We had, perhaps,

three hundred yards to cover between our boulder and the cliffs,

and then to search out a suitable shelter for our stand against

the terrifying things that were pursuing us.

They were rapidly overhauling us when Tars Tarkas cried to me to

hasten ahead and discover, if possible, the sanctuary we sought.

The suggestion was a good one, for thus many valuable minutes might

be saved to us, and, throwing every ounce of my earthly muscles

into the effort, I cleared the remaining distance between myself

and the cliffs in great leaps and bounds that put me at their base

in a moment.

The cliffs rose perpendicular directly from the almost level sward

of the valley. There was no accumulation of fallen debris, forming

a more or less rough ascent to them, as is the case with nearly

all other cliffs I have ever seen. The scattered boulders that had

fallen from above and lay upon or partly buried in the turf, were

the only indication that any disintegration of the massive, towering

pile of rocks ever had taken place.

My first cursory inspection of the face of the cliffs filled my

heart with forebodings, since nowhere could I discern, except where

the weird herald stood still shrieking his shrill summons, the

faintest indication of even a bare foothold upon the lofty escarpment.

To my right the bottom of the cliff was lost in the dense foliage

of the forest, which terminated at its very foot, rearing its gorgeous

foliage fully a thousand feet against its stern and forbidding

neighbour.

To the left the cliff ran, apparently unbroken, across the head of

the broad valley, to be lost in the outlines of what appeared to

be a range of mighty mountains that skirted and confined the valley

in every direction.

Perhaps a thousand feet from me the river broke, as it seemed,

directly from the base of the cliffs, and as there seemed not the

remotest chance for escape in that direction I turned my attention

again toward the forest.

The cliffs towered above me a good five thousand feet. The sun

was not quite upon them and they loomed a dull yellow in their own

shade. Here and there they were broken with streaks and patches

of dusky red, green, and occasional areas of white quartz.

Altogether they were very beautiful, but I fear that I did not

regard them with a particularly appreciative eye on this, my first

inspection of them.

Just then I was absorbed in them only as a medium of escape, and

so, as my gaze ran quickly, time and again, over their vast expanse

in search of some cranny or crevice, I came suddenly to loathe them

as the prisoner must loathe the cruel and impregnable walls of his

dungeon.

Tars Tarkas was approaching me rapidly, and still more rapidly came

the awful horde at his heels.

It seemed the forest now or nothing, and I was just on the point of

motioning Tars Tarkas to follow me in that direction when the sun

passed the cliff's zenith, and as the bright rays touched the dull

surface it burst out into a million scintillant lights of burnished

gold, of flaming red, of soft greens, and gleaming whites--a more

gorgeous and inspiring spectacle human eye has never rested upon.

The face of the entire cliff was, as later inspection conclusively

proved, so shot with veins and patches of solid gold as to quite

present the appearance of a solid wall of that precious metal except

where it was broken by outcroppings of ruby, emerald, and diamond

boulders--a faint and alluring indication of the vast and unguessable

riches which lay deeply buried behind the magnificent surface.

But what caught my most interested attention at the moment that the

sun's rays set the cliff's face a-shimmer, was the several black

spots which now appeared quite plainly in evidence high across the

gorgeous wall close to the forest's top, and extending apparently

below and behind the branches.

Almost immediately I recognised them for what they were, the dark

openings of caves entering the solid walls--possible avenues of

escape or temporary shelter, could we but reach them.

There was but a single way, and that led through the mighty, towering

trees upon our right. That I could scale them I knew full well,

but Tars Tarkas, with his mighty bulk and enormous weight, would

find it a task possibly quite beyond his prowess or his skill, for

Martians are at best but poor climbers. Upon the entire surface

of that ancient planet I never before had seen a hill or mountain

that exceeded four thousand feet in height above the dead sea

bottoms, and as the ascent was usually gradual, nearly to their

summits they presented but few opportunities for the practice

of climbing. Nor would the Martians have embraced even such

opportunities as might present themselves, for they could always

find a circuitous route about the base of any eminence, and these

roads they preferred and followed in preference to the shorter but

more arduous ways.

However, there was nothing else to consider than an attempt to

scale the trees contiguous to the cliff in an effort to reach the

caves above.

