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01 - The God's of Mars - Edgar Rice Burroughs · Science Fiction Books

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Speaker 1: The Gods of Mars, written by Edgar Rice Burroughs Forward.
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Speaker 1: Twelve years had passed since I had laid the body
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Speaker 1: of my great uncle, Captain John Carter of Virginia away
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Speaker 1: from the sight of men, in that strange mausoleum in
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Speaker 1: the old Cemetery at Richmond. Often I had pondered on
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Speaker 1: the odd instructions he had left me governing the construction
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Speaker 1: of his mighty tomb, and especially those parts which directed
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Speaker 1: that he be laid in an open casket, and the
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Speaker 1: ponderous mechanism which controlled the bolts of the vault's huge
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Speaker 1: door be accessible only from the inside. Twelve years had
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Speaker 1: passed since I read the remarkable manuscript of this remarkable man,
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Speaker 1: This man who remembered no childhood, and who could not
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Speaker 1: even offer a vague guess as to his age, who
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Speaker 1: was always young, and yet who had dandled my grandfather's
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Speaker 1: great grandfather upon his knee, This man who had spent
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Speaker 1: ten years upon the planet Mars, who had fought for
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Speaker 1: the green men of Barsoom and fought against them, who
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Speaker 1: had fought for and against the Red men, and who
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Speaker 1: had won the ever beautiful dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium
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Speaker 1: for his wife, and for nearly ten years had been
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Speaker 1: a prince of the House of Tardos Mors Jeddak of Helium.
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Speaker 1: Twelve years had passed since his body had been found
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Speaker 1: upon the bluff before his cottage overlooking the Hudson, and
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Speaker 1: oftentimes during these long years, I had wondered if John
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Speaker 1: Carter were really dead, or if he again roamed the
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Speaker 1: dead sea bottoms of that dying planet, if he had
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Speaker 1: returned to Barsoom to find that he had opened the
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Speaker 1: frowning portals of the Mighty Atmosphere plant in time to
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Speaker 1: save the countless millions who were dying of asphyxiation. On
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Speaker 1: that far gone day that had seen him hurled ruthlessly
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Speaker 1: through the forty eight million miles of space back to Earth.
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Speaker 1: Once more, I had wondered if he had found his
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Speaker 1: black haired princess and the slender son he had dreamed
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Speaker 1: was with her in the royal gardens of Tardos Mors,
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Speaker 1: awaiting his return, or had he found that he had
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Speaker 1: been too late and thus gone back to living death
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Speaker 1: upon a dead world. Or was he really dead after all,
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Speaker 1: never to return either to his mother Earth or his
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Speaker 1: beloved Mars. Thus, I was lost in a useless speculation
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Speaker 1: one sultry August evening when old Ben, my body servant,
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Speaker 1: handed me a telegram, tearing it open, I read, meet
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Speaker 1: me tomorrow, Hotel Riley, Richmond, John Carter. Early the next morning,
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Speaker 1: I took the first train for Richmond, and within two
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Speaker 1: hours was being ushered into the room occupied by John Carter.
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Speaker 1: As I entered, he rose to greet me his old
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Speaker 1: time cordial smile of welcome lightning his handsome face. Apparently
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Speaker 1: he had not aged a minute, but was still the straight, clean,
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Speaker 1: limbed fighting man of thirty. His keen gray eyes were undimmed,
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Speaker 1: and the only lines upon his face were the lines
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Speaker 1: of an iron character and determination that always had been there.
