A Princess of Mars

e a strange expression upon her usually expressionless countenance. What her thoughts were I did not kn

ached bearing the arms, ornaments, and full accouterments of his kind. These he present

led the trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they

ral hours each day practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet proficient with all the weapons, but my great famili

but are also the artisans who produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of value is

ered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the culpr

t audience chamber where I had had my first meeting with Lorquas Ptomel. I could not but note the unnecessary harshness and brutality with which her guards treated her; so

ake themselves understood by a common language. With this added incentive I nearly drove Sola distracted by my importunities to hasten on my education and within a f

, myself, and Woola the hound. After they had retired for the night it was customary for the adults to carry on a desultory conversation for a short ti

to the beautiful captive, as I could not but recall the strange expression I had noted upon her face after my first encounter with the prisoner. That it denoted jealousy I could not say, and

e, had been present at the audience as one of the capt

the death throes of the red one? or does Lorq

o Thark, and exhibit her last agonies at the g

red Sola. "She is very small and very beautiful;

nted angrily at this evidence o

soft as the stuff they sailed upon. In our day we have progressed to a point where such sentiments mark weakness and atavism. It will not be well for you to permi

llows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at peace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the red men, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst themselves. Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from the time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of t

s to assure me of Sola's friendliness toward the poor girl, and also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in falling into her hands rather than those of some of the other females. I knew that she was fond of me, a

shioned after my own mold rather than to remain longer among the hideous and bloodthirsty green men of Mars. But where to go, and how,

and openly ask her to aid me, and with this resolution strong upon me I turne