The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1921-04-30
| 4 PRIN CE s S
o F NJ A r :


from the plants which gave so boun-
teously of this priceless fluid.
Through two long weeks L wan
dered, stumbling through the nights
guided only by the stars and hiding
during the days behind some protrud-
ing rock or among the occasional
hills l traverSed. Several times L was
attacked by wild beasts; strange, I'M
COuth mOnStroSitiCS that lcaped upon
me in the dark, so that | had ever l"
grasp my lOngSwOrd in my hand that
| might be ready for them. Usually
my strange, newly acquired telepatmc
power warned me in ample time, hut
once l was down with vicious fangs at
my jugular and hairy face pressed
close 10 mine before l knew that
was even threatened.
What manner of thing was upon me
I did not know, but that il was large
and heavy and many-legged l could
feel. My hands were at its throat
before the fangs had chance to bury
themselves in my neck, and slowly l
forced the hairy face from me and
closed my fingers, viselike, upon its
windpine.
Without sound we lay there, the
beast eXerting every effort to reach
me with those awful fangs, and
straining TO maintain my grip and
choke the life from it as / kept 1t
from my throat. Then a living mass
of destruction sprang from the sur
! rounding darkness full upon the crea-
ture that held me pinioned to the
ground. The two rolled growing upon
the moss. tearing and rending one an
other in a frightful manner, but it was
soon over and my preServer stood with
lowered head above the throat Of the
dead thing which would have killed
me.
The nearer moon, hurtling suddenly
above the horizon and lighting up the
BarsOomian scene, showed me that
my preserver was WOola, but from
whence he had come, or how found
me, was at a loss to know. That
was glad of his COmpanionship 1t IS
needless to say, but my pleasure at
| seeing him was tempered by anxiety
as TO the reason of his leaving Dejah
| ThOris.
BY the light of the now brilliant
moons 1 saw that he was but a
| shadow of his former self, and as he
| turned from my careSs and com
menced greedily to devOur the dead
| carcass at my feet realized that the
poor fellow was more than half
| starved. When WOOla had finished
his meal I again took up my weary
| and seemingly endless wandering in
quest of the elusive waterway.
At daybreak of the fifteenth day
was overjoyed to see the high trees
that denoted the object of my search.
About noon 1 dragged myself YEARLY
to the portals of huge building which
covered perhaps four square miles and
! lowered two hundred feet in the air.
! It showed no aperture in the mighty
walls other than the tiny door at
which sank exhausted, nor was there
any sign of life about it.
I could find no bell or other method
of making my presence known to the
inmates of the place, unless a small
round hole in the wall near the door
was for that purpose. 1t was of about
the bigness of a lead pencil and think
ing that it might be in the nature of
a speaking tube l put my mouth to it
and was about to call into it When a
voice issued from ii asking me whom
l might be, where from, and the ma
ture of my errand.
"I am a friend of the red men of
BarsoOm and l am starving. In the
name of humanity open to u.s." / re-
piled.
Presently the door commenced to
recede before me until 1t had sunk
into the wall fifty feet, then 1t stopped
and slid easily to the left, exposing a
short, narrow corridor of concrete. at
the further end of which was another
door, similar in every respect to the