A PRINCESS OF MARS
IN THE ATMOSPHERE FACTORY
For two days I waited there for Kantos Kan, but as he did not come I started off on in a direction toward a point where he had told me the nearest waterway. My only food of vegetable milk from the plants which gave so of this fluid.
Through two long I wandered, through the nights only by the and the days some or among the occasional I traversed. Several times I was by wild beasts; strange, that upon me in the dark, so that I had to my long-sword in my hand that I might be for them. Usually my strange, newly power me in time, but once I was with at my and a pressed close to mine I that I was threatened.
What manner of thing was upon me I did not know, but that it was large and and many-legged I feel. My hands were at its the had a to themselves in my neck, and slowly I the from me and closed my fingers, vise-like, upon its windpipe.
Without we there, the every to me with those fangs, and I to maintain my and the life from it as I it from my throat. Slowly my arms gave to the struggle, and by the and of my toward me, until, as the touched mine again, I that all was over. And then a of from the full upon the that me to the ground. The two rolled upon the moss, and one another in a manner, but it was soon over and my with above the of the thing which would have killed me.
The nearer moon, above the and up the Barsoomian scene, me that my was Woola, but from he had come, or how me, I was at a to know. That I was of his it is needless to say, but my at him was by as to the of his Dejah Thoris. Only her death I sure, account for his from her, so I him to be to my commands.
By the light of the now I saw that he was but a of his self, and as he from my and to the at my I that the was more than starved. I, myself, was in but little but I not myself to eat the and I had no means of making a fire. When Woola had his I again took up my and in of the waterway.
At of the day of my search I was to see the high trees that the object of my search. About I myself to the of a which four square miles and two hundred in the air. It no in the other than the door at which I exhausted, was there any of life about it.
I no or other method of making my presence to the of the place, unless a small in the near the door was for that purpose. It was of about the of a lead pencil and that it might be in the nature of a speaking I put my mouth to it and was about to call into it when a voice from it me I might be, where from, and the nature of my errand.
I that I had from the Warhoons and was of and exhaustion.
"You wear the metal of a green and are by a calot, yet you are of the of a red man. In color you are neither green red. In the name of the ray, what manner of are you?"
"I am a friend of the red men of Barsoom and I am starving. In the name of open to us," I replied.
Presently the door to recede me until it had into the fifty feet, then it stopped and easily to the left, a short, narrow of concrete, at the end of which was another door, in every respect to the one I had just passed. No one was in sight, yet we passed the door it into place us and to its original position in the of the building. As the door had I had noted its great thickness, twenty feet, and as it its place once more after us, great of had from the it and their ends into in the floor.
A second and third door me and to one as the first, I a large where I food and drink set out upon a great table. A voice me to satisfy my and to my calot, and while I was thus my put me through a and cross-examination.
"Your are most remarkable," said the voice, on its questioning, "but you are speaking the truth, and it is that you are not of Barsoom. I can tell that by the of your brain and the of your organs and the shape and size of your heart."
"Can you see through me?" I exclaimed.
"Yes, I can see all but your thoughts, and were you a Barsoomian I read those."
Then a door opened at the of the and a strange, up, little of a man came toward me. He but a single article of or adornment, a small of gold from which upon his a great ornament as large as a dinner plate set solid with diamonds, for the exact center which was by a stone, an in diameter, that nine different and rays; the seven colors of our and two rays which, to me, were new and nameless. I cannot them any more than you red to a man. I only know that they were in the extreme.
The old man sat and talked with me for hours, and the part of our was that I read his every while he not an from my mind unless I spoke.
The old man sat and talked with me for hours.
The old man sat and talked with me for hours.
I did not him of my ability to his operations, and thus I learned a great which proved of value to me later and which I would have had he my power, for the Martians have such perfect of their that they are able to direct their with precision.
The in which I myself the which produces that which life on Mars. The of the entire on the use of the ray, one of the which I had noted from the great in my host's diadem.
This is from the other rays of the sun by means of upon the of the building, three-quarters of which is used for reservoirs in which the is stored. This product is then electrically, or of electric are with it, and the result is then to the five air of the where, as it is released, with the of space it into atmosphere.
There is always of the in the great to maintain the present Martian for a thousand years, and the only fear, as my new friend told me, was that some accident might the apparatus.
He me to an where I a of twenty radium any one of which was equal to the of all Mars with the compound. For eight hundred years, he told me, he had these which are used alternately a day each at a stretch, or a little over twenty-four and one-half Earth hours. He has one who the watch with him. Half a Martian year, about three hundred and forty-four of our days, each of these men alone in this huge, plant.
Every red Martian is the of the of atmosphere, but only two at one time the of to the great building, which, as it is with a hundred and fifty thick, is unassailable, the being from by air by a five thick.
