III INTERNATIONAL FALLS PRESS FACE THKEF pungent iwior. and Icould only assume the horizon. As I gazed upon It I felt Single handed, 1 could not have par1 Like Its master, it was entirely devoid 'ittcess thai I had been overcome by some a spell of overpowering fascination— sued better tactics, for the red men, of hair, but. was of a dark slate poisonous gas, but why I should iimy it was Mars, the god of war, and for convinced by sudden surprise that not tolor anrK exceeding smooth and glossy. me, the fighting man, it had always mental faculties and yet' be less than a regiment of regulars was Its belly was white and its legs held the power of Irresistible enchantment. unalile lo move I could not fathom. upon them, turned and fled In every shaded from the slate of its shoulders The noise of the approaching horses As I gazed at It on that fargone direction for their bows, arrows and °f Mai^ and hips to a vivid yellow at the feet. n|ght it seemed to call across had ceased, and I judged the Indians rifles. Unarmed and naked as I was, the the unthinkable void, to lure me to it, were creeping stealthily upon me The view which their hurried routing first law of nature manifested itself to draw me as the lodestone attracts along the little ledge which led to my disclosed filled me with apprehension In the only possible solution of my a particle of iron. J:\illj: lomb. and with rage. Under the clear Immediate problem, and that was to My longing was beyond the power I had not long to wait before~a rays of the Arizona moon lay Powell, pet out of the vicinity of the point of opposition I closed my eyes, ealthy sound apprised me of their EdgarRice Burroughs his body fairly bristling with the arrows of the charging spear. Consequently stretched out my arms toward the god nearness, and then a war-honneted, of the braves. That he was already I gave a very earthly and at the same of my vocation and felt myself drawn paint-streaked face was thrust cauiM dead I could not but be convinced, time superhuman leap to reach the with the suddenness of thought i! !'. around the shoulder of the I and yet I would have saved top of the Martian incubator, for such Author of through the trackless immensity of '•lift, and savage eyes looked into his &ody from mutilation at the hands I had determined it must be. Apes space. There was an instant of extreme nne. of the Apaches as quickly as I would My effort was crowned with a success Jarzan Of Tfie cold and utter darkness. The fellow, instead of approaching, have saved the man himself from which appalled me no less than It Illustration/ by merely stood and stared his eyes death. bulging and his jaw dropped. And CHAPTER II. Riding close to him 1 reached down IRWIN MYERS then another savage face appeared, from the saddle, and grasping his and a third and fourth and fifth, My Advent on Mars. cartridge belt drew him up across the A.C.Mc Clu rg and Company I craning their necks over the shoulders opened my eves upon a strange withers of my mount. To return by of their fellows whom they could and weird landscape. I knew that I the way I had come would be more •«ot pass upon the narrow ledge. Each was on Mars not once did I question And because of this conviction I hazardous than to continue across the FOREWORD. either my sanity or my wakefulness. plateau, so, putting spurs to my poor i-ce was the picture of awe and fear, have determined to write down the It was midday, the sun was shining 'n't for what reason I did not know, beast, I made a dash for the opening To the Reader of this Work: story of the interesting periods of my i.uir did Mearn until ten years later. full upon me and "the heat of It was to the pass which I could distinguish life and of my death. I cannot explain In submitting Captain Carter'* Suddenly a low but distant tnoanij£ rather intense upon my naked body, on the far side of the tableland. the phenomena I can only set strange manuscript to you in book sound issued from the recesses of yet no greater than would have been The Indians had by this time discovered down here in the words of an ordinary form, I believe that a few words relative true under similar conditions on an that I was alone and I was he, cave behind me, and, as it readied soldier of fortune a chronicle to this remarkable personality 'he ears of the Indians, they turned Arizona desert. pursued with imprecations,^ arrows, of the strange events that befell me %Si51 be of Interest. :ird fled in terror, panic stricken. and rifle balls. The fact that I was a A little to my left, perhaps a hundred during the ten years that my dead My first recollection of Captain Carter Their wild cries echoed in the canyon. rather rapidly moving target saVed yards, appeared a low. walled body lay undiscovered in an Arizona is of the few months he spent at for_a short time, and then all was me from the various deadly projectiles enclosure about four feet In height. cave. my father's home in Virginia, just once more. of the enemy and permitted me to No water, and no other vegetation My name is John Carter I am better still prior to the opening, of the Civil war. reach the shadows of the surrounding The sound which had frightened than moss was in evidence, and as I known as Captain Jack Carter of I was then a