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Speaker 1: Sent first, I remembered him nearly thirty five years before, Well, nephew,
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Speaker 1: He greeted me. Do you feel as though you were
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Speaker 1: seeing a ghost or suffering from the effects of too
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Speaker 1: many of your uncle Ben julops julips I reckon, I replied,
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Speaker 1: for I certainly feel mighty good, but maybe it's just
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Speaker 1: the sight of you again that affects me. You have
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Speaker 1: been back to Mars. Tell me and dejah Thoris you
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Speaker 1: found her well in awaiting you. Yes, I have been
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Speaker 1: to Barsoom again, Anne, but it's a long story, too
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Speaker 1: long to tell in the limited time I have before
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Speaker 1: I must return. I have learned the secret, Nephew, and
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Speaker 1: I may traverse the trackless void at my will, coming
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Speaker 1: and going between the countless planets as I list. But
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Speaker 1: my heart is always in Barsoom. And while it is there,
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Speaker 1: in the keeping of my martian Princess, I doubt that
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Speaker 1: I shall ever again leave the dying world that is
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Speaker 1: my life. I have come now because my affection for
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Speaker 1: you prompted me to see you once more before you
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Speaker 1: pass over forever into that other life that I shall
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Speaker 1: never know, and which, though I have died thrice and
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Speaker 1: shall die again to night, as you know death, I
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Speaker 1: am as unable to fathom as you are. Even the
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Speaker 1: wise and mysterious thurns of Barsoom, that ancient cult which
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Speaker 1: for countless ages has been credited with holding the secret
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Speaker 1: of life and death in their impregnable fastness upon the
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Speaker 1: hither slopes of the mountains of Aughts, are as as
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Speaker 1: ignorant as we are. I have proved it, though I
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Speaker 1: near lost my life in the doing of it. But
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Speaker 1: you shall read it all in the notes I have
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Speaker 1: been making during the last three months that I have
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Speaker 1: been back upon earth. He padded a swelling portfolio that
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Speaker 1: lay on the table at his elbow. I know that
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Speaker 1: you are interested, and that you believe. And I know
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Speaker 1: that the world too is interested, though they will not
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Speaker 1: believe for many years, yes, for many ages, since they
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Speaker 1: cannot understand Earth. Men have not yet progressed to a
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Speaker 1: point where they can comprehend the things that I have
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Speaker 1: written in those notes. Give the them what you wish
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Speaker 1: of it, what you think will not harm them. But
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Speaker 1: do not feel aggrieved if they laugh at you. That night,
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Speaker 1: I walked down to the cemetery with him. At the
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Speaker 1: door of his vault, he turned and pressed my hand.
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Speaker 1: Good Bye, nephew, he said, I may never see you again,
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Speaker 1: for I doubt that I can ever bring myself to
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Speaker 1: leave my wife and boy while they live, and the
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Speaker 1: span of life upon Barsoom is often more than a
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Speaker 1: thousand years. He entered the vault. The great door swung
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Speaker 1: slowly to the ponderous bolts grated into place. The lock clicked.
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Speaker 1: I have never seen Captain John Carter of Virginia since.
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Speaker 1: But here is the story of his return to Mars
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Speaker 1: on that other occasion, as I have gleaned it from
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Speaker 1: that great mass of notes which he left for me
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Speaker 1: upon the table of his room in the hotel at Richmond.
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Speaker 1: There is much which I have left out, much which
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Speaker 1: I have not dared to tell. But you will find
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Speaker 1: the story of his second search for dejah Thoris, Princess
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Speaker 1: of Helium, even more remarkable than was his first manuscript,
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Speaker 1: which I gave to an unbelieving world a short time since,
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Speaker 1: and through which we followed the fighting Virginian across dead
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Speaker 1: sea bottoms under the moons of Mars. Edgar Rice Burroughs,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one, The Planet Men. As I stood upon the
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Speaker 1: bluff before my cottage on that clear cold night in
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Speaker 1: the early part of March eighteen eighty six, the noble
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Speaker 1: Hudson flowing like the gray and silent spectacle of Dead
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Speaker 1: River below me, I felt again the strange, compelling influence
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Speaker 1: of the mighty God of War, my beloved Mars, which
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Speaker 1: for ten long and lonesome years I have implored with
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Speaker 1: outstretched arms to carry me back to my lost love.
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Speaker 1: Not since that other March night in eighteen sixty six,
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Speaker 1: when I had stood without that Arizona Cave, in which
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Speaker 1: my still lifeless body lay wrapped in the similitude of
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Speaker 1: earthly death, had I felt the irresistible attraction of the
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Speaker 1: God of my profession. With arms out the stretched toward
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Speaker 1: the red eye of the great Star, I stood praying
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Speaker 1: for return of that strange power which twice had drawn
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Speaker 1: me through the immensity of space, praying as I had
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Speaker 1: prayed on a thousand nights before, during the long ten
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Speaker 1: years that I had waited in hope. Suddenly a qualm
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Speaker 1: of nausea swept over me. My senses swam, my knees
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Speaker 1: gave beneath me, and I pitched headlong to the ground
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Speaker 1: upon the very verge of the dizzy bluff. Instantly my
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Speaker 1: brain cleared, and there swept back across the threshold of
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Speaker 1: my memory the vivid picture of the horrors of that
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Speaker 1: ghostly Arizona Cave. Again, as on that far gone night,
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Speaker 1: my muscles refused to respond to my will, and again,
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Speaker 1: as though even here upon the banks of the placid Husson,
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Speaker 1: I could hear the awful moans and rustling of the
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Speaker 1: fearsome thing which had lurked and threatened me from the
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Speaker 1: dark recesses of the cave. I made the same mighty
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Speaker 1: and superhuman effort to break the bonds of the strange
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Speaker 1: anastagia which held me, and again came the sharp click
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Speaker 1: as of the sudden parting of a taut wire, and
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Speaker 1: I stood naked and free beside the staring, lifeless thing
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Speaker 1: that had so recently pulsed with the warm red life
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Speaker 1: blood of John Carter. With scarcely a parting glance, I
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Speaker 1: turned my eyes again toward Mars, lifted my hands towards
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Speaker 1: this lurid rays, and waited. Nor did I have long
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Speaker 1: to wait for scarce had I turned air, I shot,
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Speaker 1: with the rapidity of thought into the awful void before me.
