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03 - Thuvia, Maid of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Classic Science Fiction Books

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  Speaker 1: Chapter three Treachery. The day following the coming of vas
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  Speaker 1: Kor to the palace of the Prince of Helium, great
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  Speaker 1: excitement reigned throughout the Twin Cities, reaching its climax in
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  Speaker 1: the palace of Carthoris. Word had come of the abduction
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  Speaker 1: of Thuvia of Ptarth from her father's court, and with
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  Speaker 1: it the veiled hint that the Prince of Helium might
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  Speaker 1: be suspected of considerable knowledge of the act and the
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  Speaker 1: whereabouts of the princess. In the council chamber of John Carter,
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  Speaker 1: war Lord of Mars, was Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium,
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  Speaker 1: Moore's Kajak, his son jed of Lesser Helium, Carthoris, and
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  Speaker 1: a score of the great nobles of the Empire. There
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  Speaker 1: must be no war between Ptarth and Helium. My son
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  Speaker 1: said John Carter, that you are innocent of the charge
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  Speaker 1: that has been placed against you by insinuation. We well know,
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  Speaker 1: but uvon Din must know it well too. There is
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  Speaker 1: but one who may convince him, and that one be you.
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  Speaker 1: You must hasten at once to the court of Ptarth,
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  Speaker 1: and by your presence there as well as by your words,
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  Speaker 1: assure him that his suspicions are groundless. Bear with you
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  Speaker 1: the authority of the Warlord of Barsoom and of the
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  Speaker 1: Jeddak of Helium, to offer every resource of the allied
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  Speaker 1: powers to assist thuvan Din to recover his daughter and
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  Speaker 1: punish her abductors, whomsoever they may be. Go. I know
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  Speaker 1: that I do not need to urge upon you the
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  Speaker 1: necessity for haste. Carthoris left the council chamber and hastened
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  Speaker 1: to his palace. Here slaves were busy in a moment
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  Speaker 1: setting things to rights for the departure of their master.
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  Speaker 1: Several worked about the swift flier that would bear the
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  Speaker 1: Prince of Helium rapidly toward Ptarth. At last all was done,
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  Speaker 1: but two armed slaves remained on guard. The setting sun
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  Speaker 1: hung low above the horizon. In a moment darkness would
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  Speaker 1: envelop all. One of the guardsmen, a giant of a
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  Speaker 1: fellow across whose right cheek there ran a thin scar
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  Speaker 1: from temple to mouth, approached his companion. His gaze was
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  Speaker 1: directed beyond and above his comrade. When he had come
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  Speaker 1: quite close, he spoke, what strange craft is that? He asked?
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  Speaker 1: The other turned about quickly to gaze heavenward. Scarce was
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  Speaker 1: his back turned toward the giant than the short sword
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  Speaker 1: of the latter was plunged beneath his left shoulder, blade
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  Speaker 1: straight through his heart. Voiceless, the soldier sank in his tracks,
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  Speaker 1: stone dead. Quickly, the murderer dragged the corpse into the
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  Speaker 1: black shadows within the hangar. Then he returned to the flier.
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  Speaker 1: Drawing a cunningly wrought key from his pocket pouch, he
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  Speaker 1: removed the cover of the right hand dial of the
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  Speaker 1: controlling destination compass. For a moment, he studied the construction
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  Speaker 1: of the mechanism beneath. Then he returned the dial to
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  Speaker 1: its place, set the pointer, and removed it again. To
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  Speaker 1: note the resultant change in the position of the parts
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  Speaker 1: affected by the act. A smile crossed his lips. With
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  Speaker 1: a pair of cutters, he snipped off the projection which
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  Speaker 1: extended through the dial from the external pointer. Now the
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  Speaker 1: latter might be moved to any point upon the dial
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  Speaker 1: without affecting the mechanism below. In other words, the eastern
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  Speaker 1: hemisphere dial was useless. Now he turned his attention to
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  Speaker 1: the western dial. This he set upon a certain point. Afterward,
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  Speaker 1: he removed the cover of this dial also, and with
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  Speaker 1: keen tool, cut the steel finger from the under side
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  Speaker 1: of the pointer as quickly as possible. He replaced the
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  Speaker 1: second dial cover and resumed his place on guard. To
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  Speaker 1: all intents and purposes, the compass was as efficient as before,
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  Speaker 1: but as a matter of fact, the moving of the
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  Speaker 1: pointers upon the dials resulted now in no corresponding shift
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  Speaker 1: of the mechanism beneath, and the device was set immovably
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  Speaker 1: upon a destination of the slave's own choosing. Presently came Carthoris,
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  Speaker 1: accompanied by but a handful of his gentlemen. He cast
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  Speaker 1: but a casual glance upon the single slave who stood guard.
