defense indeed. Nor could I hope to escape the lightning-like movements or hide from those myriad facet eyes which covered three-fourths of the hideous head, permitting the creature to see in all directions at one and the same time.
Even my powerful and ferocious Woolan was as helpless as a kitten before that frightful thing. But to flee were useless, even had it ever been to my liking to turn my back upon a danger; so I stood my ground, Woolan snarling at my side, my only hope to die as I had always lived--fighting.
The creature was upon us now, and at the instant there seemed to me a single slight chance for victory. If I could but remove the terrible menace of certain death hidden in the poison sacs that fed the sting the struggle would be less unequal.
At the thought I called to Woolan to leap upon the creature's head and hang there, and as her mighty jaws closed upon that fiendish face, and glistening fangs buried themselves in the bone and cartilage and lower part of one of the huge eyes, I dived beneath the great body as the creature rose, dragging Woolan from the ground, that it might bring its sting beneath and pierce the body of the thing hanging to its head.
To put myself in the path of that poison-laden lance was to court instant death, but it was the only way; and as the thing shot lightning-like toward me I swung my long-sword in a terrific cut that severed the deadly member close to the gorgeously marked body.
Then, like a battering-ram, one of the powerful hind legs caught me full in the bosom and hurled me, half stunned and wholly winded, clear across the broad highway and into the underbrush of the jungle that fringes it.
Fortunately, I passed between the boles of trees; had I struck one of them I should have been badly injured, if not killed, so swiftly had I been catapulted by that enormous hind leg.
Dazed though I was, I stumbled to my feet and staggered back to Woolan's assistance, to find her savage antagonist circling ten feet above the ground, beating madly at the clinging calot with all six powerful legs.
Even during my sudden flight through the air I had not once released my grip upon my long-sword, and now I ran beneath the two battling monsters, jabbing the winged terror repeatedly with its sharp point.
The thing might easily have risen out of my reach, but evidently it knew as little concerning retreat in the face of danger as either Woolan or I, for it dropped quickly toward me, and before I could escape had grasped my shoulder between its powerful jaws.
Time and again the now useless stub of its giant sting struck futilely against my body, but the blows alone were almost as effective as the kick of a horse; so that when I say futilely, I refer only to the natural function of the disabled member--eventually the thing would have hammered me to a pulp. Nor was it far from accomplishing this when an interruption occurred that put an end forever to its hostilities.
From where I hung a few feet above the road I could see along the highway a few hundred yards to where it turned toward the east, and just as I had about given up all hope of escaping the perilous position in which I now was I saw a red warrior come into view from around the bend.
She was mounted on a splendid thoat, one of the smaller species used by red women, and in her hand was a wondrous long, light lance.
Her mount was walking sedately when I first perceived them, but the instant that the red woman's eyes fell upon us a word to the thoat brought the animal at full charge down upon us. The long lance of the warrior dipped toward us, and as thoat and rider hurtled beneath, the point passed through the body of our antagonist.
With a convulsive shudder the thing stiffened, the jaws relaxed, dropping me to the ground, and then, careening once in mid air, the creature plunged headforemost to the road, full upon Woolan, who still clung tenaciously to its gory head.
By the time I had regained my feet the red woman had turned and ridden back to us. Woolan, finding her enemy inert and lifeless, released her hold at my command and wriggled from beneath the body that had covered her, and together we faced the warrior looking down upon us.
I started to thank the stranger for her timely assistance, but she cut me off peremptorily.
'Who are you,' she asked, 'who dare enter the land of Kaol and hunt in the royal forest of the jeddak?'
Then, as she noted my white skin through the coating of grime and blood that covered me, her eyes went wide and in an altered tone she whispered: 'Can it be that you are a Holy Thern?'
I might have deceived the fellow for a time, as I had deceived others, but I had cast away the yellow wig and the holy diadem in the presence of Matain Shang, and I knew that it would not be long ere my new acquaintance discovered that I was no thern at all.
'I am not a thern,' I replied, and then, flinging caution to the winds, I said: 'I am Joan Carter, Princess of Helium, whose name may not be entirely unknown to you.'