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Speaker 1: There was the same instant of unthinkable cold and utter
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Speaker 1: darkness that I experienced twenty years before. And then I
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Speaker 1: opened my eyes in another world, beneath the burning rays
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Speaker 1: of a hot sun which beat through a tiny opening
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Speaker 1: in the dome of a mighty forest in which I lay.
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Speaker 1: The scene that met my eyes was so unmartian that
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Speaker 1: my heart sprang to my throat as the sudden fear
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Speaker 1: swept through me that I had been aimlessly tossed upon
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Speaker 1: some strange planet by a cruel fate. Why not? What
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Speaker 1: guide had I through the trackless waste of interplanetary space,
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Speaker 1: What assurance that I might not as well be hurtled
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Speaker 1: to some far distant star of another solar system as
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Speaker 1: to Mars. I lay upon a close cropped swath of
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Speaker 1: red grass like vegetation, and about me stretched a grove
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Speaker 1: of strange and beautiful trees, covered with huge and gorgeous blossoms,
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Speaker 1: and filled with brilliant, voiceless birds. I called them birds,
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Speaker 1: since they were winged, But mortal eye ne'er rested on
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Speaker 1: such odd, unearthly shapes. The vegetation was similar to that
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Speaker 1: which covers the lawns of the red Martians of the
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Speaker 1: Great Waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike anything
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Speaker 1: that I had ever seen upon Mars. And then through
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Speaker 1: the further trees, I could see that most Unmartian of
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Speaker 1: all sights, an open sea, its blue water shimmering beneath
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Speaker 1: the brazen sun. As I rose to investigate further, I
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Speaker 1: experienced the same ridiculous catastrophe that had met my first
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Speaker 1: attempt to walk under my Martian conditions, the lesser attraction
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Speaker 1: of this smaller planet and the reduced air pressure of
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Speaker 1: its greatly rarefied atmosphere afforded so little resistance to my
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Speaker 1: earthly muscles that the ordinary exertion of the mere act
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Speaker 1: of rising sent me several feet into the air and
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Speaker 1: precipitated me upon my face in the soft and brilliant
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Speaker 1: grass of this strange world. This experience, however, gave me
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Speaker 1: some slightly increased assurance that, after all, I might indeed
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Speaker 1: be in some to me unknown corner of Mars. And
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Speaker 1: this was very possible, since during my ten years residence
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Speaker 1: upon the planet I had explored but a comparatively tiny
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Speaker 1: area of its vast expanse. I rose again, laughing at
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Speaker 1: my forgetfulness, and soon had mastered once more the art
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Speaker 1: of attuning my earthly sinews to these changed conditions. As
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Speaker 1: I walked slowly down the imperceptible slope toward the sea,
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Speaker 1: I could not help but note the park like appearance
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Speaker 1: of the sword of trees. The grass was as close
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Speaker 1: cropped and carpet like as some old English lawn, and
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Speaker 1: the trees them shelves showed evidence of careful pruning to
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Speaker 1: a uniform height of about fifteen feet from the ground,
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Speaker 1: so that as one turned his glance in any direction.
