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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, a green Man's captive. When the light of
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  Speaker 1: day broke upon the little craft to whose deck the
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  Speaker 1: Princess of Ptarth had been snatched from her father's garden,
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  Speaker 1: Thuvius saw that the night had wrought a change in
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  Speaker 1: her abductors. No longer did their trappings gleam with the
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  Speaker 1: metal of Dusar, but instead there was emblazoned there the
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  Speaker 1: insignia of the Prince of Helium. The girl felt renewed hope,
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  Speaker 1: for she could not believe that in the heart of
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  Speaker 1: Carthoris could lie intent to harm her. She spoke to
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  Speaker 1: the warrior squatting before the control board. Last night you
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  Speaker 1: wore the trappings of a Dusarian, she said, Now you
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  Speaker 1: are metal as that of Helium. What means it? The
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  Speaker 1: man looked at her with a grin. The Prince of
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  Speaker 1: Helium is no fool, he said. Just then an officer
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  Speaker 1: emerged from the tiny cabin. He reprimanded the warrior for
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  Speaker 1: conversing with the prisoner, nor would he himself reply to
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  Speaker 1: any of her inquiries. No harm was offered her during
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  Speaker 1: the journey, and so they came at last to their destination,
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  Speaker 1: with the girl no wiser as to her abductors or
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  Speaker 1: their purpose than at first. Here the flier settled slowly
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  Speaker 1: into the plaza of one of those mute monuments of Marses,
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  Speaker 1: dead and forgotten, past the deserted cities that fringe the
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  Speaker 1: sad oak here sea bottoms, where once rolled the mighty floods,
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  Speaker 1: upon whose bosoms moved the maritime commerce of the peoples
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  Speaker 1: that are gone forever. Thuvia of Ptarth was no stranger
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  Speaker 1: to such places. During her wanderings in search of the
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  Speaker 1: River Iss. That time she had set out upon what
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  Speaker 1: for countless ages had been the last long the pilgrimage
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  Speaker 1: of Martians toward the valley door where lies the lost
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  Speaker 1: Sea of Korus. She had encountered several of these sad
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  Speaker 1: remainders of the greatness and of the glory of ancient Barsoom.
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  Speaker 1: And again, during her flight from the temples of the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Ferns with Tars Tarkas Jeddak of Thark, she had
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  Speaker 1: seen them, with their weird and ghostly inmates, the great
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  Speaker 1: white apes of Barsoom. She knew too that many of
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  Speaker 1: them were now used by the nomadic tribes of green men,
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  Speaker 1: but that among them all was no city that the
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  Speaker 1: red men did not shun, for without exception, they stood
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  Speaker 1: amidst vast, waterless tracts, unsuited for the continued sustenance of
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  Speaker 1: the dominant race of Martians. Why then, should they bring
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  Speaker 1: her to such a place? There was but a single answer.
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  Speaker 1: Such was the nature of their work that they must
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  Speaker 1: needs seek the seclusion that a dead city afforded. The
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  Speaker 1: girl trembled at thought her plight. For two days, her
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  Speaker 1: captors kept her within a huge palace that, even in decay,
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  Speaker 1: reflected the splendor of the age which its youth had known.
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  Speaker 1: Just before dawn on the third day, she had been
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  Speaker 1: roused by the voices of two of her abductors. He
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  Speaker 1: should be here by dawn, one was saying, have her
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  Speaker 1: in readiness upon the plaza, else he will never land.
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  Speaker 1: The moment he finds that he is in a strange country,
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  Speaker 1: he will turn about. Methinks the Prince's plan is weak
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  Speaker 1: in this one spot. There was no other way, replied
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  Speaker 1: the other. It is wondrous work to get them both
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  Speaker 1: here at all, and even if we do not succeed
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  Speaker 1: in luring him to the ground, we shall have accomplished much.
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  Speaker 1: Just then the speaker caught the eyes of Uvia upon him,
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  Speaker 1: revealed by the quick moving patch of light cast by
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  Speaker 1: Thuria in her mad race through the heavens. With a
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  Speaker 1: quick sign to the other, he ceased speaking and advancing
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  Speaker 1: toward the girl, motioned her to eyes. Then he led
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  Speaker 1: her out into the night, toward the center of a
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  Speaker 1: great plaza. Stand here, he commanded, until we come for you,
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  Speaker 1: we shall be watching, and should you attempt to escape,
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  Speaker 1: it will go ill for you much worse than death.
