A PRINCESS OF MARS
A DUEL TO THE DEATH
My was to tell her of my love, and then I of the of her position I alone the of her captivity, and protect her in my way against the thousands of she must upon our at Thark. I not her additional pain or by a love which, in all she did not return. Should I be so indiscreet, her position would be more than now, and the that she might that I was taking of her helplessness, to her was the final which sealed my lips.
"Why are you so quiet, Dejah Thoris?" I asked. "Possibly you would return to Sola and your quarters."
"No," she murmured, "I am happy here. I do not know why it is that I should always be happy and when you, John Carter, a stranger, are with me; yet at such times it that I am safe and that, with you, I shall soon return to my father's and his arms about me and my mother's and on my cheek."
"Do people kiss, then, upon Barsoom?" I asked, when she had the word she used, in answer to my as to its meaning.
"Parents, brothers, and sisters, yes; and," she added in a low, tone, "lovers."
"And you, Dejah Thoris, have and and sisters?"
"Yes."
"And a—lover?"
She was silent, I to repeat the question.
"The man of Barsoom," she ventured, "does not ask personal questions of women, his mother, and the woman he has for and won."
"But I have fought—" I started, and then I my had been cut from my mouth; for she as I myself and ceased, and my from her she them out to me, and without a word, and with high, she moved with the of the queen she was toward the and the of her quarters.
I did not attempt to her, other than to see that she the in safety, but, Woola to her, I and entered my own house. I sat for hours cross-legged, and cross-tempered, upon my upon the plays upon us of mortals.
So this was love! I had it for all the years I had the five and their seas; in of and opportunity; in of a half-desire for love and a search for my ideal, it had for me to and in love with a from another world, of a possibly, yet not with mine. A woman who was from an egg, and of life might a thousand years; people had and ideas; a woman hopes, pleasures, of and of right and might as from mine as did those of the green Martians.
Yes, I was a fool, but I was in love, and though I was the I had I would not have had it otherwise for all the of Barsoom. Such is love, and such are lovers love is known.
To me, Dejah Thoris was all that was perfect; all that was and and and good. I that from the of my heart, from the of my on that night in Korad as I sat cross-legged upon my while the nearer moon of Barsoom raced through the western sky toward the horizon, and up the gold and marble, and of my world-old chamber, and I it today as I at my in the little study the Hudson. Twenty years have intervened; for ten of them I and for Dejah Thoris and her people, and for ten I have upon her memory.
The of our for Thark clear and hot, as do all Martian for the six when the melts at the poles.
I out Dejah Thoris in the of chariots, but she her to me, and I see the red blood to her cheek. With the of love I my peace when I might have of the nature of my offense, or at least the of it, and so have effected, at worst, a conciliation.
I out Dejah Thoris in the of chariots.
I out Dejah Thoris in the of chariots.
My that I must see that she was comfortable, and so I into her and her and furs. In doing so I noted with that she was by one to the of the vehicle.
"What this mean?" I cried, to Sola.
"Sarkoja it best," she answered, her her of the procedure.
Examining the I saw that they with a lock.
"Where is the key, Sola? Let me have it."
"Sarkoja it, John Carter," she answered.
I without word and out Tars Tarkas, to I to the and cruelties, as they to my lover's eyes, that were being upon Dejah Thoris.
"John Carter," he answered, "if you and Dejah Thoris the Tharks it will be upon this journey. We know that you will not go without her. You have a fighter, and we do not wish to you, so we you in the way that will yet security. I have spoken."
I saw the of his at a flash, and that it was to from his decision, but I asked that the key be taken from Sarkoja and that she be to the alone in future.
"This much, Tars Tarkas, you may do for me in return for the that, I must confess, I for you."
"Friendship?" he replied. "There is no such thing, John Carter; but have your will. I shall direct that Sarkoja to the girl, and I myself will take the of the key."
"Unless you wish me to assume the responsibility," I said, smiling.
He looked at me long and he spoke.
"Were you to give me your word that neither you Dejah Thoris would attempt to until after we have safely the of Tal Hajus you might have the key and the into the river Iss."
"It were that you the key, Tars Tarkas," I replied
He smiled, and said no more, but that night as we were making I saw him Dejah Thoris' himself.
With all his and there was an of something in Tars Tarkas which he to subdue. Could it be a of some come from an to him with the of his people's ways!
As I was Dejah Thoris' I passed Sarkoja, and the black, look she me was the I had for many hours. Lord, how she me! It from her so that one might almost have cut it with a sword.
A moments later I saw her in with a named Zad; a big, hulking, powerful brute, but one who had a kill among his own chieftains, and so was still an o mad, or man with one name; he win a second name only with the metal of some chieftain. It was this which me to the names of either of the I had killed; in fact, some of the me as Dotar Sojat, a of the of the two metal I had taken, or, in other words, I had in fight.
As Sarkoja talked with Zad he occasional in my direction, while she to be him very to some action. I paid little attention to it at the time, but the next day I had good to the circumstances, and at the same time a into the of Sarkoja's and the lengths to which she was of going to her on me.
Dejah Thoris would have none of me again on this evening, and though I spoke her name she neither replied, by so much as the of an that she my existence. In my I did what most other lovers would have done; I word from her through an intimate. In this it was Sola I in another part of camp.