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Speaker 1: The forest had the appearance at a little distance of
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Speaker 1: a vast, high, sealed chamber. All these evidence of careful
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Speaker 1: and systematic cultivation convinced me that I had been fortunate
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Speaker 1: enough to make my entry into Mars on this second occasion,
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Speaker 1: through the domain of a civilized people, and that when
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Speaker 1: I should find them, I would be accorded the courtesy
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Speaker 1: and protection that my rank as a prince of the
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Speaker 1: House of Tortoise Moors entitled me to. The trees of
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Speaker 1: the forest attracted my deep admiration as I proceeded toward
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Speaker 1: the sea. Their great stems, some of them fully a
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Speaker 1: hundred feet in diameter, attested to the prodigious height which
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Speaker 1: I could only guess at, since at no point could
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Speaker 1: I penetrate their dense foliage above me to more than
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Speaker 1: sixty or eighty feet. As far aloft as I could see,
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Speaker 1: the stems and branches and twigs were as smooth and
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Speaker 1: as highly polished as the newest of American made pianos.
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Speaker 1: The wood of some of the trees was as black
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Speaker 1: as ebony, while their nearest neighbors might perhaps gleam in
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Speaker 1: the subdued light of the forest as clear and white
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Speaker 1: as the finest china. Or again they were a source
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Speaker 1: scarlet yellow or deep as purple. And in the same
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Speaker 1: way was the foliage as gay and variegated as the stems,
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Speaker 1: while the blooms that clustered thick upon them may not
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Speaker 1: be described in any earthly tongue, and indeed might challenge
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Speaker 1: the language of the gods. As I neared the confines
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Speaker 1: of the forest, I beheld before me, and between the
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Speaker 1: grove and the open sea, a broad expanse of meadow land.
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Speaker 1: And as I was about to emerge from the shadows
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Speaker 1: of the trees, a sight met my eyes that banished
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Speaker 1: all romantic and poetic reflection upon the beauties of the
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Speaker 1: strange landscape. To my left, the sea extended as far
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Speaker 1: as the eye could reach. Before me, only a vague
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Speaker 1: dim line indicated its further shore, while at my right
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Speaker 1: a mighty river, broad and placid and majestic, flowed between
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Speaker 1: scarlet banks to empty into the quiet sea. Before me,
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Speaker 1: At a little distance up the river rose mighty perpendicular bluffs,
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Speaker 1: from the very base of which the river seemed to rise.
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Speaker 1: But it was not these inspiring and magnificent evidence of
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Speaker 1: nature's grandeur that took my immediate attention from the beauties
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Speaker 1: of the forest. It was the sight of a score
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Speaker 1: of figures moving slowly about the meadow near the bank
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Speaker 1: of the Mighty River. Odd grotesque shapes. They were unlike
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Speaker 1: anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and yet
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Speaker 1: at a distance most manlike in appearance. The large specimens
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Speaker 1: seemed to be about ten or fifteen feet in height
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Speaker 1: when they stood erect, and to be proportioned as to
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Speaker 1: torso and lower extremities precisely as is earthly man. Their arms, however,
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Speaker 1: were very short, and from where I stood, seemed as
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Speaker 1: though fashioned much after the manner of an elephant's trunk,
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Speaker 1: in that they moved insinuous in snakelike undulation, as though
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Speaker 1: entirely without bony structure, or if there were bones, it
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Speaker 1: seemed that they must be virtual in nature. As I
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Speaker 1: watched them from behind the stem of a huge tree,
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Speaker 1: one of the creatures moved slowly in my direction, engaged
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Speaker 1: in the occupation that seemed to be the principal business
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Speaker 1: of each of them, and which consisted in running their
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Speaker 1: oddly shaped hands over the surface of the sword. For
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Speaker 1: what purpose I could not determine, As he approached quite
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Speaker 1: close to me, I obtained an excellent view of him,
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Speaker 1: and though I was later to become better acquainted with
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Speaker 1: his kind, I may say that single cursory examination of
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Speaker 1: this awful travesy on nature would have proved quite sufficient
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Speaker 1: to my desires. Had I been a free agent. The
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Speaker 1: fastest flier of the Helimic navy could not quickly enough
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Speaker 1: have carried me far from this hideous creature. Its hairless
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Speaker 1: body was a strange and ghoulish blue, except for a
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Speaker 1: broad band of white which encircled its protruding single eye,
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Speaker 1: and an eye that was all dead white, pupil iris
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Speaker 1: and ball Its nose was a ragged inflamed circular hole
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Speaker 1: in the center of its blank face, a hole that
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Speaker 1: resembled more closely nothing that I could think of, other
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Speaker 1: than a fresh bullet wound which has not yet commenced
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Speaker 1: to bleed below the repulsive orifice. The face was quite
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Speaker 1: blank to the chin, for the thing had no mouth
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Speaker 1: that I could discover. The head, with the exception of
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Speaker 1: the face, was covered by a tangled mass of jet
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Speaker 1: black hair, some eight or ten inches in length. Each
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Speaker 1: hair was about the bigness of a large angleworm, and
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Speaker 1: as the thing moved, the muscles of its skulp, its
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Speaker 1: awful head covering seemed to rith and wiggle and crawl
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Speaker 1: about the fearsome face, as though indeed each separate hair
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Speaker 1: was endowed with independent life. The body and the legs
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Speaker 1: were asymmetrically human as nature could have fashioned them, and
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Speaker 1: the feet, too were human in shape, but of monstrous proportions.