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  Speaker 1: Such are the Prince's orders. Then he turned and retraced
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  Speaker 1: his steps towards the palace, leaving her alone in the
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  Speaker 1: midst of the unseen terrors of the haunted city. For
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  Speaker 1: in truth, these places are haunted in the belief of
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  Speaker 1: many Martians who still cling to an ancient superstition which
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  Speaker 1: teaches that the spirits of holy Thurns, who die before
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  Speaker 1: their allotted one thousand years, pass on occasions into the
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  Speaker 1: bodies of the great white Apes to Thuvia. However, the
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  Speaker 1: real danger of attack by one of these ferocious manlike
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  Speaker 1: beasts was quite sufficient. She no longer believed in the
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  Speaker 1: weird soul transmigration that the Thurns had taught her before
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  Speaker 1: she was rescued from their clutches by John Carter. But
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  Speaker 1: she well knew the horrid fate that awaited her should
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  Speaker 1: one of the terrible beasts chance to spy her during
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  Speaker 1: its nocturnal prowlings. What was that? Surely she could not
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  Speaker 1: be mistaken. Something had moved stealthily in the shadow of
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  Speaker 1: one of the great monoliths that lie in the avenue
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  Speaker 1: where it entered the plaza opposite her. Far Ban jed
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  Speaker 1: among the hordes of Torquas, rode swiftly across the ochre
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  Speaker 1: vegetation of the dead sea bottom, toward the ruins of
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  Speaker 1: ancient Anthor. He had ridden far that night and fast,
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  Speaker 1: for he had but come from the despoiling of the
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  Speaker 1: incubator of a neighboring green horde, with which the hordes
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  Speaker 1: of Torquas were perpetually warring. His giant thoat was far
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  Speaker 1: from jaded. Yet it would be well thought thar Ban
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  Speaker 1: to permit him to graze upon the ochre moss, which
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  Speaker 1: grows to greater height within the protected court yards of
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  Speaker 1: deserted cities, where the soil is richer than on the
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  Speaker 1: sea bottoms, and the plants partly shaded from the sun.
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  Speaker 1: During the cloudless Martian day. Within the tiny stems of
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  Speaker 1: this dry seeming plant is sufficient moisture for the needs
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  Speaker 1: of the huge bodies of the mighty thoats, which can
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  Speaker 1: exist for months without water, and for days without even
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  Speaker 1: the slight moisture which the ochre moss contains. As thar
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  Speaker 1: Ban rode noiselessly up the broad avenue which leads from
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  Speaker 1: the quays of Anthor to the great central Plaza, he
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  Speaker 1: and his mount might have been mistaken for specters from
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  Speaker 1: a world of dreams. So grotesque the man and beast,
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  Speaker 1: so soundless the great thoat's padded nailss feet upon the
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  Speaker 1: moss grown flagging of the ancient pavement. The man was
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  Speaker 1: a splendid specimen of his race, Fully fifteen feet towered,
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  Speaker 1: his great height from soul to pate. The moonlight glistened
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  Speaker 1: against his glossy green hide, sparkling the jewels of his
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  Speaker 1: heavy harness and the ornaments that waited his four muscular arms,
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  Speaker 1: while the upcurving tusks that protruded from his lower jaw
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  Speaker 1: gleamed white and terrible. At the side of his thoat
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  Speaker 1: were slung his long radium rifle and his great forty
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  Speaker 1: foot metal shod spear, while from his own harness defended
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  Speaker 1: his long sword and his short sword, as well as
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  Speaker 1: as lesser weapons. His protruding eyes and antennae like ears
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  Speaker 1: were turning constantly hither and thither, for thar Ban was
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  Speaker 1: yet in the country of the enemy. And two there
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  Speaker 1: was always the menace of the great white apes, which
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  Speaker 1: John Connor was wont to say, are the only creatures
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  Speaker 1: that can arouse in the breasts of these fierce denizens
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  Speaker 1: of the dead sea bottoms, even the remotest semblance of fear.
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  Speaker 1: As the writer neared the plaza he reined in, Suddenly
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  Speaker 1: his slender, tubular ears pointed rigidly forward. An unwonted sound
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  Speaker 1: had reached them voices. And where there were voices outside
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  Speaker 1: of Torcas, there too were enemies. All the world of
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  Speaker 1: wide Barsoom contained naught but enemies for the fierce Torcasians.
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  Speaker 1: Far Ban dismounted. Keeping in the shadows of the great
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  Speaker 1: monoliths that line the avenue of Quays of Sleeping Anthor,
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  Speaker 1: he approached the plot directly behind him as a hound
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  Speaker 1: at heel came the slate gray thoat, his white belly
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  Speaker 1: shadowed by his barrel, his vivid yellow feet merging into
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  Speaker 1: the yellow of the moss beneath them. In the center
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  Speaker 1: of the plaza, far Ban saw the figure of a
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  Speaker 1: red woman. A red warrior was conversing with her. Now
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  Speaker 1: the man turned and retraced his steps toward the palace
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  Speaker 1: at the opposite side of the plaza. Far Ban watched
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  Speaker 1: until he had disappeared within the yawning portal. Here was
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  Speaker 1: a captive worth having. Seldom did a female of their
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  Speaker 1: hereditary enemies fall to the lot of a green man.