child of but five years, peaks before an orderly pursuit could was somewhat thirsty I determined to Virginia. At the close of the Civil hem was not repeated, but it had yet I well remember the tall, dark, be organized. war I found myself possessed of sev^ een sufficient as it was to start ine do a little exploring. smooth-faced, athletic man whom 1 eral hundred thousand dollars (Cpn*federate) My horse was traveling practically jpecnlatinsr on the possible horror Springing to my feet I received my called Uncle Jack. unguided, as I knew that I had probably which lurked in the shadows at my He seemed always to be laughing and a captain's commission first Martian surprise, for the effort, back. In the cavalry arm of an army which less knowledge of the exact loca- and he entered into the sports of the which on Earth would have brought no longer existed. Mastertess fgffiii&j. tl*n._of.-tJr^*tmii to the pass than he, ,Several times 1 thought I heard me standing upright, carried me into children with the same hearty good less, and with my only means*. yye- -rthus,4t happened that he entered fi'.'n* sounds behind *me as of sonic the Martian air to the height of about fellowship he displayed toward those lihood, fighting, gone, I determihecjl to I.a defile which led to the summit of in moving cautiously, but eventual three yards. I alighted softly upon pastimes which the men and women work my way to the Southwest aTidv the rang© and not to the pass which I ly even thes£ ceased, and I was left the ground, however, without appreciable of his own age indulged or he attempt to retrieve my fallen fortunes had hoped would carry me to the valley at would sit for an hour a time entertaining to 'the- contemplation of* my position shock or jar. Now commenced in a search for gold.. and to safety. my old grandmother with without interruption. a series of evolutions which even then I spent nearly a year prospecting My first knowledge that I was on stories of his strange, wild life In all Until possibly midnight all was silence, seemed ludicrous in the extreme. My In company with another Confederate parts of the world. We all loved him, the wrong trail came when I heard the silence of the dead then, muscles, perfectly attuned and accustomed officer, Captain James K. Powell of and our slaves fairly worshiped the the yells of the pursuing savages suddenly suddenly, the awful uioan of the morning to the force of gravity on Richmond. We were extremely fortunate, grow fainter and fainter far off ground he trod. broke upon my startled oars, and Earth, played the mischief with me in for late in the winter of 1865, to my left. there came again from the black attempting for the first time to cope He was a splendid specimen of manhood, after many hardships and privations, I drew rein on a little leyel promontory shadows the sound of a moving thing, standing a good two inches over with the lesser gravitation and lower six feet, broad of shoulder and nar- located the most remarkable gold- overlooking the trail below and we and a faint rustling as of dead leaves air pressure on Mars. nrtl/laef "My Effort Was Crowned With a Suecess bearing quartz vein that our wildest to my left, and saw the party of pursuing A O A A A The shock to my already overstrained row of hip, with the carriage of the I was determined, however, to explore dreams had ever pictured. Which Appalled Me No Lesa savages disappearing around the nervous system was terrible in the trained fighting-man. His features the low structure which was the Than It Seemed to Surprise the Martian As our equipment was crude in the point of a neighboring peak. extreme, and with a superhuman effort only evidence of habitation in sight, were regular and clear cut, his hair Warriors." extreme we decided that one of us I knew the Indians would soon discover I strove to break my awful bonds. black and closely cropped, while his and so I hit upon the unique plan of *-lr must return to civilization, purchase that they were on the wrong Then something gave, there was a momentary eyes were of a steel gray, reflecting a reverting to first principles in locomotion, seemed to surprise the Martian warriors, the necessary machinery and return trail and that the search for me would feeling of nausea, a sharp strong and loyal character, filled with creeping. I did fairly well at for it carried me fully thirty with a sufficient force of men properly and initiative. click as of the snapping of a steel be renewed in the right" direction as this and in a few moments had feet into the air and landed me a hundred to work the mine. wire, and I stood with my back soon as they located my tracks. W&en the war broke out he left ns, reached the low, encircling wall of the feet from my pursuers and'-fen As Powell was familiar with the I had followed the trail for perhaps a against tlie wall of the cave, facing nor did I see him again for some fifteen enclosure. I cautiously gained my feet the opposite side of the enclosure. III country, as well as with the mechanical hundred yards when a sharp turn to my unknown foe. and peered over the top upon the or sixteen years. When he returned I alighted upon the soft moss easily requirements of mining we determined the right brought me to the mouth of I