in slings and this\nwork occupied the remainder of the day and half the night.  Twice we\nwere attacked by parties of Zodangan cavalry, but with little loss,\nhowever, and after darkness shut down they withdrew.\n\nAs soon as the last thoat was unloaded Tars Tarkas gave the command to\nadvance, and in three parties we crept upon the Zodangan camp from the\nnorth, the south and the east.\n\nAbout a mile from the main camp we encountered their outposts and, as\nhad been prearranged, accepted this as the signal to charge.  With\nwild, ferocious cries and amidst the nasty squealing of battle-enraged\nthoats we bore down upon the Zodangans.\n\nWe did not catch them napping, but found a well-entrenched battle line\nconfronting us.  Time after time we were repulsed until, toward noon, I\nbegan to fear for the result of the battle.\n\nThe Zodangans numbered nearly a million fighting men, gathered from\npole to pole, wherever stretched their ribbon-like waterways, while\npitted against them were less than a hundred thousand green warriors.\nThe forces from Helium had not arrived, nor could we receive any word\nfrom them.\n\nJust at noon we heard heavy firing all along the line between the\nZodangans and the cities, and we knew then that our much-needed\nreinforcements had come.\n\nAgain Tars Tarkas ordered the charge, and once more the mighty thoats\nbore their terrible riders against the ramparts of the enemy.  At the\nsame moment the battle line of Helium surged over the opposite\nbreastworks of the Zodangans and in another moment they were being\ncrushed as between two millstones.  Nobly they fought, but in vain.\n\nThe plain before the city became a veritable shambles ere the last\nZodangan surrendered, but finally the carnage ceased, the prisoners\nwere marched back to Helium, and we entered the greater city's gates, a\nhuge triumphal procession of conquering heroes.\n\nThe broad avenues were lined with women and children, among which were\nthe few men whose duties necessitated that they remain within the city\nduring the battle.  We were greeted with an endless round of applause\nand showered with ornaments of gold, platinum, silver, and precious\njewels.  The city had gone mad with joy.\n\nMy fierce Tharks caused the wildest excitement and enthusiasm.  Never\nbefore had an armed body of green warriors entered the gates of Helium,\nand that they came now as friends and allies filled the red men with\nrejoicing.\n\nThat my poor services to Dejah Thoris had become known to the\nHeliumites was evidenced by the loud crying of my name, and by the\nloads of ornaments that were fastened upon me and my huge thoat as we\npassed up the avenues to the palace, for even in the face of the\nferocious appearance of Woola the populace pressed close about me.\n\nAs we approached this magnificent pile we were met by a party of\nofficers who greeted us warmly and requested that Tars Tarkas and his\njeds with the jeddaks and jeds of his wild allies, together with\nmyself, dismount and accompany them to receive from Tardos Mors an\nexpression of his gratitude for our services.\n\nAt the top of the great steps leading up to the main portals of the\npalace stood the royal party, and as we reached the lower steps one of\ntheir number descended to meet us.\n\nHe was an almost perfect specimen of manhood; tall, straight as an\narrow, superbly muscled and with the carriage and bearing of a ruler of\nmen.  I did not need to be told that he was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of\nHelium.\n\nThe first member of our party he met was Tars Tarkas and his first\nwords sealed forever the new friendship between the races.\n\n\"That Tardos Mors,\" he said, earnestly, \"may meet the greatest living\nwarrior of Barsoom is a priceless honor, but that he may lay his hand\non the shoulder of a friend and ally is a far greater boon.\"\n\n\"Jeddak of Helium,\" returned Tars Tarkas, \"it has remained for a man of\nanother world to teach the green warriors of Barsoom the meaning of\nfriendship; to him we owe the fact that the hordes of Thark can\nunderstand you; that they can appreciate and reciprocate the sentiments\nso graciously expressed.\"\n\nTardos Mors then greeted each of the green jeddaks and jeds, and to\neach spoke words of friendship and appreciation.\n\nAs he approached me he laid both hands upon my shoulders.\n\n\"Welcome, my son,\" he said; \"that you are granted, gladly, and without\none word of opposition, the most precious jewel in all Helium, yes, on\nall Barsoom, is sufficient earnest of my esteem.\"\n\nWe were then presented to Mors Kajak, Jed of lesser Helium, and father\nof Dejah Thoris.  He had followed close behind Tardos Mors and seemed\neven more affected by the meeting than had his father.