His skin was red, his scant locks grey. As he looked at me his puzzled

expression increased in intensity, he grasped his chin between the thumb and

fingers of his left hand and slowly raising his right hand he scratched his head

most deliberately. Then he spoke to me, but in a language I did not understand.

At his first words I sat up and shook my head. Then I looked about me. I was

seated upon a crimson sward within a high walled enclosure, at least two, and

possibly three, sides of which were formed by the outer walls of a structure

that in some respects resembled more closely a feudal castle of Europe than any

familiar form of architecture that comes to my mind. The façade presented to my

view was ornately carved and of most irregular design, the roof line being so

broken as to almost suggest a ruin, and yet the whole seemed harmonious and not

without beauty. Within the enclosure grew a number of trees and shrubs, all

weirdly strange and all, or almost all, profusely flowering. About them wound

walks of coloured pebbles among which scintillated what appeared to be rare and

beautiful gems, so lovely were the strange, unearthly rays that leaped and

played in the sunshine.

The old man spoke again, peremptorily this time, as though repeating a command

that had been ignored, but again I shook my head. Then he laid a hand upon one

of his two swords, but as he drew the weapon I leaped to my feet, with such

remarkable results that I cannot even now say which of us was the more

surprised. I must have sailed ten feet into the air and back about twenty feet

from where I had been sitting; then I was sure that I was upon Mars (not that I

had for one instant doubted it), for the effects of the lesser gravity, the

colour of the sward and the skin-hue of the red Martians I had seen described in

the manuscripts of John Carter, those marvellous and as yet unappreciated

contributions to the scientific literature of a world. There could be no doubt

of it, I stood upon the soil of the Red Planet, I had come to the world of my

dreams – to Barsoom.

So startled was the old man by my agility that he jumped a bit himself, though

doubtless involuntarily, but, however, with certain results. His spectacles

tumbled from his nose to the sward, and then it was that I discovered that the

pitiful old wretch was practically blind when deprived of these artificial aids

to vision, for he got to his knees and commenced to grope frantically for the

lost glasses, as though his very life depended upon finding them in the instant.

Possibly he thought that I might take advantage of his helplessness and slay

him. Though the spectacles were enormous and lay within a couple of feet of him

he could not find them, his hands, seemingly afflicted by that strange

perversity that sometimes confounds our simplest acts, passing all about the

lost object of their search, yet never once coming in contact with it.

As I stood watching his futile efforts and considering the advisability of

restoring to him the means that would enable him more readily to find my heart

with his sword point, I became aware that another had entered the enclosure.

Looking towards the building I saw a large red-man running rapidly towards the

little old man of the spectacles. The newcomer was quite naked, he carried a

club in one hand, and there was upon his face such an expression as

unquestionably boded ill for the helpless husk of humanity grovelling,

mole-like, for its lost spectacles.

My first impulse was to remain neutral in an affair that it seemed could not

possibly concern me and of which I had no slightest knowledge upon which to base

a predilection towards either of the parties involved; but a second glance at

the face of the club-bearer aroused a question as to whether it might not

concern me after all.

There was that in the expression upon the man's face that betokened either an

inherent savageness of disposition or a maniacal cast of mind which might turn

his evidently murderous attentions upon me after he had dispatched his elderly

victim, while, in outward appearance at least, the latter was a sane and

relatively harmless individual. It is true that his move to draw his sword

against me was not indicative of a friendly disposition towards me, but at

least, if there were any choice, he seemed the lesser of two evils.

He was still groping for his spectacles and the naked man was almost upon him as

I reached the decision to cast my lot upon the side of the old man. I was twenty

feet away, naked and unarmed, but to cover the distance with my Earthly muscles

required but an instant, and a naked sword lay by the old man's side where he

had discarded it the better to search for his spectacles. So it was that I faced

the attacker at the instant that he came within striking distance of his victim,

and the blow which had been intended for another was aimed at me. I side-stepped

it and then I learned that the greater agility of my Earthly muscles had its

disadvantages as well as its advantages, for, indeed, I had to learn to walk at

the very instant that I had to learn to fight with a new weapon against a maniac

armed with a bludgeon, or at least, so I assumed him to be and I think that it

is not strange that I should have done so, what with his frightful show of rage

and the terrible expression upon his face.

As I stumbled about endeavouring to accustom myself to the new conditions, I

found that instead of offering any serious opposition to my antagonist I was

hard put to it to escape death at his hands, so often did I stumble and fall

sprawling upon the scarlet sward; so that the duel from its inception became but

a series of efforts, upon his part to reach and crush me with his great club,

and upon mine to dodge and elude him. It was mortifying but it is the truth.

However, this did not last indefinitely, for soon I learned, and quickly too

under the exigencies of the situation, to command my muscles, and then I stood

my ground and when he aimed a blow at me, and I had dodged it, I touched him

with my point and brought blood along with a savage roar of pain. He went more

cautiously then, and taking advantage of the change I pressed him so that he

fell back. The effect upon me was magical, giving me new confidence, so that I

set upon him in good earnest, thrusting and cutting until I had him bleeding in

a half-dozen places, yet taking good care to avoid his mighty swings, any one of

which would have felled an ox.

In my attempts to elude him in the beginning of the duel we had crossed the

enclosure and were now fighting at a considerable distance from the point of our

first meeting. It now happened that I stood facing towards that point at the

moment that the old man regained his spectacles, which he quickly adjusted to

his eyes. Immediately he looked about until he discovered us, whereupon he

commenced to yell excitedly at us at the same time running in our direction and

drawing his short-sword as he ran. The red-man was pressing me hard, but I had

gained almost complete control of myself, and fearing that I was soon to have

two antagonists instead of one I set upon him with redoubled intensity. He

missed me by the fraction of an inch, the wind in the wake of his bludgeon

fanning my scalp, but he left an opening into which I stepped, running my word

fairly through his heart. At least I thought that I had pierced his heart but I

had forgotten what I had once read in one of John Carter's manuscripts to the

effect that all the Martian internal organs are not disposed identically with

those of Earthmen. However, the immediate results were quite as satisfactory as

though I had found his heart for the wound was sufficiently grievous to place

him hors de combat, and at that instant the old gentleman arrived.