The Thark grasped the possibilities and the difficulties of the plan

at once, but there was no alternative, and so we set out rapidly

for the trees nearest the cliff.

Our relentless pursuers were now close to us, so close that it

seemed that it would be an utter impossibility for the Jeddak of

Thark to reach the forest in advance of them, nor was there any

considerable will in the efforts that Tars Tarkas made, for the

green men of Barsoom do not relish flight, nor ever before had I seen

one fleeing from death in whatsoever form it might have confronted

him. But that Tars Tarkas was the bravest of the brave he had

proven thousands of times; yes, tens of thousands in countless

mortal combats with men and beasts. And so I knew that there was

another reason than fear of death behind his flight, as he knew

that a greater power than pride or honour spurred me to escape

these fierce destroyers. In my case it was love--love of the divine

Dejah Thoris; and the cause of the Thark's great and sudden love

of life I could not fathom, for it is oftener that they seek death

than life--these strange, cruel, loveless, unhappy people.

At length, however, we reached the shadows of the forest, while

right behind us sprang the swiftest of our pursuers--a giant plant

man with claws outreaching to fasten his bloodsucking mouths upon

us.

He was, I should say, a hundred yards in advance of his closest

companion, and so I called to Tars Tarkas to ascend a great tree

that brushed the cliff's face while I dispatched the fellow, thus

giving the less agile Thark an opportunity to reach the higher

branches before the entire horde should be upon us and every vestige

of escape cut off.

But I had reckoned without a just appreciation either of the cunning

of my immediate antagonist or the swiftness with which his fellows

were covering the distance which had separated them from me.

As I raised my long-sword to deal the creature its death thrust it

halted in its charge and, as my sword cut harmlessly through the

empty air, the great tail of the thing swept with the power of a

grizzly's arm across the sward and carried me bodily from my feet

to the ground. In an instant the brute was upon me, but ere it

could fasten its hideous mouths into my breast and throat I grasped

a writhing tentacle in either hand.

The plant man was well muscled, heavy, and powerful but my earthly

sinews and greater agility, in conjunction with the deathly strangle

hold I had upon him, would have given me, I think, an eventual

victory had we had time to discuss the merits of our relative prowess

uninterrupted. But as we strained and struggled about the tree

into which Tars Tarkas was clambering with infinite difficulty,

I suddenly caught a glimpse over the shoulder of my antagonist of

the great swarm of pursuers that now were fairly upon me.

Now, at last, I saw the nature of the other monsters who had come

with the plant men in response to the weird calling of the man

upon the cliff's face. They were that most dreaded of Martian

creatures--great white apes of Barsoom.

My former experiences upon Mars had familiarized me thoroughly with

them and their methods, and I may say that of all the fearsome and

terrible, weird and grotesque inhabitants of that strange world,

it is the white apes that come nearest to familiarizing me with

the sensation of fear.

I think that the cause of this feeling which these apes engender

within me is due to their remarkable resemblance in form to our

Earth men, which gives them a human appearance that is most uncanny

when coupled with their enormous size.

They stand fifteen feet in height and walk erect upon their hind

feet. Like the green Martians, they have an intermediary set of

arms midway between their upper and lower limbs. Their eyes are

very close set, but do not protrude as do those of the green men

of Mars; their ears are high set, but more laterally located than

are the green men's, while their snouts and teeth are much like

those of our African gorilla. Upon their heads grows an enormous

shock of bristly hair.

It was into the eyes of such as these and the terrible plant men

that I gazed above the shoulder of my foe, and then, in a mighty

wave of snarling, snapping, screaming, purring rage, they swept

over me--and of all the sounds that assailed my ears as I went down

beneath them, to me the most hideous was the horrid purring of the

plant men.

Instantly a score of cruel fangs and keen talons were sunk into

my flesh; cold, sucking lips fastened themselves upon my arteries.

I struggled to free myself, and even though weighed down by these

immense bodies, I succeeded in struggling to my feet, where, still

grasping my long-sword, and shortening my grip upon it until I

could use it as a dagger, I wrought such havoc among them that at

one time I stood for an instant free.

What it has taken minutes to write occurred in but a few seconds,

but during that time Tars Tarkas had seen my plight and had dropped

from the lower branches, which he had reached with such infinite

labour, and as I flung the last of my immediate antagonists from

me the great Thark leaped to my side, and again we fought, back to

back, as we had done a hundred times before.