\n\nHe tried a dozen times to express his gratitude to me, but his voice\nchoked with emotion and he could not speak, and yet he had, as I was to\nlater learn, a reputation for ferocity and fearlessness as a fighter\nthat was remarkable even upon warlike Barsoom.  In common with all\nHelium he worshiped his daughter, nor could he think of what she had\nescaped without deep emotion.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII\n\nFROM JOY TO DEATH\n\n\nFor ten days the hordes of Thark and their wild allies were feasted and\nentertained, and, then, loaded with costly presents and escorted by ten\nthousand soldiers of Helium commanded by Mors Kajak, they started on\nthe return journey to their own lands.  The jed of lesser Helium with a\nsmall party of nobles accompanied them all the way to Thark to cement\nmore closely the new bonds of peace and friendship.\n\nSola also accompanied Tars Tarkas, her father, who before all his\nchieftains had acknowledged her as his daughter.\n\nThree weeks later, Mors Kajak and his officers, accompanied by Tars\nTarkas and Sola, returned upon a battleship that had been dispatched to\nThark to fetch them in time for the ceremony which made Dejah Thoris\nand John Carter one.\n\nFor nine years I served in the councils and fought in the armies of\nHelium as a prince of the house of Tardos Mors.  The people seemed\nnever to tire of heaping honors upon me, and no day passed that did not\nbring some new proof of their love for my princess, the incomparable\nDejah Thoris.\n\nIn a golden incubator upon the roof of our palace lay a snow-white egg.\nFor nearly five years ten soldiers of the jeddak's Guard had constantly\nstood over it, and not a day passed when I was in the city that Dejah\nThoris and I did not stand hand in hand before our little shrine\nplanning for the future, when the delicate shell should break.\n\nVivid in my memory is the picture of the last night as we sat there\ntalking in low tones of the strange romance which had woven our lives\ntogether and of this wonder which was coming to augment our happiness\nand fulfill our hopes.\n\nIn the distance we saw the bright-white light of an approaching\nairship, but we attached no special significance to so common a sight.\nLike a bolt of lightning it raced toward Helium until its very speed\nbespoke the unusual.\n\nFlashing the signals which proclaimed it a dispatch bearer for the\njeddak, it circled impatiently awaiting the tardy patrol boat which\nmust convoy it to the palace docks.\n\nTen minutes after it touched at the palace a message called me to the\ncouncil chamber, which I found filling with the members of that body.\n\nOn the raised platform of the throne was Tardos Mors, pacing back and\nforth with tense-drawn face.  When all were in their seats he turned\ntoward us.\n\n\"This morning,\" he said, \"word reached the several governments of\nBarsoom that the keeper of the atmosphere plant had made no wireless\nreport for two days, nor had almost ceaseless calls upon him from a\nscore of capitals elicited a sign of response.\n\n\"The ambassadors of the other nations asked us to take the matter in\nhand and hasten the assistant keeper to the plant.  All day a thousand\ncruisers have been searching for him until just now one of them returns\nbearing his dead body, which was found in the pits beneath his house\nhorribly mutilated by some assassin.\n\n\"I do not need to tell you what this means to Barsoom.  It would take\nmonths to penetrate those mighty walls, in fact the work has already\ncommenced, and there would be little to fear were the engine of the\npumping plant to run as it should and as they all have for hundreds of\nyears; but the worst, we fear, has happened.  The instruments show\na rapidly decreasing air pressure on all parts of Barsoom--the engine\nhas stopped.\"\n\n\"My gentlemen,\" he concluded, \"we have at best three days to live.\"\n\nThere was absolute silence for several minutes, and then a young noble\narose, and with his drawn sword held high above his head addressed\nTardos Mors.\n\n\"The men of Helium have prided themselves that they have ever shown\nBarsoom how a nation of red men should live, now is our opportunity to\nshow them how they should die.  Let us go about our duties as though a\nthousand useful years still lay before us.\"\n\nThe chamber rang with applause and as there was nothing better to do\nthan to allay the fears of the people by our example we went our ways\nwith smiles upon our faces and sorrow gnawing at our hearts.\n\nWhen I returned to my palace I found that the rumor already had reached\nDejah Thoris, so I told her all that I had heard.\n\n\"We have been very happy, John Carter,\" she said, \"and I thank whatever\nfate overtakes us that it permits us to die together.\"\n\nThe next two days brought no noticeable change in the supply of air,\nbut on the morning of the third day breathing became difficult at the\nhigher altitudes of the rooftops.  