If her eyes had gone wide when she thought that I was a Holy Thern, they fairly popped now that she knew that I was Joan Carter. I grasped my long-sword more firmly as I spoke the words which I was sure would precipitate an attack, but to my surprise they precipitated nothing of the kind.
'Joan Carter, Princess of Helium,' she repeated slowly, as though she could not quite grasp the truth of the statement. 'Joan Carter, the mightiest warrior of Barsoom!'
And then she dismounted and placed her hand upon my shoulder after the manner of most friendly greeting upon Mars.
'It is my duty, and it should be my pleasure, to kill you, Joan Carter,' she said, 'but always in my heart of hearts have I admired your prowess and believed in your sincerity the while I have questioned and disbelieved the therns and their religion.
'It would mean my instant death were my heresy to be suspected in the court of Kula Tith, but if I may serve you, Princess, you have but to command Torkar Bar, Dwar of the Kaolian Road.'
Truth and honesty were writ large upon the warrior's noble countenance, so that I could not but have trusted her, enemy though she should have been. Her title of Captain of the Kaolian Road explained her timely presence in the heart of the savage forest, for every highway upon Barsoom is patrolled by doughty warriors of the noble class, nor is there any service more honorable than this lonely and dangerous duty in the less frequented sections of the domains of the red women of Barsoom.
'Torkar Bar has already placed a great debt of gratitude upon my shoulders,' I replied, pointing to the carcass of the creature from whose heart she was dragging her long spear.
The red woman smiled.
'It was fortunate that I came when I did,' she said. 'Only this poisoned spear pricking the very heart of a sith can kill it quickly enough to save its prey. In this section of Kaol we are all armed with a long sith spear, whose point is smeared with the poison of the creature it is intended to kill; no other virus acts so quickly upon the beast as its own.
'Look,' she continued, drawing her dagger and making an incision in the carcass a foot above the root of the sting, from which she presently drew forth two sacs, each of which held fully a gallon of the deadly liquid.
'Thus we maintain our supply, though were it not for certain commercial uses to which the virus is put, it would scarcely be necessary to add to our present store, since the sith is almost extinct.
'Only occasionally do we now run upon one. Of old, however, Kaol was overrun with the frightful monsters that often came in herds of twenty or thirty, darting down from above into our cities and carrying away men, children, and even warriors.'
As she spoke I had been wondering just how much I might safely tell this woman of the mission which brought me to her land, but her next words anticipated the broaching of the subject on my part, and rendered me thankful that I had not spoken too soon.
'And now as to yourself, Joan Carter,' she said, 'I shall not ask your business here, nor do I wish to hear it. I have eyes and ears and ordinary intelligence, and yesterday morning I saw the party that came to the city of Kaol from the north in a small flier. But one thing I ask of you, and that is: the word of Joan Carter that she contemplates no overt act against eit
her the nation of Kaol or its jeddak.'
'You may have my word as to that, Torkar Bar,' I replied.
'My way leads along the Kaolian road, away from the city of Kaol,' she continued. 'I have seen no one--Joan Carter least of all. Nor have you seen Torkar Bar, nor ever heard of her. You understand?'
'Perfectly,' I replied.
She laid her hand upon my shoulder.
'This road leads directly into the city of Kaol,' she said. 'I wish you fortune,' and vaulting to the back of her thoat she trotted away without even a backward glance.
It was after dark when Woolan and I spied through the mighty forest the great wall which surrounds the city of Kaol.
We had traversed the entire way without mishap or adventure, and though the few we had met had eyed the great calot wonderingly, none had pierced the red pigment with which I had smoothly smeared every square inch of my body.
But to traverse the surrounding country, and to enter the guarded city of Kula Tith, Jeddak of Kaol, were two very different things. No woman enters a Martian city without giving a very detailed and satisfactory account of herself, nor did I delude myself with the belief that I could for a moment impose upon the acumen of the officers of the guard to whom I should be taken the moment I applied at any one of the gates.
My only hope seemed to lie in entering the city surreptitiously under cover of the darkness, and
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