Time and again the ferocious apes sprang in to close with us, and

time and again we beat them back with our swords. The great tails

of the plant men lashed with tremendous power about us as they charged

from various directions or sprang with the agility of greyhounds

above our heads; but every attack met a gleaming blade in sword

hands that had been reputed for twenty years the best that Mars

ever had known; for Tars Tarkas and John Carter were names that

the fighting men of the world of warriors loved best to speak.

But even the two best swords in a world of fighters can avail not

for ever against overwhelming numbers of fierce and savage brutes

that know not what defeat means until cold steel teaches their hearts

no longer to beat, and so, step by step, we were forced back. At

length we stood against the giant tree that we had chosen for our

ascent, and then, as charge after charge hurled its weight upon

us, we gave back again and again, until we had been forced half-way

around the huge base of the colossal trunk.

Tars Tarkas was in the lead, and suddenly I heard a little cry of

exultation from him.

"Here is shelter for one at least, John Carter," he said, and,

glancing down, I saw an opening in the base of the tree about three

feet in diameter.

"In with you, Tars Tarkas," I cried, but he would not go; saying

that his bulk was too great for the little aperture, while I might

slip in easily.

"We shall both die if we remain without, John Carter; here is a

slight chance for one of us. Take it and you may live to avenge

me, it is useless for me to attempt to worm my way into so small

an opening with this horde of demons besetting us on all sides."

"Then we shall die together, Tars Tarkas," I replied, "for I shall

not go first. Let me defend the opening while you get in, then

my smaller stature will permit me to slip in with you before they

can prevent."

We still were fighting furiously as we talked in broken sentences,

punctured with vicious cuts and thrusts at our swarming enemy.

At length he yielded, for it seemed the only way in which either

of us might be saved from the ever-increasing numbers of our

assailants, who were still swarming upon us from all directions

across the broad valley.

"It was ever your way, John Carter, to think last of your own

life," he said; "but still more your way to command the lives and

actions of others, even to the greatest of Jeddaks who rule upon

Barsoom."

There was a grim smile upon his cruel, hard face, as he, the greatest

Jeddak of them all, turned to obey the dictates of a creature of

another world--of a man whose stature was less than half his own.

"If you fail, John Carter," he said, "know that the cruel and

heartless Thark, to whom you taught the meaning of friendship, will

come out to die beside you."

"As you will, my friend," I replied; "but quickly now, head first,

while I cover your retreat."

He hesitated a little at that word, for never before in his whole

life of continual strife had he turned his back upon aught than a

dead or defeated enemy.

"Haste, Tars Tarkas," I urged, "or we shall both go down to profitless

defeat; I cannot hold them for ever alone."

As he dropped to the ground to force his way into the tree, the

whole howling pack of hideous devils hurled themselves upon me. To

right and left flew my shimmering blade, now green with the sticky

juice of a plant man, now red with the crimson blood of a great

white ape; but always flying from one opponent to another, hesitating

but the barest fraction of a second to drink the lifeblood in the

centre of some savage heart.

And thus I fought as I never had fought before, against such frightful

odds that I cannot realize even now that human muscles could have

withstood that awful onslaught, that terrific weight of hurtling

tons of ferocious, battling flesh.

With the fear that we would escape them, the creatures redoubled

their efforts to pull me down, and though the ground about me

was piled high with their dead and dying comrades, they succeeded

at last in overwhelming me, and I went down beneath them for the

second time that day, and once again felt those awful sucking lips

against my flesh.

But scarce had I fallen ere I felt powerful hands grip my ankles,

and in another second I was being drawn within the shelter of the

tree's interior. For a moment it was a tug of war between Tars

Tarkas and a great plant man, who clung tenaciously to my breast,

but presently I got the point of my long-sword beneath him and with

a mighty thrust pierced his vitals.

Torn and bleeding from many cruel wounds, I lay panting upon the

ground within the hollow of the tree, while Tars Tarkas defended

the opening from the furious mob without.

For an hour they howled about the tree, but after a few attempts

to reach us they confined their efforts to terrorizing shrieks and

screams, to horrid growling on the part of the great white apes,

and the fearsome and indescribable purring by the plant men.