"What is the with Dejah Thoris?" I out at her. "Why will she not speak to me?"
Sola puzzled herself, as though such on the part of two were her, as they were, child.
"She says you have her, and that is all she will say, that she is the of a and the of a and she has been by a who not the teeth of her grandmother's sorak."
I over this report for some time, asking, "What might a be, Sola?"
"A little animal about as big as my hand, which the red Martian keep to play with," Sola.
Not fit to the teeth of her grandmother's cat! I must rank low in the of Dejah Thoris, I thought; but I not help laughing at the of speech, so and in this respect so earthly. It me homesick, for it very much like "not fit to her shoes." And then a train of new to me. I to wonder what my people at home were doing. I had not them for years. There was a family of Carters in Virginia who close relationship with me; I was to be a great uncle, or something of the foolish. I pass for twenty-five to thirty years of age, and to be a great uncle always the of incongruity, for my and were those of a boy. There were two little in the Carter family I had loved and who had there was no one on Earth like Uncle Jack; I see them just as plainly, as I there under the of Barsoom, and I for them as I had for any before. By nature a wanderer, I had the true meaning of the word home, but the great of the Carters had always for all that the word did to me, and now my toward it from the cold and I had been amongst. For did not Dejah Thoris me! I was a low creature, so low in that I was not fit to the teeth of her grandmother's cat; and then my saving of came to my rescue, and laughing I into my and and slept upon the moon-haunted ground the sleep of a and healthy man.
We the next day at an early hour and with only a single until just dark. Two the of the march. About we to our right what was an incubator, and Lorquas Ptomel Tars Tarkas to it. The took a dozen warriors, myself, and we raced across the of to the little enclosure.
It was an incubator, but the eggs were very small in with those I had in ours at the time of my on Mars.
Tars Tarkas and the minutely, announcing that it to the green men of Warhoon and that the was where it had been up.
"They cannot be a day's ahead of us," he exclaimed, the light of to his face.
The work at the was indeed. The open the entrance and a of them, in, soon all the eggs with their short-swords. Then remounting we to join the cavalcade. During the I took occasion to ask Tars Tarkas if these Warhoons eggs we had were a smaller people than his Tharks.
"I noticed that their eggs were so much smaller than those I saw in your incubator," I added.
He that the eggs had just been there; but, like all green Martian eggs, they would the five-year period of until they the size of those I had on the day of my on Barsoom. This was an piece of information, for it had always to me that the green Martian women, large as they were, such eggs as I had the four-foot from. As a of fact, the new-laid egg is but little larger than an ordinary egg, and as it not to until to the light of the sun the have little in hundreds of them at one time from the to the incubators.
Shortly after the of the Warhoon eggs we to the animals, and it was this that the second of the day's occurred. I was in my from one of my to the other, for I the day's work them, when Zad approached me, and without a word my animal a with his long-sword.
I did not need a manual of green Martian to know what reply to make, for, in fact, I was so wild with anger that I from my pistol and him for the he was; but he waiting with long-sword, and my only choice was to my own and meet him in with his choice of or a one.
This is always permissible, therefore I have used my short-sword, my dagger, my hatchet, or my had I wished, and been my rights, but I not use or a while he only his long-sword.
I the same he had I he himself upon his ability with it, and I wished, if I him at all, to do it with his own weapon. The that was a long one and the resumption of the for an hour. The entire us, a clear space about one hundred in for our battle.
Zad to me as a might a wolf, but I was much too quick for him, and each time I side-stepped his he would go past me, only to a from my upon his arm or back. He was soon blood from a dozen minor wounds, but I not obtain an opening to deliver an thrust. Then he his tactics, and and with dexterity, he to do by science what he was unable to do by strength. I must admit that he was a swordsman, and had it not been for my and the the of Mars me I might not have been able to put up the I did against him.
We for some time without doing much on either side; the long, straight, needle-like in the sunlight, and out upon the as they together with each parry. Finally Zad, that he was more than I, to close in and end the in a final of for himself; just as he me a of light full in my eyes, so that I not see his approach and only to one in an to the that it I already in my vitals. I was only successful, as a pain in my left attested, but in the of my as I to again my adversary, a met my which paid me well for the the temporary had me. There, upon Dejah Thoris' three figures, for the purpose of the above the of the Tharks. There were Dejah Thoris, Sola, and Sarkoja, and as my over them a little was presented which will in my memory to the day of my death.
As I looked, Dejah Thoris upon Sarkoja with the of a and something from her hand; something which in the as it to the ground. Then I what had me at that moment of the fight, and how Sarkoja had a way to kill me without herself the final thrust. Another thing I saw, too, which almost my life for me then and there, for it took my mind for the of an from my antagonist; for, as Dejah Thoris the from her hand, Sarkoja, her with and rage, out her and a at Dejah Thoris; and then Sola, our dear and Sola, them; the last I saw was the great knife upon her breast.
My enemy had from his and was making it for me, so I gave my attention to the work in hand, but my mind was not upon the battle.
We each other time after time, 'til suddenly, the point of his at my in a I neither escape, I myself upon him with and with all the weight of my body, that I would not die alone if I prevent it. I the tear into my chest, all black me, my in dizziness, and I my me.
