Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-02-08
CHAPTER u.
A Strange Meeting.

A Strange Meeting.
S L had been scrutinizing this
OF %sa tHe nepa hss fsd the aats os
- to me.
Fearsome looking as they were, did
not know whether to fear them or not,
for they did not seem to be particu-
larly we'll equipped for fighting.
l was, in fact, on the point Of step
ping from my hiding place and reveal
ing myself to them to note the effect
upon them Of the sight Of man when
my rash resolve was, fortunately for
me, nipped in the bud by a strange
shrieking wall which seemed to come
| from the direction of the bluffs at my
right
Naked and unarmed as 1 was, my
end would have been both speedy and
horrible at the hands of these cruel
creatures, but at the moment of the
! shrek each member of the herd turned
in the direction of the sound, and al
the same instant every particular
snakelike hair upon their heads rose
| stiffly perpendicular as if each had
been a sentient organism looking OF
| listening for the source or meaning OF
the wall
And indeed the latter proved to be
the truth, for this strange growth upon
the craniums of the plant men of Bar
SOON represents the thousand ears OF
these hideous creatures, the last rem
nant of the strange race which sprung
from the original tree of life.
Instantly every eye turned toward
one member of the herd. large fellow
who evidently was the leader. A
strange purring sound issued from the
mouth in the palm of one of his hands
and at the same time he started rapid.
ly toward the bluff, followed by the
entire herd.
Their speed and method OF locomo.
tion We're both remarkable, springing
as they did, in great leaps of twenty
or thirty feet, much after the manner
| of kangaroo.
! They We're rapidly disappearing when
I it occurred to me to follow them, and
! so, hurting caution to the winds,
sprang across the meadow in their
wake with leaps and bounds even more
| prodlgious than their own, for the mus.
cles of an athletic earth man produce
remarkable results when pitted against
the lesser gravity and air pressure OF
Mars.
Their way led directly toward the
apparent source of the river at the
| 20 ha 81; A..
point l found the meadow dotted with
huge powders dislodged from the tow
ering crags above.
For this reason came quite close to
the cause of the disturbance before
the scene broke upon my Mortified gaze.
AS / topped a great bowlder l saw
the herd of plant men surrounding a
] little group of perhaps FIVE or six green
men and women of Barsoom.
That was indeed upon Mars now
had no doubt, for here were members
Of the wild hordes that people the dead
sea bottoms and deserted cities of that
dying planet.
Here were the great males towering
in all the majesty Of their imposing
height; here were the cleaning white
tusks protruding from their massive
lower jaws to point near the center
of their foreheads; the laterally placed.
protruding eyes, with which thG'
could look forward or backward or to
either side without turning their heads
here the strange antennaelike ears ris-
ing from the tops of their foreheads
and the additional pair of arms ex-
tending from midway between the
shoulders and the hips.
Even without the glossy green hide
and the metal ornaments which de.
noted the tribes to which they belong
ed ] would have known them oh the
instant for what they were, for where
else in all the universe is their like
duplicated?
There were two men and four fe-
males in the party, and their orna-
ments denoted them as members OF
different hordes.
The facts puzzled me, since the va
rious hordes of green men of Barsoom
are eternally at war with one another
and never had I seen green Martians
of different hordes associated in other
than mortal combat save on that his
toric instance when the great Tars
Tarkas of Thark gathered 10000
green warriors from several hordes tc
march upon the doomed city of Zodan.
ga and rescue Dejah Thoris, princess
"a EzIs ,I,. A1f.- a FttN.-
Eosis.
But now they stood back to back
facing in wide eyed amazement the