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Speaker 1: From heel to toe. They were fully three feet long,
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Speaker 1: and very flat and very broad. As it came quite
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Speaker 1: close to me, I discovered that its strange movements running
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Speaker 1: its odd hands over the surface of the turf, were
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Speaker 1: the result of its peculiar method of feeding, which consists
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Speaker 1: in cropping off the tender vegetation with its razor like
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Speaker 1: talons and sucking it up from its two mouths, which
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Speaker 1: lie one in the palm of each hand, through its
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Speaker 1: arm like throats. In addition to the features which I
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Speaker 1: had already described, the beast was equipped with a massive
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Speaker 1: tail about six feet in length, quite round where it
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Speaker 1: joined the body, but tapered in capering to a flat,
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Speaker 1: thin blade toward the end, which trailed at right angles
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Speaker 1: to the ground. By far the most remarkable feature of
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Speaker 1: this most remarkable creature. However, were the two tiny replicas
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Speaker 1: of it, each about six inches in length, which dangled
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Speaker 1: one on either side from its armpits. They were suspended
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Speaker 1: by a small stem which seemed to grow from the
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Speaker 1: exact tops of their heads to where it connected them
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Speaker 1: with the body of the adult. Whether they were the
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Speaker 1: young or merely proportions of a composite creature, I did
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Speaker 1: not know. As I had been scrutinizing this weird monstrosity,
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Speaker 1: the balance of the herd had fed quite close to me,
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Speaker 1: and I now saw that while many had the smaller
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Speaker 1: specimens dangling from them, not all were thus equipped. And
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Speaker 1: I further noted that the little ones varied in size
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Speaker 1: from what appeared to be but tiny, unopened buds an
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Speaker 1: inch in diameter, through various stages of development, to the
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Speaker 1: full fledged and perfectly formed creature of ten to twelve
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Speaker 1: inches in length. Feeding with the herd were many of
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Speaker 1: the little fellows, not much larger than those which remained
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Speaker 1: attached to their parents, and from the young of that
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Speaker 1: size the herd grated up to the immense adults. Fearsome
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Speaker 1: looking as they were, I did not know whether to
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Speaker 1: fear them or not, for they did not seem to
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Speaker 1: be particularly well equipped for fighting, and I was on
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Speaker 1: the point of stepping from my hiding place and revealing
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Speaker 1: myself to them, to note the effect upon them of
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Speaker 1: the sight of a man, when my rash resolve was
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Speaker 1: fortunately for me nipped in the bud by a strange
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Speaker 1: shrieking wail which seemed to come from the direction of
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Speaker 1: the bluffs at my right. Naked and unarmed as I was,
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Speaker 1: my end would have been both speedily and horrible at
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Speaker 1: the hands of these cruel creatures, had I had time
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Speaker 1: to put my resolve into execution. But at the moment
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Speaker 1: of the shriek, each member of the herd turned in
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Speaker 1: the direction from which the sound seemed to come, and
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Speaker 1: at the same instant, every particular snakelike hair upon their
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Speaker 1: heads rose stiffly perpendicular, as if each had been a
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Speaker 1: sentient organism looking or listening for the source or meaning
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Speaker 1: of the whale. And indeed the latter proved to be
