The Gods of Mars

?" I asked

she pointed

hadowy bodies flitting hither and thit

strange objects. There was a roar of musketry, and th

of Barsoom, O Pri

marauders swept lower and lower towa

e guards; volley on volley crashed through the

from the temples into the gardens and courts. The sight of them in th

im, black craft. They were small fliers for the most part, built for two to three men. A few larger

gnal of command, the pirates in our immediate vicinity dashed r

hting! Never had I witnessed its like before. I had thought the green Martians the most ferocious warriors in the universe, but

d itself in vivid distinctness. The golden-haired, white-skinned therns battling

thern and left its dead foeman at the foot of a wondrous statue carved from a living ruby; yonder a dozen therns pressed a single pirat

e of battle had not reached us, but the fighters from time t

ours, little more than legends they were, during my former life

d they wrought the most horrible atrocities, and when they left carried away with them firearms and ammunition, and young girls as p

l set and large, though a slight narrowness lent them a crafty appearance; the iris, as well as I could determine by moonlight, was of extreme blackness, while the eyeball itself was quite white and clear. The physical structure of their bodies seemed identical with t

he reverse. Never did I witness such a malign lust for blood as these

no effort to injure. Now and again a black warrior would rush from a nearby temple bearing a young woman in his arms

nstant the two would be swallowed in the vortex of a maelstrom of yel

, and the girl, brought miraculously unharmed through the conflict,

d Thuvia told me that the attacks of the black pirates were usually made simultaneously along the entire r

position for a moment, Thuvia t

d, "why a million warriors guard the domai

ted a score of times during the fifteen years I have been a prisoner here. Fro

extermination of the race of therns is threatened. It is as though they but utilized the race as playthings, with which

the attacks, or at least the blacks would scarce be so bold. Why, see how perfectly ungua

sand great black battleships circled the Mountains of Otz, pouring tons of projectiles upon the temples, the gar

erance of the black men. They were near to exterminatio

d for by either thern or pirate. The great banths which we had liberated in the garden had evidently been

l of a sudden a great form shot from a clump of low shrubbery into the midst of a struggling mass of humani

mselves among the fighters. Panic reigned in an instant. Thern and black man turne

led themselves into the thick of the fight. Leaping and clawing, they mowed down the warriors

t came to me that we were wasting valuable time watching this

y. I turned to search for an opening through the contending hordes. If we could but reach the ramparts we might

ccurred to me before! I was thoroughly familiar with the mechanism of every known make of flier on Barsoom. For nine years I had sailed and fought with the navy

ors. Another instant found us huddled on the tiny deck. My hand was on the starting lever. I pressed my thumb upon the button which controls the ray of repulsion, that splendid dis

us from the melee. We had been discovered. With shrieks of rage the demons sprang for us. With frenzied insistence I continued to press the little

ged only with sufficient repulsive energy to lift two ordinar

. There was not an instant to

at high speed and as the blacks came yelling upon us I slipped

ll upon me. I heard far above my head, and faintly, in Thuvia's voice: "My Prince, O my Prin

t temporarily at least Thuvia and Tars Tarkas

r occasions when I had been called upon to face fearful odds upon this planet of warriors and fierce beasts, I found that

to reach me with their shorter swords, but presently they gave back, and the esteem in w

must go down eventually to certain death before them. I shuddered at the thought of it, dying thus in this terrible place where

st and the joy of battle surged over me. The fighting smile that has brought consternation to a thousand foemen touched my lips. I pu

ho faced me I knew, so even as I fought I kept my

. I had just disarmed a huge fellow who had given me a desperate st

y, yet withal there was a touch

your detestable yellow hair and your white skin yo

ith these fellows and fighting with them against the therns I might enlist their aid in regaining my liberty. But ju

uarely in the face and knocking him senseless to the sward. At the same instant I saw that the thing t

he one chance for escape that it offered presented itself to me. The vessel was slowly risi

nt I sprang completely over them. A second leap carried me

ng through the branches of the higher vegetation of the ga

ther instant I was carried beyond the crest of the Golden Cliffs, out over the Valley Dor,

. I hoped so. Or possibly it might belong to a friendly people, and have wandered by accident almost within the clutche

with the greatest caution, I commenced to climb s

nd it when a fierce black face was thrust over the side