The avenues and plazas of Helium\nwere filled with people.  All business had ceased.  For the most part\nthe people looked bravely into the face of their unalterable doom.\nHere and there, however, men and women gave way to quiet grief.\n\nToward the middle of the day many of the weaker commenced to succumb\nand within an hour the people of Barsoom were sinking by thousands into\nthe unconsciousness which precedes death by asphyxiation.\n\nDejah Thoris and I with the other members of the royal family had\ncollected in a sunken garden within an inner courtyard of the palace.\nWe conversed in low tones, when we conversed at all, as the awe of the\ngrim shadow of death crept over us.  Even Woola seemed to feel the\nweight of the impending calamity, for he pressed close to Dejah Thoris\nand to me, whining pitifully.\n\nThe little incubator had been brought from the roof of our palace at\nrequest of Dejah Thoris and she sat gazing longingly upon the\nunknown little life that now she would never know.\n\nAs it was becoming perceptibly difficult to breathe Tardos Mors arose,\nsaying,\n\n\"Let us bid each other farewell.  The days of the greatness of Barsoom\nare over.  Tomorrow's sun will look down upon a dead world which\nthrough all eternity must go swinging through the heavens peopled not\neven by memories.  It is the end.\"\n\nHe stooped and kissed the women of his family, and laid his strong hand\nupon the shoulders of the men.\n\nAs I turned sadly from him my eyes fell upon Dejah Thoris.  Her head\nwas drooping upon her breast, to all appearances she was lifeless.\nWith a cry I sprang to her and raised her in my arms.\n\nHer eyes opened and looked into mine.\n\n\"Kiss me, John Carter,\" she murmured.  \"I love you!  I love you!  It is\ncruel that we must be torn apart who were just starting upon a life of\nlove and happiness.\"\n\nAs I pressed her dear lips to mine the old feeling of unconquerable\npower and authority rose in me.  The fighting blood of Virginia sprang\nto life in my veins.\n\n\"It shall not be, my princess,\" I cried.  \"There is, there must be some\nway, and John Carter, who has fought his way through a strange world\nfor love of you, will find it.\"\n\nAnd with my words there crept above the threshold of my conscious mind\na series of nine long forgotten sounds.  Like a flash of lightning in\nthe darkness their full purport dawned upon me--the key to the three\ngreat doors of the atmosphere plant!\n\nTurning suddenly toward Tardos Mors as I still clasped my dying love to\nmy breast I cried.\n\n\"A flier, Jeddak!  Quick!  Order your swiftest flier to the palace top.\nI can save Barsoom yet.\"\n\nHe did not wait to question, but in an instant a guard was racing to\nthe nearest dock and though the air was thin and almost gone at the\nrooftop they managed to launch the fastest one-man, air-scout machine\nthat the skill of Barsoom had ever produced.\n\nKissing Dejah Thoris a dozen times and commanding Woola, who would have\nfollowed me, to remain and guard her, I bounded with my old agility and\nstrength to the high ramparts of the palace, and in another moment I\nwas headed toward the goal of the hopes of all Barsoom.\n\nI had to fly low to get sufficient air to breathe, but I took a\nstraight course across an old sea bottom and so had to rise only a few\nfeet above the ground.\n\nI traveled with awful velocity for my errand was a race against time\nwith death.  The face of Dejah Thoris hung always before me.  As I\nturned for a last look as I left the palace garden I had seen her\nstagger and sink upon the ground beside the little incubator.  That she\nhad dropped into the last coma which would end in death, if the air\nsupply remained unreplenished, I well knew, and so, throwing caution to\nthe winds, I flung overboard everything but the engine and compass,\neven to my ornaments, and lying on my belly along the deck with one\nhand on the steering wheel and the other pushing the speed lever to its\nlast notch I split the thin air of dying Mars with the speed of a\nmeteor.\n\nAn hour before dark the great walls of the atmosphere plant loomed\nsuddenly before me, and with a sickening thud I plunged to the ground\nbefore the small door which was withholding the spark of life from the\ninhabitants of an entire planet.\n\nBeside the door a great crew of men had been laboring to pierce the\nwall, but they had scarcely scratched the flint-like surface, and now\nmost of them lay in the last sleep from which not even air would awaken\nthem.\n\nConditions seemed much worse here than at Helium, and it was with\ndifficulty that I breathed at all.  There were a few men still\nconscious, and to one of these I spoke.\n\n\"If I can open these doors is there a man who can start the engines?