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  Speaker 1: Far Ban licked his thin lips. Thuvia of Ptarth watched
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  Speaker 1: the shadow behind the monolith at the opening of the
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  Speaker 1: avenue opposite her. She hoped that it might be but
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  Speaker 1: the figment of an overwrought imagination. But no. Now, clearly
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  Speaker 1: and distinctly she saw it move. It came from behind
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  Speaker 1: the screening shelter of the air sight shaft. The sudden
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  Speaker 1: light of the rising sun fell upon it. The girl trembled.
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  Speaker 1: The thing was a huge green warrior. Swiftly it sprang
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  Speaker 1: toward her. She screamed and tried to flee, but she
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  Speaker 1: had scarce turned toward the palace when a giant hand
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  Speaker 1: fell upon her arm. She was whirled about and half dragged,
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  Speaker 1: half carried toward a huge thoat that was slowly grazing
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  Speaker 1: out of the avenue's mouth on the ochra moss of
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  Speaker 1: the plaza. At the same instant, she turned her face
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  Speaker 1: upward toward the whirring sound of something above her, and
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  Speaker 1: there she saw a swift flier dropping toward her, the
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  Speaker 1: head and shoulders of a man leaning far over the side,
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  Speaker 1: But the man's features were deeply shadowed. She did not
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  Speaker 1: recognize them. Now from behind her came the shouts of
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  Speaker 1: her red abductors. They were racing madly after him, who
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  Speaker 1: dared to steal what they had already stolen. As thar
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  Speaker 1: Ban reached the side of his mount, he snatched his
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  Speaker 1: long radium rifle from its boot, and, wheeling, poured three
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  Speaker 1: shots into the oncoming Red men. Such is the uncanny
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  Speaker 1: marksmanship of these Martian savages that three Red warriors dropped
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  Speaker 1: in their tracks as three projectiles exploded in their vitals.
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  Speaker 1: The others halted, nor did they dare return the fire
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  Speaker 1: for fear of wounding the girl. Then thar Ban vaulted
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  Speaker 1: to the back of his thoat, Thuvia of Ptarth still
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  Speaker 1: in his arms, and with a savage cry of triumph,
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  Speaker 1: disappeared down the black canyon of the Avenue of Quays
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  Speaker 1: between the sullen palaces of Forgotten an Thor. Carthoris's flore
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  Speaker 1: had not touched the ground before he had sprung from
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  Speaker 1: its deck to race after the swift thoat, whose eight
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  Speaker 1: long legs were sending it down the avenue at the
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  Speaker 1: rate of an express train. But the men of Dusar,
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  Speaker 1: who still remained alive, had no mind to permit so
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  Speaker 1: valuable a capture to escape them. They had lost the girl.
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  Speaker 1: That would be a difficult thing to explain to Astok,
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  Speaker 1: but some leniency might be expected. Could they carry the
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  Speaker 1: Prince of Helium to their master instead? So the three
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  Speaker 1: who remained set upon Carthoris with their long swords, crying
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  Speaker 1: to him to surrender. But they might as successfully have
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  Speaker 1: cried aloud to Thuria to cease her mad hurdling through
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  Speaker 1: the Barsoomian sky. For Carthoris of Helium was a true
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  Speaker 1: son of the warlord of Mars and his incomparable dejah Thoris.