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Speaker 1: the truth, for this strange growth upon the craniums of
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Speaker 1: the plant men of Barsoom represents the thousand ears of
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Speaker 1: these hideous creatures, the last remnant of the strange race
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Speaker 1: which sprang from the original tree of life. Instantly, every
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Speaker 1: eye turned toward one member of the herd, a large
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Speaker 1: fellow who evidently was the leader. A strange purring sound
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Speaker 1: issued from the mouth in the palm of one of
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Speaker 1: his hands, and at the same time he started rapidly
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Speaker 1: toward the bluff, followed by the entire herd. Their speed
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Speaker 1: and method of locomotion were both remarkable, springing as they
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Speaker 1: did in great leaps of twenty or thirty feet, much
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Speaker 1: after the manner of a kangaroo. They were rapidly disappearing
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Speaker 1: when occurred to me to follow them, and so, hurling
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Speaker 1: caution to the winds, I sprang across the meadow in
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Speaker 1: their wake, with leaps and bounds even more prodigious than
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Speaker 1: their own, For the muscles of an athletic earthmen produced
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Speaker 1: remarkable results when pitted against the lesser gravity and air
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Speaker 1: pressure of Mars. Their way led directly towards the apparent
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Speaker 1: source of the river at the base of the cliffs,
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Speaker 1: and as I neared this point, I found the meadow
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Speaker 1: dotted with huge boulders that the ravages of time had
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Speaker 1: evidently dislodged from the towering crags above. For this reason,
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Speaker 1: I came quite close to the cause of the disturbance
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Speaker 1: before the seam broke. Upon my horrified gaze, as I
20:41
Speaker 1: topped a great boulder, I saw the herd of plant
20:44
Speaker 1: men surrounding a little group of perhaps five or six
20:48
Speaker 1: green men and women of barsoom that I was indeed
20:52
Speaker 1: upon Mars. I now had no doubt, for here were
20:55
Speaker 1: members of the wild hordes that people the dead sea
20:59
Speaker 1: bottoms and deserted cities of that dying planet. Here were
21:03
Speaker 1: the great males, towering in all their majesty, of their
21:06
Speaker 1: imposing height. Here were the gleaming white tusks protruding from
21:10
Speaker 1: their massive lower jaws to a point near the center
21:13
Speaker 1: of their foreheads, the laterally placed protruding eyes with which
21:18
Speaker 1: they could look forward or backward, or to either side
21:21
Speaker 1: without turning their heads. Here the strange antennae like ears
21:25
Speaker 1: rising from the tops of their foreheads, and the additional
21:28
Speaker 1: pair of arms extending from midway between the shoulders and
21:32
Speaker 1: the hips. Even without the glossy green hide and the
21:36
Speaker 1: metal ornaments which denoted the tribes to which they belonged,
21:40
Speaker 1: I would have known them on the instant for what
21:42
Speaker 1: they were. For where else in all the universe is
21:46
Speaker 1: their like duplicated. There were two men and four females
21:50
Speaker 1: in the party, and their ornaments denoted them as members
21:53
Speaker 1: of different hordes, a fact which tended to puzzle me infinitely,
21:58
Speaker 1: since the various hordes of green men of Barsoom are
22:01
Speaker 1: eternally at deadly war with one another, and never except
22:05
Speaker 1: on that single historic instant, when the great Tars Tarkas
22:09
Speaker 1: of thark gathered one hundred and fifty thousand green warriors
22:13
Speaker 1: from several hordes to march upon the doomed city of
22:16
Speaker 1: Zodanga to rescue dejah Thoris, Princess of Helium, from the
22:21
Speaker 1: clutches of than Kors. Had I seen great green martians
22:25
Speaker 1: of different hordes associated in other than mortal combat. But
22:30
Speaker 1: now they stood back to back, facing in wide eyed
22:33
Speaker 1: amazement the very evidently hostile demonstrations of a common enemy.
22:39
Speaker 1: Both men and women were armed with long swords and daggards,
22:43
Speaker 1: but no firearms were in evidence. Else it had been
22:46
Speaker 1: short shrift for the gruesome Plantmen of Barsoom. Presently, the
22:51
Speaker 1: leader of the plant Men charged the little party, and
22:54
Speaker 1: his method of attack was as remarkable as it was effective,
22:58
Speaker 1: and by its very strangeness was the more potent, since
23:01
Speaker 1: in the science of the Green Warriors there was no
23:04
Speaker 1: defense for the singular manner of attack, the like of
23:08
Speaker 1: which it soon was evident to me they were as
23:11
Speaker 1: unfamiliar with as they were with the monstrosities which confronted them.
