The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1921-06-10
CHAPTER VIIl-continued.

us she injured? / asked of Sofa,
Indicating Dejah Thoris by an inclina-
ton of my head.
"No," she answered, "she thinks
that you are dead. l do not under
stand either her ways or yours but I
am sure the granddaughter of ten
thousand jeddaks would never grieve
like this over the death of one she
considered beneath her, or indeed over
any one who held but the highest claim
upon her affections.
"TearS are a strange sight upon
Barsoom," she continued, "and so it
is difficult for me to interpret them.
have seen but two people weep in
all my life, other than Dejah Thoris |;
one wept from sorrow, the other from
baffied rage. The first was my moth
er, years ago, before they killed her j;
the other was Sarkoja, when they
dragged her from me today"
your mother" l exclaimed, "but,
Sofa, you could not have known your
mother, child"
"But / did. And my father also,'
she added. IF you would like to hear
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"
Il will come tonight, Sola," I prom
tsed. BE sure to tell Dejah Thoris ]
am alive and well. If she would speak
with me but await her command"
Sofa mounted the chariot, which was
swinging into its place in line, and /
hastened to my waiting thoat and gal
Hoped 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 adj
vance guard of some two hundred
mounted warriors and chieftains rid
ing five abreast and one hundred wards
apart, and followed by like number
in the same formation, with a score or
more of flankers 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 a 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 cultural
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 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. 1t was the first march of a
large body of men and animals 1 had
ever witnessed which raised no dust
and left no spoor : for there is no dust
upon Mars except in the cultivated dis
tricts 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 In
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.