The Gods of Mars Read online

  THE GODS OF MARS

  BY

  EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS

  AUTHOR OF

  TARZAN OF THE APES,A PRINCESS OF MARS, Etc.

  FRONTISPIECE BY

  FRANK E. SCHOONOVER

  NEW YORK

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

  PUBLISHERS

  Copyright

  A. C. McClurg & Co.

  Published September, 1918

  CONTENTS

  I. The Plant Men II. A Forest Battle III. The Chamber of Mystery IV. Thuvia V. Corridors of Peril VI. The Black Pirates of Barsoom VII. A Fair Goddess VIII. The Depths of Omean IX. Issus, Goddess of Life Eternal X. The Prison Isle of Shador XI. When Hell Broke Loose XII. Doomed to Die XIII. A Break for Liberty XIV. The Eyes in the Dark XV. Flight and Pursuit XVI. Under Arrest XVII. The Death Sentence XVIII. Sola's Story XIX. Black Despair XX. The Air Battle XXI. Through Flood and Flame XXII. Victory and Defeat

  FOREWORD

  Twelve years had passed since I had laid the body of my great-uncle,Captain John Carter, of Virginia, away from the sight of men in thatstrange mausoleum in the old cemetery at Richmond.

  Often had I pondered on the odd instructions he had left me governingthe construction of his mighty tomb, and especially those parts whichdirected that he be laid in an _open_ casket and that the ponderousmechanism which controlled the bolts of the vault's huge door beaccessible _only from the inside_.

  Twelve years had passed since I had read the remarkable manuscript ofthis remarkable man; this man who remembered no childhood and who couldnot even offer a vague guess as to his age; who was always young andyet who had dandled my grandfather's great-grandfather upon his knee;this man who had spent ten years upon the planet Mars; who had foughtfor the green men of Barsoom and fought against them; who had foughtfor and against the red men and who had won the ever beautiful DejahThoris, Princess of Helium, for his wife, and for nearly ten years hadbeen a prince of the house of Tardos Mors, Jeddak of Helium.

  Twelve years had passed since his body had been found upon the bluffbefore his cottage overlooking the Hudson, and oft-times during theselong years I had wondered if John Carter were really dead, or if heagain roamed the dead sea bottoms of that dying planet; if he hadreturned to Barsoom to find that he had opened the frowning portals ofthe mighty atmosphere plant in time to save the countless millions whowere dying of asphyxiation on that far-gone day that had seen himhurtled ruthlessly through forty-eight million miles of space back toEarth once more. I had wondered if he had found his black-hairedPrincess and the slender son he had dreamed was with her in the royalgardens of Tardos Mors, awaiting his return.

  Or, had he found that he had been too late, and thus gone back to aliving death upon a dead world? Or was he really dead after all, neverto return either to his mother Earth or his beloved Mars?

  Thus was I lost in useless speculation one sultry August evening whenold Ben, my body servant, handed me a telegram. Tearing it open I read:

  'Meet me to-morrow hotel Raleigh Richmond.

  'JOHN CARTER'

  Early the next morning I took the first train for Richmond and withintwo hours was being ushered into the room occupied by John Carter.

  As I entered he rose to greet me, his old-time cordial smile of welcomelighting his handsome face. Apparently he had not aged a minute, butwas still the straight, clean-limbed fighting-man of thirty. His keengrey eyes were undimmed, and the only lines upon his face were thelines of iron character and determination that always had been theresince first I remembered him, nearly thirty-five years before.

  'Well, nephew,' he greeted me, 'do you feel as though you were seeing aghost, or suffering from the effects of too many of Uncle Ben's juleps?'

  'Juleps, I reckon,' I replied, 'for I certainly feel mighty good; butmaybe it's just the sight of you again that affects me. You have beenback to Mars? Tell me. And Dejah Thoris? You found her well andawaiting you?'

  'Yes, I have been to Barsoom again, and--but it's a long story, toolong to tell in the limited time I have before I must return. I havelearned the secret, nephew, and I may traverse the trackless void at mywill, coming and going between the countless planets as I list; but myheart is always in Barsoom, and while it is there in the keeping of myMartian Princess, I doubt that I shall ever again leave the dying worldthat is my life.

  'I have come now because my affection for you prompted me to see youonce more before you pass over for ever into that other life that Ishall never know, and which though I have died thrice and shall dieagain to-night, as you know death, I am as unable to fathom as are you.

  'Even the wise and mysterious therns of Barsoom, that ancient cultwhich for countless ages has been credited with holding the secret oflife and death in their impregnable fastnesses upon the hither slopesof the Mountains of Otz, are as ignorant as we. I have proved it,though I near lost my life in the doing of it; but you shall read itall in the notes I have been making during the last three months that Ihave been back upon Earth.'

  He patted a swelling portfolio that lay on the table at his elbow.

  'I know that you are interested and that you believe, and I know thatthe world, too, is interested, though they will not believe for manyyears; yes, for many ages, since they cannot understand. Earth menhave not yet progressed to a point where they can comprehend the thingsthat I have written in those notes.

  'Give them what you wish of it, what you think will not harm them, butdo not feel aggrieved if they laugh at you.'

  That night I walked down to the cemetery with him. At the door of hisvault he turned and pressed my hand.

  'Good-bye, nephew,' he said. 'I may never see you again, for I doubtthat I can ever bring myself to leave my wife and boy while they live,and the span of life upon Barsoom is often more than a thousand years.'

  He entered the vault. The great door swung slowly to. The ponderousbolts grated into place. The lock clicked. I have never seen CaptainJohn Carter, of Virginia, since.

  But here is the story of his return to Mars on that other occasion, asI have gleaned it from the great mass of notes which he left for meupon the table of his room in the hotel at Richmond.

  There is much which I have left out; much which I have not dared totell; but you will find the story of his second search for DejahThoris, Princess of Helium, even more remarkable than was his firstmanuscript which I gave to an unbelieving world a short time since andthrough which we followed the fighting Virginian across dead seabottoms under the moons of Mars.

  E. R. B.