A PRINCESS OF MARS
THE ESCAPE OF THE DEAD
A of me, my relaxed, and I was on the point of way to my to sleep when the of my ears. I to to my but was to that my to respond to my will. I was now awake, but as unable to move a as though to stone. It was then, for the time, that I noticed a the cave. It was and only against the opening which to daylight. There also came to my a odor, and I only assume that I had been overcome by some gas, but why I should my and yet be unable to move I not fathom.
I the opening of the and where I see the of which the and the turn of the around which the led. The noise of the had ceased, and I the Indians were upon me along the little which to my tomb. I that I they would make work of me as I did not particularly the of the they might do to me if the them.
I had not long to wait a me of their nearness, and then a war-bonneted, paint-streaked was around the of the cliff, and looked into mine. That he see me in the light of the I was sure for the early sun was full upon me through the opening.
The fellow, of approaching, and stared; his and his dropped. And then another appeared, and a third and fourth and fifth, their necks over the of their they not pass upon the narrow ledge. Each was the picture of and fear, but for what I did not know, did I learn until ten years later. That there were still other those who me was from the that the passed word to those them.
Suddenly a low but from the of the me, and, as it the ears of the Indians, they and in terror, panic-stricken. So were their to from the thing me that one of the was from the to the below. Their wild in the for a time, and then all was still once more.
The which had them was not repeated, but it had been as it was to start me on the possible which in the at my back. Fear is a relative term and so I can only measure my at that time by what I had in previous positions of and by those that I have passed through since; but I can say without that if the I the next minutes were fear, then may God help the coward, for is of a its own punishment.
To be paralyzed, with one's toward some and unknown from the very of which the Apache turn in wild stampede, as a of sheep would from a pack of wolves, to me the last word in for a man who had been used to for his life with all the energy of a powerful physique.
Several times I I me as of somebody moving cautiously, but these ceased, and I was left to the of my position without interruption. I but the of my paralysis, and my only in that it might pass off as as it had upon me.
Late in the my horse, which had been with the cave, started slowly the trail, in search of food and water, and I was left alone with my unknown and the of my friend, which just my range of upon the where I had it in the early morning.
From then until possibly midnight all was silence, the of the dead; then, suddenly, the of the upon my ears, and there came again from the black the of a moving thing, and a as of leaves. The to my already was terrible in the extreme, and with a I to my bonds. It was an of the mind, of the will, of the nerves; not muscular, for I not move so much as my little finger, but none the less for all that. And then something gave, there was a of nausea, a as of the of a wire, and I with my against the of the my unknown foe.
And then the moonlight the cave, and there me my own as it had been all these hours, with the toward the open and the hands upon the ground. I looked at my there upon the of the and then at myself in bewilderment; for there I clothed, and yet here I but as at the minute of my birth.
The had been so and so that it left me for a moment of else than my metamorphosis. My was, is this then death! Have I passed over into that other life! But I not well this, as I my against my from the of my to myself from the which had me. My was in quick, gasps, cold out from every of my body, and the of the that I was anything other than a wraith.
Again was I to my by a of the from the of the cave. Naked and as I was, I had no to the thing which me.
My revolvers were to my which, for some reason, I not myself to touch. My was in its boot, to my saddle, and as my had off I was left without means of defense. My only to in and my was by a of the from the thing which now seemed, in the of the and to my imagination, to be upon me.
Unable longer to the to this place I through the opening into the of a clear Arizona night. The crisp, fresh air the as an and I new life and new through me. Pausing upon the of the I myself for what now to me apprehension. I with myself that I had for many hours the cave, yet nothing had me, and my judgment, when permitted the direction of clear and logical reasoning, me that the I had must have resulted from purely natural and causes; the of the was such that a had the I heard.
I to investigate, but I my to my with the pure, night air of the mountains. As I did so I saw me the of gorge, and level, cacti-studded flat, by the moonlight into a of soft and enchantment.
Few western are more than the of an Arizona landscape; the in the distance, the lights and upon and arroyo, and the of the stiff, yet a picture at once and inspiring; as though one were for the time a of some and world, so different is it from the of any other spot upon our earth.
As I thus meditating, I my from the to the where the a and for the of the scene. My attention was by a large red star close to the horizon. As I upon it I a spell of fascination—it was Mars, the god of war, and for me, the man, it had always the power of enchantment. As I at it on that far-gone night it to call across the void, to me to it, to me as the a particle of iron.
My was the power of opposition; I closed my eyes, out my arms toward the god of my and myself with the of through the of space. There was an of cold and darkness.
