The Snowflake herald., 1921-03-18

as Dotar Soiat, combination of the
snrnames of the two warrior chieftains
whose metal had taken, or, in other
words. whom ! had slain in fair fight
As Sarkoia talked with Zad he casf
occasional gances in my direction.
Whlle she seemed to be urging him
very strongly to some action. paid
little attention 70 il AT the time. but
the next day | had good reason to re-
call the circumstances. and at the
same time gain slight insight into
the depths of Sarkoia's hatred and the
lengths to which she was capable of
going to wreak her horrid vengeance
on me.
We broke camp the next day at an
early hour and marched with only a
single halt until just before dark. Two
incidents broke the tediousness of the
march. About noon we espied far to
our right what was evidently an ncu
batOr. and Lorquas Ptomel directed
lars Tarkas TO investigate it. The
latter took dozen warriors. includ
ing myself, and we raced across the
velvety carpeting of moss to the little
enclosure
Tars Tarkas dsmounted and exam.
ined the inclosure mnutely, finally an.
nouncing thar il belonged to the green
men Of Warhoon and that the cement
was scarcely dry where it had been
walled up.
"They cannot be a days march
ahead of u.s." he exclaimed. the light
of battle leaping to his fierce face
The work at the incubator was short
indeed. The warriors tore open the
entrance and couple of them, crawl
ing in, soon demolished all the eggs
with their Short-swords. Then re-
mounting we dashed back to join the
cavalcade. During the ride ! took
occasion To ask Tars TarkaS If these
Warhoons whose eggs we had de
stroyed We're smaller people than
his Tharks.
Il noticed that their eggs were so
much smaller than those | saw hatch
ing in your incubator" | added.
z He explained that the eggs had just
een placed there; but, like all green
Marian eggs, they would grow dur
ing the fve-year period of incubation
until they obtaine.! the size of those
| had seen hatching on the day of my
arrival on Rarsoom This was indeed
IN interesting piece of information,
FOR ii had always seemed remarkable
70 me that the green Martian women,
large as they were. could bring forth
such enormous eggs as ! had seen
be fourfoot infants emerging from.
As a matter Of fact. the new-laid egg
IS but little larger than an ordinary
goose egg, and as it does not com
mence to grow until subjected to the
tight of the sun the chieftains have
little difficulty in tran porting sew
eral hundreds of them at one time
from the storage vault to the incubat
0rS
Shortly after the incident of the
Varhoon eggs we halted TO rest the
animals. and ii was during this halt
ing episodes occurred. | was engaged
n changing my riding cloths from
one of my thoats to the other, for
divided the days work between them
when Zad approached me, and with
out word struck the aninsal a ter
rife blow with his Iong-sword.
did not need manual of green
Martian etiquette TO know what reply
10 make, for, in fact, I was so wild
with anger that | could scarcely re
frain from drawing my pistol and
shooting down the brute he was; but
he stood waiting with drawn long
sword. and my only choice was to
draw my own anG meet him in fair
fight with his choice of weapons or
a lesser one.
| chose the same weapon he had
drawn because he prided himself upon
his ability with it. and ] wished, if ]
worsted him at ALL to do II with his
own weapon The entire community
surrounded us, leaving a clear space
about one hundred feet in diameter
for our battle.
Zad first attempted to rush me down
as hul might a wolf. but | was much
too quick for him. AID each time |
side-stepped his rushes he would go
lunging past me, only to receive q
nick from my sword upon his arm OIL
back. He was soon streaming bloot
from half dozen minor wounds. but
could not obtain an opening to de
liver an effective thrust. Then he
changed his tactics, and fighting warily
and with extreme dexterity. he tried
to do by science what he was unable
to do by brute strength.
We circled for some time without
doing much damage on either side; the
long, straight. needle-like swords flash
ing in the sunlight and ringing out
upon the stiffness as they crashed to-