Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-23
CHAPTER VI
The Black Pirates of Barsoom



"MHAT is it?" asked of the girl
w For answer she pointed into the
sky.
l looked, and there above us ] saw shad-
| owy bodies fitting hither and thither high
| over temple court and garden,
Almost Immediately flashes Of light
| broke from these strange objects. There
was a roar of musketry and then answer
ing flashes and roars from temple and RAM
| part.
"The Black Pirates Of Barsoom, o
| prince !" said Thuvia,
In great circles the aircraft OF the ma
rauders swept lower and lower toward the
defending forces of the therns.
Voley after voley they vomited upon
the temple guards voley on volley crashed
| through the thin air toward the fleeting and
| illusive niers.
As the pirates swooped closer toward
| the ground thern sodlery poured from the
| temples into the gardens and courts. The
| sight of them I'm the open brought score
| Of flers darting toward US from all drecN
| tions.
The therns fired upon them through
| shields affixed to their rifles but on, stead
| lily on came the grim black craft They were
small hicrs, for the most part, built for
| two TO three men. A few larger ones there
| were. but these kept high aloft, dropping
bombs upon the temples from their keel
| batteries.
At length, with concerted rush, evident.
| ly in response to n signal of command. the
pirates in our immediate vicinity dashed
| recklessy TO the ground in the very midst
| of the thern soldiery.
Scarcely waiting for their craft to touch.
| the creatures manning them leaped among
| the therns with the fury of demons,
Such fighting Never had l witnessed
| it's like before. l had thought the green
| Martians the most ferocious warriors In the
| universe, but the awful abandon with which
N1,nN,,
| their foes transcribed everything l ever
| before had seem
Beneath the brilliant light of Mars two
| glorious moons the whole scene presented
| itself in vivid distinctness The golden
| haired, white-skinned therns battling with
| desperate courage in hand-to-hand conflict
| with their ebony-skinned fOemen.
Here little knot of struggling warriors
| trampled bed of gorgeous plmalia. There
| the curved sword of a black man found the
| heart OF thorn, and left its dead foeman
| at the foot of a wondrous statue carved
| from n living ruby Yonder a dozen therns
pressed u single pirate back upon a bench
| OF emerald, upon whose iridescent surface
| n strangely beautiful Barsoomian design
| was traced in inlaid diamonds.
| A little to one side stood Thuvia, the
| Thark and l. The tide of battle from time
| to time swung close enough that we might
| distinctly note them.
The black pirates interested me immense
y.
than legends they were-during my former
life on Mars; but never had l seen them,
nor talked with one who had.
They were popularly supposed to inhabit
| the lesser moon, from which they descended
| upon Barsoom at long intervals. Where
| they visited they wrought the most horrible
| atrocities and when they left carried away
| with them firearms and ammunition, and
| young girls as prisoners.
These latter, the rumor had 1t, they
| sacrificed to some terrible god
had an excellent opportunity to ex-
anime them as the strife occasionally
| brought now one and now another close
| to where l stood. They were large men.
possibly six feet and over in height
Their features were clear-cut and hand
| some In the extreme: their eyes were we'll
| set and large, though slight narrowness
| lent them a crafty appearance; the iris, as
| we'll as / could determine by moonlight,
| was OF extreme blaCkness, while the eyeball
| itself was quite white and clear. The
physical structure of their bodies seemed
identical with those of the therns, the red
men, and my own.
Only in the color of their skin did they
differ materially from us. and that was of
the appearance of polished ebony.
But if their bodies were divine, their
hearts, apparently were quite the reverse
Never did ] witness such n mallgn lust
for blood as these demons of the outer air
eylnced in their mad battle with the therns
All about us in the garden lay their
sinister craft, which the therns for some
reason then unaccountable to me, made no
effort to injure. Now and again black
warrior would rush from nearby temple
bearing n young woman in his arms
Straight for his hier he would leap while
those of his comrades who fought near
by would rush to cover his escape.
Tho therns, on their side, would hasten
to rescue the girl. and in an instant the two
would be swallowed in a maelstrom OF
yellow devils, hacking and hewing at one
another
But always, it seemed. were the black
pirates of Barsoom victorious and the girl,
brought miracuously unharmed through
the conflict, borne away into the outer
darkness upon the deck of a swift flyer.
Fighting like that near us could be heard