have seen him sit for hours And then the moonlight flooded the strangest sight it had ever been given and without mishap, and turning saw that it would be best for him a large cave. The opening was about gazing off Into space, his face set in a cave, and there before nie lay my own me to see. my enemies lined up along the further to make the trip. four feet in height and three to four look of wistful longing and hopeless hodv as it had been lying all these The roof of the enclosure was a wall. Some were surveying me with On March 3, 1866, Powell and I feet wide, and at this opening the trail misery and at night he would sit thus hours, with the eyes staring toward solid glass about four or five inches expressions which I afterward discovered packed his provisions on two of our ended. looking up into the heavens, at what she open ledge and the hands resting in thickness, and beneath this were marked extreme astonishment, burros, and bidding me good-by he Dismounting, I laid Powell upon the ill I did not 'know until I read his manuscript Unjply upon the ground. I looked first several hundred large eggs, perfectly and the others were evidently satisfying mounted his horse, and started down ground, but the most painstaking examination years afterward. at "my lifeless clay there upon the round and snowy white. The eggs themselves that I had not molested the mountainside toward the valley, failed to reveal the faintest floor of the cave and then down at He remained with us for about a were nearly uniform in size, being their young. across which led the first stage of his spark of life. myself in utter bewilderment for year and then went to New York, about two and one-half feet in diameter. They were conversing together In journey. Leaving the body where It lay on J:! where he purchased a little place on low tones, and gesticulating and pointing I could see him and his little pack the ledge I crept into the cave to reconnoiter. the Hudson, where I visited him. Five or six had already hatched in, toward me. Their discover^fttjat I found a large chamber, animals picking their way down the He told me at this time that if anything and the grotesque caricatures which I had not harmed the little Martians' possibly a hundred feet in diameter mountainside toward the .valley/ amd V- II should happen to him he wished sat blinking in the sunlight were and that I was unharmed must have and thirty or forty feet in height a all during the morning I would catch enough to cause me to doubt my sanity. me to take charge of his estate, "and caused them 'to look upon me with less smooth^and well-worn floor, and many occasional glimpses of them as they he gave me a key to a compartment They seemed mostly head, with ferocity but, as I was to learn later, other evidences that the cave had, at topped a hog back or came out upon a in the safe which stood in his study, little scrawny bodies, long necks and the thing which weighed most in my in some remote period, been inhabited. level plnf mi. My last sight of Powell telling me I would find his will there six legs, or, as I afterward learned, favor was my exhibition of hurdling. ii As I was continuing my examination was abou. three in the afternoon as and «U( some personal instructions which two legs and two arms, with an Intermediary While the Martians are immense, I commenced to feel a pleasant he entered the shadows of the range h& h^ had me pledge myself to carry out pair of limbs which could be "i'rf their bones are very large and they drowsiness creeping over me which- 1 on the opposite side of the valley. th absolute fidelity. used at will either as arms or legs. are muscled only in proportion to the yr attributed to the fatigue of my long Some hours afterward I happened Their eyes were set at the extreme After I had retired for the night 1 gravitation which they must overcome. and strenuous ride, and the reaction to glance casually across the valley sides of their heads a trifle above the have ha'* seen him from my window standing The result Is that they are Infinitely from the excitement of the fight and and was much surprised to note three center and protruded In such a manner In the moonlight on the brink of less agile and less powerful, in proportion the pursuit. little dots In about the same place I that they could be directed either the bluff overlooking the Hudson with to their weight, than an Earth I soon became so drowsy that I had last seen my friend and his two forward or back and also independently his arms stretched out to the heavens man, and I doubt that were one of could scarcely resist the strong desire pack animals. I fim not given to of each other, thus permitting this as though In appeal. them suddenly to be transported to to throw myself on the floor of the needless worrying, but the more 1 queer animal to look in any direction, Several months after I had returned Earth he could lift his own weight I cave for a few moments' rest, but tried to convince myself that all was home from my last visit, the first of or in two directions at once, without Ml from the ground in fact, I am convinced knew that this would never do, as It well with Powell, and that the dots I the necessity of turning the head. March, 1886, I think, I received a