\" I\nasked.\n\n\"I can,\" he replied, \"if you open quickly.  I can last but a few\nmoments more.  But it is useless, they are both dead and no one else\nupon Barsoom knew the secret of these awful locks.  For three days men\ncrazed with fear have surged about this portal in vain attempts to\nsolve its mystery.\"\n\nI had no time to talk, I was becoming very weak and it was with\ndifficulty that I controlled my mind at all.\n\nBut, with a final effort, as I sank weakly to my knees I hurled the\nnine thought waves at that awful thing before me.  The Martian had\ncrawled to my side and with staring eyes fixed on the single panel\nbefore us we waited in the silence of death.\n\nSlowly the mighty door receded before us.  I attempted to rise and\nfollow it but I was too weak.\n\n\"After it,\" I cried to my companion, \"and if you reach the pump room\nturn loose all the pumps.  It is the only chance Barsoom has to exist\ntomorrow!\"\n\nFrom where I lay I opened the second door, and then the third, and as I\nsaw the hope of Barsoom crawling weakly on hands and knees through the\nlast doorway I sank unconscious upon the ground.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII\n\nAT THE ARIZONA CAVE\n\n\nIt was dark when I opened my eyes again.  Strange, stiff garments were\nupon my body; garments that cracked and powdered away from me as I rose\nto a sitting posture.\n\nI felt myself over from head to foot and from head to foot I was\nclothed, though when I fell unconscious at the little doorway I had\nbeen naked.  Before me was a small patch of moonlit sky which showed\nthrough a ragged aperture.\n\nAs my hands passed over my body they came in contact with pockets and\nin one of these a small parcel of matches wrapped in oiled paper.  One\nof these matches I struck, and its dim flame lighted up what appeared\nto be a huge cave, toward the back of which I discovered a strange,\nstill figure huddled over a tiny bench.  As I approached it I saw that\nit was the dead and mummified remains of a little old woman with long\nblack hair, and the thing it leaned over was a small charcoal burner\nupon which rested a round copper vessel containing a small quantity of\ngreenish powder.\n\nBehind her, depending from the roof upon rawhide thongs, and stretching\nentirely across the cave, was a row of human skeletons.  From the thong\nwhich held them stretched another to the dead hand of the little old\nwoman; as I touched the cord the skeletons swung to the motion with a\nnoise as of the rustling of dry leaves.\n\nIt was a most grotesque and horrid tableau and I hastened out into the\nfresh air; glad to escape from so gruesome a place.\n\nThe sight that met my eyes as I stepped out upon a small ledge which\nran before the entrance of the cave filled me with consternation.\n\nA new heaven and a new landscape met my gaze.  The silvered mountains\nin the distance, the almost stationary moon hanging in the sky, the\ncacti-studded valley below me were not of Mars.  I could scarce\nbelieve my eyes, but the truth slowly forced itself upon me--I was\nlooking upon Arizona from the same ledge from which ten years before I\nhad gazed with longing upon Mars.\n\nBurying my head in my arms I turned, broken, and sorrowful, down the\ntrail from the cave.\n\nAbove me shone the red eye of Mars holding her awful secret,\nforty-eight million miles away.\n\nDid the Martian reach the pump room?  Did the vitalizing air reach the\npeople of that distant planet in time to save them?  Was my Dejah\nThoris alive, or did her beautiful body lie cold in death beside the\ntiny golden incubator in the sunken garden of the inner courtyard of\nthe palace of Tardos Mors, the jeddak of Helium?\n\nFor ten years I have waited and prayed for an answer to my questions.\nFor ten years I have waited and prayed to be taken back to the world of\nmy lost love.  I would rather lie dead beside her there than live on\nEarth all those millions of terrible miles from her.\n\nThe old mine, which I found untouched, has made me fabulously wealthy;\nbut what care I for wealth!\n\nAs I sit here tonight in my little study overlooking the Hudson, just\ntwenty years have elapsed since I first opened my eyes upon Mars.\n\nI can see her shining in the sky through the little window by my desk,\nand tonight she seems calling to me again as she has not called before\nsince that long dead night, and I think I can see, across that awful\nabyss of space, a beautiful black-haired woman standing in the garden\nof a palace, and at her side is a little boy who puts his arm around\nher as she points into the sky toward the planet Earth, while at their\nfeet is a huge and hideous creature with a heart of gold.\n\nI believe that they are waiting there for me, and something tells me\nthat I shall soon know."