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  Speaker 1: The fellow's thin, cruel lips and the sword cut that
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  Speaker 1: ran from temple to mouth aroused the suggestion of an
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  Speaker 1: unpleasant memory within him. He wondered where saran Tal had
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  Speaker 1: found the man. Then the matter faded from his thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: and in another moment the Prince of Helium was laughing
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  Speaker 1: and chatting with his companions, though below the surface his
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  Speaker 1: heart was cold with dread. For what contingent confronted Thuvia
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  Speaker 1: of Ptarth, he could not even guess. First to his mind,
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  Speaker 1: naturally had sprung the thought that Astok of Dusar had
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  Speaker 1: stolen the fair Parthian, but almost simultaneously with the report
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  Speaker 1: of the abduction had come news of the great feats
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  Speaker 1: at Dusar in honor of the return of the Jeddak's
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  Speaker 1: son to the court of his father. It could not
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  Speaker 1: have been, he thought Carthoris, for on the very night
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  Speaker 1: that Thuvia was taken, Astok had been in Dusar. And
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  Speaker 1: yet he entered the flier, exchanging casual remarks with his
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  Speaker 1: companions as he unlocked the mechanism of the compass and
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  Speaker 1: set the pointer upon the capital city of Ptarth. With
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  Speaker 1: a word of farewell, he touched the button which controlled
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  Speaker 1: the repulsive rays, and as the flier rose lightly into
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  Speaker 1: the air, the engine purred in answer to the touch
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  Speaker 1: of his finger upon a second button, the propeller's word.
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  Speaker 1: As his hand drew back, the speed lever, and Carthoris,
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  Speaker 1: Prince of Helium, was off into the gorgeous Martian night,
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  Speaker 1: beneath the hurtling moons and the million stars. Scarce had
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  Speaker 1: the flier found its speed ere the man, wrapping his
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  Speaker 1: sleeping silks and furs about him, stretched at full length
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  Speaker 1: upon the narrow deck to sleep but sleep did not
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  Speaker 1: come at once at his bidding. Instead, his thoughts ran
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  Speaker 1: riot in his brain, driving sleep away. He recalled the
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  Speaker 1: words of Thuvia of Ptarth, words that had half assured
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  Speaker 1: him that she loved him. For when he had asked
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  Speaker 1: her if she loved Kulan Tith, she had answered only
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  Speaker 1: that she was promised to him. Now he saw that
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  Speaker 1: her reply was opened to more than a single construction.
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  Speaker 1: It might, of course mean that she did not love
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  Speaker 1: Kulan Tith, and so by inference, be taken to mean
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  Speaker 1: that she loved another. But what assurance was there that
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  Speaker 1: the other was Carthoris of Helium. The more he thought
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  Speaker 1: upon it, the more positive he became. That not only
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  Speaker 1: was there no assurance in her words that she loved him,
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  Speaker 1: but none either in any act of hers. No, the
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  Speaker 1: fact was she did not love him, She loved another.
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  Speaker 1: She had not been abducted, She had fled willingly with
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  Speaker 1: her lover. With such pleasant thoughts filling him alternately with
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  Speaker 1: despair and rage, Carthoris at last dropped into the sleep
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  Speaker 1: of utter mental exhaustion. The breaking of the sudden dawn
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  Speaker 1: found him still asleep. His flier was rushing swiftly above
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  Speaker 1: a barren ochre plain, the world old bottom of a
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  Speaker 1: long dead Martian sea. In the distance rose low hills.
