The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-02-06
(Continued)

4uey were Tdp1Oly OEeFnaul1ng us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to hasten ahead and discover if possible the sanctuary we sought. The sugges- tion was good one, for thus many valuable minutes might be saved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earth ly muscles into the effort, I cleared the remaining distance between my self and the cliffs in great leaps that put me at their base in moment.
 My first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my heart with forebodings, since nowhere could I dis cern. except where the weird herald stood still shrieking his shrill sum- mons, the faintest indication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty escarp- ment
 Tars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came the awful horde at his heels
 It seemed the forest now or nothing, and was just on the point of motion ing Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun passed the cliffs zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull surface it burst out into million scintillant lights of bur nished gold of flaming red, of soft greens and gleaming whites-a more gorgeous and inspiring spectacle hu- man 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 present the appearance of assolid wall of that metal except where it was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald and diamond powders.
 But what caught my most interested attention at the moment that the suns rays set the cliffs face a-shimmer was the several black spots which. now ap- peared quite plainly in evidence high across the gorgeous wall close to the forests top and extending apparently below and behind the branches.
 Almost immediately I recognized 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 single way, and that led through the mighty, towering trees upon our right. That could scale them knew full well. but Tars Tar kas, with his mighty bulk and enor- nous weight, would find 1t task pos sibly quite beyond his prowess or his skill.
 Martians are, at best but poor climb ers. Upon the entire surface of that ancient planet before never had seen a hill or mountain that exceeded 4.OOO feet in height above the dead sea bot toms, and as the ascent was usually gradual nearly to their summits they presented but few opportunities for the practice of climbing.
 However, there was nothing else to consider than an attempt to scale the trees contiguous to the cliff in an ef- fort 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 near est the cliff.
 Our relentless pursuers were now close to us, so close that 1t seemed that it would be an utter fmpossihility for the Jeddak of Thark to reach the forest in advance of them. Nor was there any considerable will in the ef' forts that Tars Tarkas made, for the green men of Barsoom do not relish flight, nor ever before had seen one fleeing from death in whatsoever form it might have confronted him.
 At length, however. we reached the shadows of the forest, while right be- hind us sprang the swiftest of our pur- suers-a giant plant man with out reaching claws to fasten his blood sucking mouths upon US.
 He was. I should say, a hundred yards in advance of his closest com- panion, and so called to Tars Tarkas to ascend a great tree that brushed the cliffs face while dispatched the fellow, thus giving the less agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher branches before the entire horde OuOu4u US up0u us Auu CSClS NSCliSo of escape cut of. H
 But I had reckoned without just appreciation either of the cunning of my immediate antagonist or the swift ness with which his fellows were GOV ering tue distance which had separat. ed them from me.
 As I raised my long sword to dea. the creature its death thrust it halted in its charge, aad as my sword cut harmlessly through the empty air the great tail of the thing swept with the power cf grizzly's arm across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet to the ground.
 In an instant tue brute was upon me, but ere it could fasten its hideous mouths into my breast and threat I grasped vrithing tentacle in either hand.
 The plant man was wei! muscled heavy and powerful. but my sinews and greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly strangle hold I had upcn him, would have given me, think, an eventual victory had we had time to discuss the merits of our relative prowess uninterrupted But as we strained and struggled about the tree into which Tars Tarkas was chamber ing suddenly caught a glimpse over