telegram that he could not do so. would mean certain death at the had seen on his trail were antelope or from him asking me to come to There was no hair on their bodies, My feat, then, was as marvelous upon hands of my red friends, who might wild horses, the less I was able to assure' him at once. which were of a very light yellowgreen Mars as it would have been upon be upon me at any moment. With an myself. color. In the adults, as I was I arrived at the little station, about Earth, and from desiring to annihilate Powell, I knew, was well armed a mile from his grounds, and the to learn quite soon, this color deepens me they suddenly looked upon me as MyfrvV and, further, an experienced Indian livery man told me he had some very to an olive green and is darker in the a wonderful discovery to be captured fighter but I too had lived and fought bad news for me the Captain had male than in the female. and exhibited among their fellows. for years among the Sioux in the been found dead shortly after daylight The iris of the eyes is blood red, as I noted that each was armed with North, and I knew that his chances that very morning by the watchman in Albinos, while the pupil is dark. several other weapons in addition to were small against a party of cunning attached to an adjoining property. The eyeball Itself Is very white, as the huge spear which I have described. trailing Apaches. Finally I are the teeth. These latter add a most The weapon which caused me to decide could endure the suspense no longer, fit For some reason this news did not ferocious appearance to an otherwise against an attempt at escape by and, arming myself with two Colt revolvers surprise me, but I hurried out to his fearsome and terrible countenance, as flight was what was evidently a rifle and a carbine, I strapped two place as quickly as possible. the lower tusks curve upward to sharp of some description and which I felt," belts of cartridges about me and points which end about where the eyes The watchman who had discovered for some reason, they were peculiarly catching my saddle horse, started of earthly human beings are located. him related the few details connected efficient in handling. down the trail taken by Powell in the with the finding of the body. It lay, The whiteness of the teeth is not that These rifles were of a white metal morning. he said, stretched full length in the of ivory, but of the snowiest and most stocked with wood, which I learned Close upon dusk,- I discovered the •snow with the arms outstretched "For There I Lay Clothed, and Yet gleaming of china. later was a very light and intensely point where other tracks joined those above the head toward the edge of the Here I Stood, but Naked as at the I was given but little time to speculate hard growth much prized on Mars, of Powell. They were the tracks of Minute of My Birth bluff, and when he showed me the on the wonders of my new discovery. and entirely unknown to us denizens unshod ponies, three of them, and the spot Jt flashed upon me that it was I had seen that the eggs were of Earth. The metal of the barrel there I lay clothed, and yet here I ponies had been galloping. the Identical one where I had seen In the process of hatching, and as I is an alloy composed principally of I followed rapidly until, about midnight stood, but naked as at the minute of him on those other nights, with his stood watching the hideous little monsters aluminum and steel which they have my birth. I reached the water hole where arms raised in supplication to the break from their shells I failed learned to temper to a hardness far Powell had expected to camp. My first thought, was, Is this then skies. to note the approach of a score of exceeding that of the steel with which death! Have I indeed passed over forever I was interested to note that the Left alone in the study, I opened full-grown Martians from behind me. we are familiar. The weight of these into that other life! But I could tracks of the pursuing horsemen, for he safe and withdrew the contents of They might have captured me easily, rifles is comparatively little, and with not well believe this, as I could feel such I was now convinced they must rawer in which he had told me I but their intentions were far more the small caliber, explosive, radium my heart pounding against my ribs be, continued after Powell with only a would find my instructions. He directed sinister. It was the rattling of the projectiles which they use and the from the exertion of my efforts to release brief stop at the hole for water and that I remove his body to Virginia accoutrements of the foremost warrior great length of the barrel, they are myself from the anesthesis always at the same rate of speed as without embalming, and that he be which warned me. Had not the deadly in the extreme and at ranges jwhich had held me. his. laid in an open coffin within a tomb rifle of the leader of the party swung which would be unthinkable on Earth. Again was I suddenly recalled to I was positive now that the trailers which he previously had had constructed from its fastenings beside his saddle The theoretic effective radius of this my immediate surroundings by a repetition were Apaches and that they wished to and which, as I later learned, in