The Chessmen of Mars Read online

  Produced by Judy Boss

  THE CHESSMEN OF MARS

  by Edgar Rice Burroughs

  CONTENTS

  PRELUDE - John Carter Comes to Earth I Tara in a Tantrum II At the Gale's Mercy III The Headless Humans IV Captured V The Perfect Brain VI In the Toils of Horror VII A Repellent Sight VIII Close Work IX Adrift Over Strange Regions X Entrapped XI The Choice of Tara XII Ghek Plays Pranks XIII A Desperate Deed XIV At Ghek's Command XV The Old Man of the Pits XVI Another Change of Name XVII A Play to the Death XVIII A Task for Loyalty XIX The Menace of the Dead XX The Charge of Cowardice XXI A Risk for Love XXII At the Moment of Marriage

  THE CHESSMEN OF MARS

  PRELUDE

  JOHN CARTER COMES TO EARTH

  Shea had just beaten me at chess, as usual, and, also as usual, I hadgleaned what questionable satisfaction I might by twitting him withthis indication of failing mentality by calling his attention for the_n_th time to that theory, propounded by certain scientists, which isbased upon the assertion that phenomenal chess players are always foundto be from the ranks of children under twelve, adults over seventy-twoor the mentally defective--a theory that is lightly ignored upon thoserare occasions that I win. Shea had gone to bed and I should havefollowed suit, for we are always in the saddle here before sunrise; butinstead I sat there before the chess table in the library, idly blowingsmoke at the dishonored head of my defeated king.

  While thus profitably employed I heard the east door of the living-roomopen and someone enter. I thought it was Shea returning to speak withme on some matter of tomorrow's work; but when I raised my eyes to thedoorway that connects the two rooms I saw framed there the figure of abronzed giant, his otherwise naked body trapped with a jewel-encrustedharness from which there hung at one side an ornate short-sword and atthe other a pistol of strange pattern. The black hair, the steel-grayeyes, brave and smiling, the noble features--I recognized them at once,and leaping to my feet I advanced with outstretched hand.

  "John Carter!" I cried. "You?"

  "None other, my son," he replied, taking my hand in one of his andplacing the other upon my shoulder.

  "And what are you doing here?" I asked. "It has been long years sinceyou revisited Earth, and never before in the trappings of Mars. Lord!but it is good to see you--and not a day older in appearance than whenyou trotted me on your knee in my babyhood. How do you explain it, JohnCarter, Warlord of Mars, or do you try to explain it?"

  "Why attempt to explain the inexplicable?" he replied. "As I have toldyou before, I am a very old man. I do not know how old I am. I recallno childhood; but recollect only having been always as you see me nowand as you saw me first when you were five years old. You, yourself,have aged, though not as much as most men in a corresponding number ofyears, which may be accounted for by the fact that the same blood runsin our veins; but I have not aged at all. I have discussed the questionwith a noted Martian scientist, a friend of mine; but his theories arestill only theories. However, I am content with the fact--I never age,and I love life and the vigor of youth.

  "And now as to your natural question as to what brings me to Earthagain and in this, to earthly eyes, strange habiliment. We may thankKar Komak, the bowman of Lothar. It was he who gave me the idea uponwhich I have been experimenting until at last I have achieved success.As you know I have long possessed the power to cross the void inspirit, but never before have I been able to impart to inanimate thingsa similar power. Now, however, you see me for the first time preciselyas my Martian fellows see me--you see the very short-sword that hastasted the blood of many a savage foeman; the harness with the devicesof Helium and the insignia of my rank; the pistol that was presented tome by Tars Tarkas, Jeddak of Thark.

  "Aside from seeing you, which is my principal reason for being here,and satisfying myself that I can transport inanimate things from Marsto Earth, and therefore animate things if I so desire, I have nopurpose. Earth is not for me. My every interest is upon Barsoom--mywife, my children, my work; all are there. I will spend a quiet eveningwith you and then back to the world I love even better than I lovelife."

  As he spoke he dropped into the chair upon the opposite side of thechess table.

  "You spoke of children," I said. "Have you more than Carthoris?"

  "A daughter," he replied, "only a little younger than Carthoris, and,barring one, the fairest thing that ever breathed the thin air of dyingMars. Only Dejah Thoris, her mother, could be more beautiful than Taraof Helium."

  For a moment he fingered the chessmen idly. "We have a game on Marssimilar to chess," he said, "very similar. And there is a race therethat plays it grimly with men and naked swords. We call the game jetan.It is played on a board like yours, except that there are a hundredsquares and we use twenty pieces on each side. I never see it playedwithout thinking of Tara of Helium and what befell her among thechessmen of Barsoom. Would you like to hear her story?"

  I said that I would and so he told it to me, and now I shall try tore-tell it for you as nearly in the words of The Warlord of Mars as Ican recall them, but in the third person. If there be inconsistenciesand errors, let the blame fall not upon John Carter, but rather upon myfaulty memory, where it belongs. It is a strange tale and utterlyBarsoomian.