At length, all but a score, who had apparently been left to prevent

our escape, had left us, and our adventure seemed destined to

result in a siege, the only outcome of which could be our death

by starvation; for even should we be able to slip out after dark,

whither in this unknown and hostile valley could we hope to turn

our steps toward possible escape?

As the attacks of our enemies ceased and our eyes became accustomed

to the semi-darkness of the interior of our strange retreat, I took

the opportunity to explore our shelter.

The tree was hollow to an extent of about fifty feet in diameter,

and from its flat, hard floor I judged that it had often been used to

domicile others before our occupancy. As I raised my eyes toward

its roof to note the height I saw far above me a faint glow of

light.

There was an opening above. If we could but reach it we might

still hope to make the shelter of the cliff caves. My eyes had

now become quite used to the subdued light of the interior, and as

I pursued my investigation I presently came upon a rough ladder at

the far side of the cave.

Quickly I mounted it, only to find that it connected at the top

with the lower of a series of horizontal wooden bars that spanned

the now narrow and shaft-like interior of the tree's stem. These

bars were set one above another about three feet apart, and formed

a perfect ladder as far above me as I could see.

Dropping to the floor once more, I detailed my discovery to Tars

Tarkas, who suggested that I explore aloft as far as I could go in

safety while he guarded the entrance against a possible attack.

As I hastened above to explore the strange shaft I found that the

ladder of horizontal bars mounted always as far above me as my eyes

could reach, and as I ascended, the light from above grew brighter

and brighter.

For fully five hundred feet I continued to climb, until at length

I reached the opening in the stem which admitted the light. It

was of about the same diameter as the entrance at the foot of the

tree, and opened directly upon a large flat limb, the well worn

surface of which testified to its long continued use as an avenue

for some creature to and from this remarkable shaft.

I did not venture out upon the limb for fear that I might be

discovered and our retreat in this direction cut off; but instead

hurried to retrace my steps to Tars Tarkas.

I soon reached him and presently we were both ascending the long

ladder toward the opening above.

Tars Tarkas went in advance and as I reached the first of the

horizontal bars I drew the ladder up after me and, handing it to

him, he carried it a hundred feet further aloft, where he wedged

it safely between one of the bars and the side of the shaft. In

like manner I dislodged the lower bars as I passed them, so that

we soon had the interior of the tree denuded of all possible means

of ascent for a distance of a hundred feet from the base; thus

precluding possible pursuit and attack from the rear.

As we were to learn later, this precaution saved us from dire

predicament, and was eventually the means of our salvation.

When we reached the opening at the top Tars Tarkas drew to one

side that I might pass out and investigate, as, owing to my lesser

weight and greater agility, I was better fitted for the perilous

threading of this dizzy, hanging pathway.

The limb upon which I found myself ascended at a slight angle

toward the cliff, and as I followed it I found that it terminated

a few feet above a narrow ledge which protruded from the cliff's

face at the entrance to a narrow cave.

As I approached the slightly more slender extremity of the branch

it bent beneath my weight until, as I balanced perilously upon its

outer tip, it swayed gently on a level with the ledge at a distance

of a couple of feet.

Five hundred feet below me lay the vivid scarlet carpet of the valley;

nearly five thousand feet above towered the mighty, gleaming face

of the gorgeous cliffs.

The cave that I faced was not one of those that I had seen from the

ground, and which lay much higher, possibly a thousand feet. But

so far as I might know it was as good for our purpose as another,

and so I returned to the tree for Tars Tarkas.

Together we wormed our way along the waving pathway, but when we

reached the end of the branch we found that our combined weight so

depressed the limb that the cave's mouth was now too far above us

to be reached.

We finally agreed that Tars Tarkas should return along the branch,

leaving his longest leather harness strap with me, and that when

the limb had risen to a height that would permit me to enter the

cave I was to do so, and on Tars Tarkas' return I could then lower

the strap and haul him up to the safety of the ledge.

This we did without mishap and soon found ourselves together upon

the verge of a dizzy little balcony, with a magnificent view of

the valley spreading out below us.

As far as the eye could reach gorgeous forest and crimson sward

skirted a silent sea, and about all towered the brilliant monster

guardian cliffs.