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  Speaker 1: Toward these the craft was headed. As it approached them,
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  Speaker 1: a great promontory might have been seen from its deck,
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  Speaker 1: stretching out into what had once been a mighty ocean,
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  Speaker 1: and circling back once more to enclose the forgotten harbor
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  Speaker 1: of a forgotten city, which still stretched back from its
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  Speaker 1: deserted quays, an imposing pile of wondrous architecture of a
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  Speaker 1: long dead past. The countless dismal windows, vacant and forlorn,
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  Speaker 1: stared sightless from their marble walls, the whole sad city
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  Speaker 1: taking on the semblance of scattered mounds of dead men's
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  Speaker 1: sun bleached skulls, the casements having the appearance of eyeless sockets,
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  Speaker 1: the portals grinning jaws. Closer came the flier, but now
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  Speaker 1: its speed was diminishing. Yet this was not ptarth. Above
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  Speaker 1: the central plot, it stopped, slowly, settling marsward, within a
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  Speaker 1: hundred yards of the ground. It came to rest, floating
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  Speaker 1: gently in the light air, and at the same instant
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  Speaker 1: an alarm sounded at the sleeper's ear Carthoris sprang to
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  Speaker 1: his feet. Below him, he looked to see the teeming
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  Speaker 1: metropolis of Ptarth beside him. Already there should have been
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  Speaker 1: an air patrol. He gazed about in bewildered astonishment. There
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  Speaker 1: was indeed a great city, but it was not Ptarth.
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  Speaker 1: No multitude surged through its broad avenues. No signs of
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  Speaker 1: life broke the dead monotony of its deserted roof tops.
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  Speaker 1: No gorgeous silks, no priceless firs lent life and color
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  Speaker 1: to the cold marble and the gleaming air sight. No
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  Speaker 1: patrol boat lay ready with its familiar challenge. Silent and empty,
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  Speaker 1: lay the great city, empty and silent the surrounding air.
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  Speaker 1: What had happened? Carthoris examined the dial of his compass.
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  Speaker 1: The pointer was set upon Ptarth. Could the creature of
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  Speaker 1: his genius have thus betrayed him? He would not believe it.
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  Speaker 1: Quickly he unlocked the cover, turning it back upon its hinge.
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  Speaker 1: A single glance showed him the truth, or at least
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  Speaker 1: a part of it. The steel projection that communicated the
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  Speaker 1: movement of the pointer upon the dial to the heart
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  Speaker 1: of the mechanism beneath had been severed. Who could have
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  Speaker 1: done the thing and why? Carthoris could not hazard even
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  Speaker 1: a faint guess. But the thing now was to learn
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  Speaker 1: in what portion of the world he was, and then
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  Speaker 1: take up his interrupted journey once more. If it had
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  Speaker 1: been the purpose of some enemy to delay him, he
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  Speaker 1: had succeeded well, thought Carthoris, as he unlocked the cover
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  Speaker 1: of the second dial, the first having shown that its
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  Speaker 1: pointer had not been set at all. Beneath the second
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  Speaker 1: dial he found the steel pin severed as in the other,
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  Speaker 1: but the controlling mechanism had first been set for a
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  Speaker 1: point upon the western hemisphere. He had just time to
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  Speaker 1: judge his location roughly at some place southwest of Helium
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  Speaker 1: and at a considerable distance from the Twin Cities, when
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  Speaker 1: he was startled by a woman's scream beneath him. Leaning
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  Speaker 1: over the side of the flier, he saw what appeared
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  Speaker 1: to be a red woman being dragged across the plaza
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  Speaker 1: by a huge green warrior, one of those fierce, cruel
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  Speaker 1: denizens of the dead sea bottoms and deserted cities of
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  Speaker 1: dying Mars. Carthoris waited to see no more. Reaching for
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  Speaker 1: the control board, he sent his craft racing plummet like
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  Speaker 1: toward the ground. The green Man was hurrying his captive
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  Speaker 1: toward a huge thoat that browsed upon the ochre vegetation
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  Speaker 1: of the once scarlet, gorgeous plaza. At the same instant,
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  Speaker 1: a dozen Red warriors leaped from the entrance of a
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  Speaker 1: nearby ersite palace, pursuing the abductor with naked swords and
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  Speaker 1: shouts of rageful warning. Once the woman turned her face
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  Speaker 1: upward toward the falling flier, and in the single swift
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  Speaker 1: glance Carthoris saw that it was Thuvia of Ptarth. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter three