Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-17
HE CODSOF MARI
BY EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS, AUTHOR OF TARTAN,

eye Of the great star, stood praying for
return OF that strange power which twic
had drawn me through the immensity O
space praying as had prayed on a thou
sand nights before during the years tina
had waited and hoped.
Suddenly a qualm of nausea swept owe
me, my senses swan, my knees gave be
hearth me and 1 pitched headlong to th
ground upon the very edge of the dizz!
bluff
Instantly my brain cleared, and ther,
swept back across the threshold of my
memory the vivid picture of the horrors OF
that ghostly Arizona cave again as on that
fargone night my muscles refused to re
spond to my will, and again as though
even here upon the banks of the placid
Hudson could hear the awful means and
rustling Of the fearsome thing which had
lurked and threatened me from the dark
recesses of the cave.
l made the same mighty and superhuman
effort to break the bonds of the strange
| anesthesia which held me, and again came
the sharp click as of the sudden parting of
| n taut wire, and l stood naked and free
beside the staring, lifeless thing that had
so recently pulsed with the warm lfeblood
Of John Carter.
With scarcely a parting glance, I turned
my eyes again toward Mars, lifted my
hands toward his lurid rays, and waited.
| Nor did l have long to walt for scarce
had | turned ere | shot with the rapidity
| of thought into the awful void before me.
There was the same instant of unthlnk-
able cold and utter darkness that had ex-
perienced 20 years beforehand then L
| opened my eyes in another world, beneath
the burning rays of hot sun. which beat
through tiny opening in the dome or the
| mighty forest in which lay
The scene that met my eyes was SO un-
martan that my heart sprang to my throat
as the sudden fear swept through me that
| l had been amlessly tossed upon some
| strange planet by cruel fate
why not?
What guide had through the trackless
waste of interpanetary space? What as
| surance that might not as well be hurtled
to some far-distant star of another solar
system as to Mars?
l lay upon a close-cropped sward of red
| grasslike vegetation, and about me stretched
| a grove of strange and beautiful trees, COW
| cred with huge and gorgeous blossoms and
| filled with brilliant, voiceless birds. l call
them birds since they were winged, but
| mortal eye never rested on such unearthly
shapes
The vegetation was similar to that which
| covers the lawns of the red Martians of the
great waterways, but the trees and birds
were unlike anything that had ever seen
upon Mars, and then through the farther
trees l could see that most unmartian of
all sights-an open sea, its blue waters
shimmering beneath the brazen sun
As l rose to investigate further l ex-
perenced the same ridiculous catastrophe
that had met my first attempt to walk
under Marian conditions.
The lesser attraction of this smaller
planet and the reduced air pressure of its
greatly rarlfied atmosphere afforded so little
resistance to my earthly muscles that the
ordinary exertion of the mere act of rising
sent me several feet into the air and
precipitated me upon my face in the soft
and brilliant grass of this strange world
rms experience however, gave me some
slightly increased assurance that, after ALL
| might indeed be in Bome. to me- unknown
corner of Mars, and this was very pos
sIble, since during my ten years residence
upon the planet | had explored but a COM
paratively tiny area of its vast expanse
/ rose again, laughing at my forgetful-
ness. and soon had mastered once more
the art OF attuning my earthly sinews to |
these changed conditions
AS | walked slowly dowR the impercep- |
tible slope toward the l could not helm |
but note the parkike appearance of the
sward and trees
The grass was as close cropped and car
petliSe as some old English lawn and the
trees themselves showed evidence of care
ful pruning to a uniform height of about
10 feet, that as one turned his glance
In any direction the forest had the appear- |
ance at little distance of a vast. high
celed chamber
All these evidences of careful and sys- |
tematic cultivation convinced me that I |
had been fortunate enough to make nv en-
try into Mars this second occasion |
through the domain of a civilized people, |
and that when should find them / would |
ne accorded the courtesy and protection
that my rank as a prince of the house |
of Tardos Mors entitled me to.
The trees or the forest attracted my deep
admiration as | proceeded toward the sea
Their great trunks, some of them fully 100
feet in diameter attested their prndigious
height, which / could only guess at since
at no point could l penetrate their dense
foliage above me to more than so or so
feet.
So far aloft as I could see, the stems
and branches and twigs were as smooth and
as highly polished as the newest of Ameri-
can-made pianos. The wood of some of the
trees was as black as ebony while their
nearest neighbors might perhaps gleam in
the subdued light of the forest as clear and
white as the finest china, or, again, they
were azure scarlet yellow, or deepest pur-
ple
And in the same way was the foliage
as gay and variegated'as the trunks. while
the blossoms that clustered thick upon them |
may not be described in any earthly tongue
and indeed might challenge the language of
the gods.
AS ! neared the confines of the forest
beheld before me and between the grove |
meadow land, and as was about to emerge
from the shadows of the trees a sight met
my eyes that banished all romantic and
poetic reflection.
To my left the sea extended as far as
the eye could reach, before me only vague
dim line indicated its farther shore ; while
at my right mighty river, broad placid
and majestic, flowed between scarlet banks
TO empty into the auiet sea before me.
At a little distance up the river rose
mighty, perpendicular bluffs, from the very
base of which the great river seemed 10 rise |
But II was not the grandeur that took
my Immediate attention from the beauties
Of the forest. IL was the sight OF a score
Of figures moving slowly about the |
meadow near the bank OF the mighty river
Odd. grotesqne shapes they were unlike |
anything that had ever seen upon Mars
and yet at a distance. most manlllse Ia an
psarancs The larger specimens appeared
10 be about 10 or l2 feet in height when
they stood erect, ana 70 be proportionsd AZ
10 torso and lower extremities precisely ~
IS earthly man.
Their arms. however. were very shorf
ana from where ! stood seemed as thouQh
fashioned much after the manner OF an
elephants trunk, In that they moved in
slnous and snakellke andulations, as thsueh
entirely without bony structure or Il thsrs
uaara homes they must - uartat....'4 =.