The only they of attack is from the green Martians or some red man, as all Barsoomians that the very of every of life of Mars is upon the of this plant.
One I as I his was that the doors are by means. The are so that the doors are by the action of a of waves. To with my new-found toy I to him into this and so I asked him in a manner how he had managed to the doors for me from the of the building. As quick as a there to his mind nine Martian sounds, but as as he answered that this was a he must not divulge.
From then on his manner toward me as though he that he had been into his great secret, and I read and in his looks and thoughts, though his were still fair.
Before I retired for the night he promised to give me a to a officer who would help me on my way to Zodanga, which he said, was the nearest Martian city.
"But be sure that you do not let them know you are for Helium as they are at with that country. My and I are of no country, we to all Barsoom and this which we wear us in all lands, among the green men—though we do not trust ourselves to their hands if we can avoid it," he added.
"And so good-night, my friend," he continued, "may you have a long and restful sleep—yes, a long sleep."
And though he I saw in his the wish that he had me, and then a picture of him over me in the night, and the of a long and the words, "I am sorry, but it is for the best good of Barsoom."
As he closed the door of my him his were cut off from me as was the of him, which to me in my little knowledge of transference.
What was I to do? How I through these walls? Easily I kill him now that I was warned, but once he was I no more escape, and with the stopping of the of the great plant I should die with all the other of the planet—all, Dejah Thoris were she not already dead. For the others I did not give the of my finger, but the of Dejah Thoris from my mind all to kill my host.
Cautiously I opened the door of my and, by Woola, the of the great doors. A wild had come to me; I would attempt to the great by the nine I had read in my host's mind.
Creeping through after and runways which and I the great in which I had my long fast that morning. Nowhere had I my host, did I know where he himself by night.
I was on the point of out into the room when a noise me me into the of a in the corridor. Dragging Woola after me I low in the darkness.
Presently the old man passed close by me, and as he entered the which I had been about to pass through I saw that he a long thin in his hand and that he was it upon a stone. In his mind was the to the radium pumps, which would take about thirty minutes, and then return to my and me.
As he passed through the great and the runway which to the pump-room, I from my place and to the great door, the of the three which me and liberty.
Concentrating my mind upon the lock I the nine against it. In I waited, when the great door moved toward me and to one side. One after the other the opened at my and Woola and I into the darkness, free, but little off than we had been before, other than that we had full stomachs.
Hastening away from the of the I for the crossroad, to the as as possible. This I about and entering the I came to I for some of a habitation.
There were low of with doors, and no amount of and any response. Weary and from I myself upon the ground Woola to guard.
Some time later I was by his and opened my to see three red Martians a from us and me with their rifles.
"I am and no enemy," I to explain. "I have been a among the green men and am on my way to Zodanga. All I ask is food and for myself and my and the proper for my destination."
They their rifles and toward me their right hands upon my left shoulder, after the manner of their of salute, and me many questions about myself and my wanderings. They then took me to the house of one of them which was only a away.
The I had been at in the early were only by stock and farm produce, the house proper among a of trees, and, like all red-Martian homes, had been at night some or fifty from the ground on a large metal which up or a in the ground, and was by a radium engine in the entrance of the building. Instead of with and for their dwellings, the red Martians them up out of harm's way the night. They also have private means for or them from the ground without if they wish to go away and them.
These brothers, with their and children, three houses on this farm. They did no work themselves, being government officers in charge. The labor was performed by convicts, of war, and who were too to pay the high tax which all red-Martian governments impose.
They were the of and and I days with them, and recuperating from my long and experiences.
When they had my story—I all to Dejah Thoris and the old man of the plant—they me to color my to more nearly resemble their own and then attempt to in Zodanga, either in the army or the navy.
"The are small that your will be until after you have proven your and friends among the higher of the court. This you can most easily do through service, as we are a people on Barsoom," one of them, "and save our for the man."
When I was to they me with a small thoat, such as is used for purposes by all red Martians. The animal is about the size of a and gentle, but in color and shape an exact of his and of the wilds.
The had me with a reddish oil with which I my entire and one of them cut my hair, which had long, in the fashion of the time, square at the and in front, so that I have passed upon Barsoom as a full-fledged red Martian. My metal and were also in the of a Zodangan gentleman, to the house of Ptor, which was the family name of my benefactors.
They a little at my with Zodangan money. The medium of upon Mars is not from our own that the are oval. Paper money is by as they it and twice yearly. If a man more than he can redeem, the government pays his in full and the out the amount upon the or in mines, which are all owned by the government. This the as it has been a difficult thing to obtain labor to work the great farm lands of Mars, as they do like narrow from to pole, through wild by wild animals and men.
When I mentioned my to them for their to me they me that I would have opportunity if I long upon Barsoom, and me they me until I was out of upon the white turnpike.