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  Speaker 1: Carthoris's long sword had been already in his hand as
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  Speaker 1: he leaped from the deck of the flier, so the
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  Speaker 1: instant that he realized the men of the three Red Warriors,
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  Speaker 1: he wheeled to face them, meeting their onslaught as only
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  Speaker 1: John Carter himself might have done so, swift his sword,
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  Speaker 1: so mighty and agile his half earthly muscles, that one
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  Speaker 1: of his opponents was down, crimsoning the ochre moss with
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  Speaker 1: his life blood. When he had scarce made a single
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  Speaker 1: pass at Carthoris. Now the two Romanian Dusarians rushed simultaneously
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  Speaker 1: upon the heliumite. Three long swords clashed and sparkled in
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  Speaker 1: the moonlight, until the great white apes roused from their slumber,
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  Speaker 1: crept through the lowering windows of the dead city to
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  Speaker 1: view the bloody scene beneath them. Thrice was Carthoris touched,
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  Speaker 1: so that the red blood ran down his face, blinding
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  Speaker 1: him and dyeing his broad chest. With his free hand,
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  Speaker 1: he wiped the gore from his eyes, and, with the
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  Speaker 1: fighting smile of his father, touching his lips, leaped upon
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  Speaker 1: his antagonists with renewed fury. A single cut of his
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  Speaker 1: heavy sword severed the head of one of them, and
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  Speaker 1: then the other. Backing away clear of that point of death,
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  Speaker 1: turned and fled toward the palace at his back. Carthoris
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  Speaker 1: made no step to pursue. He had other concern than
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  Speaker 1: the metting of well deserved punishment to strange men who
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  Speaker 1: masqueraded in the mettle of his own house, for he
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  Speaker 1: had seen that these men were tricked out in the
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  Speaker 1: insignia that marked his personal followers. Turning quickly toward his flier,
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  Speaker 1: he was soon rising from the plaza in pursuit of
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  Speaker 1: thar Ban, the red warrior, whom he had put to flight.
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  Speaker 1: Turned in the entrance to the palace, and, seeing Carthoris's intent,
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  Speaker 1: snatched a rifle from those he and his fellows had
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  Speaker 1: left leaning against the wall, as they had rushed out
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  Speaker 1: with drawn swords to prevent the theft of their prisoner.
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  Speaker 1: Few red men are good shots, for the sword is
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  Speaker 1: their chosen. So now, as the Dusarian drew bead upon
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  Speaker 1: the rising flier and touched the button upon his rifle's stock,
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  Speaker 1: it was more to chance than proficiency that he owed
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  Speaker 1: the partial success of his aim. The projectile grazed the
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  Speaker 1: flier's side, the opaque coating breaking sufficiently to permit daylight
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  Speaker 1: to strike in upon the powder phile within the bullet's nose.
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  Speaker 1: There was a sharp explosion. Carthoris felt his craft reel
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  Speaker 1: drunkenly beneath him, and the engine stopped. The momentum the
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  Speaker 1: air boat had gained carried her on over the city
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  Speaker 1: toward the sea bottom beyond. The red Warrior in the
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  Speaker 1: plaza fired several more shots, none of which scored. Then
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  Speaker 1: a lofty minaret shut the drifting quarry from his view.
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  Speaker 1: In the distance before him, Carthoris could see the Green
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  Speaker 1: Warrior bearing Thuvia of Ptarth away upon his mighty thoat.
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  Speaker 1: The direction of his flight was toward the northwest of Anthor,
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  Speaker 1: where lay a mountainous country little known to red men.
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  Speaker 1: The Heliumite now gave his attention to his injured craft.
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  Speaker 1: A close examination revealed the fact that one of the
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  Speaker 1: buoyancy tanks had been punctured, but the engine itself was uninjured.
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  Speaker 1: A splinter from the projectile had damaged one of the
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  Speaker 1: control levers beyond the possibility of repair outside a machine shop.
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  Speaker 1: But after considerable tinkering, Carthoris was able to propel his
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  Speaker 1: wounded flier at low speed, a rate which could not
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  Speaker 1: approach the rapid gait of the thoat, whose eight long,
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  Speaker 1: powerful legs carried it over the oocre of vegetation of
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  Speaker 1: the dead sea bottom at terrific speed. The Prince of
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  Speaker 1: Helium chafed and fretted at the slowness of his pursuit.
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  Speaker 1: Yet was he thankful that the damage was no worse,
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  Speaker 1: for now he could at least move more rapidly than
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  Speaker 1: on foot. But even this meager satisfaction was soon to
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  Speaker 1: be denied him, for presently the fly commenced to sag
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  Speaker 1: toward the port, and by the bow the damage to
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  Speaker 1: the buoyancy tank had evidently been more grievous than he
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  Speaker 1: had at first believed. All the balance of that long
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  Speaker 1: day Carthoris crawled erratically through the still air, the bow
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  Speaker 1: of his flier sinking lower and lower, and the list
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  Speaker 1: to port becoming more and more alarming, until at last,
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  Speaker 1: near dark, he was floating almost bow down, his harness
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  Speaker 1: buckled to a heavy deck ring to keep him from
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  Speaker 1: being precipitated to the ground below. His forward movement was
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  Speaker 1: now confined to a slow drifting with the gentle breeze
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  Speaker 1: that blew out of the southeast, and when this died
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  Speaker 1: down with the setting of the sun, he let the
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  Speaker 1: flier sink gently to the mossy carpet. Beneath. Far before
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  Speaker 1: him loomed the mountains toward which the Green Man had
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  Speaker 1: been fleeing when last he had seen him. And, with
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  Speaker 1: dogged resolution the so of John Carter, endowed with the
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  Speaker 1: indomitable will of his mighty sire, took up the pursuit
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  Speaker 1: on foot. All that night he forged ahead, until with
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  Speaker 1: the dawning of a new day, he entered the low
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  Speaker 1: foothills that guard the approach to the fastness of the
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  Speaker 1: mountains of Torquass. Rugged granitic walls towered before him. Nowhere
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  Speaker 1: could he discern an opening through the formidable barrier. Yet
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: somewhere into this inhospitable world of stone, the Green Warrior
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  Speaker 1: had borne the woman of the Red Man's heart's desire.
