The Gods of Mars Revoked Read Online Free Page A

quartz.
    Altogether they
were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not regard them with a
particularly appreciative eye on this, my first inspection of
them.
    Just then I was
absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and so, as my gaze ran
quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse in search of some
cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them as the prisoner
must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of her
dungeon.
    Tara Tarkas was
approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came the awful horde
at her heels.
    It seemed the
forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of motioning
Tara Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun passed the
cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull surface it
burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished gold, of
flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more gorgeous
and inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.
    The face of the
entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively proved, so shot
with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite present the
appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except where it
was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond
boulders--a faint and alluring indication of the vast and
unguessable riches which lay deeply buried behind the magnificent
surface.
    But what caught
my most interested attention at the moment that the sun's rays set
the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black spots which now
appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous wall
close to the forest's top, and extending apparently below and
behind the branches.
    Almost
immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark openings
of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of escape or
temporary shelter, could we but reach them.
    There was but a
single way, and that led through the mighty, towering trees upon
our right. That I could scale them I knew full well, but Tara
Tarkas, with her mighty bulk and enormous weight, would find it a
task possibly quite beyond her prowess or her skill, for Martians
are at best but poor climbers. Upon the entire surface of that
ancient planet I never before had seen a hill or mountain that
exceeded four thousand feet in height above the dead sea bottoms,
and as the ascent was usually gradual, nearly to their summits they
presented but few opportunities for the practice of climbing. Nor
would the Martians have embraced even such opportunities as might
present themselves, for they could always find a circuitous route
about the base of any eminence, and these roads they preferred and
followed in preference to the shorter but more arduous
ways.
    However, there
was nothing else to consider than an attempt to scale the trees
contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the caves
above.
    The Thark grasped
the possibilities and the difficulties of the plan at once, but
there was no alternative, and so we set out rapidly for the trees
nearest the cliff.
    Our relentless
pursuers were now close to us, so close that it seemed that it
would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of Thark to reach
the forest in advance of them, nor was there any considerable will
in the efforts that Tara Tarkas made, for the green women of
Barsoom do not relish flight, nor ever before had I seen one
fleeing from death in whatsoever form it might have confronted her.
But that Tara Tarkas was the bravest of the brave she had proven
thousands of times; yes, tens of thousands in countless mortal
combats with women and beasts. And so I knew that there was another
reason than fear of death behind her flight, as she knew that a
greater power than pride or honour spurred me to escape these
fierce destroyers. In my case it was love--love of the divine Dejar
Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love of life
I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death than
life--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.
    At length,
however, we