23:16
Speaker 1: The plant men charged to within a dozen feet of
23:18
Speaker 1: the party, and then with a bound rose as though
23:21
Speaker 1: to pass directly above their heads. His powerful tail was
23:25
Speaker 1: raised high to one side, and as he passed close
23:28
Speaker 1: above them, he brought it down in one terrific sweep
23:32
Speaker 1: that crushed a Green warrior's skull as though it had
23:34
Speaker 1: been an eggshell. The balance of the frightful herd was
23:37
Speaker 1: now circling rapidly and with bewildering speed about the little
23:42
Speaker 1: knot of victims. Their prodigious bounds and the shrill, shrieking
23:46
Speaker 1: purr of their uncanny mouths were well calculated to confuse
23:50
Speaker 1: and terrorize their prayer, as that as two of them
23:54
Speaker 1: leaped simultaneously from each side, the mighty sweep of those
23:58
Speaker 1: awful tales met with no resistance stance, and two more
24:01
Speaker 1: Green martians went down to an ignoble death. There were
24:05
Speaker 1: now but one warrior and two females left, and it
24:08
Speaker 1: seemed that it could be but a matter of seconds
24:10
Speaker 1: ere these also lay dead upon the scarlet's sword. But
24:15
Speaker 1: as two more of the plant men charged, the warrior,
24:17
Speaker 1: who was now prepared by the experiences of the past
24:20
Speaker 1: few minutes, swung his mighty long sword aloft and met
24:24
Speaker 1: the hurtling bulk with a clean cut that clove one
24:27
Speaker 1: of the plant men from chin to groan. The other, however,
24:31
Speaker 1: dealt a single blow with his cruel tail that laid
24:34
Speaker 1: both of the females crushed corpses upon the ground. As
24:38
Speaker 1: the green warriors saw the last of his companions go down,
24:42
Speaker 1: and at the same time perceived that the entire herd
24:44
Speaker 1: was charging him in a body, he rushed boldly to
24:48
Speaker 1: meet them, swinging his long sword in the terrific manner
24:51
Speaker 1: that I had so often seen the men of his
24:54
Speaker 1: kind wielded in their ferocious and almost continual warfare among
24:59
Speaker 1: their own race. Cutting and hewing to right and left,
25:03
Speaker 1: he laid an open path straight through the advancing plant men,
25:07
Speaker 1: and then commenced a mad race for the forest, in
25:10
Speaker 1: the shelter of which he evidently hoped that he might
25:13
Speaker 1: find a haven of refuge. He had turned for that
25:16
Speaker 1: portion of the force which abutted on the cliffs, and
25:19
Speaker 1: thus the mad race was taking the entire party farther
25:23
Speaker 1: and farther from the boulder where I lay concealed. As
25:26
Speaker 1: I watched the noble fight which the great warrior had
25:29
Speaker 1: put up against such enormous odds, my heart had swelled
25:33
Speaker 1: in admiration for him, and, acting as I am, wont
25:37
Speaker 1: to do more upon impulse than after mature deliberation, I
25:42
Speaker 1: instantly sprang from my sheltering rock and bounded quickly toward
25:46
Speaker 1: the bodies of the dead Green Martians. A well defined
25:49
Speaker 1: plan of action already formed. Half a dozen great leaps
25:53
Speaker 1: brought me to the spot, and another instant saw me
25:55
Speaker 1: again in my stride, in quick pursuit of the hideous
25:59
Speaker 1: monsters that were rapidly gaining on the fleeing warrior. But
26:03
Speaker 1: this time I grasped a mighty long sword in my hand,
26:06
Speaker 1: and in my heart was the old blood lust of
26:08
Speaker 1: the fighting man, and a red mist swam before my eyes,
26:11
Speaker 1: and I felt my lips respond to my heart in
26:14
Speaker 1: the old smile that has ever marked me, in the
26:16
Speaker 1: midst of the joy of battle, swift as I was.
26:20
Speaker 1: I was none too soon, for the green Warrior had
26:23
Speaker 1: been overtaken ere he had made half the distance to
26:26
Speaker 1: the forest, and now he stood with his back to
26:29
Speaker 1: a boulder, while the herd temporarily balked, hissed, and screeched
26:33
Speaker 1: about him, with their single eyes in the center of
26:36
Speaker 1: their heads, and every eye turned upon their prey. They
26:40
Speaker 1: did not note my soundless approach, so that I was
26:43
Speaker 1: upon them with my great long sword, and four of
26:46
Speaker 1: them lay dead ere they knew that I was among
26:48
Speaker 1: them for an instant they recoiled before my terrific onslaught,
26:53
Speaker 1: And in the instant the Green Warrior rose to the occasion, and,
26:58
Speaker 1: springing to my side, laid to the right and left
27:00
Speaker 1: of him, as I had never seen but one other
27:03
Speaker 1: warrior do, with great circling strokes that formed a figure
27:07
Speaker 1: eight about him, and that never stopped until none stood
27:11
Speaker 1: living to oppose him, his keen blade passing through flesh
27:15
Speaker 1: and bone and metal, as though each had been alike
27:18
Speaker 1: thin air. As we bent to the slaughter, far above
27:22
Speaker 1: us rose the shrill, weird cry which I had heard
27:25
Speaker 1: once before, and which had called the herd to the
27:28
Speaker 1: attack upon their victims again, and again it rose, but
27:32
Speaker 1: we were too much engaged with the fierce and powerful
27:35
Speaker 1: creatures about us to attempt to search out even with
27:38
Speaker 1: our eyes. The author of the horrid notes great tales
27:42
Speaker 1: lashed in frenzied anger about us. Razorlike talons cut our
27:46
Speaker 1: limbs and bodies, and a green, sticky syrup, such as
27:50
Speaker 1: oozes from crushed caterpillar smeared us from head to foot.
27:54
Speaker 1: For every cut and thrust of our long swords brought
27:57
Speaker 1: spurts of this stuff upon us from the severn arteries
28:00
Speaker 1: of the plant men, through which it cursed courses in
28:03
Speaker 1: its sluggish vicidity in lieu of blood. Once I felt
28:09
Speaker 1: the great weight of one of the monsters upon my back,
28:12
Speaker 1: and as keen talons sank into my flesh, I experienced
28:15
Speaker 1: the frightful sensation of moist lips sucking the life blood
28:19
Speaker 1: from the wounds to which the claws still clung. I
28:23
Speaker 1: was very much engaged with a ferocious fellow who was
28:26
Speaker 1: endeavoring to reach my throat from in front, while two more,
28:29
Speaker 1: one on either side, were lashing viciously at me with
28:32
Speaker 1: their tails. The green warrior was much put to it
28:36
Speaker 1: to hold his own, and I felt that the unequal
28:39
Speaker 1: struggle could last but a moment longer, when the huge
28:42
Speaker 1: fellow discovered my plight, and tearing himself from those that
28:46
Speaker 1: surrounded him, he raked the assailant from my back with
28:50
Speaker 1: a single sweep of his blade, and thus relieved, I
28:53
Speaker 1: had little difficulty with the others. Once together we stood
28:56
Speaker 1: almost back to back against the great boulder, and thus
28:59
Speaker 1: the creatures were prevented from soaring above us to deliver
29:03
Speaker 1: their deadly blows. And as we were easily their match
29:06
Speaker 1: while they remained upon the ground, we were making great
29:09
Speaker 1: headway in despatching what remained of them, when our attention
29:13
Speaker 1: was again attracted by the shrill wail of the color
29:16
Speaker 1: above our heads. This time I glanced up, and far
29:20
Speaker 1: above us, upon a little natural balcony on the face
29:23
Speaker 1: of the cliff, stood a strange figure of a man,
29:26
Speaker 1: shrieking out his shrill signal, the while he waved one
29:30
Speaker 1: hand in the direction of the river's mouth, as though
29:33
Speaker 1: beckoning to some one there, and with the other pointed
29:36
Speaker 1: and gesticulated toward us. A glance in the direction toward
29:41
Speaker 1: which he was looking was sufficient to apprise me of
29:44
Speaker 1: his aims, and at the same time to fill me
29:47
Speaker 1: with the dread of dire apprehension, For streaming in from
29:50
Speaker 1: all directions across the meadow, from out of the forest,
29:54
Speaker 1: and from the far distance of the flat land across
29:56
Speaker 1: the river, I could see converging upon us a hundred
30:00
Speaker 1: different lines of wildly leaping creatures, such as we were
30:03
Speaker 1: now engaged with, and with them some strange new monsters
30:07
Speaker 1: which ran with great swiftness, now erect, and now upon
30:11
Speaker 1: all fours. It will be a great death, I said
30:14
Speaker 1: to my companion. Look. As he shot a quick glance
30:18
Speaker 1: in the direction I indicated, He smiled, we may at
30:21
Speaker 1: least die fighting, as great warriors should John Carter, He replied,
30:26
Speaker 1: we had just finished the last of our immediate antagonists.
30:29
Speaker 1: As he spoke, and I turned in surprised wonderment at
30:32
Speaker 1: the sound of my name, And there before my astonished
30:36
Speaker 1: eyes I beheld the greatest of the green men of Barsoom,
30:39
Speaker 1: their shrewdest statesman, their mightiest general, my great and good
30:43
Speaker 1: friend Tars Tarkas Jeddak of Thark. End of Chapter one