such a way as to strike against the rifle Is three hundred miles, but the capture Powell alive for the fiendish of the weird moan from the •was well ventilated. His further instructions butt of his great metal-shod spear I best they can do In actual service pleasure of the torture, so I urged my depths of the cave. Naked and unarmed related to this manuscript should have snuffed out without ever when equipped with their wireless horse onward at a most dangerous as I was, I had no desire to which I was to retain sealed and unread, knowing that death was near me. But finders and sighters Is but a trifle face the unseen thing which menaced pace, hoping against hope that I would just as I found it, for eleven the little sound caused me to turn, over two hundred miles. me. catch up with the red rascals before years nor was I to divulge its contents and there upon me, not ten feet from The Martians, after conversing for •they attacked him. I leaped quickly through the opening until twenty-one years after his my breast, was the point of that huge a short time, turned and rode away into the starlight of a clear Arljzona "I Started Toward the Opening of the I had forged ahead for perhaps a death. spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped In the direction from which they had Cave, Only to Reel Drunkenly night. The crisp, fresh mountain mile or more, and had passed through strange feature about the tomb, A with gleaming metal, and held low at come, leaving one of their number air outside the cave acted as an a narrow, overhanging gorge just before Against a Side Wall." where his body still lies, Is that the the side of a mounted replica of the alone by the enclosure. When they I iimmediate tonic and felt new life entering suddenly upon the tableland, massive door is equipped with a little devils 1 had been watching. had covered perhaps two hundred effort I started toward the opening of :and new courage coursing through me. and the sight which met my eyes •single, huge gold-plated spring lock But how puny and harmless they the cave only to reel drunkenly yards they halted and turning their I 'Pausing upon the brink of the ledge filled me with consternation and. dismay. which can be opened only from the Inside. now looked beside this huge and terrific against a side wall, and from there mounts toward us sat "watching the upbraided myself for what now incarnation of hate, of vengeance, slip prone upon the floor. warrior by the enclosure. Seemed to me wholly unwarranted apprehension. The little stretch of level land was Tours very sincerely, and of death. The man himself, for sense of delicious dreaminess When his had come to a halt A force My better judgment, when white with Indian tepees, and there EDGAR RICE BURROUGH8. I such may call him, was fully fifteen he dismounted, threw down his spear overcame me, my muscles relaxed, and permitted the direction of clear and were probably half a thousand red feet In height and, on earth, would I was on the point of giving away to and small arms and came around the logical reasoning, convinced me that warriors, clustered around some object CHAPTER have weighed some four hundred end of the Incubator toward me, entirely my desire to sleep when-the sQund of I the noises had heard must have rejsulted near the center of the camp. 1 pounds. unarmed and as naked as I, approaching horses reached my ears. from purely natural and harmless was, of course, positive that Powell 'On the Arizona Hill#—The Escape of And his mount! How can earthly except for. the ornaments strapped upon I attempted to spring to my feet but causes probably the conformation was the attraction, but whether 1 -the Dead. words describe it! It towered ten feet his head, limbs and breast was horrified to discover that my do not know, of the cave was such that a alight thought or acted first I I do not know why I should fear at the shoulder had four legs on muscles refused to respond to, my When he was within about fifty feet I within the 'breeze had caused the sounds heard. but an Instant from moment "death, I who have died twice and am either aide a broad flat tall, larger at of me he unclasped an enormous metal will. I was now thoroughly awake, As I stood meditating, I turned my the view I scene broke upon my still alive but yet I have the same the tip than at the root, and which armlet and holding It toward me la but as unable to move a muscle as had whipped out my revolvers and gaze to the heavens, where the myriad 'horror of It as you who have never It held straight out behind while runnlng the open palm of his hand, addressed though turned to stone. It was then, •starr formed a gorgeous and fitting was charging ddwn upon the entire died, and it Is because of this terror a gaping month which split its for the first time, that I nett«*d me In a clear, resonant voices but Ilk rapidly, canopy for the wonders-of the earthly army of warriors, shooting •of death, I believe, that I am ao conwittcedofmymortalltj. from snoot long ma* head lte to Its 1 say slight vapor filling the cav* language. It Is needless to There and at the loupt was whooping tap of my I scene. My attention quickly stve neck. (To be continued) my nostril* a faintly to a lane I riveted by red atar da* -,V»\• t*