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  Speaker 1: Across the yielding moss of the sea bottom. There had
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  Speaker 1: been no spoor to follow for the soft pads of
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  Speaker 1: the thoat, but pressed down in his swift passage the
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  Speaker 1: resilient vegetation, which sprang back up again beneath his fleeting feet,
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  Speaker 1: leaving no sign. But here in the hills, where a
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  Speaker 1: loose rock occasionally strewed, the way, where a black lily
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  Speaker 1: loam and wild flowers partially replaced the somber monotony of
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  Speaker 1: the waste places of the lowlands. Carthoris hoped to find
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  Speaker 1: some sign that would lead him in the right direction. Yet,
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  Speaker 1: search as he would, the baffling mystery of the trail
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  Speaker 1: seemed likely to remain forever unsolved. It was drawing toward
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  Speaker 1: the day's close once more when the keen eyes of
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  Speaker 1: the Heliumite discerned the tawny yellow of a sleek hide
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  Speaker 1: moving among the boulders several hundred yards to his left.
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  Speaker 1: Crouching quickly behind a large rock, Carthoris watched the thing
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  Speaker 1: before him. It was a huge banth, one of those
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  Speaker 1: savage Barsoomian lions that roamed the desolate hills of the
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  Speaker 1: dying planet. The creature's nose was close to the ground.
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  Speaker 1: It was evident that he was following the spoor of
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  Speaker 1: meat by scent. As Carthoris watched him, a great hope
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  Speaker 1: leaped into the man's heart. He possibly might lie the
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  Speaker 1: solution to the mystery he had been endeavoring to solve.
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  Speaker 1: This hungry carnivore, keen always for the flesh of man,
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  Speaker 1: might even now be trailing the two whom Carthoris sought. Cautiously,
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  Speaker 1: the youth crept out upon the trail of the man
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  Speaker 1: eater along the foot of the perpendicular cliff. The creature moved,
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  Speaker 1: sniffing at the invisible spoor, and now and then emitting
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  Speaker 1: the low moan of the hunting banth. Carthoris had followed
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  Speaker 1: the creature for but a few minutes when it disappeared,
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  Speaker 1: as suddenly and mysteriously, as though dissolved into thin air.
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  Speaker 1: The man leaped to his feet. Not again was he
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  Speaker 1: to be cheated as the man had cheated him. He
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  Speaker 1: sprang forward at a reckless pace, to the spot at
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  Speaker 1: which he had last seen the great skulking brute. Before
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  Speaker 1: him loomed the sheer cliff, its face unbroken by any
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  Speaker 1: aperture into which the huge banth might have warmed its
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: great carcass. Beside him was a small flat boulder, not
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  Speaker 1: larger than the deck of a ten man flier, nor
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  Speaker 1: standing to a greater height than twice his own stature.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps the banth was in hiding behind this. The brute
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  Speaker 1: might have discovered the man upon his trail, and even
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  Speaker 1: now be lying in wait for his easy prey. Cautiously
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  Speaker 1: with drawn long sword, Carthoris crept around the corner of
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: the rock. There was no banth there, but something which
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: surprised him infinitely more than with the presence of twenty
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: banths before him, yawned the mouth of a dark cave
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: leading downward into the ground. Through this the banth must
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: have disappeared. Was it his lair? Within its dark and
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: forbidding interior, might there not lurk not one but many
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: of the fearsome creatures. Carthoris did not know, nor with
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: the thought that had been spurring him onward upon the
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: trail of the creature uppermost in his mind, did he
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: much care for Into this gloomy cavern, he was sure
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the band had trailed the green Man and his captive,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: and into which he too would follow, content to give
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: his life in the service of the woman he loved.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Not an instant did he hesitate, Nor yet did he
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: advance rashly, but with ready sword and cautious steps, For
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the way was dark. He stole on. As he advanced,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: the obscurity became impenetrable darkness. End of Chapter four