Latest / Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily / 06 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs

Transcript

06 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Classic Sci Fi Books - Daily

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter six, The Black Pirates of Barsoom, What is it?
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: I asked of the girl. For answer, she pointed to
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: the sky. I looked, and there above us I saw
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: shadowy bodies flitting hither and thither, high over temple, court
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and garden. Almost immediately flashes of light broke from these
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: strange objects. There was a roar of musketry. Then answering
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: flashes and roars from temple and rampart the Black Pirates
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: of Barsoom, O Prince said Thuvia. In great circles. The
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: aircraft of the marauders swept lower and lower toward the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: defending forces of the Thurns. Volley after volley they vomited
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: upon the temple guards. Volley on volley crashed through the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: thin air toward the fleeting and elusive fliers. As the
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: pirates stooped closer toward the ground, thurn soldiery poured from
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the temples into the gardens and courts. The sight of
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: them in the open brought a score of fliers darting
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: toward us from all directions. The Thens fired upon them
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: through shields affixed to their rifle, But on steadily on
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: came the grim black craft. They were small fliers, for
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: the most part, built for two to three men. A
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: few larger ones there were, but these kept high aloft,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: dropping bombs upon the temples from their keel batteries at length.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: With a concerted rush, evidently in response to a signal
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of command, the pirates in our immediate vicinity dashed recklessly
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to the ground in the very midst of the thern soldiery,
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: scarcely waiting for their craft to touch the creatures manning them,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: leaped among the theurns with the fury of demons. Such fighting
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: never had I witnessed its like. Before. I had thought
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the Green Martians the most ferocious warriors in the universe.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: But the awful abandon with which the Black Pirates threw
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: themselves upon their foes transcended everything I ever before had seen.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Beneath the brilliant light of Mars's two glorious moons, the
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: whole scene presented itself in vivid distinctness. The golden haired,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: white skinned throat turns battling with desperate courage in hand
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: to hand conflict with their ebony skinned foemen. Here a
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: little knot of struggling warriors trampled a bed of gorgeous Pomalia.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: There the curved sword of a black man found the
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: heart of a thern and left its dead foemen at
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: the foot of a wondrous statue carved from a living ruby. Yonder,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a dozen thrns pressed a single pirate back upon a
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: bench of emerald, upon whose iridescent surface a strangely beautiful
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: barsomium design was traced out in inlaid diamonds. A little
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: to one side stood Thuvia the thark and Eye. The
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: tide of battle had not reached us, but the fighters,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: from time to time swung close enough that we might
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: distinctly note them. The Black pirates interest me immensely. I
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: had heard vague rumors, little more than legends they were
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: during my former life on Mars, but never had I
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: seen them, nor talked with one who had. They were
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: popularly supposed to inhabit the Lesser Moon, from which they
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: descended upon Barsoom at long intervals. Where they visited, they
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: wrought the most horrible atrocities, and when they left, carried
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: away with them firearms and ammunition and young girls as prisoners.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: These later, the rumor had it, they sacrificed to some
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: terrible god in an orgy, which ended in the eating
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: of their victims. I had an excellent opportunity to examine them,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as the strife occasionally brought now one and now another
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: close to where I stood. They were large men, possibly
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: six feet and over in height. Their features were clear
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: cut and handsome in the extreme. Their eyes were well
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: set and large, though a slight narrowness lent them a
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: crafty appearance. The iris, as well as I could determine
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: by moonlight, was of extreme blackness, while the eyeball itself
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: was quite white and clear. The physical structure of their
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: bodies seemed identical with those of the Theurns, the red men,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: and my own. Only in the color of their skin
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: did they differ materially from us. That is, of the
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: appearance of polished ebony and odd. As it may seem
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: for a Southerner to say, it adds to rather than
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: detracts from, their marvelous beauty. But if their bodies are divine,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: their hearts apparently are quite the reverse. Never did I
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: witness such maligned lust for blood as these demons of
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: the outer air evind in their mad battle with the Therns.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: All about us in the garden lay their sinister craft,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: which the Therns, for some reason then unaccountable to me,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: made no effort to injure. Now and again, a Black
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: warrior would rush from a nearby temple, bearing a young
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: woman in his arms, straight for his flier, he would leap,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: while those of his comrades who fought near by would
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: rush to cover his escape. The Therns on their side
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: would hasten to rescue the girl, and in an instant
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the two would be swallowed in the vortex of a
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: moustrom of yelling devils, hacking and hewing at one another,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: like fiends incarnate. But always, it seemed, were the Black
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Pirates of Barsoom victorious, and the girl brought miraculously unharmed
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: through the conflict, borne away into the outer darkness upon
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the deck of a swift flier. Fighting similar to that
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: which surrounded us could be heard in both directions as
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: far as sound carried, and Thuvia told me that the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: attacks of the Black Pirates were usually made simultaneously along
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the entire ribbon like domain of the Thurns which circles
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the valley door on the outer slopes of the mountains
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: of Ortz. As the fighting receded from our position, for
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a moment. Thuvia turned towards me with a question. Do
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: you understand now, o prince? She said, why a million
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: warriors guard the domains of the Holy Theurns by day
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: and by night. The scene you are witnessing now is
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: but a repetition of what I have seen enacted a
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: score of times during the fifteen years I have been
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: prisoner here. From time immemorial, the Black pirates of Barsoom
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: have preyed upon the Holy Theurns. Yet they never carry
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: their expeditions to a point, as one might readily believe
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: it was in their power to do, where the extermination
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: of the Race of Thorns is threatened. It is as
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: though they but utilized the race as playthings with which
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: they satisfy their ferocious lust for fighting, and from whom
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: they collect toll in arms and ammunition and imprisoners. Why
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: don't they jump in and destroy these fliers, I asked,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: that would soon put a stop to the attacks, or
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: at least the Blacks would scarce be so bold. Why
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: see how perfectly unguarded they leave their craft, as though
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: they were lying safe in their own hangars at home.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: The Theurns do not dare they tried it once ages ago.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: But the next night, and for a whole moon thereafter,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: a thousand great black battleships circled the mountains of Ortz,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: pouring tons of projectiles upon the temples, the gardens, and
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the courts, until every Thurn who was not killed was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: driven for safety into the subterranean galleries. The Thens know
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: that they live at all only by the sufferance of
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the black men. They were near to extermination that once,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: and they will not venture risking it again. As she
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: ceased talking, a new element was instilled into the conflict.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: It came from a source equally unlooked for by either
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Thurn or Pirate. The great bans, which we had liberated
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: in the garden had evidently been awed at first by
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: the sound of the battle, the yelling of the warriors,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and the loud report of rifle and bomb. But now
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: they must have become angered by the continuous noise and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: excited by the smell of new blood. For all of
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: a sudden, a great form shot from a clump of
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: low shrubbery into the midst of a struggling mass of humanity.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: A horrid scream of bestial rage broke from the banth
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: as he felt warm flesh beneath his powerful talons. As
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: though his cry was but a signal to the others,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: the entire great pack hurled themselves among the fighters. Panic
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: reigned in an instant. Thurn and black man turned alike
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: against the common enemy, For the bans showed no partiality
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: toward either. The awful beasts bore down a hundred men
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: by the mere weight of their great bodies as they
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: hurled themselves into the thick of the fight. Leaping and clawing,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: they mowed down the warriors with their powerful paws, turning
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: for an instant to rend their victims with frightful fangs.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: The scene was fascinating in its terribleness. But suddenly it
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: came to me that we were wasting valuable time watching
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: this conflict, which in itself might prove a means of
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: our escape. The Terns were so engaged with their terrible
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: assailants that now, if ever, escape should be comparatively easy.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: I turned to search for an opening through the contending hordes.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: If we could but reach the ramparts, we might find
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: that the pirates somewhere had thinned the guarding forces and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: left a way open to us. To the world without.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: As my eyes wandered about the garden, the sight of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the hundreds of aircraft lying unguarded around us suggested the
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: simplest avenue to freedom. Why it had not occurred to
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: me before? I was thoroughly familiar with the mechanism of
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: every known make of flier on Barsoom. For nine years,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: I had sailed and fought with the navy of Helium.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: I had raced through space on the tiny one man
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: air scout, and I had commanded the greatest battleship that
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: ever had floated in the thin air of dying Mars.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: To think with me is to act. Grasping Thuvia by
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: the arm, I whispered to tars Tarkas to follow me.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Quickly we glided toward a small flier which lay furthest
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: from the battling warriors. Another instant found us huddled on
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: the tiny deck. My hand was on the starting lever.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I pressed my thumb upon the button which controls the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: ray of repulsion, that splendid discovery of the Martians, which
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: permits them to navigate the thin atmosphere of their planet
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in huge ships that dwarfed the dreadnoughts of our earthly
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: navies into pitiful significance. The craft swayed slightly, but she
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: did not move. Then a new cry of warning broke
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: upon our ears. Turning, I saw a dozen black pirates
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: dashing toward us from the melee we had been discovered.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: With shrieks of rage. The demon sprang for us with
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: friends zi to insistence. I continued to press the little button,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: which should have sent us racing out into space, But
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: still the vessel refused to budge. Then it came to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: me the reason that she would not rise. We had
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: stumbled upon a two man flier. Its ray tanks were
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: charged only with sufficient repulsive energy to lift two ordinary men.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: The Thark's great weight was anchoring us to our doom.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: The Blacks were nearly upon us. There was not an
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: instant to be lost in hesitation or doubt. I pressed
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the button far in and locked it. Then I set
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the lever at high speed, and as the Blacks came
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: yelling upon us, I slipped from the craft's deck and
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: with drawn long sword, met the attack. At the same moment,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a girl's shriek rang out behind me, and an instant later,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: as the blacks fell upon me, I heard far above
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: my head and faintly Enthuviau's voice, My prince O, my prince,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: I would rather remain and die with. But the rest
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: was lost in the noise of my assailants. I knew, though,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that my ruse had worked, and that temporarily at least
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Thuvia and Tars Tarkas were safe, and the means of
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: escape was theirs. For a moment, it seemed that I
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: could not withstand the weight of numbers that confronted me.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: But again, as on so many other occasions when I
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: had been called upon to face fearful odds upon this
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: planet of warriors and fierce beasts, I found that my
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: earthly strength so far transcended that of my opponents, that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: the odds were not so greatly against me as they appeared.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: My seething blade wove a net of death about me.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: For an instant. The Blacks pressed close to reach me
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: with their shorter swords, but presently they gave back, and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the esteem in which they suddenly had learned to hold
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: my sword arm was writ large upon each countenance. I knew, though,
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that it was but a question of minutes before their
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: greater numbers would wear me down or get around my
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: guard I must go down eventually to certain death before them.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: I shuddered at the thought of it. Dying thus in
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: this terrible place, where no word of my end ever
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: could reach, my dejah Thoris, dying at the hands of
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: nameless black men in the gardens of the cruel thurns.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Then my old time spirit reasserted itself. The fighting blood
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: of my Virginian sires coursed hot through my veins. The
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: fierce blood lust and the joy of battle surged over me.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: The fighting smile that has brought consternation to a thousand
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: foemen touched my lips. I put the thought of death
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: out of my mind and fell upon my antagonists with fury.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: That those who escaped were remember to their dying day,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that others would press to the support of those who
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: faced me. I knew so. Even as I fought, I
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: kept my wits at work, searching for an avenue of escape.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: It came from an unexpected quarter, out of the black night.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Behind me. I had just disarmed a huge fellow who
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: had given me a desperate struggle, and for a moment
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: the black stood back for a breathing spell. They eyed
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: me with malignant fury, yet withal there was a touch
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of respect in their demeanor. Thurne said, one, you fight
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: like a tor but for your detestable yellow hair and
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: your white skin, you would be an honor to the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: first born of Barsoom. I am no thern, I said,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: and was about to explain that I was from another world,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: thinking that by patching a truce with these fellows and
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: fighting with them against the Thurns, I might enlist their
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: aid in regaining my liberty. But just at that moment,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: a heavy object smote me, a resounding whack between my
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: shoulders that nearly felled me to the ground. As I
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: turned to meet this new enemy, an object passed over
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: my shoulder, striking one of my assailants squarely in the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: face and knocking him senseless to the sward. At the
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: same instant, I saw that the thing that had struck
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: us was the trailing anchor of a rather fair sized
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: air vessel, possibly a ten man cruiser. The ship was
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: floating slowly above us, not more than fifty feet over
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: our heads. Instantly, the one chance for escape that it
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: offered presented itself to me. The vessel was slowly rising,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: and now the anchor was beyond the block who faced me,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and several feet above their heads. With a bound that
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: left them gaping in wide eyed astonishment, I sprang completely
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: over them. A second leap carried me just high enough
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: to grasp the now rapidly receding anchor. But I was successful,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: and there I hung by one hand, dragging through the
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: branches of the higher vegetation of the gardens, while my
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: late Foemen shrieked and howled beneath me. Presently the vessel
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: veered toward the west, and then swung gracefully to the south.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: In another instant, I was carried beyond the crest of
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: the golden cliffs, out over the valley door, where six
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: thousand feet below me the lossy, of course, lay shimmering
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: in the moonlight. Carefully, I climbed to a sitting posture
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: across the anchor's arms. I wondered if, by chance the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: vessel might be deserted, I hoped so, or possibly it
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: might belong to a friendly people and have wandered by
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: accident almost within the clutches of the pirates and the theerns.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: The fact that it was retreating from the scene of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: battle lent color to the hypothesis. But I decided to
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: know positively and at once, so with the greatest caution,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I commenced to climb slowly up the anchor chain towards
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: the deck above me. One hand had just reached for
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the vessel's rail and found it when a fierce black
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: face was thrust over the side, and eyes filled with
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: triumphant hate looked into mine. End of Chapter six