Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1923-02-17

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| once | was down with Vicious fangs at
my jugular and hairy face pressed
1 close TO mine before 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 ] could
feel. My hands were at its throat
before the fangs had chance to bury
themselves In my neck and slowly /
forced the hairy face from me and
closed my fingers, viseiike upon its
wlndpipe.
Without sound we lay there. the
beast exerting every effort to reach
me with those awful fangs, and 1
strainlng to maintain my grip and
choke the life from Il as / kept 1t
from my throat Then 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, hurting suddenly
above the horizon and lighting up the
Barsoomian scene, showed me that
my preserver was Wooa, but from
whence he had come or how found
me, / was at loss 10 know. That
was glad OF his cOmpanonship 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 l saw that he was but n
shadow Of his former self, and as he
turned from my caress and com
neneed greedily to devour the dead
carcass at my feet I realized that the
poor fellow was more than half
starved. When Woola had finished
his meal | again took up my weary
and seemingly endless wandering In
quest OF the elusive waterway
At daybreak of the fifteenth day
was overioyed to see the high trees
hat denoted the object Of my search.
About noon I dragged myself YEARLY
o the portals of huge building which
covered perhaps four square miles and
covered two hundred feet in the air.
Il 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
II making my presence known to the
inmates of the place, unless small
round hole IN the wall near the door
was for that purpose II was of about
he blgness of a lead pencil and think
ing that It might be In the nature of
4 speaking tube ! put my mouth to It
and was about to call into 1t when a
voice issued from 1t asking me whom
| might be, where from, and the ma
lure of my errand.
81 am friend Of the red men of
Barsoom and ! am starving. In the
name Of humanity open to us" re
oiled
Presently the door commenced to
recede before me until II had sunk
into the wall fifty feet, then II 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
one ! had just passed No one was
In sight, yet Immediately we passed |
the first door 1t slid gently into place
behind us and receded rapidly to its
original position in the front wall of
the building.
A second and third door receded
before me and slipped to one side as
the first, before l reached large in
ner chamber where ] found food and
drink set out upon a great stone table.
A voice directed me to satisfy my
hunger and TO feed my caiot, and
while / was thus engaged my invisible
host put me through a severe and
cross-examination.
"Your statements are most remark
able" said the voice, on concluding Its
"but you are evidently
speaking the truth, and it is equally
evident that you are not Of Barsoom.
| can tell that by the conformation Of
your brain and the strange location Of
your internal organs and the shape
and size Of your heart"
"Can you see through me?" I ex- .
claimed.
eyes, can see all but your
thoughts. and were you Barsoomian
( could read those"
Then a door opened at the far side
If the chamber and strange, dried
ID, little mummy Of q man came
oward me. He wore but single ar 4:
icle Of clothing or adornment, a small
,ollar Of gold from which depended
lpon his chest great ornament as
arge as a dinner plate set solid with
luge diamonds, except for the exact
enter which was occupied by
stone. an inch in diameter,
hat scintillated nine different and dis I.
met rays; the seven colors OF our
arthly prism and two beautiful rays
7hich, to me were new and nameless.
cannot describe them any more than
on could describe red to a blind man.
only know that they were beautiful