like the grey and silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange, compelling influence of the mighty god of w
a cave in which my still and lifeless body lay wrapped in the similitude of ea
that strange power which twice had drawn me through the immensity of space, praying as I h
wam, my knees gave beneath me and I pitched headlong
here upon the banks of the placid Hudson, I could hear the awful moans and rustling of the fearsome thing which had lurked and threatened me from the dark recesses of the cave, I made the same mighty and superhuman effort to break the bonds of
my eyes again toward Mars, lifted my h
the same instant of unthinkable cold and utter darkness that I had experienced twenty years before, and then I opened my eyes in ano
ng to my throat as the sudden fear swept through me that I had
lanetary space? What assurance that I might not as well be hurt
and beautiful trees, covered with huge and gorgeous blossoms and filled with brilliant, voiceless bird
e trees and birds were unlike anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further trees I
ction of this smaller planet and the reduced air pressure of its greatly rarefied atmosphere, afforded so little resistance to my earthly muscles that the ordi
eed be in some, to me, unknown corner of Mars, and this was very possible since during my ten ye
d soon had mastered once more the art of attuni
s close-cropped and carpet-like as some old English lawn and the trees themselves showed evidence of careful pruning to a uniform height of about fifteen
entry into Mars on this second occasion through the domain of a civilized people and that when I should find them I
ome of them fully a hundred feet in diameter, attested their prodigious height, which I could only guess
ade pianos. The wood of some of the trees was as black as ebony, while their nearest neighbours might perhaps gleam in the sub
while the blooms that clustered thick upon them may not be described in
broad expanse of meadow land, and as I was about to emerge from the shadows of the trees a sight met
dim line indicated its further shore, while at my right a mighty river, broad, plac
hty perpendicular bluffs, from the very ba
took my immediate attention from the beauties of the forest. It was the sight of
most manlike in appearance. The larger specimens appeared to be about ten or twelve feet in height when
e manner of an elephant's trunk, in that they moved in sinuous and snakelike undulations, as though e
engaged in the occupation that seemed to be the principal business of each of them, and which consisted
d, I may say that that single cursory examination of this awful travesty on Nature would have proved quite sufficient to my desires had
r a broad band of white which encircled its protruding, sing
nk face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could think
was quite blank to the chin, for the t
ch hair was about the bigness of a large angleworm, and as the thing moved the muscles of its scalp this awful head-covering see
ed them, and the feet, too, were human in shape, but of monstrous proportions.
, were the result of its peculiar method of feeding, which consists in cropping off the tender vegetation with its razor
a massive tail about six feet in length, quite round where it joined the body, but tap
ch about six inches in length, which dangled, one on either side, from its armpits. They were suspended by a small
or merely portions of a compo
imens dangling from them, not all were thus equipped, and I further noted that the little ones varied in size from what appeared to be but tiny unopen
rger than those which remained attached to their parents, and fro
d I was on the point of stepping from my hiding-place and revealing myself to them to note the effect upon them of the sight of a man when my rash
rom which the sound seemed to come, and at the same instant every particular snake-like hair upon their heads rose stiffly perpendicular as if each had been a sentient organism looking or listening for the source or meaning of the wail. And inde
s the leader. A strange purring sound issued from the mouth in the palm of one of his han
kable, springing as they did in great leaps of twent
ang across the meadow in their wake with leaps and bounds even more prodigious than their own, for the muscles of
he cliffs, and as I neared this point I found the meadow dotted with huge boulde
broke upon my horrified gaze. As I topped a great boulder I saw the herd of plant
re were members of the wild hordes that people the dea
near the centre of their foreheads, the laterally placed, protruding eyes with which they could look forward or backward, or to either side without turning their heads
e tribes to which they belonged, I would have known them on the instant forom are eternally at deadly war with one another, and never, except on that single historic instance when the great Tars Tarkas of Thark gathered a hundred and fifty thousand green warriors from several hor
in wide-eyed amazement, the very evidentl
gers, but no firearms were in evidence, else it had be
ts very strangeness was the more potent, since in the science of the green warriors there was no defence for this singular manner of att
ectly above their heads. His powerful tail was raised high to one side, and as he passed close above them he
d the shrill, screeching purr of their uncanny mouths were well calculated to confuse and terrorize their prey, so that as two of them leaped simu
and it seemed that it could be but a matter of seco
experiences of the past few minutes, swung his mighty long-sword aloft and met th
with his cruel tail that laid both of th
as charging him in a body, he rushed boldly to meet them, swinging his long-sword in the terrific manner that I h
the advancing plant men, and then commenced a mad race for the forest, in
the cliffs, and thus the mad race was taking the entire part
ation for him, and acting as I am wont to do, more upon impulse than after mature deliberation, I instantly sprang from my s
dly gaining on the fleeing warrior, but this time I grasped a mighty long-sword in my hand and in my heart was the old blood lust of the fighting man,
e he had made half the distance to the forest, and now he stood with his back t
eir prey, they did not note my soundless approach, so that I was upon them with
to the right and left of him as I had never seen but one other warrior do, with great circling strokes that formed a figure eight about him and thatcalled the herd to the attack upon their victims. Again and again it rose, but we were too much engaged with the
oozes from a crushed caterpillar, smeared us from head to foot, for every cut and thrust of our longswords brought spurts of th
en talons sank into my flesh I experienced the frightful sensation of mois
vouring to reach my throat from in front, while two more, one
longer when the huge fellow discovered my plight, and tearing himself from those that surrounded him, he raked the
s to deliver their deadly blows, and as we were easily their match while they remained upon the ground, we were making great head
range figure of a man shrieking out his shrill signal, the while he waved one hand in the direction of the
ng in from all directions across the meadow, from out of the forest, and from the far distance of the flat land across the river, I could see converging upon us a hundred diffe
death," I said to
ance in the direction
g and as great warriors shou
te antagonists as he spoke, and I turned in
green men of Barsoom; their shrewdest statesman, their mighties