The Connecticut labor news., 1921-07-15

the strange and un-Barsoomian story come to the chariot tonight, John Car ter, and I will tell you that of which have never spoken in all my life be- fore"
 "I will come tonight, SOla," I prom ised. "Be sure to tell Dejah Thoris am alive and well. If she would speak with me but await her command"
 Sola mounted the chariot, which was swinging into its place in line. and hastened to my waiting thoat and gal loped to my station beside Tars Tar kas at the rear of the column.
 We made most imposing and awe inspiring spectacle as we strung out across the yellow landscape; the two hundred and fifty ornate and brightly cOlored chariOts, preceded by an ad- vance guard of some two hundred mounted warriors and chieftains rid ing five abreast and one hundred yards apart, and followed by like number in the same formation, with score or more of f1ankers on either side; the fifty extra mastodons, or heavy draught animals, known as zitidars. and the five or six hundred extra thoats of the warriors running loose within the hollow square formed by the surrounding warriors. The gleam- ing metal and jewels of the gorgeous ornaments of the men and women, du- plicated in the trappings of the Ziti- dars and thoats, and interspersed with the flashing colors of magnificent silks and furs and feathers, lent barbaric splendor to the caravan which would have turned an East Indian potentate green with envy.
 The enormous broad tires of the chariots and the padded feet of the animals brought forth no sound from the moss-covered sea bottom; and so we moved in utter silence, like some huge phantasmagoria, except when the stiffness was broken by the guttural growing of a goaded zitidar, or the squealing of fighting thoats. The green Martians converse but little; and then usually in monosyllables, low and like the faint rumbling of distant thunder.
 We traversed a trackless waste of moss which, bending to the pressure of broad tire or padded foot, rose up again behind us, leaving no sign that we had passed. We might indeed have been the wraiths of the departed dead upon the dead sea of that dying planet for all the sound or sign we made in passing. It was the first march of large body of men and animals had ever witnessed which raised no dust and left no spoor; for there is no dust upon Mars except in the cultivated dis trlcts during the winter months, and even then the absence of high winds renders 1t almost unnoticeable.
 We camped that night at the foot of the hills we had been approaching for two days and which marked the southern boundary of this particular sea. Our animals had been two days without drink, nor had they had water for nearly two months, not since shortly after leaving Thark; but, as Tars Tarkas explained to me, they re- quire but little and can live almost 1n- definitely upon the moss which covers Barsoom, and which, he told me, holds in its tiny stems sufficient moisture to meet the limited demands of the animals.
 After partaking of my evening meal of cheese-like food and vegetable milk I sought out Sola, whom I found work ing by the light of a torch upon some of Tars Tarkas' trappings. She looked up at my approach, her face lighting with pleasure and with welcome.
 "I am glad you came" she said; "Dejah Thoris sleeps and am lonely. I promised to tell you my story, or rather the story of my parents. From what I have learned of you and the ways of your people I am sure that the tale will not seem strange to you, but among green Martians 1t has no parallel within the memory of the old est living Thark, nor do our legends hold many similar tales.
 My mother was rather small, in fact too small to be allowed the re- responsibilities of maternity, as our chiefta1ns breed principally for size. She was also less cold and cruel than most green Martian women, and caring little for their society, she often roamed the deserted avenues of Thark alone or went and sat among the wild flowers that deck the nearby hills, thinking thoughts and wishing wishes which I believe I alone among Thark- tan women today may understand. for am not the child of my mother?
 And there among the hills she met young warrior, whose duty it was to guard the feeding zitidars and thoats and see that they rOamed not beyond the hills. She trusted him and told of the awful repugnance she felt for the cruelties of their kind, for the hideouS, loveless lives they must ever lead, and then she waited for the storm of de nunciation to break from his cold, hard lips; but instead he took her in his arms and kissed her.
 "They kept their love a secret for six long years. She, my mother, was of the retinue of the great Tal Hajus, while her lover was a simple warrior, wearing only his own metal. Had their defection from the traditions of the Tharks been discovered both would have paid the penalty in the great arena before Tal Hajus and the assembled hordes.
 '"The egg from which I came was hidden beneath a great glass vessel upon the highest and most inaccessible of the partially ruined towers of an